How is almost everybody physically able to WFH?

[someladdersandsnakes]

This is something I just don't really get. I work at a company which doesn't pay that well in a city where housing is very expensive but still basically everybody has somewhere at home that they can work every day. I currently have an office at home because it's a 3 bed and I'm now expecting our second child, when the baby arrives it won't be physically possible anymore to do regular WFH because the only place will be the dining table in the front room, only really suitable for occasional use because there isn't enough space around it for a proper office chair or anything. Nobody else at my company seems to have a similar problem though. I thought appropriately sized housing was a major societal problem yet somehow since the pandemic everyone has a suitable permanent workspace in their house? Including families, young renters, people still living with their parents, etc.

I wfh majority of the time and although I do have a spare bedroom and a garage we could convert, I use the dining table and just clear everything away before my kids finish school. It’s just easier and means I can watch my favourite shows whilst working 🤣

Lol
Where there's a will there's a way
My brother works from home at my mum's house
But sometimes he'll come to mine if it's loud there
In my living room lol
And sometimes even in his car!

We both work from home. We have a study - my partner uses that. We work wherever we feel comfortable, though - dining room table, living room on our laps, chair in the bedroom using a lap tray, in the garden, local cafe, library. I even go out and work in my car some days so I have a nice view. I love the flexibility.

I work on the dining table which is in the kitchen. I pack up into a cupboard at the end of each day. My husband works in our bedroom. I don’t know anyone who has an office. People just make do and blur their background for meetings.

Small 2 bed house. One DC. I have a "shelf" in my bedroom that houses my monitors/laptop and extends out to be a desk when I'm working. Folds back the end of the day. Chair lives in the corner of the room and doubles as a place to store my pile of "to do jobs" (usually washing that needs hanging up or new things that need putting together/away).

I just have to organise myself the start and end of the workday. Still quicker and easier than going to the office each day.

One day I will have a lovely office. But for now this works.

We have a 3 bed house (me, DH and DS (20)). Way before covid we had the box room converted to an office for odd days when either DH or I worked from home. He adopted this in covid and I got the dining room! Still don’t have a proper desk, use the dining table, but do have monitors etc set up and a proper chair etc. Unfortunately that means we now don’t have a dining room and the three of us eat from our laps!

i work from home 75% of the time and DH about 50% now.

We have a study/computer room but it has no heating so DH uses the dining table. So annoying, on my day off working around him and then getting in from work and he's sat there completely in the way (not a big house so the dining area is used for everything! Xx

When we have baby number 2 we will have to get a garden office, make the kids share or set up a desk in the living room. We’ll probably set up my desk in the living room. Not ideal but what we’ll have to do so the kids can have a room each. I don’t know many people who have a home office??? Especially those with kids.

I have a space on the landing that is big enough for me to have a desk, proper chair and monitor permanently set up. It’s not an enclosed room, but it isn’t used for anything but my office. It’s a bit chilly but it’s comfortable and well-lit and has a nice view from the window. We have to provide photos of our home working setup to HR to demonstrate that they meet H&S standards.

My husband has a small study that he works in all day and games in for a few hours every evening.

My children share a bedroom and the spare room is an office, we take it in turns to WFH, the children like sharing so that’s not a problem for now.

Most people at my company seem to be in a bedroom. I use dining table or table in the hallway as our hall is a decent size, depending on who else is around

Many people “working from home” are actually doing little in the way of work at all.

WFH is so desirable that everyone MAKES room!

Such an ignorant and incorrect comment.

I've got the biggest room in a 3 bed post war council house, and use an IKEA kallax desk so I don't miss out on storage and use it as a room divider. I have barely any floor space now though.

Surely the new baby will be in with you for the first 12 months or so anyway? Once the baby is sleeping through the two children can share a room?

Look at the National Statistics Office skivers who are threatening to strike because they don’t want to go back to the office. There was an excuse during covid when people “worked from home” and Peloton sales surged!

There was an excuse during covid when people “worked from home” and Peloton sales surged!

Sales surged and haven't been maintained, they surged at a time we were told how many times a day we could leave our house and when many people were furloughed. Don't be such a moron.

I worked on the tiny dining table (tiny open plan downstairs) when I started to wfh, having to move my PC and 2 monitors out every night to eat dinner, it was a royal PITA. Especially when I was in the middle of something and had papers spread everywhere.

We bought a bigger house with an extra bedroom to use as my office in the end, which is perfect. I can close my door and I'm out of the way.

The children may be very happy sharing when they are little, depending on the age gap. We put ours in together despite having a spare room - they loved waking up together in the morning.

Since 2008, I've maintained a hybrid work setup, primarily working from home but still going into the office occasionally. Leading a team of professionals and delivering high-level products involves numerous calls, meetings, tight deadlines, and agile work, all of which I manage from home. So, your comment seems a bit dumb misguided.

I live in a 1 bed flat. And I’ve been in a remote/field based WFH role for over 10 years

I have a desk in my bedrooom, but I never use it as the bedroom is cold (Well I do use it, but not for work as I have my personal desktop computer on there already for my photography editing, so it’s more of a squeeze).

I don’t have a dining table as I don’t have space, so instead I use 2 other options. First option is a foldaway desk that I put up in my living room.

Second option is one of those rest on the lap, laptop mini desk thingys that I sit on the sofa with (not great for posture, so I tend to use it on my quieter days when I’ve had enough at being stuck at the desk and want a bit more flexibility)

My partner and I have created a home workspace that surpasses even our office setups. We feel fortunate to have tailored it to our needs perfectly.

At home, we have an office adjacent to our lounge, where my partner works.

As for me, I've claimed a cosy corner in our spacious lounge. Both areas feature full-size desks with electronic height adjustment, ensuring we can always work comfortably.

The office chairs, provided by our employers, make long hours at the computer much more bearable.

Being tech enthusiasts, our setups are fully equipped. We've got 4K webcams for meetings, Apple Macs, twin monitors, Jabra headsets, and, okay, maybe some overpriced accessories - but we can't resist cool gadgets.

Even before the pandemic, we've been hybrid workers. That's why having a top-notch setup at home was crucial for us. This isn't just a temporary arrangement; it's our permanent workspace, tailored precisely to our needs.

🙄🙄🙄🙄

I do get bored of this ignorant view. It’s tedious.

You realise many of us were working from home for many many years before Covid popped up? WFH is not a new thing. I’ve been doing it in my field based role for over 10 years.

All Covid did was get some employers to realise that WFH and hybrid working were effective options for their staff.

And the reason many people were reluctant to go back into the office once businesses asked them to come back in, is likely because they’d not had to deal with the daily stress of a commute to and from work and didn’t want to go back to that when it was proven it was unnecessary for them have to do it. Not because they’d were all enjoying ‘skiving off’.