To ask for your opinions on how to organise WFH spaces?

[Trifficultly]

DH and I both WFH. He is full time, I do 5.5 hours, 3 a week (16 hours total). He has a designated home office whilst I work in the house. It makes sense when he does more than double the number of hours, but as time goes on (we're now into the 5th year) not having a designated workspace is becoming increasingly irksome. I feel like I have considered all the options, but perhaps there's something I'm missing.

Options I've considered and the reasons they don't work:

• Work from the master bedroom - no desk, no room for a desk, and in the summer it's stiflingly hot
• Work from the kids room - has a desk, however it's increasingly untidy in there which makes it tough to focus. I'm trying to teach them to look after and clean their own spaces rather than me always doing it, which is a long and slow project. They've reached a point where they don't want me moving and messing with their things which I respect, but just kinda rules that out as a working space
• Booking into a shared working space takes a bit percentage of my minuscule wage.
• Make space in DH's office - we did try this but he often has confidential calls to make. Also he likes to chat, which when I have so few working hours I don't really have time for.
• Moving and extensions are WAY out of our budget.

The two things I mostly do are:

• Work from the kitchen table - though the chairs aren’t very comfortable. It’s a communal space, so my partner often comes in for coffee, lunch, or just to pass through en route to the bathroom etc, which, while fair, is distracting. I can’t exactly kick him out, but having him pottering around making lunch and cleaning up (better than not cleaning up!) or trying to chat about other things isn’t ideal when I’m trying to work. The kitchen is also often messy from breakfast, and even though I used to tidy it up before starting work, that’s fallen away over time with school runs and general life stuff. Five years in, we’ve lost that early motivation to keep things perfect. Have tried asking him his lunch schedule so I can also schedule mine for the same time, but it's often that he just grabs a lunch when he can. Not everything works to a schedule.
• Work from the lounge - Working here means sitting on the couch, which isn’t great. I can blow up an exercise ball and balance a bit of wood between furniture to make a makeshift desk, but it all has to be set up and packed away each day. Since I’m usually squeezing work in around childcare, the kitchen wins out just because it’s less hassle. The lounge is often full of half-finished Lego and kids’ forts, which I love for a family space but not a working one!

It's one of those things where it kinda worked in lockdown, we muddled through, but I'm steadily realising this is our life and it doesn't look to be changing anytime soon. Will be needing a workspace for 5-6 hours 2-3 x a week for the next 5 years or so. Need to sort it out!

Wondering if the internet hive mind can see a solution I've missed.

Do you have a good sized or shaped hallway? My old flat had a funny shaped hallway with a little alcove which worked so well for WFH!

This is the kind of set up I have, and it works really well. It’s also a lovely feeling folding it up at the end of the day / week / before annual leave :D

What about a Couch master Cycon desk.
They are great for WFH and can be put under the couch when not in use?

Do you definitely not have the option of building a garden office at all? Our set up is the same as yours hours/number of days etc. I work in the 4th tiny single bedroom and DH is outside. He is mostly in calls all day and will have the call booming and I can't be dealing with that all day. I'm rarely on calls and like silence to concentrate. When we moved into this house we just extended the mortgage slightly to have the capital to build the office outside. It's on the ground where a huge shed once stood and used some of the space to create a small shed at the back. It came in a lot cheaper than I expected because we didn't have the extras in and went for smaller windows, one door, cheaper cladding etc.

You share the office or you jointly pay for one do you to go to a ‘working space’

Well, quite. It’s not like lockdown where people had to make do (one of our youngsters was using his ironing board as a desk. Impressed that he had an ironing board, to be honest).

If you apply for a WFH or hybrid job, the assumption has to be there that you have a suitable workspace, just as I assume if it’s office based, that’ll also be suitable - I don’t send prospective employers some kind of checklist to complete before I consider their offer.

I have a secretary desk in the lounge. (A hideaway desk). My “commute” is setting up the desk and putting it away at the end of the day. I have a riser for my monitor and a proper chair.

I work part time too and have a small foldable desk and chair in the bedroom. I also have a fan as it gets hot.

The simplest thing would be to share the office but you both wear headphones for calls.
Not little earbuds, proper work ones with a mic that have noise cancelling built in too.

your husband is going to have to be flexible and compromise a bit on his own privacy. Or tell him that he’s going to have start doing 2 days a week in the kitchen / on the sofa instead and see how he gets on.

