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Same here… the idea of having an office room is a lovely sounding luxury to me.
Massively overlooked as an issue when WFH is discussed, more so if two of you need to WFH. The civil service is going through the ReeSmog/Daily Wail inspired pain of 60% office attendance. There's a vocal number of "my home office is better than my office office" and a silent number wishing they had a flat surface away from the kids.
MrsMC struggles to get a desk if she goes in the office, so prefers to work from home. I hate working from home (like today as she's away and I need to Dad taxi later) so we work round it.
Worked from home full time since about 2016. No point in going to the office now, all my colleagues are abroad.
Be creative about your space, but get a special space that is only you when working. I've gone from a corner of a bedroom, to a desk in the utility, to a dedicated office room. All worked.
Hard stops for lunch and end of day. Get a reason that you have to stick with them. Eg I'm about to take the dogs out, stop every day at this time for that. Later I'm out for a ride so will stop for that, got similar every day.
Don't go Homer Simpson, make an effort to wear the same clothes you would wear in the office.
Use your camera for calls if not 'mandatory'
Wireless headphones with a long range.
Music helps me with procrastination.
I hear that having jazz music playing in the background is relaxing, without being distracting.
Everytime you boil the kettle crank out some press ups or squats or do some stretches, install fingerboard above workspace door or do dead hangs or pull ups to stretch out the spine, take breaks to play with cat or as above little breaks to practice guitar or small jobs on bike and get outside at lunch.
Same here… the idea of having an office room is a lovely sounding luxury to me.
You're not wrong. In my case there are a bunch of caveats and tradeoffs, and what you're imagining might be quite a long way from the reality 😀 but nonetheless, yes, it is a luxury.
I think the crux of what I was trying to say before, and what may be useful for the OP, is that it's important (for me) to have a dedicated workspace. So that's a place I can set things up and just leave them, a place the rest of the family see as being "work", and that I can I can step away from in order to "leave work".
If you can dedicate a whole room, great. If not you can be more creative but still get similar benefits. In our previous house I used a bit of the landing in the attic. The idea of the "office in a wardrobe" above shows that you don't necessarily need to build an extension to have a separate working space.
Personally, I appreciate the flexibility and in winter particularly, will use daylight hours to get other things done, from household chores to walking the dogs and then work when its cold and dark outside. That wouldn’t suit everyone and their family situation, but is good for my wife and me.
I started my current job (hybrid, 1 day office / 4 days WFH) in October and - quite early on - said this to my line manager that as it was coming up to winter I'd like to use the daylight hours to get a ride in then work into the evening. He was fine with that. 🙂
I asked if I could ride during lunchtime or do a couple of hours during the day then work later in the evening. He agreed and then the second time I asked he just said “you don’t need to ask, just do it”.
This was my arrangement and it made a lot of sense. Some days my eight-hour day might be 12 hours, the next day in might be 4. So long as it all pans out it doesn't matter. Unless you're in a role which is time-critical like say a helpdesk, you have a finite amount of work to do in a finite amount of time so what does it matter if you do it at midday or midnight so long as it gets done?
In a past life I worked for a civil engineering company, they were the types to pointedly be tapping watches if you rolled in at 8:31 after a 75-minute commute. It gains nothing, I was a web developer. They wasted more money whining than I ever lost in attendance, I was still there gone 6pm when they'd all ****ed off home an hour ago.
Your needs will vary depending on the type of person you are tbh.
I used to just work from a laptop in different rooms of the house depending on my mood, with my latest role it requires that much concentration as opposed to thoughtful governance I found moving about and working from a small screen hindered me I never felt I was able to "get in the zone"", I've never been one to take notes but in this role wearing many different hats if I don't make notes I just forget and struggle to organise myself, I also found during stressful periods it made it hard to switch off as every room could put me in work mode.
