How not to hate egg

[lippyberd]

I've wfh for four years and now I hate the sight of my house. Can't get another job due to school runs, flexible working and the wages locally are about £10k less min for similar role.
I can get out for a walk at lunchtime if it's not raining..but it usually fucking is.
By the time DS and DH come home it's tea, dog walk and bedtime with little time to go out (then more rain and it's dark so can't go out for a walk again).
It's really impacting my mental health.
Can't do shared office due to confidentiality and no local office ( nearest two hours).
Any suggestions? It's a rock and a hard place.

That should obv read wfh, I've no idea why autocorrection chose egg. Fucks sake

I was wondering where the eggs came in...

It's not a easy one to deal with for you. Office out will cost money . Not sure what to suggest just wanted to say the eggs made me smile.

I did wonder what job you did that meant you needed to tolerate egg! Is lunchtime your only break? Can you go to the gym or for a swim before work? I notice the days where I don’t do the school run (about 1.5miles there and back) I’m def more antsy so fresh air and some exercise first thing is better for me at least.

Sorry OP but I mainly came on to see why you needed to like egg for work purposes 😁.
Anyway I also hated working from home. I despised feeling like what was supposed to be my sanctuary had become my work place. I found it difficult to seperate work from home. Thankfully it was only temporary for me and as soon as I could get back to the office I did so.
My DH works from home still but he doesn’t mind it. He takes the dog for a walk around lunchtime to get away from his desk. Obviously that needs doing whatever the weather so he just wraps up and goes out in the rain. I think that helps.

I was coming with suggestions of amazing egg lunches! 😂 today I had fried eggs with beans on toast when wfh and it was amazing!

So I find that if I force myself on a walk (rain or not!) that helps so much, if I let the weather stop me then in this country I'd be inside more than out. I just wrap up and go for it! The fresh air (even if wet) makes a massive difference. I also do it before work fairly often, again makes a giant difference to my day.

Can you spend a bit of time giving yourself a nice space to work in? Decorate it at all? Having a nice wfh office is great, it feels somewhere I enjoy to be now rather than forced to be. I also make sure I get up from my desk regularly, even to go look out of a window in a different room - that 5 minutes makes me feel less like a desk prawn!

Do you have evening hobbies? Again, screw the dark and cold - even a gym class inside would get you out of the house and possibly help?

Would your worplace be willing to pay for you to have an actual office space (on a part time basis possibly) in a shared workspace? You get the privacy of an office for confidentiality issues, but still can be around other people in communal areas etc?

I also think it's worth seeing what social stuff you can do that takes advantage of WFH. How this plays out depends a lot on how flexible your work place is. For example, I might meet a friend for a post-school run coffee, but that's because Its okay if I only start a bit later. I sometimes do a lunch time dog walk with someone else, or meet up for lunch. And I've long done a yoga class mid morning on a Thursday.

Get a wall mural? Put some different lighting or decor? Fresh flowers? Stand up desk? TV scenes?
Some exercise at home in lunch break? Aromatherapy scents like rosemary and lemon for concentration? Cut down on caffeine and sugar whatever you do!

get a raincoat and some good boots and go out even when its raining.

work from a friends house if you both wfh,
hire a conference room in the local library for a half day and work from there?

Find a hybrid role or take the paycut.

Thanks all for suggestions.
I'm glad the egg thing made some people laugh. Too lazy to log on not on app to change

I started meeting up with a friend for a lunch coffee or actual lunch every so often and it helped massively. That or swing by a cafe for lunch. Also started going into the office every so often just for a change of scenery!

Oh, and for shared spaces - again depending on the levels of confidentiality etc, I used to book into a shared space but then just book meeting rooms for an hour at a time as needed for confidential calls and meetings etc. Obviously NOT always possible depending on the work you do. I have a few friends who have signed up at local gyms and go work there for just a fe hours, maybe do a class or hit the spa, but then return home for confidential work-related stuff.

Unfortunately not as they are closing all satellite offices to save money.
I've gone to a gym class in my lunch hour where poss, tho peri sweats seems to make it tricky as no time for a shower after

Also came wondering about egg..

I feel for you OP, I'm in a similar position. Now I have to WFH because I've been disabled with long covid and can't travel. But four years in and I feel like I'm going to go actually mad sometimes. I don't have an answer! It's not great long-term and with no variation.