Quite a few of your problems here seem to come from your husband not respecting your job. I'd have a word with him about that if I were you. Either share the office so you both get time in it, use headphones etc, or a foldaway desk somewhere, or a stand up desk that goes on the kitchen table and he can clean the kitchen after breakfast while you do the school run.

Definitely kitchen table and get yourself a proper office chair. Consider risers (or cookbook) to adjust screen position and/or separate keyboards and mouse. Your posture is so important. Doesn’t matter if it doesn’t match your dining chairs… this is essential!!

We share an office space. If I’m working from home DH tries to go into the office and vice versa. If that’s not possible we both do headphones for calls and if one of us has a confidential call we take it from another room. Neither of us has time to chat because we’re both busy and if one of us happens to be quiet they are doing the school pick and getting dinner on so they’re out of the study anyway.

I think a foldaway desk in the living room, like MagpiePi suggests, would be best. And a decent office chair.
Or share the office and both wear headphones, for calls and just for if one of you wants total quiet.

I echo what a PP says about DH needing to be more considerate of your working environment. If I was working in the kitchen, I'd consider the need for DH to have a kettle and supplies in his office so he didn't keep disturbing me. I'd also think that he could take the equivalent of an office packed lunch there so you could concentrate in the kitchen. That would keep the interruptions down.

I have a summerhouse in the garden that we had connected to the electrics. Can be a pain when the neighbour comes out singing but it certainly beats sitting in a high traffic area with people boiling kettles and setting off the dishwasher.

Hully pods look a good ready to go well priced option for home offices

As a DSE/workstation assessor I feel really bad for you, working on the couch etc. is going to impact your body and in turn your mental health (pain) I would suggest as others have that you set up a workstation in the office and if your husband needs confidentiality ( I work in HR so I appreciate that he does) then one of you can sit elsewhere while the call goes ahead, perhaps a rota if the calls are planned ahead?

Exactly this. He can make himself a packed lunch or pasta salad or whatever and stick it in a cool bag for his lunch. You are WORKING he doesn't get to come in and clatter about.

If your work doesn't require a lot of desk space, then could you consider finding space in the living room, and wall mount your monitor(s) and having a narrow shelf?

I don’t agree that he shouldn’t enter the kitchen - nothing wrong with getting up, moving around, change of scene and having a chat with another actual human being. But it needs to be respectful of her work. They can arrange tea breaks and lunch breaks at mutually convenient times, but also know that when he comes in to make tea, he’s not there for half an hour yapping.

i have a corner set up in the lounge, I have a smaller than average desk and then a kallax tall unit that creates a kind of wall/partition between my desk and the rest of the lounge so that it feels like ‘my’ space even though it’s part of a communal room.

Is there any way you could rearrange the lounge or kitchen/dining room to section off a small corner.

There are loads of clever desk ideas that can turn almost any space into a desk, fold down ones that attach to the wall or one that close up into a cupboard, beds that can be converted into a desk during the day…

They can arrange tea breaks and lunch breaks at mutually convenient times,

Have tried asking him his lunch schedule so I can also schedule mine for the same time, but it's often that he just grabs a lunch when he can. Not everything works to a schedule.

It is right there in the OP - she has asked him to schedule lunch but he can’t, he just grabs it when he can. I sympathise as my work is often like this, but it does mean taking steps not to be intrusive on each other.

Same here! We can get things like monitors and keyboards if we want them but no one has ever checked my home working set up. I’m sure many have set ups that are less than ideal and wouldn’t be acceptable in an office. I’ve had to move furniture around in the guest room to get a desk in. It’s less than ideal and a bit cramped but don’t really want to spend a 6 figure sum of money moving to somewhere with another bedroom. A lot of our graduates who house share go in the office 5 days a week because they don’t have space to wfh.

^ this. I am about to start a new job which is 3 days in/2 at home

have given DP my office to WFH 5 days week and I will be choosing to go in for 4 days, then a foldaway desk (which I bought to get me through Covid) will be ok for Fridays, I’m happy with this as DP absolutely does not interrupt me during the working day

I would find space somewhere that’s not the kitchen, OR prep packed lunches for you both (DH can split this chore with you) so he is not in your space

Shove breakfast dishes in the sink vs proper clear up

Is there space for a kettle in the office too?

Also, if your kitchen chairs are not comfortable, I bought a back support (it’s called ‘back friend’, was £65) : it goes inside a normal chair and makes it much more supportive

That said, could your DH share his office with you - at least get him to do a day in your workspace to see what you are contending with!