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.

I have a 3-bed house shared with partner (who's WFH since 2010) and dog. All I need is a laptop, and I'm pretty introverted, so I'm a perfect candidate for WFH. It's certainly convenient for all the usual reasons: no commute, wear pyjamas, etc.

But during times of pressure/stress at work, I highly dislike it. My home is my sanctuary, and if I WFH while stressed then I come to associate the whole home with stress. This happened in 2021 and took months to fully recover from.

On the same note, I used to have a manager I didn't like (and the feeling was mutual). During that period, whenever I spoke with him while WFH, it felt like I was "inviting him into my home" - which I found quite unpleasant, as I would never do this in reality.

I WFH in the small spare bedroom and DH works at the dining table in our 3 bed house. There is much about it I like such as flexibility and only needing one car.

I find it incredibly isolating though. I miss my colleagues and the daily change of scenery.

My colleague loved it at first because he saved a fortune in petrol and was around for the school run, but working at the dining table in his family's small London flat is taking a toll on his mental health now.

Our office was closed down sadly. We would both prefer to WFH 1-2 days a week and spend the rest in an office.

Tiniest possible desk squeezed in the corner of our bedroom. We had to get rid of a chest of drawers to fit it in and can only just get past between the bed and desk.

We could both WFH but just don't have the space.

I assumed a lot of my bosses had spare rooms to work from but I can see from Teams calls a lot of them are working from their bedroom or dining tables.

When the children have to start doing proper homework/revision we'll either have to replace their beds with the ones with desks under or get a fold down desk as they have no room either.

@Ginmonkeyagain Yes, it's much easier if your job literally is a laptop, headphones and a desk. It's harder I feel if it involves having a fair bit of 'stuff' around as part of the job. My poor 24 year old son in lockdown was in a shared house with no lounge and his bedroom at various points had 20 odd laptops in it (he's in tech and was dealing with software builds for an MSP) he also had the couriers picking up every day- that literally was 'living at the office' - at that point we helped him and his friend rent a nice 2 bed flat with a lounge!! in case this shit ever happened again - it absolutely killed his mental health

I would imagine it is pretty unusual for 4 adults(or near adults) to be WFH or studying from home.

Depending on your garden I think I'd be considering either installing one of those office garden buildings - or converting part of the garage if you have one into some office space.
I've worked form home for about 13 years - waay before lockdown! Not having to commute into an office saves hours and hours and a fortune in fares. I'm now having to go into an office 2/3 days a week and I can categorically say I get more work done when I'm at home so its more productive too.

My husband and I run a catering company from a 2 bed flat. Work that one out 😂

Absolutely one of my reasons for hating WFH. I have 2 bedrooms and during lockdown I put a desk in the spare room but this meant pushing the double bed up against one wall which fine if only person stays over but not ideal for my elderly parents so I took the desk down and now use the dining table on the days I work from home (usually twice a week), but it makes the living room look a mess, you can't escape work stuff in the evening, and it means setting up and packing everything away each week rather than having a desk set up that i just plug my laptop into.

You probably are an extreme example with 4 adults wanting to WFH in a normal family sized home.

We have occasionally 3 WFH but have compromised on practicability/flexibility in bedrooms to support everyone having own desk/monitors if needed. If you ds has space for a desk not having on is potentially a luxury you don't have the space to avoid.

In your situation, if there is no space or they don't want to fit something into their bedrooms, I would probably tell the dc if they are not contracted for full WFH to go to the office or if there is space in a 4th bedroom tell them to rota its use/going to work between then.

I don’t think you need to necessarily have a large house, but you do need to have dedicated space and preferably a space you can close the door after you exit at the end of your working day.

I worked predominantly from home for years before covid. There were lots of advantages, especially not having a long commute. I got a better work life balance as I wasn’t spending 150 mins a day in the car. I didn’t have to dress up in the same way as I did when going into the office, so I also saved daily time from that. I did however get dressed to work, so no pjs etc and was clean and tidy, just not as dressed up or as well groomed.

We already had a small spare room that had been converted to an office years and years before I worked from home and I treated going in there much the same as I did going into the office. All of my work things remained in that room and due to the nature of my work any paperwork etc had to be put away at the end of the day under lock and key. Keeping work and leisure separate was a large factor in making working from home work. I would have struggled if work impinged on home outside the home office.

If DH had to work from home whilst I was using the office, it did impinge on home life and neither of us found it satisfactory, although it would have worked better if he had put things away at the end of the working day.

In answer to the original question, you don’t need to have a large house, but you do need a spare room/dedicated space/clear demarcation between work and home to make it work in the long term.

Both DH and I WFH. Our house is large by UK standards (2700 square feet) so we both have our own offices. I couldn’t stand it if we had to use a communal space or share an office. I occasionally go into my work office in central London and cannot get any work done. It’s far too noisy.

Oddly, the people most against working from home have multiple massive houses of their own, but more importantly, they own massive office blocks and don’t want people WFH because it threatens their office rental income.

Jacob Rees Mogg anyone?!

We have a three bedroom house, it is not especially large.

During the first covid lockdown, my husband worked in the kitchen, I worked in the dining room, and my son did his online college from his bedroom. After the first lockdown, we arranged to have a garden office built, and I now work there and my husband works in our dining room (son is now at university). They have become more expensive but when we had ours done it was a very cost effective (and quick, done in a day) way of getting more space.

