Are most previous officer workers now WFH using laptops as only screen & over wifi?

[lljkk]

I think this might be true, else there wouldn't be so much gushing about cafe working.

Is anyone using docking station at home, multiple screens (how many?), or need ethernet cable for WFH ... is anyone relying on tethered wifi on a phone?

DH is up to 3 screens, plus his laptop screen. He has also ordered about eleventy billion different keyboards from Amazon, as none are "quite right".
2 screens are on adjustable amounts, and he spends quite a lot of time standing up, with the keyboard of the day on a box to raise it.

Both working in our respective home offices on dual screen set ups, with I use a PC for one role and a laptop for another, DH uses his two PC’s for his main role and his own business; Both using Ethernet connections. I have fairly major spinal issues so working in a laptop sat on a dining chair would put me in hospital in a short period of time, I bought all my office equipment myself so I have exactly what works for me, and I retain it when I change employees as is fairly common in my sector.

We’ve always been set up this way as we run a web consultancy business from home anyway, I work from home in one of my Nurse Advisory roles, and DH has now been sent to work from home permanently by his main employer.

Is a device that connects to a mobile data signal like a,phone, but because it is designed for that purpose it will often have a better and faster connection. Mine will do 25-40 mb/S.

Mixture here. I'm mostly laptop/wifi (on a tray on legs on the bed ). Dh has work laptop he brought home and is using the kitchen table. His work requires using some big data but it seems to be working OK on wifi.

We also have 2 desktops with 2 screens each. I use one for a specific task which is difficult on a single screen with a track pad. To date the dc were using these for school/study stuff but now they're back at school dh and I get more choice.

The IT approach from work has been crazy. We were all given remote access but most people are either working on really inadequate tablets or expected to make their own hardware provision. Hardly any office equipment has been authorised to take home so we've had to provide our own chairs/desks etc. Agree with pp, there's going to be a slew of RSI type injuries.

Having additional screens just makes everything so much easier. At home I have 2 additional screens. Wi-Fi has been fine but if it wasn't I'd have ethernetted.

I've got a single monitor and using work laptop for the keyboard only (like the DH of @RedCatBlueCat, I've got a couple of keyboards but they're not "quite right!").

Have got an existing wireless mouse that I used for work anyway, and connected to home Internet via cable.

My employer provided dock, monitor, mouse and a budget so we could buy a chair or printer or whatever we needed. DH’s employer said they can book to go and collect anything they need in the way of hardware from the office. 🤷‍♀️

Work told us to take what we needed back in March. I already had an office chair and an old screen but took my docking station etc. I did lay out £15 for a cable to connect that to said monitor.

Our broadband was awful (0.8MB) so we already had 4G. But BT have also fibre and suddenly all the glitches have vanished. Previously my manager had got in touch to find out if work could pay for a faster connection for me but I’d had to explain it was an infrastructure issue.

We’ve all had to complete WFH assessments and staff with more difficulty WFH are being prioritised for return to the office.

I need ethernet most of the time. The software I use chokes on wifi.

Same here. At he beginning of lockdown DD was watching lectures online, and I was trying to load PDFs onto the database. I mentioned it to our database expert and he suggested getting an ethernet cable. Problem solved.

We have unlimited broadband through a landline, so that isn’t an issue.

At he beginning of WFH those of us who didn’t have work laptops had to use our own until our IT department could load everything we needed onto our work PCs and put dongles in them so we could access the work VPN. We were then told to go and collect anything we needed from the office (one at a time). So I now have a CPU with VPN dongle, two widescreen monitors, mouse, keyboard, headset, softphone software as well as access to all the shared drives and work software and a proper office chair. I had to buy a desk as our work desks were built in, and I already had a webcam that DH dug out of the loft.

I realise that I am extremely fortunate that I have room in our house for all of us to WFH in separate rooms, but not all my workmates have. Until I got my desk I was at the dining room table.

DH & I have just had a "discussion" where he says that 50-100 MBits/sec is standard wifi speed and perfectly fast enough to handle large excel spreadsheets. I also think that our wifi speed varies where one is in our house; we have a repeater but me & kids all perceive the wifi connection upstairs is slower than downstairs. I have to be careful where I have WhatsApp convos -- tend to fail upstairs.

Endnote is the chief software I have that chokes on wifi. I can think of other clunky software I use... Excel is probably reliable just hard to understand a whole sheet on small screen.

75 year old laptop (slight exaggeration) and Ethernet. Personal mobile. Dining table and chair.

I work for a charity and am saving on commuting costs, so don't feel I want to ask for expenses for anything else. Although as I work for a charity, I am on a pretty low salary anyway. Equally, I don't feel I can morally claim the £6/week tax allowance as the country has enough extra expenses to cope with and I'm saving on commuting expenses.

My back has always been dodgy so working at a dining table isn't ideal, but I'm consciously doing more stretching and yoga to help my posture.

We hot desk at the office so use a laptop there which plugs into a docking station with two screens, a mouse and a keyboard.