So I converted my spare bedroom to a home office last year, the dogs got a bed in there, my desk is right next to a big window that gets the afternoon sun so it's bright, I can see parcels getting delivered, watch people go by, enjoy the light, be a nosey neighbour, stare at the trees, it made a massive difference in being able to think properly. Space constraints mean a 17" laptop and a 27" monitor with separate keyboard and mouse, a good comfy upright chair, another chair in the corner thats like a cuddle chair or whatever they call them that I can sit at to feel more relaxed when I need to get out of the technical zone and into the how do I deal with X zone, my desk also has drawers so I can pull my notepads out at a moments notice, easy access and all that.
For other stuff in the room, I've got a yoga mat I can pull out, foam roller, some kettlebells and resistance bands so it encourages me to take short breaks throughout the day and be active instead of just doom scrolling on my phone or going to the kitchen to eat/make coffee, I've got a turntable and some speakers that can connect to bluetooth for music too. The coffee machine and any other snacks are specifically kept downstairs to encourage me to get up out of my seat, WFH sitting at your desk for 4-5 hours solid can creep up on you.
In terms of an average day I find I absolutely have to get out and make the most of my lunch break going for a run or taking the dog for a walk, maximising that full hour, then grab something I've made on the morning out of the fridge to eat back at the desk. It's not unusual I can find myself doing 9/10 hour days so having that break in the middle of the day makes it alot easier.
At the end of the day when I've shutdown my laptop I either need to take the dog out if I havent already or go for a shower to make that mental switch from "I'm at work" to "The workdays ended now", I've also got gmail and slack snoozed on my phone after 6pm so there isn't any temptation to just jump on and sort X for 5 minutes as it's never a 5 minute fix.
Clothing wise I usually wear joggers or shorts and a t shirt, no socks, sometimes a comfy hoody. Some people like to still wear office attire but for me, being neruodivergent, if I'm comfy I can concentrate, if I'm uncomfortable I cant which I found having no socks on made a MASSIVE difference to feeling comfy for me for some reason. Probably the same reason I've wrote war and peace seemingly!
Also, keep your workspace and room tidy, tidy room tidy mind.
Been doing it 10 years now. I go to the office about twice a month - which is my choice. I am lucky to have a big sports centre nearby so i can swim, weights or go to a class at lunch. The classes is full of work-from-homers who like me only ever wear shorts and shave when you have to visit the office. We should just turn up in pyjamas to be honest.
Great to get out on the bike in the evening straight from work and do a pseudo-commute.
I've worked from home since 15th March 2020 when I got evacuated from Austria pre pandemic but quarantined on the advice of the Austrian government (Boris was still singing happy birthday at that time).
I have a young'un and so I find the flexibility great. Drop him at school and collect, and feel a lot less bothered about a later meeting with the States (if I was in Town and someone suggested a 6pm meeting I would baulk at it).
All the above really - dedicated office space. Wife works at home too and I may see her for 20 mins at lunch....but I am in the garden room and her an office in the house.
Make it work for you. Go out at lunch on the bike or for a stroll. Use the daylight while you have it. Work your day around a few fun things if you can.
And avoid getting distracted by cheese in the fridge and coffee.
I think I am more productive too. May not last though. My company is being bought out by some big American corporation who are in the office 60% of the time. UGH.
1. Get a lock for your biscuit tin! 😀
Been WFH at least 2 days a week since 2017. Would definitely recommend getting the best chair, desk and monitor setup you/ your company can afford.
Lunchtime bike rides are ace.
Having a half decent amp and speaker set up (with a music subscription) has helped make a more pleasurable working environment.
Trust me on the biscuits.
Thanks for all the tips.
One of the big ticks for this is that i'll be able to help out getting the boys to and from their school bus (6km drive), and they won't have to do after school care as much.
It will be interesting to see how i manage with the procrastinating... i'm pretty easy to distract. The aim will be to continue the same exercise regime, get a ride done before breakfast and still be able to take the boys to the bus ... plus maybe a lunch time walk on top with Mrs Reeksy. I built a walking/bike track for her and the boys through our place during lockdown (I still had to go to work throughout) and it's due a tidy up, so i might do that.
