Fed up of working at home with DH

[Farewell2020]

Been working from home like most of us since March 2020.

I have just shut myself in a room with laptop to get away from DH. Nothing sinister but I'm fed up of hearing his voice today. He's been on calls most of the morning and although I shut the doors between us I could still bloody hear him.

I have shut my 'office' door pretending that I am working but just need space and quiet.

I'm not working, but Dh is and I've got an 18 year old on college zoom calls all day.

All I've heard for months is the two of them talking no stop in the two rooms above me, and nowI'm sat downstairs with Dd on school zoom lessons and the baby crying.

I get up at 3am when everyone is fast asleep and half an hour and a bit in silence.

Walk at lunchtime.
Walk after work.

Just to get some time to myself.

One thing I definitely miss is that I now never get the house to myself.

Sounds familiar. Our house is tiny and I've got DH and DS, both of whom have voices that carry well. I've run out of audio books in between listening to local radio, and have listened to about 18 series' of Midsomer Murders, all 12 series of Bones and most of Agatha Christie's dramatised stories as replacement audio books/background noise. Either the tops of my ears get sore from headphones or I get earache from wearing ear buds. Then if I go downstairs to make tea someone wants to chat. I know it's all very much first world problems, but Aargh.

It's so frustrating. My husband won't leave the house, not even to go for a walk. Quite frankly, I'm sick of him loafing around in his dressing gown all day.

Glad it's not just me.

We walk together in the morning with the dog. We get out at lunch time ( to have a break from work - together!)

Never have time alone ! He just talks and talks and talks ...... I can't be arsed to listen today.

I don’t think I realised quite how loudly DH talks and laughs now that it’s the only thing I’ve heard non-stop since March!

Separate lunch walk, separate dog walk!

It's not just Dh and Ds loud voices upstairs, it that they can't seem to keep still at their desks. Both bedrooms they work fro are right above the living room, or sound like thier bloody constantly moving chairs are going to crash through the ceiling.

@Rollergirl11

Yes it's the loudness ! I think he forgets that there is actually a microphone on the laptop !

I can't be arsed to listen today.

What today? I can't remember when I last listened to DH.

I can sympathise-I was working from home last lockdown and although DH and DS are lovely, I was going crazy being at home all day. DH is home quite a lot in normal times so he was pottering about doing his usual thing and making endless cups of tea

I am working at school this time and people look at me with sympathy but I am secretly glad I can go out for a while 5 days a week.

My dh is a teacher and he has not yet grasped that the volume and projection required to speak into his laptop (he refuses to use a headset) is not the same as normally required at the front of a class full of teenagers 😡

My GCSE physics is coming along nicely but my 12 hour days closing out year end are not as productive as they are normally 😬

My dh is more challenging than the four children put together 😂

Also, whilst I feel your pain OP, and others struggling with the constant presence, the flip side is DH at home alone whilst DD and I go out for a busy day at work (NHS). We come back and want to collapse, read, watch (and listen) to tv and he has saved a day's worth of gripes to spew on us literally the minute we walk in the door! I've long since given up in a semblance of decency and tell him I have to go upstairs to have a crap just to get away! But I do feel some concern as he has become so isolated, seeing no one whilst we get to go out and see our colleagues and chat to patients etc.

I succumbed and agreed to a puppy - our last dog died about 18 months ago, and I confess I was quite enjoying dog free life. We had a fab holiday in Scotland with a beautiful cottage on the shores of a loch, and it would have been a nightmare if we had had her with us as deer wandered through the garden, the bracken was full of ticks and and it was the hottest week anyone could remember. We wouldn't have been able to let her off the lead for a second. But her replacement is a joy and whilst I'm not sure how much work DH gets done in the day since his arrival the puppy training is coming on really well. He's definitely Dad's boy, trotting along at his heels and lying at his feet in the evening. So he's got someone who listens to him at last!

I feel your pain op. H is in construction so he goes out still but some days why he's in all day it's so frustrating! And his conversations are so loud! And go on for so long!!

Fortunately DH is retired now but I had this from March until December, he seemed to shout at the laptop, even upstairs it seemed to echo round the house like how sometimes people shout on the phone

@Cripesitsthegasman19

It's so frustrating. My husband won't leave the house, not even to go for a walk. Quite frankly, I'm sick of him loafing around in his dressing gown all day.

Oh gospe, that would give me the rage. We are pensioners and don’t have to be anywhere, but dh showers every day and wears clean clothes as do I, hair done and make up

Does he have a headset? I had the same issue with DP, he shouts at his laptop. Leant him my headset and lo and behold, he can talk like a normal person when he can physically see the microphone...

@Mumtofourandnomore

My dh is a teacher and he has not yet grasped that the volume and projection required to speak into his laptop (he refuses to use a headset) is not the same as normally required at the front of a class full of teenagers 😡

My GCSE physics is coming along nicely but my 12 hour days closing out year end are not as productive as they are normally 😬

My dh is more challenging than the four children put together 😂

I'm imaging a lot of career changes in the near future. "And what qualifications/experience do you have for the role?" "Well I heard my blasted DH/DP/DW drone on and on about it for 10months during the pandemic, I now know the subject inside out"

I've worked in plenty of cube farms and offices having to listen to loud co-workers on their phones - and now in Pandemic Time, those same people are at home, on those same calls, driving their families nuts....

Oh the joy of being single with a family grown up and left home. There has been so much talk about the "poor people who are single and live alone" during the pandemic, but quite honestly, I consider myself lucky after reading this thread....!

This is why my DH is working on the second floor and I am on the ground floor, very glad to have such a tall house! With him on the floor above I can hear him playing music, whistling, talking to himself etc...

My DH has been working from home since this time last year but the last few weeks hearing him on his eleventy billion teams meetings a day is driving me crazy! He also puts on a voice.. the only way I can describe it is he sounds like a pilot?! He sounds like his mouth is too close to his microphone on the headset & he lowers his voice and drags out words I realise writing this down I sound slightly unhinged but god, it REALLY grinds my gears!

Glad it's not only me