To wonder if people who like WFH all live in big houses

[redskydelight]

As per title really.
3 of us who could work at home and DD studying for A Levels.

We have a 4 bedroom house so should be ample for our needs, but the (modern, small) rooms simply weren't designed to accommodate so many separate work spaces as well as space to eat, sleep, relax etc. We're all now choosing to work/study more and more out of the house because of being on top of each other at home.

I really don't know why so many people rave about wfh. I can only assume they must have big houses and therefore don't have to put in place timeshare arrangements for use of the dining table.

No.

I love WFH mainly because commuting is a waste of life and a big expense

I hear you op but it's not necessarily big houses it's number of occupants versus number of rooms.
So I have colleagues who live alone 2 bed house = one spare room perfectly happy working from home .
I have a 5 bed house , 4 DC both me and DH wfh. On paper our house is large but we are spilling out of it no spare bedroom or office DH works in the lounge I work in our bedroom.
I like not having to commute but I also miss the social side of being in the office and having a work home separation aka not walking into my bedroom and seeing my desk!

I work from my bedroom or for a change occasionally the kitchen table, but still prefer a mix of mostly WFH, because it means no commute, more time to see kids, doing things like put a dinner in the oven or put on the laundry at lunch instead of starting it all at 6pm, or go for a run back from school dropoff instead of having leaving the house all ready for work at 7.30am, getting back at 6pm and doing no exercise.

If I had no kids and lived a short distance from the office, might feel differently.

If you've got a bedroom, then you've got a place to work. WHy would you leave the bedroom empty and go and work somewhere else? Two bedrooms here, and two of us working from home. Easy

DH works in the study and I work in the dining room in a reasonably big house.

However my DS chooses to wfh in a very small house at the kitchen table.

Yeah I'm one of the ones with the 4 bed detached. I have an office and it's great. Dh is out all day but has just applied for a job wfh, not sure how I'll cope with that 😫

i don’t have a massive house… I just don’t have kids

We are renovating and have been living in a small static caravan in the garden for over 2 yrs. DH & I WFH and have some how managed in a tiny caravan with no study/desk/space other than a caravan lounge/diner and tiny bedroom.

I live in - 2 bedroom and generally work in the living room because it's bigger and brighter. I love WFH.

Absolutely this

My ds lives in London in an apartment with 3 other people. They all work from their bedrooms and emerge at lunch time/ evening to a regular sized living area. No issues with it and really love the no commute. Definitely not fancy in any way.

I live in a small 2 up 2 down terraced house with my DP. We both WFH 3 days a week - him in the spare bedroom and me in the living room. We both like it and the house suits us, I really appreciate that I only need to commute two days a week, I like being able to sleep in a bit later, chuck a load of washing on, dress in tracksuit bottoms, make decent lunches with the hob/oven etc. I like the fact that I log off and I’m home already.

So we haven’t got a massive house but it’s not affected the Wfh pros for us. But I agree your house size/ratio of people living there has an impact. Some of my colleagues are younger and live in house shares with lots of people and they struggle with WFH. But there’s freedom to go into the office beyond your set days which helps.

I loved WFH even from my dining room in my tiny 1 bed terrace!

So it's not everyone, but I think there's probably a slight correlation along with variation for personality types - I'd prefer being at home even if I could only work from my sofa because I work better in silence, for example. But if you've got your own office space set up nicely you're probably in general more likely to prefer that to balancing books on the kitchen table for Zoom meetings.

During lockdown when both dc had to come home from university it worked because we had plenty of space. DH worked in "his" room which is a study/sitting room/music room, I worked in the dining room, DS at his desk in his bedroom and DD at her desk in her study room. DS had a bit of cabin fever due to working in his bedroom.

Now, I often go to work 4 days pw rather than 3 days because I like the social aspect of work and seeing my team. Only a 20 minute drive though. Everyone else is now out at work most of the time.

DS is now married and they have a one bedroom flat. DS wfh about two days a week (academic) and DIL recently got a new job that meant she could go to the office because she likes going to work and their flat is cramped.

I have friends, a couple who both work from home. They are in opposite ends of their house, one in the attic, one in the dining room, and do not see each other all day. It’s deliberate in order not to distract one another. You could do this in any house if you both agreed to it.

I think a lot of it depends on the job you do. We have a a decent amount of space so DH working at home, and even when the teens were home from uni during lockdown it wasn't too bad.

However, a large part of that is because DH's job doesn't involve a lot of calls. There's no need for everyone else to be quiet in the house. He also has certain things to do during the day and in many ways it doesn't matter if they're done between 8am and 6pm or between Noon and 9pm. So the flexibility makes it less imposing on the home. Our kids are all school age or older, although the youngest is disabled and misses school frequently, but it's still not all the time.

BIL lives in a big house, but he and SIL both work from home. Both in very call heavy jobs. Each of them have multiple screens so need space and quiet. They have two pre-school children and had a nanny - it just didn't work. They had to change the way they did things. The kids have to go to nursery, which takes away a little bit of the flexibility wfh should have offered as they now have to have one of them available for pick up and drop off.

I live in a tiny 1 bed flat with no room for a desk. I wfh from my sofa and have done for 5 years.
Will never go back to the commute.

Me and DH work from home in a small house. No issues at all and we love it

I have a small 3 bed and love WFH, but it is only me that does it so only needed one space and was willing to compromise on home asthetics to make it practical.

Your problem is too many people needing work spaces

I love WFH and will never go back to an office

we have enough space though for 2 adults to WFH separately and for our adult children to still have plenty of room. So yes, big house, which helps

We have a small 3 bed plus two kids but we do have a garage which we converted to a study some years ago. It does mean that we share a study so have each other in the background in meetings and if meetings clash one of us has to go inside the house. But it does have the advantage of physical separation from the house.

We were all at home (6 People) during COVID.
School kids did work in kitchen, sitting room, hall, and we moved to kitchen for meals during day. Lots of outdoor exercise, I made up 'street hockey' as we have no garden. Dodging traffic was interesting though not hugely busy road. parents working in those spaces or bedroom.

We work 3 of us in a small home. Love it. Laptops and screens are portable.

I love it and have done it for over a decade.

I can work from a coffee shop, a hotel, airplane, or my house.

My kids are all grown though and just me.

This is just like us except my desk is in the corner of the living room.