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Original poster

Working from home without a home office / study

38 replies

Monvelo · 15/02/2025 15:49

If you work from home and don't have a home office / study, what's your set up?

I've been mainly working from home for years, since before covid. My desk is in the living room but has been working well, as everyone is out of the house! However DH is now working from home more. He is irritating me by keep coming through behind me to get to the kitchen, when I'm on teams. I do quickly turn my camera off and he does shut the door behind him. But I'm just conscious of having my husband pottering about adjacent. It crosses a bit of a mental line for me. He is working from a fold out table upstairs, which isn't great for him.

OP posts:
YouMustBeTheWeasleys · 16/02/2025 20:38

I don’t really see the issue - my husband is a regular in the background of my meetings. His arm is even more common as it appears bringing me cups of tea or coffee. Some of my colleagues have kids that like to come and say hello to me - you don’t need to pretend you aren’t a person outside of being an employee

but tbh it sounds like you need a garden office if you are both at home - I wouldn’t want a desk in the living room

NoraLuka · 16/02/2025 20:41

I work at the dining room table. If I have a meeting I either stay there, use DD’s room or my room (with a blurred background) depending on who else is in the house. I would love my own office but we don’t have a spare room for one.

Kellykukoo · 16/02/2025 20:49

You are overthinking the blurred or other background. Most people on Teams have some type of background. Most companies even have standard background images with their logo on to keep it the same / less distracting across teams. I think it looks more unprofessional to have someone striding past behind you than having a decent background. You can download a white image and use that as your background if all else fails.

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PaintDecisions · 16/02/2025 20:56

YouMustBeTheWeasleys · 16/02/2025 20:38

I don’t really see the issue - my husband is a regular in the background of my meetings. His arm is even more common as it appears bringing me cups of tea or coffee. Some of my colleagues have kids that like to come and say hello to me - you don’t need to pretend you aren’t a person outside of being an employee

but tbh it sounds like you need a garden office if you are both at home - I wouldn’t want a desk in the living room

Edited

That would be deeply inappropriate in many workplaces and many meetings.

I would not be impressed to see a colleague's husband or kids at all.

IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads · 16/02/2025 21:51

I had something like this in the living room

Original poster
Monvelo · 19/02/2025 17:02

YouMustBeTheWeasleys · 16/02/2025 20:38

I don’t really see the issue - my husband is a regular in the background of my meetings. His arm is even more common as it appears bringing me cups of tea or coffee. Some of my colleagues have kids that like to come and say hello to me - you don’t need to pretend you aren’t a person outside of being an employee

but tbh it sounds like you need a garden office if you are both at home - I wouldn’t want a desk in the living room

Edited

Team meetings (with my team, not teamS, although they also are on teams!) it's not a huge deal but I'm sometimes on calls with other govt agencies or chairing large meetings 100+ people. No room for a garden office!

OP posts:
JassyRadlett · 19/02/2025 17:08

I've got a small desk in the corner of the bedroom, DH has the huge desk in the study with two monitors. We started this way during Covid and tbh sometimes now I'm a little resentful because he's wfh two days a week to my three. But he is a very expansive worker who needs all his post its and multiple monitors and papers around him (he takes pics of home post its for his office days and vice versa) and I'm much more online and like to tidy away work at the end of the day, so
ultimately it's better as we are.

RampantIvy · 19/02/2025 17:18

Teams has loads of background options. It doesn't have to be blurred. Also, why aren't you using a noise cancelling headset?

PaintDecisions · 19/02/2025 18:03

Monvelo · 19/02/2025 17:02

Team meetings (with my team, not teamS, although they also are on teams!) it's not a huge deal but I'm sometimes on calls with other govt agencies or chairing large meetings 100+ people. No room for a garden office!

Edited
Show quote history

Same. Can you either turn the desk so your back is to a wall or put in something like a Kallax behind you to block that off from camera view? Then just use headphones for the calls and no one will hear him cutting through unless he's yelling.

Angels1111 · 13/06/2025 16:29

My desk is in our bedroom which noone needs access to during the day. Camera is angled so that all you can see is the door. But that only works because the room is big enough, wouldn't have worked in our old house!

Before that I used to work from the conservatory but with my chair facing "outwards" so my Teams background was the wall behind me, and if anyone came into the room they'd be in front my my desk / behind my monitor if that makes sense. It nicely partitioned the room into "work space" and "non work" space and was really lovely. But, it got too hot in the summer, and also during the hols I felt bad for commandeering the access to the garden, and was also distracted if they were next door in the kitchen diner cooking, eating lunch etc.

A lot of my colleagues work from home, or from one of the offices, but use a Teams background so that you can't see what's going on around them.

user101101 · 13/06/2025 16:34

I shout “i have a meeting in ten minutes everyone quiet!!” And good behaviour follows otherwise there would be trouble.

That includes not showing up on the camera

Judystilldreamsofhorses · 13/06/2025 16:36

I’m only at home one day a week but work from the kitchen table. I do have an office chair but often sit on the picnic bench. DP has a proper desk set up in the spare room as he WFH more.

I do use a background on Teams but tbh if DP comes in to make a coffee or the cat joins a meeting no-one cares - I’m a lecturer and students love it when we have a kitty guest!

abnerbrownsdressinggown · 13/06/2025 16:43

DH works from the dining room section of our living room (typical second reception of Victorian house, with the two rooms opened up). People don't tend to have to wander behind him, but we are around.

I work from the kitchen table which is only an issue in the holidays when teens piss me off by ambling down for breakfast at any old time and getting in my way.

Tbh, unless you had your own office, the distractuions/ people wandering past isn't that different to an open plan office.

The cat will occasionally amble across our desks/ table as well.

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