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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

276 replies

redskydelight · 11/01/2023 21:39

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.

OP posts:
OneForTheRoadThen · 12/01/2023 08:24

I like wfh as a single parent it enables me to do school drop off and be back at my desk for 9am. Saves a lot of money on breakfast club.

I have a desk on the corner of my sitting room, not ideal but it means I can have the tv on as background noise.

GreetingsToTheNewBrunette · 12/01/2023 08:24

I live in a two up two down terrace and I love WFH

gogohmm · 12/01/2023 08:26

We worked from home for six weeks either sitting on the sofa or lying on the bed, not ideal! I went back full time after 6 weeks as I was needed on site ideally (I can work occasionally from home but need presence) and dp went in one day a week to sign documentation etc (key industry but director). When we moved we chose a house with a downstairs office / 4th bedroom just in case!

SirMingeALot · 12/01/2023 08:26

tigger1001 · 12/01/2023 08:07

I suspect it depends on what you need to work. If all you need is a laptop and a phone then that's easier to accommodate than if you need a separate space/desk etc.

I rarely work at home as my job doesn't lend itself to that easily. Two screens are essential and a proper desk/writing space. I hate trying to work from home so only do it if unwell but not enough to be off sick

Good point. Loads of people do jobs that simply don't require that much physical space.

Dinodigger · 12/01/2023 08:27

We both love WFH! We do have a 5 bedroom house but 7 of us live here, so although it is a big house, there isn't tonnes of room for all of us really.

I won't even consider applying for a job unless it is wfh now. My husband won't either.

PrincessConstance · 12/01/2023 08:27

I have a 4-story house. I've done the lounge, and bedroom and settled into the kitchen which is 6m square.
Dp is in and out but leaves me alone to work. WFH is great I have recently been for the past 2-3 months being traveling which is up to 4 hrs per day. Which has meant I'm pretty tired and all worked out. Not good for our relationship or social life, so I may look for something with less travel.

siroodlesofnoodles · 12/01/2023 08:29

We both work from home, 5 bed detached with separate working spaces.

I miss my office and the people, but I work out and about in my local area so it's never been feasible to be in the office 5 days per week anyway.

Husband loves wfh as it saves him a 45 minute drive to work and he's naturally introverted.

I do not love the endless cups of tea.

It's handy though, I can fire a wash on and unload the dishwasher when I want. I also get to do the school runs, so it works well.

knittingaddict · 12/01/2023 08:30

My husband loves working from home and we certainly don't have a big house. It's 3 bedrooms.

His office is a tiny "room" between two of the bedrooms which just about fits in a desk and some shelves. It's more of a cupboard and not even big enough to be called a box room.

He's quite happy in there if it saves him the time and energy that his previous long commute took up.

RosettaTheGardenFairy · 12/01/2023 08:33

I've noticed this at my workplace - colleagues with bigger houses are far more likely to WFH.

In my case we have enough rooms that my husband and I both have our own separate offices - I couldn't do it if I had to work from my bedroom or a box room or the dining room table, that would drive me nuts!

knittingaddict · 12/01/2023 08:33

To add, my daughter and her partner both work from home in a small ex council house. They love it too.

Thepeopleversuswork · 12/01/2023 08:36

Nope. I love wfh and work in my own bedroom in a tiny two bedroom maisonette.

Key advantages for me:

  • Avoiding a stressful and pointless 1.5 hour commute
  • The ability to guarantee being at home when my DD gets home from school
  • Vastly improved productivity: I find working in an office a huge distraction and I get far less done there

i think I would find it much harder if my partner and DD were here in the day and lockdown was unmitigated hell for me but the present situation suits me.

CocoPlum · 12/01/2023 08:37

Loving WFH is not the same as loving lockdowns ...

I have a 3 bed with 2 children of different sexes so no spare room. I work from the dining table. I love being able to, because on office days i feel like I'm rushing constantly.

I'm usually alone in the house though, and I don't have lots of meetings or calls, so I'm not sharing space.

JudgeRudy · 12/01/2023 08:37

During peak Covid I went from F2F work to mostly MSTeams however I declined to wfh for some of the reasons you mentioned such as not spare space. Work then had to find me a secluded space to work from.
If I had a nice summerhouse/office I might have felt differently.
On the other side, as a customer, l hated hearing screaming kids, tv and barking dogs and l have serious concerns around data protection and confidentiality.

Ginmonkeyagain · 12/01/2023 08:38

I live in a 2 bed flat and full time WFH nearly broke me, physically and mentally. It was awful.

My work got really really busy during lockdown and a lot of my work requires meetings (complex and sometimes urgent negotiations with different groups so no, it can't be done on messenger or by email). There was a point where I was stuck for 12 - 16 hours a day in a back room almost constantly on Teams calls. It was hellish.

What I do appreciate (and TBH had before this as I have a fairly orogressive employer) is the ability to be flexible about WFH. We have had a fairly complex plumbing issue to resolve.this week and being able to be at home and work around that has been a god send.

