The working from home thread: tips and advice

Next job will be one day a week max, ideally fully remote.

Yeah this whole fucking sea change from :
"we'll support you to wfh and yes we can see it's productive" to
"get back to work slaves"

is fucking me off no end.

Lots of 'when we said that we didn't really mean it' going on

I think it's the old grey hairs who liked to have meetings and feel important and not be around their families.

Tbh I'm torn. I've been running my own solo business for 5-6 years now, always worked from home. I'm starting to think that 100% WFH is a bad idea long term. I want 2-3 days around people. Not necessarily colleagues or clients, but I would like some kind of context where I 'belong'. I think a co-working space with similarly minded people is the way to go

"We want to make sure everyone feels safe coming in"

That's really not the only reason we don't want to go back. More to do with saving all that time and money by not commuting, and not feeling constantly under the thumb. I'll be damned if I have to go back more than once or twice a fortnight.

Yeah. I think if you leave it up to people they will gravitate back to the office for a few days a week on their own accord.

100% WFH is possible but it's not amazing for anyone.

(Reply to kboy)

my workplace has actually decided to go fully WFH if they hadnt I'd have left and found another job.

fuck going to office

100% agree with:
100% wfh is isolating and not great for you
time spent commuting is dead time and awful
I work for an LA so I should be visible and see the people / community I work for and support it with my lunch money (I don't, I bring my own. Also, am I likely to support community business in the 20 mins? No. I'm more likely to pay money to a pub after work. which creates further structural imbalance and supports a racist infrastructure)
If I'm supposed to be in the office, but there is no help available to care for kids because restrictions, how the fuck does that work?

I'm probably going to be looking for a new job some time next year, it's going to be interesting to see how many places are allowing more than 1 day a week wfh.

I can't see people going back full time but I quite enjoy going to the office - this whole living at work thing for the last year is not great for me.

2 days a week would be ideal I think - 2 days of exercise cycling, see the people you really need to see/speak to, go to the pub etc...

Yep this is the balance I've now struck. Office every Thursday to ride in, see some nice colleagues and do a social thing. Additional day at the office if I fancy it/am fed up with being in the spare room.
I don't think I'll be pressured to be in the office at all, more likely there will be an expectation to still be going to F2F meetings with partners...
Intrigued to see how things play out in the next 2-3 months.

2 days a week was my preferred option.

Tue: Cycle in, take in footy stuff plus 2 days of clothes/lunch, cycle home
Thu: Run in, play 5-a-side footy after work, pub, train home pissed

Or:-

Thu: Cycle in, take in footy stuff plus 2 days of clothes/lunch, play 5-a-side after work, pub, train home pissed
Fri: Run in (ugh, hangover), cycle home

That only worked as I had showers and a locker at work. Also helped that we had a fridge so I could take my own lunch in and leave it there for a day or two safely. Saved me from buying and eating crap in the work restaurant.

I took delivery of my LC49G95TSSRXXU last week.

It feels a bit silly just now, as I'm running it in 2560 x 1080 at 59.94Hz, which is all my laptop can handle.

The monitor arm also doesn't go high enough, so I'm building a riser out of that lump of glued together 18mm ply and a few 200mm M10 bolts.

The 27 inch monitor on the pole is waiting for a gas arm so that I can position it either above or to the side of the 49"

I have fully worked from home for years, so that bit doesn't really change for me.

The interesting bit for me is whether client meetings change, pre-covid, I would often have to travel up to London (from Devon) for a 1 hour meeting probably once a week, essentially wasting a whole day, zoom meetings in place of these have made my life much more productive, but I bet there will be clients who demand to go back to full face to face. I'm fine for it when it is a bid multiple people debrief, more of a pain when it is just 2 people for what is essentially a catch up.

I took delivery of mine last week (the SSRXSSU)

It feels a bit silly just now though, as I'm running it in 2560*1080, which is all my laptop can handle.

Also, the gas lift arm doesn't go high enough, so I'm making a riser block from 18mm ply laminated together, a few 200mm M10 bolts, and a steel plate being made my the local blacksmith.

The 27" on the super tall pole is waiting on a gas arm to position it above or to the side of the 49"

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Ah yes, mine is running off a desktop, so get to use the full capability, I have connected a second cable going to the desktop so that I can run it PBP mode, which is useful when I am presenting.

I need to get round to modifying a gas arm to hold mine at some point, as it is still on the stand, which is fine, but would like it to be probably 5cm further away from me.

Be interested in seeing your setup with the secondary monitor, I flirted with the idea, but couldn't quite work out where I would put it to make the most of it.

I almost bought of of those wooden support, but worried for the long term health of my wrists being on something so hard, which is probably baseless tbh. How have you found it?

That lovely desk - completely covered by stuff.

Only had it a week or so, but actually find it quite comfortable. I am an awful typist, in that I move my hands a fair bit (less since I got the 95%), but found that my hands dragged on a memory foam rest and it got annoying, so a smooth wood one means my hands glide a bit more, which so far feels more comfortable.
I would say I am not a coder or heavy writer, so spend a lot of time leaning back staring at my screen trying to work out where I have gone wrong rather than typing.
Mine is a cheap amazon one, which I like as it has no branding on.

I used to do a 3.5hr one-way trip for a 2hr client meeting once a month. 7hrs of driving in a day. Really miss the lone time in the car

Yeah, to be fair he alone time on the train was quite good, my issue is that I can't really do my work on a laptop, so it was pretty unproductive (Wouldn't mind if I was working for someone else!)
Did mean I got to read lots of books which is no bad thing I guess, just felt really wasteful.

Yeah know what you mean. At first I considered the time driving as my spare time and did two or more late nights to catch up on work. Changed my mind after a year or so and started to consider it work time for that client. Huge stress reducer for me and as I'm on a fixed fee it doesn't impact client too much. At least they haven't complained :)

Yeah, I think you have to consider it that way.
I used to build it into my quoting, if I knew I would have to travel lots I would push my project price up to account for it. I could see this getting even more extreme in the future or maybe more obvious.

We have a lot of trainees at our place who come in most days. Most are straight out of uni and living with parents, in house shares or studios. Trouble is you can't just have a load of trainees coming in without the personnel above them.

I think there's a very different appetite for WFH for those in their 30s or 40s with house and children (which I suspect a lot of this thread is).

Also if it becomes 2 or 3 days in the office there's going to be that difficulty that everyone is going to want days at the start/end of the week WFH.