If you're now WFH, have you bought yourself new furniture and equipment?

[Thurlow]

Minor debate at work. Our large corporate firm has everyone wfh and likely to until next spring. Some colleagues have been working for months on a sofa with a laptop and no mouse. I expressed surprise they didn't at least buy themselves a mouse (and even more that they didn't just ask IT for one!) and someone else said perhaps they didn't want to spend their own money on equipment.

Firm is now gearing up to get people proper equipment at home. But I did think, surely if you're saving several hundred pound a month on travel, as most of my colleagues are, you can spend a little on getting a reasonable set up at home of you have room...

I've recently bought a desk, and a long ethernet cable out of my own pocket; work will be providing a monitor and docking station. Is anyone else buying themself, or should it be on work to provide everything?

I have work provided PC, head set, and I brought my office chair home with me. The rest we sort of Kondo’d they house will provide’... for the first two months I worked from a repurposed laundry table (that was sawn off on one end from a previous space fitting exercise about ten years ago). Then dd1 decided that as uni is online until at least January that she wouldn’t go back and pay rent, and wanted to set up her room for studying here. So she bought a new desk (!) and I now use her old one, and the laundry table is back in the basement 😂
I did find it slightly odd that I managed to rationalize her new desk and not mine. But ultimately we have a desk - it’s being used by dh at the other end of the room to me. 😂

They aren't small gripes, no. But thinking of the bigger picture and what's been thrown together in a short space of time most companies have done a good job. If they're encouraging long term working from home then they need to be ensuring it's feasible, their IT infrastructure is up to the job and that employees have a suitable place to work at home, or allow them back into the office in small numbers; they've had enough time from the junk hitting the fan to now. Remember you can claim £26 a month for utilities from the government. You don't have to 'prove' what it is used on so you could use it towards internet, although it's only if you have been forced to work from home and not chosen to, which is likely the case for most people at the moment.

I think if you like working from home, and if you're company is going to support it longer term, it's not a hardship for a lot of people to buy some bits they need - though I appreciate I'm talking about my firm, where I know we all get paid enough and are saving enough on commuting that everyone in my team is probably quids in from lockdown.

But then seeing how I've had to steal half the toddlers bedroom for an office, I preferred to choose a desk that fit the room rather than have a massive office desk!

I went into the office to pick up my screens, I have 2 widescreen ones and then my laptop as well.

I will absolutely not be happy about being told to give over part of my house permanently to my employer, I want to be back in the office ASAP. I'm working in an area that is usually used for my sewing as a hobby, I now can't do this as my sewing machine has had to make way. With all the screens etc I can't just pack it away, I feel like I'm living at work rather than working from home and it's making me spiral into loneliness and anxiety.

though I appreciate I'm talking about my firm, where I know we all get paid enough and are saving enough on commuting that everyone in my team is probably quids in from lockdown

Yes, and I think with many people losing their income and their jobs, its part of how unfair this situation is (not anyone's fault), and makes the moaning or expectation to have everything handed to them a bit gross.

I would expect work to provide everything. My work had all our own work equipment sent to us - PCs, monitors, keyboard, mouse, everything that was on our desks. The office is empty of stuff. We were sent our own office chairs last week, when we were told we weren’t going back any time soon. We’ve been offered the office desks, but they are too big for most people, so if we haven’t anything suitable at home, we can get one and claim.

DH's company have let them arrange to go in if they needed to pick up a spare monitor or whatever. I'm a student - students staying on campus (usually international ones who couldn't get home when we shut down) could borrow a uni laptop for use in halls... but I'm faced with the next year doing work on the dining table or my knee on the sofa at the moment because we're on remote learning for the next year (normally I go into uni 8-6 most days as a matter of routine and get the bulk of my work done there).

We've just arranged to upgrade the broadband to fibre as it's been OK since we shut down when uni was dying off for the academic year - but next year with us both on video calls it's going to struggle and we needed it better and more reliable.

Only space I have to convert into a decent workspace is the conservatory - which is fine - but the wifi in there can be a bit of a diva and you've also got the garden noise factor then. I'm going to clear it out with a big declutter and see how it goes there... long term DH is looking at not returning to the office and we're going to need to think home office space when we are in the position to move house.

No I don’t have the space

@Staplemaple

though I appreciate I'm talking about my firm, where I know we all get paid enough and are saving enough on commuting that everyone in my team is probably quids in from lockdown

Yes, and I think with many people losing their income and their jobs, its part of how unfair this situation is (not anyone's fault), and makes the moaning or expectation to have everything handed to them a bit gross.

Exactly. People in jobs like mine at our firm have been extremely lucky over the past few months compared to many others.

I'm not disagreeing that firms should help out as much as they can. Ours have just done the desk assessments and so I assume we'll all be being approached to see what we can be helped with. We've all been given or able to ask for all the IT equipment we need too.

But I guess I can't stop thinking a sense of... Look, just grow up and sort out some problems yourself My colleagues are old enough and get paid enough to sort something out. I'd rather our management and HR focused on finding workable plans and assistance for staff members who genuinely need help due to crap broadband, house shares, difficult home environments etc - not helping Steve from Accounts and his three bed house buy a £50 desk

We already had a desk which fits nicely into a space on the landing. We also have a PC so work set up a VPN on it and set up a comms app on my mobile. The only thing I bought was a chair which cost £35 from Amazon (had doubled in price within a couple of weeks ).