90% of my meetings are currently on Teams anyway due to the geography and site sizes, to that won't be too much of an adjustment. There's going to be fortnightly in person meetings at the office, so i'll do the 3.5hr round trip then and work on the train probably.
We don't need heating in our house, so that's something to not have to worry about. Heat is more of an issue, so i'll need to remember to be dressed for Teams meetings!
Very fortunate to have enough space that we can have an office each. I'm hoping I won't have to pay for the monitor and docking station.
And avoid getting distracted by cheese in the fridge and coffee
You make it sound so easy!
We moved to working from home during first lockdown. Having previously been in office every day it was an absolute joy. The weather was great and I was able to go for walk at lunchtime and bike ride at end of day when would normally be commuting from home.
Now I have to go in the office twice a week, that isn’t too bad but it has also made me realised how over time I’ve stopped taking advantage of working from home. Now I just seem to be starting earlier, working through my lunch hour and using my commuting time to do more work! Now admittedly small part of that is me visiting STW too many times during the day but on the whole just got into bad habits.
This thread has been a good reminder I need to re assess my home work environment and start taking advantage of working from home when I do
"Exercise – you will be exercising far less. You need to somehow plan some in. I don’t mean going for a run/ bike ride , just a walk."
150 rides last year plus out with the dogs every day says otherwise for me.
I'm a morning person though - I realised decades ago that if you're known as an early starter no one questions your time of finishing. In reality I can get my job 'done' by lunch (a combination of age, experience and starting early), consequentially I'm never stressed out and can always find for myself or an urgent request etc.
Oh, and the cost of the commute & drinks/lunch etc more than pays for the heating to be on whenever it needs to be and quality ingredients/coffee/food never mind n+1 🙂
We always commute to work at home, so a 20-30min walk plus round the local area in the morning & one in the evening.
We have converted our box room to a 2 seater office with proper desks & monitors. If one of us is in a meeting we often move to the living room or dining room for the meeting.
One point of note from me is that I sometimes don't notice that I am getting cold when WFH. I grudge burning kerosene to heat the house all day throughout the winter but living in NE Scotland and now being a full time, contractual homeworker, I am getting through a lot more firewood.
Visits to our various offices around the country are rare, perhaps once a month on average but at least we still have a teams chat group for all of us locally who stayed on with WFH when the Dundee office closed.
It's interesting to hear from MCTD and his perspective on home working; we are in the same specialism within a big civil service department and have quite different experiences and tastes.
I like the flexibility of being (mostly) in control of my working days but conversely, really do miss some of the genuine social interaction. I have managed to retain the artificial commute rides and runs; sometimes early, or midday, or just whenever suits. That's a great positive.
I have managed to retain the artificial commute rides and runs; sometimes early, or midday, or just whenever suits. That’s a great positive.
I did a couple of hours on the gravel bike this afternoon. Decent weather, roads had dried up. Nice break from "the office".
Don’t buy your crisps by the box. Well actually DO buy your crisps by the box, but try your best not to emerge from the kitchen with another pack of Monster Munch EVERY time you go in there 😃
If you’re both working from home, we work in different parts of the house and studiously avoid each other all day, apart from the odd shouted ‘do you want a brew?!’, but when we’re done working, a couple of times a week we’ll have a stroll out to our local and have a couple of beers.
I like to make sure I have a proper break at lunchtime by heading for the kitchen and either putting something together to slow cook all afternoon (I did a chicken, gammon and leek casserole today) or prepping everything for a nice meal in the evening
RNP.... You did not disappoint. 👊
You will find out very quickly if it will work for you. Works for me perfectly because I hate commuting, and I am not a fan of people. If you like having people around you then you are screwed, it will suck, and you will be leaving the house at every given opportunity to have a meet up with the local drunk on the park bench.