I’ve worked from home occasionally before when DC were poorly or waiting in for plumber or whatever, but found it very unsatisfactory on a laptop screen. First thing I bought after lockdown was a medium sized screen to plug into laptop and that’s made it infinitely easier I’ve got a cable which would allow me to plug in a spare small telly as well, but I don’t feel the need.

Home Wi-fi works fine for my data heavy job, not felt any need for an Ethernet cable.

I think the data privacy issues of working from a public cafe would be unacceptable for most medical or finance related jobs - it’s already fairly problematic that staff might be sharing their home with heaven knows who.

I'm using 4g via my phone and a basic laptop. I'm just glad I have a job

The claiming for £6/week... won't that go into the tax return for 20-21, so that means you won't get the rebate until ... mid 2022, I think?

Exh however was provided with a chair, docking station, screen, keyboard and mouse (well an allowance to buy them) they have been told they are working mostly from home until next summer

DH works for a massive firm.
Has to use his own (old) laptop and mobile. I'm really disappointed they've supplied nothing, so his phone still rings on holiday etc.

I have a work laptop and mobile.
At work I usually have two monitor and a dock (as does DH) but not allowed to get these.

During my first 2 years in my role I only had a laptop, which I would look at for 7 hours a day. I had to fight to get monitors. During those two years my previously strong eyesight deteriorated rapidly to the point I needed varifocals now. Yes I also hit 40, but I attribute my sight loss to staring at that tiny screen each day. Frustrating as it was a young jobsworth who decided I only needee a laptop and not monitors like everybody else (who arent even desk based all day).

I brought my office chair home after 3 weeks. I have a second screen anyway but if not, work were fine with people taking the docking stations and screens home.

I am working off wifi, husband has been plugging in. He stops work today and daughter goes back to school tomorrow so I'm hoping the wifi improves.

Ps I'm in the middle of buying a new house with dp because our backs won't last the winter working on the sofa/old kitchen table! Need home office space!

I have a large screen, laptop, mouse, keyboard and a back support thing that I clip onto my chair. I could get my big fancy ergonomic chair but no space in my house as I'm working from the dining room table. WiFi is fine, however I couldn't work from a cafe due to working with sensitive material and couldn't use a public WiFi connection.

@minnieok

Ps I'm in the middle of buying a new house with dp because our backs won't last the winter working on the sofa/old kitchen table! Need home office space!

It's interesting, when they were forecasting a crash in property prices when all this happened I said the exact opposite might happen. Lots of people no longer spending on huge commuting costs will have extra income – but need more space in the house. Sadly of course there will be some who have lost jobs et cetera which will have the opposite effect on them, but I thought it was likely there would be a rise rather than a crash.

My DP and I run our own business from home anyway so are fully set up, and we have a computer bank for the kids in a communal area (computers from salvaged parts over the years!) that the kids could use. All but the youngest one have their own desks in rooms for paper based work too.

My DM was office based, but always had bare minimum for home working anyway. My retired DF has lost his study now though, to DM needing a permanent set up. He used to work in IT management anyway, so set her up really well. The company has since decided that along with most staff she will now be permanently based from home, and they were all able to collect extra equipment as a result. There now massively downsizing their office, as they only have a fraction of the staff ever plan to go back apart from the odd meetings.

They also have given them all £500 to spend on a new chair or any extra equipment they would like. Benefit of being able to drastically reduce the office space!

We extended our house a few years ago and DH insisted we had an ethernet port in every room. The electrician thought we were mad. When all four of us were working at home, we felt somewhat smug!

I have laptop connected to a decent monitor and I put the laptop up on a box, so they are on the same level and I have two screens. It's better than my set-up at the office, frankly.

Some of my colleagues were muddling through with laptop only and insisting they were "fine" until our H&S officer got firm about doing home workstation assessments. Now they all have proper chairs and external monitors and back niggles have ceased.

I started with a laptop, which uses my broadband but links into the secure servers at work. I already had a cordless mouse of my own that I used with it for travel. And I brought home my office chair as I was moving building anyway and was afraid it would go missing (extra supportive for back problems) - so that has been a godsend!!

When I got moved internally to do a massive emergency job, I was able to go back in and get my proper screen, keyboard, printer and a “puck” to make them all talk to each other.

I had a tiny desk that DD used to use in primary initially (ikea €12 job and already 6 years old - it reassembled fairly well), and borrowed her current one over summer. And I have recently bought a proper desk (ikea- so relatively cheap and can put under the bed of visitors come but will use for craft etc if I ever go back in) - as DD needed hers back for school reopening.

When I was employed it was docking station and monitor. Self employed now and I use a laptop with a couple of adjustable cooling pads to change height /angle if needed. If my work changes id buy a separate monitor.

My husband is just using a laptop but any equipment he needs is available, same as before. We do lack an adjustable chair which I think we need to address pretty soon.

I'm on my laptop at the kitchen table. It's a small step up from the breakfast bar, which was my workspace when the DC were being homeschooled. Luckily we have super fast broadband, although I was working on a phone tether connection for a week when the hamster chewed through the modem cable