CurlyTop1980 · 12/01/2023 08:40

I've spent most of lockdown and since ( as they closed the offuces) wfh at a desk in my bedroom. I've now started a new job in a school. So much nicer to be around people.

QueSyrahSyrah · 12/01/2023 08:40

Tiny one bedroom flat here without even a dining table. I worked at my dressing table sitting on a 3-legged stool, DH worked from the coffee table, sat on the floor or the couch, alternating depending how quickly each gave him back ache.

Neither of us could get back to the office quick enough.

If we had a spare room / dining table / cupboard under the stairs / space at the dressing table for an office chair then we may have felt differently.

Thingsdogetbetter · 12/01/2023 08:41

I think it's down to space, layout and number of occupants. You don't need a big house to have a work space. Single person in a one bedroom flat is fine. A spare box room fine. Know a couple who both worked from home who had a box room and a strangely large hallway which was fine. 4 kids and mum and dad working from home in a large 4 bedroom open plan big house not so fine. Wfh from kitchen table with kids and separate livingroom fine (probably better, not fine tbh loĺ).

I certainly agree that large WITH 'spare' room was probably great during lockdown as that usually means outside space too . Those of us who lived and worked in a communal space hated it and those who had spare rooms or dedicated offices were loving it. I would sit in zoom meetings with a blurred background so no one could judge my messy bedroom jealous of colleagues (usually managers) in their ergonomic chairs in their home offices talking about sitting in their gardens to work on sunny days.

We even had a rather well paid colleague suggest we should all put office pods (paid for with our imaginary spare £9k obviously) in our (imaginary huge) gardens as she found it amazing!! Still don't like her! 😁

Thepeopleversuswork · 12/01/2023 08:41

@CocoPlum

Loving WFH is not the same as loving lockdowns

True but there was an unpleasantly smug trend at the peak of lockdowns for people to wax lyrical about how much they loved not having to leave the house and being snug with their wuvly families as they did craft and cultivated vegetables which correlated quite closely with the people who post about hating to see or work with other people.

I always thought most of these people didn’t need to work anyway.

Thriwit · 12/01/2023 08:42

DH & I both hybrid work, we’re at home 2-4 days a week. During Covid we were both wfh full-time. Family of 4 in a typical 3-bed semi (DC are 9 & 12 now).
We sit at the dining table to work, I pull out an extra screen but he doesn’t bother. DC walk themselves to & from school now, when they get home they get a snack then go to their rooms to do homework etc.
I absolutely love it, wouldn’t change it at all.

JudgeRudy · 12/01/2023 08:42

knittingaddict · 12/01/2023 08:33

To add, my daughter and her partner both work from home in a small ex council house. They love it too.

What's the relavence of it being an ex council house? 🤔

Getinajollymood · 12/01/2023 08:42

My husband works from home sometimes. During the pandemic it was all the time and that was pretty difficult. He kept waking the baby up, I couldn’t just relax and watch TV when I was on maternity leave or walk around in my pyjamas or even access the garden very easily (it was a small patio he looked directly out onto so I felt self conscious out there as he couldn’t help but look directly out at me!)

We moved and he has a separate annex for an office (which he currently isn’t using but that’s another matter.) It doesn’t matter as much because he isn’t in the house all the time - which I don’t think was great for either of us to be honest - and variety is the spice of life.

I would find it hard if we had a smaller house, even here it’s hard sometimes as the toddler wants to go to his dad but isn’t old enough to understand that dads working. But there are many upsides too.

Workawayxx · 12/01/2023 08:43

I love working from home but only when it’s just me in the house! I have a small house.

M103 · 12/01/2023 08:43

2 bed flat here, 2 adults + 2 kids, both I and husband WFH. I chose to WFH. It's cramped, but it helps massively with drops off/ picks up from school, when kids are ill etc. Plus I can cook during lunch break, or run errands, put in a washing load etc So I prefer it at the moment. I miss the office chit chat though!!

gannett · 12/01/2023 08:45

I've WFH for over a decade, throughout a variety of houseshares (so essentially working from bedroom). Even that was infinitely better than the office.

Now WFH from a house I love (though I suspect it's nowhere near what MN would consider big) with my own office and it's even better.

But it's not the quality of the living space that makes WFH so essential to me - it's the ability to control that space. Yes, WFH means you have to consider the other people living in the house, but that inconvenience is nothing on attempting to do work in an open plan office with people bothering you all the time.

I'd turn this question around - did the people who hate WFH have their own offices and easy commutes and colleagues who left them alone?

JudgeRudy · 12/01/2023 08:50

QueSyrahSyrah · 12/01/2023 08:40

Tiny one bedroom flat here without even a dining table. I worked at my dressing table sitting on a 3-legged stool, DH worked from the coffee table, sat on the floor or the couch, alternating depending how quickly each gave him back ache.

Neither of us could get back to the office quick enough.

If we had a spare room / dining table / cupboard under the stairs / space at the dressing table for an office chair then we may have felt differently.

That sounds challenging. Do you need to speak confidentially with customers/clients? Could you overhear each other's conversations?

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