There are no rules to this. If you are a good worker you will do your job to the best of your ability whether it is in your home or in an office. If you are a slacker you will do the bare minimum whether you are in the office or at home. If you are one of those types that think work is the be all, and end all then you will spend far too much time at your PC but at least you will be at home rather than having to add the 9pm commute becasue it looks good to stay late.
You will find your own way, it's fine, despite what the dinosaurs would tell you, you don't need to be in an office
Get up shower etc and get dressed, don't lounge around in PJ's etc. Be sat in front of the lap top at a set time.
I feel guilty of going out for a walk or ride on my lunch break.
Sometimes also clocking off is hard so tend to put on some music in the last 30 mins helps to wind down as would a drive home.
Finish earlier when it's a nice day and work later when raining etc.
I started WFH during ye olde COVID times. I'm back in more often now but usually only 1 or 2 days a week.
What works for me:
Commute to WFH - at least a 30 minute walk in the morning.
Sometimes longer, sometimes a ride, sometimes a run, sometimes weights.
Get out of the house at lunch. Again usually a walk - 60 mins. If it's nice and I have the time I'll go longer up to 1hr 45 mins. Fairly often, I'll ride instead.
I am totally happy in my own company for extended periods. I don't miss going into work at all. So long as teams meetings have good agendas and are well run, I think they can often be more productive than face to face meetings.
I've been working from home in Sydney for the last 7 years - it's been completely transformative for me (in a good way). Tips:
- If you don't have a dedicated work area - get one (tinyroomco). if your desk isn't a nice place to sit, then you'll want to get up the whole time.
- As above, a good chair, dual monitor setup, wireless mouse/keyboard, mic/webcam and speakers. I quite enjoyed putting everything together. If you need recommendations for all that stuff, let me know.
- Remember, anything you spend to WFH is TAX DEDUCTABLE in Australia. My home office floorspace is 10% of my total home floorplan, so I can claim 10% on all my household bills come tax time.
- Anything that you purchase over $300, is depreciated over 3 or 5 years (can't remember) and only the depreciation is tax deductible - so try to keep every item under $300 if possible.
- Buy a decent coffee machine...... this is not tax deductible (ask me how I know)
- whoever said, "dress like you are going to the office.....", no. One of the benefits of wfh is that you can work in shorts and flipflops (notice I'm using the English term to avoid confusion).
Anyway - will see if I can think of anything else, but honestly, it's awesome.
Interesting stuff thanks Batfink. The ATO stuff might be a bit tricky as I could go to an office if I wanted to, but am choosing not to do the 3.5 hour round trip.
But it is worth mentioning to Mrs Reeksy as she's just set up her own business and will certainly qualify.
Employer should provide all the equipment...
Maaate, it's Queensland. Barefoot all day long, don't even wear thongs!
Mrs Reeksy (former economics and accountancy academic) gave that a hard No. Your property is partially a business premises meaning you need to pay capital gains tax when you sell it.
I rent, so claim 10% of my rent.
as for running costs? Why not? Maybe if you owned your own business - but if you’re employed and have a wfh contract, I don’t see why that would be true.
h&r block (which I’m sure is a dirty word in your house) have advised me for the last 7 years that this is acceptable, and have processsed my tax rebate accordingly. My contract does say “permanently home based” though
Mrs Reeksy (former economics and accountancy academic) gave that a hard No. Your property is partially a business premises meaning you need to pay capital gains tax when you sell it.
Yeah, my accountant said the same to me when I asked about installing a garden room and getting my business to pay for it. He said it is significantly simpler to pay for it out of my own salary rather than claiming as a business expense for the same reason.
Maybe if you owned your own business – but if you’re employed and have a wfh contract, I don’t see why that would be true.
Wife owns her business. I will be an employee who is choosing to WFH so according to the ATO ineligible
"Finish earlier when it’s a nice day and work later when raining etc."
This is good advice- if its 29degrees outside and I've got no meetings after 3pm then I tend to take a "life's too short" attitude to work if WfH.
