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 have a tiny box room that can't be used as a bedroom - it's my craft room / office. Just fits a desk and chair nicely!

When I worked for the council we had a workspace assessment every year that had to be done. You also had to be reassessed if you presented with a bad back, shoulder, wrist etc.
I think all that must have gone out the window.

My friends husband does have a box room office, he works long hours often during then night because of a time difference with clients. She has to clear her dresser in the bedroom for her part time work.

one of my friends shares a dining room table with her husband. It sounds all wrong though as they both have confidential work, they have to be careful not to be on the phone/teams at the same time. Otherwise one has to go and sit on the bed.

Clearly it depends on how ill I am. Wfh adds a third option- this is a benefit, it doesn’t represent some kind of moral failing.

I like to drink wine with my dinner. If I’m given the choice between water and beer, I’ll choose water. This is not a devastating argument that proves that wine shouldn’t exist.

We have a spare bedroom that was partitioned into two, so I work in one half and DH works in the other. We used to share the room but that didn't really work long term, especially as we work for the same company and I could hear all his managerial meetings.

"It sounds all wrong though as they both have confidential work, they have to be careful not to be on the phone/teams at the same time. Otherwise one has to go and sit on the bed."

Sounds a bit over the top actually. Even spies are allowed to tell their spouses what they do aren't they?

I work from home 1 day a week from my bedroom. I have a fold up desk and sit on my bed.
I get to watch the birds and local cats from the window too.

@Gwenhwyfar what they do but not the detail of the actual work.

Not uncommon to not be able to discuss elements of your work with your spouse. Not as glamorous as being a spy but in a former role I was on the permanent insiders list because I was party to information that could lead to insider trading/affect market pricing. I couldn't discuss any of that with my husband.

Yeah, but in reality you know that people do!

I don't think I'd be able to concentrate, also i'd disturb the others in the house. I don't have a proper desk or office chair or even a landline phone. I don't understand how people in flatshares, bedsits or with small children or adult dependents do it!

It could lose them their job if it came to light they had discussed sensitive information with someone else. It would certainly not have been over the top for my employer to require that I work in a separate area to my husband.

@evilharpy in one of my previous roles it was a security issue, we didn't allow home working in house shares for example.

I loved my time at the dining table (lounge/diner), but my daughter chased me out, because my two screens and work chair were clogging up the room, apparently 🙄.

I now have a nice desk/bookshelf in my bedroom, with my chair the office was kind enough to gift me.

The people I know with office space are all in their box rooms.

My boss works from his kitchen island and I have a desk in the side bit of my L shaped living room. I used to work off the dining room table, which was a nuisance having to pack up every night, but when we moved I upgraded to where I am now.

Hubby used to work in a box bedroom, but now we have moved he has a slightly larger downstairs office, but still not massive.

At the start of lockdown here in Melbourne, the principal had to sign off on OHS for home work stations. This was plainly not on for a big secondary school so we were sent the department's guidelines and asked to OK it as reasonable.
I live alone so have my choice of four places to work, but ended up on the dining room table as it's nearer the kitchen and has the best view.

Correction, it's just come back to me. We OK'd that we'd read and understood the guidelines.

I work from home part of the week. It’s 5:00am now and I’m about to start work as l need to communicate with distant colleagues in different parts of the world, it’s around lunchtime for some.

l don’t need lots of paper for work, so l opt not to have a home office. My preference is to move around the house, using a large laptop) every few hours, including a shaded patio when it’s warm. I think the moving round is of benefit to me and certainly beats some set up people have of almost being in a cupboard or stuck under the stairs.

I work from a log cabin in the garden or sometimes (e.g., if I'm keeping half an eye on the children at the same time, from a desk in the spare bedroom. I'm very lucky to have these spaces in our current home.

Other houses I've lived in have always had somewhere I could work though. When we lived in a tiny two bed I actually had a desk in the spare room wardrobe, and shut the door on it when we had guests. I had to move the chair out as otherwise there wasn't room to unfold the bed!

Most colleagues are working from dining tables or desks in living rooms, bedrooms etc. Even students living in just one single bedroom generally have space for working. It's just a matter of arranging and furnishing the space appropriately.

If they are both on phones/teams at the same time there’s a chance that 3rd parties will hear the confidential information. Especially on teams as I feel like often people shout a bit.

I don't understand how people in flatshares, bedsits or with small children or adult dependents do it!

Between them my adult dc have all lived in a number of house shares. All of them had a desk or table in the rooms. If anything, I'd say more so than in family homes.

In my first flat I had a lodger. I still managed to work at the dining table I had in the living room. I did, as it happens, also have a desk in the main bedroom, but it was warmer in the lounge. I wfh a lot then, but none of it involved Teams calls of course as it was long before ordinary people had the internet.

If you have small children, then they would obviously be at their Nursery or Childminder or other childcare provider whilst you were working, so can't see how that is an issue. Same with adult dependents who needed constant care. I would suggest that many adult dependents need someone 'in the house' rather than regular care, as, if that were the case, then you would have to put care in place, the same as you do with children, just the same as if you were physically WOTH.

People in bedsits and house shares study. Students normally have a bedroom and study and write essays in their room. Children study for exams at home. No different practically to wfh.

Studying at home isn't usually full time hours, day after day, week after week, year after year. My wfh life is very, very different to my studying days (which to be fair were many years ago).

exactly this. I certainly didn't spend 8hrs plus a day studying, 5 days a week when I was a student! Students, school pupils etc also have the opportunity of a library or various social spaces designed for studying, perhaps a canteen/cafe, whereas if you are working with multiple screens or taking calls or have any job where privacy is key you can't take advantage of anything like that.

It's like saying 'why would a scientist need a laboratory, I can mix fairy liquid and water in the kitchen.'
'why would doctors need an operating theatre, I've taken a splinter out/put a bandage on in my living room!'