My ancient router died about ten weeks in but my internet provider sent a new one very quickly. I did buy a wireless mouse for about a tenner as I thought ours was broken but a brief power cut seemed to reset it.

I walk to work so didn't save money. In fact I spent more on fags (don't normally smoke at all in work hours) and milk and tea

I really liked it but very glad to back in the office with real people.

I spent £30 on a fold up exam style desk, I have a TV on an arm on the wall in the living room which I put the desk in front of and plug the laptop into which gives me two screens, one of them massive. I had a mouse as I always used to carry my laptop and mouse between work and home anyway.

After using a dining room chair for a couple of months , I asked work for permission to go in and collect my chair, which they took a couple of days to organise but now I have a reasonably comfortable place to work for minimal outlay . I turn the chair around so it is out of the way in the evening and unplug the laptop when I want to watch the TV

I bought the desk within a week of working at home as I knew I needed a large screen but didn't have room in the living room (only place I could work) for one. Once I realised the TV was a good solution, I knew I needed to buy a small desk but had very little space so a fold up exam style desk worked fine. No way could I have worked on a sofa or even on the dining room or kitchen table. All that having to move when you need to eat.

No. Work provided us with laptops the week before lockdown.

I already had an old computer desk. I've bought myself new note pads and pens though.

Also we also spent 2 x£99 on two powerline extenders so that both DH and I have an ethernet connection when we work which is miles better than relying on wifi. So yes we did spend quite a but I saw it as an investment. I am going to be working from home for about a year by the time we go back so it needed to work well and we have saved around £400 a year in commuting costs (I used to get the bus home from work but walked in s) so even with very low commuting costs we have not spent as much as that.

Mind you DH brought home a large screen to use in our box room, otherwise we would have had to get one for him.

We bought a new laptop and monitor before lockdown started. I then got provided with a laptop, headset and mouse. I arranged for my keyboard to be sent home and we can have our own chairs if we want. Me and DH are working either side of the dining table at the moment but if, as expected, WFH becomes the norm we will look at repurposing our loft room rather than filling it with junk as normal. I'll be looking to get a cheap desk from EBay and do a bit of upcycling!

I was already working from home before lockdown. Work provided my laptop but I bought my own desk and peripherals as I have a personal computer anyway. Plus, this means I bought the stuff I really like instead of the cheap shit someone else might pick.

As for broadband, we would already have that even if I was working from home. The majority of people already would so unless it something you have to purchase specifically for your job,I see no reason why you would claim it back.

Does your LL allow WFH, this is something that has been grossly overlooked by many which was/is understandable.

This is only a problem if you're literally running a business on the premises. Sure a LL will not object to someone WFH as the property won't be left empty all day.

I bought my own, second-hand. I’m grateful to have kept my job. I’m also saving the costs of a travel card.

@Alanna1

I bought my own, second-hand. I’m grateful to have kept my job. I’m also saving the costs of a travel card.

There could definitely be more of this. See also the posts about people wanting to claim £30 for WiFi a month or something. Absolutely fair enough if you need it, but a lot of people in wfh office jobs don't.

But bearing in mind many companies are saving a fortune by giving up their offices and they don’t even have to buy computers or chairs if they are just handing out all the office equipment they already have, it’s reasonable that the pay for a suitable desk for staff compelled to wfh. As they no longer have to pay for electricity, heating, air con, etc, it’s also reasonable that they pay employees a small sum to offset those greatly increased costs for home workers now using their own domestic utilities. The cost savings to the company is huge.

My employer hasn't provided a single thing. They have turned down requests for monitors etc to use at home. We have to use our personal laptops and our personal mobiles. I had to buy a new laptop as my previous one was on its last legs (not an issue for just surfing the net in the evening but not really an option for full time work). I also ended up buying an extra screen as it was almost impossible to work without one.

My employer just announced we made a net profit of USD 1.2 billion in the last quarter. That wasn't a typo. USD 1.2 billion.

@HundredMilesAnHour
That is just shocking to me.

That's awful

Already had a laptop...work offered old spare laptops on loan to people who had to home school. I bought myself a cheap desk and pens and paper...work Amazon ordered a new power cable to my house. One of the bosses used travelling round London by bike to deliver bits screens etc to some team members as an excuse to get out and about in heavy lockdown.

I think you can claim £6 per week from your employer for working from home.

My friend had to do an invoice for her wfh time.

Totally depends on the employer, sector etc.

Companies pass on costs when WFH as opposed to office. Internet, heating, cleaning, etc etc

We WFH a fair bit before and already had laptops. They are giving us extra in salary every month to make up for the stuff I just mentioned. And have given a very generous amount per person to put towards office furniture and IT equipment.

I am v lucky obv.

I think you can claim £6 per week from your employer for working from home

Isn't that a tax concession? My employer refused to pay any extra for WFH. They reckon that not having to commute or pay for parking is adequate compensation.

My colleagues who normally cycle to work disagree.