Though of course my employer may take a "your contracts too long" attitude if they knew. But now most here WFH most of the time I think the scales have tipped more to results achieved than being available all the time.
I worked from home a couple of days per week pre-COVID, used the study. Lovely.
Then COVID came and it was 100% from home for me and the wife.
The wife's role went to from 100% WFH during COVID to now 60-80%. I changed my contract to 100% WFH to avoid going back to the office even though it's within walking distance of my house.
I have been relegated to the kitchen table which is handily at the right height for me, I also have a good office chair, separate keyboard and mouse in there. I don't like 2+ monitors as I find them distracting so that's not an issue. I have a good view of the garden and proximity to the coffee machine though.
I don't struggle to turn off after work, once the laptop is closed it's very rare I think about work, the wife needs the separation of home office and home. She's also on squawky teams meetings all the time and the kids walking in after school or during the hols is an issue.
I also echo the suggestion of getting a dog or some other healthy habit to force you to leave the house. I'm out for 40mins in the morning, 25mins at lunch and anywhere between 30 and 60 mins in the evening.
Week 1 done.
A day in the office to meet the boss and team.
Half a day shopping for monitor etc
Main difference was saving 1-2 hrs of commuting and faff each day. Meant I was able to:
- play football with mini Reeksy 2 every afternoon
- collect some replacement brakes for mini Reeksy 1 after his spectacular OTB broke a lever clamp
-be at home with same kid as his badly grazed face/neck was pretty sore
- fit the brakes
- have lunch with Mrs Reeksy every day.
Actually didn't get much riding done this week due to weather and motivation but I'm sure that will improve.
What I have found is that WFH has made me physically lazy. Took me to December to realise that I had been gradually becoming more and more rotund! I had gone from a 32 waist to almost having to buy a 36inch pair of trousers....trying a pair of 36 inch trousers on and thinking these fit ok was a genuine wake up call!
WFH yesterday again made me think that over the last 5 years when I'm at home, my downtime is a coffee while sat on the sofa. I work for a US based company so my hours can be quite late. I had gotten into a routine where I was working until 8pm most days. But I had become too lazy to go to the gym before work and too much into a routine to go to the gym at lunch.
I've now re-organised my days so that I no longer work until late as a matter of routine. I also go back in to the office 3 days a week - but this is by choice. I drive past the gym on the way home so makes me go.
When working from home, the only exercise I was getting was walking from the office to the kitchen. I probably snacked a lot more as well, just because the food was in the house. I went from 70kgs to 84kgs.....
I dream about weighing 84kgs... I hope it works for me 😊
Almost two years of 90%+ WFH, three different teams and possibly a couple of new kilos and i'm back in my substantive job.
Reading back through all those tips was great - I can certainly agree with a lot of them!
The idea of spending over an hour a day travelling to and from work at very specific times seems utterly archaic now. The jobs were a real mix of experience, which was good and probably gives me some opportunity to move into other things. But what a variation in workload. Some of the most searing boredom at times!
I think the most depressing thing about being back is seeing all the A4 passive aggressive signs in the miserable little kitchenette are exactly the same as they were*. I've made an application to do 1-2 days WFH - but am almost guaranteed to get rejected "because."
*This is new... though I am tempted to bin it! 
Wear a hat for brain cancer?!?! What if you don't want brain cancer?
If you don't have solar panels... get some. Running a laptop or desktop plus the AC will make a noticeable dent in your power bill! I'm currently 2 days office 3 home and have mixed feelings. We are moving back to Perth in Feb and will likely bump up my office time to alternating 3/4 days to get the cycle commute and just generally be a bit more social.
That ^^^^
I'm about 80% WfH (despite being only 20km from the office) and it helps a lot in spring/summer/autumn. On good days, my usage from the grid is effectively zero and the monthly bill something like 300kr.
It would be cheaper, but the NAS and three computers with screens takes up a fair bit of power.