Walk in the rain. Umbrella or decent knee-length raincoat.

Make lunchtime a proper break - have a nice lunch, step away from desk, have a walk, watch a TV episode, read a book, listen to podcast etc.

Give yourself something to do like knitting, drawing, jigsaw, etc and allow two minutes breaks to do it during the day if you lose concentration.

Find local people in similar roles and meet for coffee at lunch to pretend you're colleagues.

Have a phone or video call with a friend who wfh.

Do more stuff in the evenings.

Why do you hate it? Do you have a good desk setup? Are you able to put your work away at the end of the day?

Literally, can you shut a door to a home office, close a cabinet, or in some way visually obscure your workspace. My work suggested putting the laptop into a bag or closet for people who don’t have a way of doing that. worst case scenario, drape a sheet over your monitor.

I’ve been wfh full time for 15 years and over half time for another 5. I absolutely love it. Physically separating my work and home life is key though.

my DH also wfh and he had his volume turned up on his computer so high in the evenings that we could hear if he got an email or teams alert from his home office. He would pop back to work. I had to talk to him about it because it was impacting my mental health. Separation between work and home is really important when you wfh.

Do you spend a lot of time on video calls? Because I'd be inclined to just skip the shower then and then quickly shower a bit later at an appropriate moment when you've got 10 minutes etc.

I do think WFH full time has real challenges. It works great for people who really appreciate the shorter commuting time. eg I like that I can finish work at 6 and have dinner on the table at 6:45 - that certainly wasn't the case when I worked in the City. But it's definitely isolating if you don't have flexibility. Most of the people I know who WFH either do so on a part time basis or, like me, work for themselves or for organizations where taking a bit longer over lunch so there's time for a class AND a shower, isn't a problem, not least because mostly people are doing way over their actual hours.

I remember meeting a woman once who worked as part of a global design team. Everyone worked from home but each for their own reasons. She was a bit of a night owl so she used to often work after the kids were in bed into the night. It was great for her as it worked but also, she got to know the team in the US much better as they'd often then collaborate and talk!

Personally, I think asking people to work from home but to have that rigidity of 9-5 with 45 minutes for lunch and 2 15 minutes breaks is harsh.

You can get out for a walk even if it is raining

I wasnt thinking leave home for a class more like a 25min workout at home when you cant walk outside. It's too much time and effort to head out to gym id rather finish work early than a long lunch given the option

Do you have a room which is solely your office? I find that it helps to stop work bleeding into the rest of my home life. When I’m not working, I close the door on it so it feels completely separate. If I had a big enough garden (and more money!), I’d build an office out there.

Other than that, I agree with pp that a coffee or lunch (with or without eggs!) with someone locally is a nice way to break up the day and not feel too stuck.

I'm not going for a walk in the rain. We get enough of that anyway. There is nothing enjoyable about it whatsoever.

I totally agree. And frankly, it's the social stuff you miss, not fresh air. It's chit chatting while making a tea about the weekend or that meeting everyone just came back from. Not the walk to the train station.

Another idea that I tried for a while although it didn't really work for me - was to go online with someoene else who WFH so that it was like we were sharing an office. So you didn't actually talk or chat but you had that company, could ask a question etc. A friend swears by this but I found it a bit frustrating. Maybe it would work better if it was with a colleague within the same organisation or team.

@MrSeptember
Thank you. I forgot I would just get endless replies about going for a walk in the rain. I don't know anyone who actually enjoys that. So it would be a joyless walk still alone.
What doesn't help is that I'm moved onto projects where I don't talk to anyone else all week. Work are aware I'm unhappy but do nothing.

isnt that the dream? Not having to talk to anyone? No stupid chit chat? No meetings? Just get to your desk, hyper-focus, and get the work done.

I guess it is for people who don’t like talking to other people.

Just empathising here. I wfh full time - job is flexible and reasonably well paid. Makes life around kids so much easier but I am so lonely and bored of my house. I really miss social interaction. I know I'm meant to count my blessings and I do in many ways, but the isolation is hard. I live in a sleepy village too with no friends very nearby and no cafe or anything very near. My youngest only has 2 years left at primary then I'm going to look for something with at least a couple of days in an office.