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 fear you are right @CRJ77.
Fortunately we both have proper desks and proper office chairs. I was told to take everything I needed from the office, which included my office chair. I had to buy a desk, but is was a cheapie from Amazon.

I made a little office under the stairs, it's fab.

DD works from her sofa, she sits lengthways with lots of firm cushions behind her and has no issues.

DS has a desk in his bedroom.

Working from your dining room is fairly normal. I don't understand why you don't have enough room on the table for a laptop and notebook?

Not if your wrist and hand is fused from arthritis and it is physically impossible for you to use a mouse.

@Gwenhwyfar lap tray? I don't eat at a table

Dh set up in the biggest spare room. I was in the smallest facing a wall. Depressing. I went back to working from the office.

@K0OLA1D that sounds difficult. Have you tried a mouse mat with a gel wrist rest?

I hate using the touch pad on a laptop TBH.

I squeezed a small, narrow desk into the alcove in my back room. Bought a pull out keyboard tray and fitted that too it. It takes up little room when not in use

I'm a bit in the way while working but it's only me in the house during working hours so it doesn't matter.

I prefer working in a room with easy access to the kettle and a view of the garden rather than being shut in a tiny room.

On the odd occasion any one else in in they can be in the front room without disturbing me or vice versa.

When lockdown started I didn't think there was room for a desk and I had to sacrifice a nicer looking console table but there wasn't a choice other than to make something work. Now I've gone to the effort and expense it may as well benefit me too.

I use a tray and a laptop on the sofa.
I only need a laptop and a phone, I have no paperwork or anything

I only wfh for 1 or 2 days a week but work from the kitchen table. generally no-one else is around. I do have an office but that is my space where i escape in the evenings and don't want it to be used for work.

DH works full time from home and sits on sofa with table and riser for lap top. He has done this for more than four years. I work two days from home (sometimes more). I used to be on the dining table in the kitchen but recently moved into what used to be a separate dining room but now has a sofa bed. So I work on a sofa with a fold up table and my portable second screen either on the coffee table or on a cushion next to me.

Neither situation would pass H&S 😂

It's sadly fused itself in a downward angle. So a wrist support does nothing for me. My elbow is also fusing and I don't have much mobility left (soon to have a replacement) so the tendons between wrist and elbow are very tight. It cripples me after a few minutes with a mouse. I find the laptop pad 100 times better for me.

Ok. Specific disabilities and health problems aside, people should use a proper keyboard.

Your use of the word 'nobody' seemed pretty inclusive

I live in a very very small one-bed flat. I have a kitchen table, and next to it I put my desk, with a rotating chair (sort of office like, but a bit nicer looking) so that I can use it both for sitting at the table and for the desk.

The desk as a top that can slide in so that there is more space around it when I'm not using it, and room to put a screen at the right height on top, and shelves for papers and gadgets and the computer itself etc. The specific desk I got isn't available online anymore, but there will be others of similar style. It also had matching file cabinets on drawers and you can fit one underneath so that there is room for your legs on one side, or you can put another next to the desk if needed, and it looks quite nice.

https://www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-partners-loft-desk/ash/p1891697

How are you so devoid of either imagination, or knowledge of what other people do, from talking to them, to not understand, or have known about all the options people have already mentioned ?

Most people have some sort of table or desk in their house. Some people however, do sit on their settee and use their laptop like that. Not ideal (for most of us) but still preferable (for a lot of the working population) than commuting in to the office.

Good luck with the op @K0OLA1D .
Arthritis can do one.

Off your lap on the sofa?

We have a dining table but we never eat at it. It's generally used as a sleeping area for the cats

We have a 3 bedroom house and only one kid, so we have a spare room that I use for WFH/study.

I use the dining table, my husband use a folding desk in the baby's room because he prefers to a use a monitor, keyboard etc (that room use to be our office). We sold our office chair, we don't have space for it, but our dining chairs are comfy enough that it's not an issue.

I can see eating pizza on the sofa, but something with gravy and sauce etc. I just think it's more civilised to eat at the table. So not having one is a choice rather than really not having space in a one bedroom house.

I'm taking it out one joint at a time!!

I'm having my other knee replaced next Friday!

We have a home office (new build style home) but when dh and I both work from home, one of us uses the dining table (person with most meetings gets the office). I just use a dining chair and find it comfortable. If I have a lot of reading to do, I sit on the sofa.

I'm lucky to have a guest room with sofa bed so Ive put in a desk, taken a screen and office chair from work and set up in one corner. Sometimes when the WiFi is iffy I work on the sofa with a lap tray.

One of my family members used to set the ironing board up and sit on the sofa.

we have a spare room but i’ve set up a desk in my bedroom with a proper chair as we have a larger space there. I don’t wfh often though and not sure i’d do it all day every day in this arrangement. Not a fancy house, ex council 3 bed but has large upstairs bedrooms.

It's really no issue. We have trays and lap tables if needed but generally we just eat off a plate on our laps. We'll probably get rid of our table fairly soon as we never use it and it just takes up space that could be used for other things.