To think working from your sofa is unprofessional?

[LajesticVantrashell]

Like most people, I’ve been working at home now for close to six months along with the rest of my colleagues. We have a spare room for an office, so I’ve had to set up in our bedroom working from my vanity table/desk where I normally do my make-up.

My colleague, so as not to drip feed, earns considerably more than me (think £30k more) and lives alone paying a nominal amount of rent in relation to her salary (I know this because she told me). Yet, she works from her sofa every day. Yes, none of my business, she can do what she wants but she’s constantly moaning about her back and being uncomfortable.

Yesterday, we had a meeting with a potential client and we all dialled in. We all had certain bit we needed to present and my colleague was again, sitting on her sofa with her laptop on her knees. This meant the screen was wobbling about everywhere as she scrabbled to reach her notes around her. To me, it just looked completely unprofessional and I’ll admit, it really annoyed me.

So AIBU to think that on a high earning salary, with enough space in your living room (because I can see from the Teams calls) and after six months with potentially long term home working being suggested, that she should invest in a bloody desk?!

All these toffee nosed remarks are hilarious.

Of course it's unprofessional but as half of MN probably work from home in their pj's (also being very unprofessional) you won't get much support here.

It IS your business if it's work related and you're all on a Zoom meeting. It would irritate the hell out of me too: it's a bloody work meeting and it's not too much to ask that all colleagues have their proverbial shit together for an hour or 2 per day.

I’m WFH for the foreseeable future and space at home is tight!! We live in a small house, no spare room to use as an office and nowhere to put a desk. So I work at the kitchen table and sometimes take my laptop onto the sofa because the change makes my back less stiff at the end of the day. Am not really sure what to do as there’s not even room in the garden for a shed I could use. I think as long as the work is getting done, people are generally very understanding of others circumstances in the current situation.

@LajesticVantrashell Top tip. You can blur your background on Teams calls so that people can’t actually see what’s in your house (you can also put a fake background on).

I’ve worked for my company for 7 years and my role is field based, so my office has always been my home in this job. I started off with one of those fold up lap desks, but found my back hurt sitting on the sofa all day, so I don’t know how she manages it. It drove me mad! job. (I live in a one bed flat, so don’t even have the luxury of kitchen table as not enough room)

I invested in a nice white fold away desk from Argos that cost me £40 (company never offered to pay for one, couldn’t even get a Bluetooth headset out of them!)

If you feel a little awkward telling her that the wobbly laptop is distracting, maybe you could use the next time she complains about her back, to just suggest she gets herself a cheap desk from somewhere so she’s more comfortable?

@FelicisNox

All these toffee nosed remarks are hilarious.

Of course it's unprofessional but as half of MN probably work from home in their pj's (also being very unprofessional) you won't get much support here.

It IS your business if it's work related and you're all on a Zoom meeting. It would irritate the hell out of me too: it's a bloody work meeting and it's not too much to ask that all colleagues have their proverbial shit together for an hour or 2 per day.

I think you are the one being "toffee nosed".

@FelicisNox

All these toffee nosed remarks are hilarious.

Of course it's unprofessional but as half of MN probably work from home in their pj's (also being very unprofessional) you won't get much support here.

It IS your business if it's work related and you're all on a Zoom meeting. It would irritate the hell out of me too: it's a bloody work meeting and it's not too much to ask that all colleagues have their proverbial shit together for an hour or 2 per day.

Yep.

JFC - is this real? I am in household with three adults trying to juggle WFH - no space, no privacy for sensitive calls and no prospect of any of us being able to get to an office. I earn more than some of my colleagues but not enough to buy the space needed to sustain this. Stop judging OP - this is not a race to the bottom. Let’s support each other - if that means Teams, Zoom or Skype from bedroom, shed, car, garden or wherever - let it go

I also work from my sofa. This is because:

A) I don’t have the luxury spare room with a vanity table where I put my make-up on.

B) I have a “bad back” (spinal arthritis, scoliosis & disc degeneration) and due to having had to sit working on a wooden chair at my dining table to a laptop for 6 months due to having no space for a desk/pc I’m now unable to sit anywhere else other than my sofa without being in excruciating pain.

YABVVVU

@FelicisNox

All these toffee nosed remarks are hilarious.
Of course it's unprofessional but as half of MN probably work from home in their pj's (also being very unprofessional) you won't get much support here. It IS your business if it's work related and you're all on a Zoom meeting. It would irritate the hell out of me too: it's a bloody work meeting and it's not too much to ask that all colleagues have their proverbial shit together for an hour or 2 per day

Yup those two hours a day - I’m on calls 12 hours a day being professional in a highly stressful job and everyone I work with is same - go take your goady inverted snobbery elsewhere. No one seriously gives a fuck what I’m wearing or where I am. They are interested in my professional opinion and work

@MuckyPlucky

I also work from my sofa. This is because:

A) I don’t have the luxury spare room with a vanity table where I put my make-up on.