I'm 100% WFH and have been across 3 companies since 2021, the no-social aspect doesn't bother me, I'm not sure if it's because I'm on calls and meetings for at least half of my day everyday anyway or when I was working in offices in my experience I rarely found people I clicked with, it was all superficial small talk. "What you having for tea tonight?" "Did you do much at the weekend?" "See the footy game last night?" and even when there was a mutual common ground interest it always felt like I was being talked at as opposed to talked with. That's just been my experience anyway.
I do prefer it though, no commute is the best thing, but then also being able to wear comfy clothes and my slippers all day as opposed to business casual attire, if I'm comfy, I move less, spend more time at my laptop working and not feeling distracted. I also can't wrap my head around how it was deemed socially acceptable to go use a cubicle and someones curling a stinky one out right next to you with only a 3/4" piece of chipboard separating you both. Gross. It's also nice to get out for an hour and walk my dog on my lunch break, I get more sleep as I don't wake up till 8am, and I get more time to excercise as I can shut my laptop at 5pm go throw my clobber on and go for a run, get back and be showered prepping tea by 6pm.
In terms of bills, since my job roles changed a fair bit over the years and is now more strategic than reactive I've found I don't need multiple monitors anymore and tend to just work from my laptop in various rooms of the house throughout the day which saves some pennies. Current company upgraded me to a macbook which has been great as the battery lasts a solid 10hrs, whereas my old dell I'd be lucky to get more than 2hrs out of a full charge. I definitely notice our energy costs go up by £2-3 a day when my Mrs works from home on the odd occasion as she has her laptop plugged in all the time and refuses to wear thick jumpers in the house so turns the heating up too. I'm comfy in a fleece at 17 degrees during the day.
Not including all the other benefits too, not being forced to rely on UPF meal deals or unhealthy food vans or making the wrong choice when packing lunch because you weren't hungry when packing it at 7am, can just stroll into the kitchen and eat whatever I fancy. Can get washing done throughout the day, don't have to pay for a dog sitter or dog walker, own personal toilet, good coffee, less distractions (software devs with mechanical keyboards and people who just chat shit all day), my mental health skyrocketed when I got into the swing of it and my stress significantly decreased.
I've made an application to do 1-2 days WFH - but am almost guaranteed to get rejected "because."
You know they can't do that, yes? If your request is reasonable then they can only reject it for specific, defined reasons. If it's not feasible to do your job from home - say, you were a bus driver - then that is a valid reason, but if you've doing it quite successfully for the last two years then unless your role has changed that's going to be hard for them to argue against. Just going "well, we don't want you to" isn't good enough.
I had an interview for a job (2024) where they initially said "more than 50% in the office" because they were old school and liked people being in the office, then changed the requirement before the face-to-face interview to "minimum four days in the office".
The office was 1:45hrs away by public transport.
I thanked the headhunter, but told them that this was not going to work out for me. Even he sounded disappointed with the company, which I can understand. But, 20 hours a week commuting? No fricking way.
What's that, 900 hours of your life a year?
Running a laptop or desktop plus the AC will make a noticeable dent in your power bill!
Really? Air conditioning and heating might add up a bit depending on where you are and how well insulated your home is.
But computer and screen? not really. The power supply for our 15" MacBook is only 35w and it won't draw anything like that most of the time it's in use. Even if it was 100w constant for 8 hours a day for 225 working days it would only be c£50 a year.
I've made an application to do 1-2 days WFH - but am almost guaranteed to get rejected "because."
You know they can't do that, yes? If your request is reasonable then they can only reject it for specific, defined reasons. If it's not feasible to do your job from home - say, you were a bus driver - then that is a valid reason, but if you've doing it quite successfully for the last two years then unless your role has changed that's going to be hard for them to argue against. Just going "well, we don't want you to" isn't good enough.
possibly different legislation here, but it’s a bit of a grey area as the unit I work in technically does need to have boots on the ground. My argument is that I’m not one of those people. Will see what happens but I’m on a pretty good wicket otherwise so will tread carefully.