If you work from home, do you have an office space?

[sanahoo]

I know it’s a luxury to have one but I do wish I had an office space of sort.

Bother is that we live in a 2 bed house with two rooms upstairs and two rooms down, and are reluctant now to upsize given interest rates and how expensive life is getting. We don’t have kids yet but hoping to try soon and so I don’t want to get too used to having the spare bedroom as my office if I will then have to uproot everything from there very soon

Currently I work from the kitchen table (for meetings) and the sofa the rest of the time, sometimes even outside if its sunny enough as we have lovely garden furniture. I feel unusual in this. I only work from home two days a week maximum and I’m in the office the rest of the time so don’t know if it’s a huge deal. What’s everyone elses set ups?

Yes. When COVID hit I worked in an alcove at the top of the stairs on a fairly small desk, and felt lucky compared to many of my colleagues. But it meant I couldn’t shut a door. We moved last year and an office was on our wish list so I now have a large office space with a huge built in desk. It is bliss!

Yes, my office used to be the dining room but we just eat at the kitchen table or from the sofa instead and I have the room. I have an extra large desk as I use 3 monitors at one end and my sewing machine at the other. DH also has an office upstairs which used to be a bedroom.

We had a garden room added for an office, it’s great all year round. Except right now as the neighbours are having an extension built and so it’s too noisy.

I don't have any office space, or anywhere suitable to work. Anywhere I set up my work laptop would fail the DSE/VDU assessment, therefore I don't work at home, other than a very occasionally hour or two or rarely a half day. I am in the office full time with a proper set up.

Those who work at a dining table, or somewhere else that's not an actual desk, is your employer aware? Have they got you to do a DSE assessment? Surely if your home work space fails the assessment they have to allow you to work full time in the office? Or if they have no office space, perhaps pay for a Co working space for you?

Yes this. It's also the junk room, clothes overflow and spare room for guests. It's busy. 😄

I have a desk in our second reception room, which was being used as a play room and is now multi- purpose, although youngest is 9 now, so not used for playing as much any more.

DH works on the dining table in the kitchen, but he's out on visits and meetings a lot more than me.

We have considered converting our garage to make a dedicated office if we ever clear out all the crap in there.

I've worked from home for 8 years or so and have a garden office. My adult son sleeps in it when he come home and my younger son has sleepovers there, but I only go there to work.

We have two living rooms, so one is solely an office. We need a proper set up with desk, chair, monitor etc but also mentally to have that physical separation. I couldn't never wfh on a regular basis without a decent, dedicated area

We've got 4 bedrooms for the 2 of us, so have an office each.
I use my office in the autumn and winter (it's smaller and therefore warm) and for all client calls as I have a nice bookcase behind me for Teams calls, and the kitchen in the spring and summer.

We have two spare rooms so one is a proper spare bedroom for guests etc and the other is my office. It's a good sized room so there's a proper desk, two monitors etc. I also have my exercise bike in there and all my books etc. It's my space. When I retire it'll be my hobby room.

No. I have a fold out desk and work in my bedroom sitting on my bed. I have a nice view from my window and can stretch and change sitting position every so often.

This is exactly how I feel about it. I also WFH full time in an incredibly stressful industry and I need to be able to close the door on it at the end of the day.

The box room is my dedicated office. We have a pull out sofa bed in there, but its mostly set up with my desk, screens, chair etc.

I currently use the box bedroom as an office and it's perfect, we're about to move and won't have a spare room, as we need a room for DPs dc.

My plan initially is to set up in the dining room end of the lounge, with my current desk, proper chair, big screen etc. because I can't work without them, we'll have a garden room built fairly soon so I have a separate space again.

I live in a small 2 bed flat. I absolutely do not want to work in my sleeping area so I have a small desk & monitor in my living room, in the alcove next to the chimney breast. I WFH full time. I'm the only adult in the flat so it is no problem using the living room during the day.

If the weather is fine, I might break up the day by taking the laptop in the garden.

Both my DH and I predominantly WFH and we both have separate rooms in the house. He's got the third box room upstairs and I have what is a spare snugish room downstairs which is also my home gym that obviously gets used all the time.

We were quite lucky in the fact we have a 3 bed house that also has a spare room downstairs separate from the living/dining room, so it means we can have separate spaces. Honestly, I think even working on the same floor would be a pain, let alone potentially the same room!

It's only us and our toddler, with no desire for another, so this set up works for us.

Use the spare bedroom

When you have kids they likely won’t be in their own room for a while so you probably have at least 18 months to 2 years minimum use from now as an office

I have an office room since we moved, prior to that I work from our tiny dining room table. I had to lug the double monitors and keyboard from the sideboard every morning.

Whole family (in two houses) wfh now. We all started off thinking we would work from dining table, sofa, bed or whatever in lockdown, but we all ended up with proper desks and chairs.

I have the dining room. The table is now folded down to make room for a desk with multiple monitors. I do dry washing in there over the winter, but it's not used otherwise - I need privacy for work calls.

Two sons work in cellar - it had been a games den, and still is, but desks and chairs instead of a sofa now.

Daughter has small house with one reception room - open plan sitting room, dining room and kitchen. She has her desk and ultrawide monitor in a corner.

In the dining room. Laptop is always on the table (other than when we're eating here, which isn't that often) and files/supplies are in plastic boxes on the floor. I have a larger screen which I refuse to use, and I wanted a cordless keyboard, but work wouldn't give me one. I bought myself a cordless mouse.

I don’t have an employer because I’m self-employed.

I do, yes. But please use the spare bedroom and get a proper chair and desk for as long as you can. Spare your back for a year or two!

I am very lucky and have 3 reception rooms on the ground floor.. so one has become imy office/snug space.. My husband has his office in the converted attic.. so thankfully we hardly see each other

I have taken over DS's bedroom when he moved out so plenty of space and a desk already there . We do have a small box room which I would have been able to sort out to use otherwise . There is only me and DH at home now . First few weeks of lockdown I just sat in the living room with laptop on my lap.

We have been WFH for years before Covid. DH and I each have a private office in our home. We intentionally moved to a semi-rural area where it was feasible. We wouldn’t have been able to set up our life the way we have without the workspace.

We arranged for all our staff working from home to have dSE assessments at the start of lockdown. It was all quite makeshift to begin with. After a couple of weeks on a dining room chair I developed dreadful sciatica so whizzed to the office for a desk chair. What allowed. Still have it.

Most staff want to work.from home a couple of days a week almost everyone now has a laptop and laptop stand. Most people who are working at home have an office chair (provided or bought themselves). A small minority chose to go into the office every day now.

In the depths of covid we were so grateful to have space. DH had a proper study at home in any event. I took over the music room which had a proper desk because dh liked also to work in there as well because he has overflow books there.

Both children (home from uni for lockdowns) had proper desks and chairs in their bedrooms for homework.