What's your home working set-up like?

[DolphinaPD]

Just because I'm nosy 😆

I just started wfh this week. I've got a garden table with a table cloth over it for now 😂 and my laptop on a box. My chair is a bit high for the table 🙄

Hopefully I'll sort it out to a proper desk with extra monitors and a keyboard by the end of next week.

I'd also like some nice stationery and desk accessories so I'll check out the shops pound shop on the weekend I think.

Thank you! I do know what a ring light is, now you say it.
I hadn't thought about looking for a second-hand sit/stand desk, so that's very helpful.

I'm currently set up in my bedroom. Proper desk and good chair and double monitors. We are moving house soon though and I will have my own office. I can't wait to have a space I can leave at the end of the day.

@CMOTDibbler I keep thinking about a ring light, I look bloody awful on home zoom but okay in the office where the light is better and the camera is higher

Ikea electric standing desk (would recommend) so you can sit and stand as you wish (healthier). Decent quality chair to avoid back issues. Monitor arm (ergonomic) you can adjust up and down for perfect posture. I sit a lot (designer) so need a decent set up!

I've worked from home for the last 10 years so I have an office set up in the spare room. Proper desk, chair, monitor, printer etc. we've just moved so that's why I'm in the spare room.

In my old house we converted an old out building to my office. I much preferred that, being away from the main house was so much better.

I sit at the dining table or on the sofa. I do have a large monitor which I need so I have to carry my monitor out every morning and set it up wherever I'm working. I store it down the side of the sofa. I store my laptop in my bag then bring that out too when needed. We live in an open plan house so if I need to take a confidential call I have to sit on my bed. Or often I have no choice but to take it with family around which is pretty bad because I'm a social worker. No choice though as we no longer have office space and my house is too small. It sucks but all the bosses have home offices so don't realise how shit it is for us minions and our poor clients who deserve confidentiality when talking about their deepest traumatic personal issues. Such is life.

You work for the government/Council and don't have offices?

How are they working that then?

@DolphinaPD they do have offices but not enough for all staff and don't want us in them. I mean its the UK government its not surprising is it.

I've worked from home for 20 years (own business) from a tiny desk with a laptop and gym ball for a seat.

I've now rented an office in the garden. It's brilliant.

I know it's different from most people who are now working from home post-pandemic because I can put the rental cost through the business but it's made a huge distance to my work/life balance because I can lock the door at the end of the day. And although the business is never far from our minds (husband and wife joint business) I'm not actually sat at a desk working evenings and weekends - we just discuss stuff instead.

It's big enough for 2 desks and a bit of storage.

I've got full electric, a cable running from the house to connect us to fibre broadband and VOIP phones.

An electric standing desk with 2 monitors (not stood up once yet but planning to get a treadmill to fit under it 🤔 deluded much!) 🤣

Anyway, so far it's the best thing I've invested in.

@mumto3boysHE can I just ask does the gym ball make a difference to you as a seat? Does it help your posture / stay toned etc? I've heard mixed reviews on if these work or not.

My posture is awful and I'm very overweight so you wouldn't be able to see a difference in me but my core feels really strong since using the ball. And I can sit on it with feet off the floor and move backwards and forwards just using my core so it must work <preens modestly>😊

Sorry I haven't RTFT (annoying I know) but if you're going to be WFH for a while then get a decent chair. I had a kitchen chair for he first couple of months and ended up at the chiropractor...

Collected my chair from the office and never looked back. At the very beginning of the pandemic we all thought we'd be WFH for just a few weeks {hollow laugh and eye roll} so not many of us were well equipped.

I work from home a little bit, but worked in the office for the vast majority of the pandemic as someone still had to be in.

As a result I use minimal kit at home a mobile, laptop and wire to plug it in, plus headphones. I also carry all of it back and forward between work as we are not allowed to leave it in the office. I also finish off work some evenings and weekends, so it isn't the same as home betting the default work place.

I work from the bedroom so all the kit gets put away and I angle the camera above the bed so it cannot be seen.

I have a desk in there but the main problem was the chair, which wasn't good enough to sit in for long. I now have an ace chair but it does look officey, which isn't ideal in a bedroom. I have a fantasy about having a heated brick built office in the garden which is all mine and that I can decorate to my taste which also houses a mini gym for wet days when I don't fancy going for a bike ride or walk at lunch time.

My office is a very calming pastel lime green, colour is important. I have a bookcase with photos on and all my professional reference books and university study books. I have a proper desk with two screens and a docking station. It faces north so I don't get too much in the way of reflections and over heating when the sun is out. I have the family filing cabinet and a little used printer. I have a mug full of yellow and black Noris School HB pencils and a notebook. I also have a big whiteboard which I couldn't live without. It's a professional space and doesn't get used for anything else, ever!

If you can manage to work from a laptop and have a mobile to hand but with the minimum of other things (I accept that is not practical with all jobs), I find it is best to move around to different locations in the home. I never work in the same location for more than half the day.

It's not really, no, but still awful.

I'm in corner of the living areas with a window on each wall, very light and airy and a really nice space. I would prefer a bigger desk, so that wil be next on my list.