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.

Likely the same people who pissed around in the office and can't manage their work w/o close supervision. ''Twas always thus and always will be.

None of this means people were skiving. It's all inference by you.

Where's the real evidence?

Try dealing with HMRC, where many people are doing little in the way of work from home. The simplest of tasks takes them about 6 weeks. Anyone tried to speak to a GP recently?

We have an office but I actually usually work in a mix of the living room sitting on floor on a cushion and using coffee table for my laptop, standing with laptop on high occasional table and on the sofa with legs out in front of me and laptop on cushion on knee. Calls I often walk about for at home if I don’t need to see the screen the
whole time.

We converted my summer house into an office in the garden..

I permanently work from home and we don’t have space to put a desk etc in the house.

We had an empty bedroom which is now my office - suits out family needs just fine.
I always sit at my desk, no days where I work from the sofa with the telly on etc, I work on my laptop at my desk all the time. I think a part of this is due to the fact that I often need 2 or sometimes 3 screens - not practical for transporting round the house or setting up on the dining table really. Plus I really do need my proper chair with the lumbar support etc!

You know that for a fact do you?

Some do some don't not much different than in the office.

Our Project Team is successfully delivering a £33m project in multiple time zones with aggressive timelines while sitting on our butts at home doing fuck all. It's amazing that it has done it all by itself!

Is that you Jacob Rees Mogg ?

I'm not saying they do, but that part of my post was replying to tracktrail who was suggesting that H&S was all hunky dory in the office and terrible in everyone's home, and that clearly isn't the case.

My DH works from home 3 days a week.

We've got an open plan kitchen diner, so he sits at the table where we eat.

I don't like it particularly. I work shifts, so I find it quite difficult on my midweek days off - he'll be on Teams calls, and I feel like I can't boil the kettle or put the radio on.

But, we don't have a spare room, so we have to just make it work.

No everyone that works from home gives the illusion that they have a home office. Most people have desks or dining room tables and they prop up their computers or laptops and position it so that the background is half decent.

I’ve realised no one at work really goes into the logistics of how they work from home.

Most people do not have an office in a workplace. They have a desk and chair and sometimes that is a hot desk, so they can not even guarantee that.

I WFH on a small desk in the corner of the bedroom. Big enough for laptop, mouse and mat (and coffee). WiFi is best there for me. You can have a picture background on Teams, or just blur your real background. I also WF cafes with ear pods on.

My second screen lives on the dining table and I blur my background. I meet with people from across the company and even the most senior folk blur too. Except a couple-one chap has a nice fireplace so looks like he works from his living room, one lady is visibly in a very small bedroom/study surrounded by bookshelves with trophies and awards so it’s a bit like dialling in to speak to Martin Lewis 😂
During lockdown my colleague said she hated having an office area at home as it felt like she lived at work.

I have a home office because I've wfh since we moved here in 1995 and bought the house knowing I'd need it. Back then I had 2 - occasionally 3 computers which each needed a monitor (big heavy things back then!). Now I've got a laptop - permanently on its dock with 2 monitors.

My brother WFH in what was his garage, they just had a door & window fitted in the space where the garage door was, he just has a desk stuck in the middle of what looks exactly the same as it did when it was used as a garage.

On the days I WFH I alternate between the dining table or sitting on the recliner sofa with a laptop on my knee. I would love to space for a home office

When I work from my home, I work from a laptop on my sofa or my bed (sitting on, not lying in).

As far as I know most people are the same, unless they are empty nesters and can use their children’s old room.

During covid I had to work from home. Mainly downstairs in the kitchen, but if I had to make calls I would go upstairs to the bedroom and pull the ironing board into the room and use that as a desk whilst sitting on the edge of the bed.

I wfh permanently since covid and so does my husband. Pre covid I worked at home one day a week or anytime I either had an appointment or couldn't get into the office.and I worked at the dining room table until hubby started wfh too. We have a 2 bed house, no children. Husband converted dining room to home office in 2022 and I work in the spare room, which has been made into a home office with a sofa bed in case anyone wants to stay.
Hubby and I both have 2 large monitors plus our laptop's. It works for us.

I have to say I've found this thread quite surprising, that so many people are still pushing for large quantities of time WFH in inadequate space.

My dh works in our dining room. He could work in either dd1 or ds's bedrooms too as they have desks. He'd happily work in any of the rooms as he has a laptop because it saves him from the commute.

People make it work and work in whichever room they can because ut benefits them in some way.

I wonder if there will be a rise in people with musculoskeletal problems due to not having ergonomic work stations at home.

Because inadequate space WFH is infinitely preferable to the hell that is an open plan office. I worked in my bedroom in a houseshare for 6 years and it was bliss compared to the office.