Now of course, you are not confined to home if you don't want to work in your office - you can go to the library, or a coffee shop, or a co-working space, or a pub (some now have remote working packages with included wifi and drinks) or a hotel reception area (the Hoxton hotels in London have loads of people working on their laptops) or potentially outside somewhere.

We work from home (me f/t, dh 3+ days) we have a designated office room with our desk computers etc. It works as we have the room. It didn’t work when we lived in 2 bedroom flat with bedrooms big enough for beds and nothing else so dinning table working. That was horrible.

Jacob Rees Mogg anyone?!

Yes! I was thinking of Sralan “Lord” Sugar.

DH often WFH and did totally for almost 18 months in lockdown. We do have a spare bedroom it’s not huge but it’s his office now so the door can be shut and it doesn’t encroach on any other rooms.

I think that’s why it works fine in our ok but not huge house, it’s a 3 bed with us and DS who is in his twenties. it was built in the 1920’s so the two main bedrooms are quite big.

@lieselotte working anywhere other than the office or home (via a VPN) is absolutely not an option for me and many people. I work on very sensitive things and have many meetings that cannot be overheard and I am forbidden from using public wifi.

We are not even allowed to use Zoom due to security concerns.

Reading this thread, I think a lot also depends on the type of work and what equipment you need.
Both DH and I just have laptops, occasionally an extra screen, and no paperwork (we’d both be disciplined if we took paperwork off-site!). We don’t have many calls or meetings, and if we do they’re generally short. Laptops just go in a cupboard every evening. So working at the dining table together is no issue for us.
The kids both have small desks in their rooms, they always have done.

We live in a terraced Victorian cottage, 2 up 2 down. There's just me and DH.

During the lockdowns in 2020 and 2021 we were both working full time and worked either side of our dining table. Whilst DH was fine with just his laptop I had to have laptop, big screen etc. We couldn't pack all that up every day so we effectively lost our dining room for a year. It wasn't too bad but obviously wasn't ideal with calls etc, but we managed, and the savings we made together with the lack of commute outweighed the difficulties.

When we were allowed to my boss demanded that I went back into the office 2 days per week so DH and I moved my desk up to our small back bedroom to accommodate my WFH days. By this time he'd gone down to 3 days a week which included 1 day in the office so he was happy to stick with his laptop on the dining table.

Due to our saving of train fares and inherent costs of working in London, I was able to retire at the same time as DH in summer last year. However if I decide to try and find something to do I wouldn't have a problem with WFH again.

From the first lockdown in 2020 to January 2022 I worked from a tiny ex boiler cupboard in my bedroom. No windows, no natural light and literally no space to move my chair except in and out.
Second room was my sons.
Downstairs space too small to fit a desk.

We moved in January ‘22 to a 4 bed and have changed the box room into an office.
I do 2 days office and 2 at home.

I’d rather go back to working from a windowless cupboard full time to the office full time.

It gives so much more family flexibility and time, and I get so much more done in that 90 mins saved in the morning!

DP and I both like working from home and we definitely do not have a big house! Nowhere near as big as yours. He usually works downstairs at the kitchen table and I usually work upstairs at a little desk in the spare room, and that's fine for us.
Everyone's family is different. Just because someone enjoys something you don't, that doesn't mean they are rich/weird/have social anxiety or any of the other things some of the people on this thread seem to be assuming!

Three bed here. I work in the spare room, DH works in the living/dining room. As DS isn't going to school at the moment if we weren't working from home life would be even more impossible than it already is.

dh and I both work from home.

he has a study which is actually soundproofed as he sometimes has to deal with emergencies in the middle of the night.
So for him it is fine.

I work on the dinign room table.
The only way I can do this is because we have a kitchen table, so this table is really my desk, only used when we have visitors for food.
I also have space for a large bookcase next to the table, full of files and books.

It works really well during term time. Lots of space, I can look down the garden, etc etc.

It is not so good when kids are home in the holidays. Kids all older teens, but still.
I does wind me up that my dining room is actually an office. But I am grateful that we have the space for my bookcase and laptop. It would be awful if I needed to use lounge/my bedroom

Currently in a 4 bed rented house, but my office is in the dining room. I could have it in the spare room however i have lovely views of the sea from the dining room plus can keep an eye on dinner in the kitchen. Also when light the fire in sitting room it heats up the dining room too. At xmas as was off two weeks i packed it all up and moved to the spare room. I have a large desk along with two screens. WFH means i don't have to get up at 1/2 5 in morning and battle the traffic to be in work for 8. The constant rush gives me rage, i instead get up two hours alter but on comfortable warm clothes and walk down the hall and log in for 8. No rush. Previous house was a small two bed cottage and was in the box room. It was very small but i was still able to work and it was good to close the door in eve. My new house once built will have a dedicated space that can close the door in eve. I don't miss the constant chi chat of the office, the few times a month i go in to the office physically the noise is very hard to deal with along with the constant people moving about. I don't get much done, my desk is not set up the same as home, i end up talking too much to colleagues and having to walk to different meeting rooms is a pain. Plus constantly keeping an eye on time so i can miss traffic to get home in decent time. Working from home is not perfect however the benefits far out weigh the cons for me. I am not as tired, saving money, more relaxed, house is cleaner, weekends freeer, eating better as more time to cook. There is no way ever i will go back to the office full time even if its a 5 min drive down the road