B) I have a “bad back” (spinal arthritis, scoliosis & disc degeneration) and due to having had to sit working on a wooden chair at my dining table to a laptop for 6 months due to having no space for a desk/pc I’m now unable to sit anywhere else other than my sofa without being in excruciating pain.

YABVVVU

But why is your company allowed to do that to you? Covid or no Covid?

I think it's so what you can - so put a background on, make sure there is no wobbling etc. I squeezed a desk in, yes it's in my living room but nowhere else to put it and I can't work from the sofa/bed. Office chair as I'm sat there for 8hrs a day pretty continuously and I've had spinal surgery

Recommend the desk actually it's stable and neat and doesn't take up too much room! No it isn't what I want in my living room but I can't work without a desk. Nobody sees me luckily but if they did there's just a window behind me

[quote Cloudtraffic]@FelicisNox

All these toffee nosed remarks are hilarious.
Of course it's unprofessional but as half of MN probably work from home in their pj's (also being very unprofessional) you won't get much support here. It IS your business if it's work related and you're all on a Zoom meeting. It would irritate the hell out of me too: it's a bloody work meeting and it's not too much to ask that all colleagues have their proverbial shit together for an hour or 2 per day

Yup those two hours a day - I’m on calls 12 hours a day being professional in a highly stressful job and everyone I work with is same - go take your goady inverted snobbery elsewhere. No one seriously gives a fuck what I’m wearing or where I am. They are interested in my professional opinion and work[/quote]
I don't think you understand what's meant by inverted snobbery . . .

I agree with you OP YANBU. I’ve done calls all over my house but if I’m chairing or with a client I’ve always been sat at a proper chair

I’ve known colleagues (for a short period of time) use an ironing board and a chair

You’re very lucky to have a spare room you can use as an office. What is your company doing to solve the issue of long term homeworking for other employees?

Extraordinary uptightness from the OP.

OMG, the laptop’s wobbling! I cannot trust the professional standards of this person!

Who thinks like this?

@FOKKYFC

I don't think you understand what's meant by inverted snobbery . . .

Nah I’m quite comfortable with my understanding of term

Mean minded petty and spiteful opening post

I think YABU.

I worked from the sofa until a couple of weeks ago, having been WFH since March.

The thing is lockdown was only ever expected to be temporary and has gone on longer than most people thought, and is likely to go on longer.

I didn't want to give up the little room we have in our living room (DH wfh in the study and I don't think working from our bedroom is a good idea) or have the expense of buying a desk of it was only going to be for a couple of months - others probably have similar reasons.

Exactly my position!

[quote Cloudtraffic]@FOKKYFC

I don't think you understand what's meant by inverted snobbery . . .

Nah I’m quite comfortable with my understanding of term[/quote]
Oh, I don't doubt that.

Well you could mention the wobbling, perhaps she's not aware! Did you lose business over this, was the client put off? Even then it's really the business of your employers rather than yourself. Have they addressed it? Re the complaining another back, suggest the sofa could be the issue. If she continues to complain ask her not to if its annoying you, tell her you've given her advice that she's not taken. As an aside why, if you have an office as a spare room are neither you or your DP using it?

She may be working from the sofa because of her back. I find sitting on a normal chair at a desk gets very very painful quite quickly. I couldn't do it for an entire day. I struggle to sit at a table for a meal often.

While my back hurts on the sofa, it hurts a hell of a lot less and not all the time. You may well have cause and effect backwards here.

She shouldn’t have to spend her money on a desk. Work should.

YABU, people are all managing the best they can at the moment. She may be a very unorganised person but if she gets the job done, what does it matter.

I work from my sofa as I find it the most relaxed set up. I do move to my table for Skype meetings so I can make notes more comfortably mainly (not for professionalism) but I'm lucky I have one already. I don't think 30k is so loaded your colleague should be expected to buy a table she might not have room for or ordinarily need just for Covid, when everyone is in the same boat and should be making allowances.

ps. I earn around 30k but have very little money to spend once I take out debts, rent, bills, cost of running my car, food bill, tax, etc. If she's single than she covers all that herself, and it's a lot. You don't know anything about her personal circumstances.

I was going to say YABU but it sounds like it's affecting her work so yes you do have a point. She should be working somewhere she can see her notes and her screen is stable so her picture isn't wabbling around especially when talking to a client.

I’m confused as to why if you have a spare room office you have to set up in your bedroom —completely misses point—

I do most of mine standing up at the kitchen work top with my laptop perched on a pile of cookery books. I only get the office before 9, after 5, and for an hour at lunchtime.

We're all doing our best.

(And I say that as an extremely logical person who finds it infuriatingly illogical when people suffer and complain through a problem with (to me) an obvious fix. I just have to assume there are things about their life I don't know or understand.)