Who works from home?

[6]

So since I bought a house 2 miles from my office my company took my desk and gave it to a dude who is now in house "help desk" all day... (We had to pull him off the road. Dude couldn't close a call if it where a door.)

I'm in and out of the office, I do mostly on site work so it's not uncommon for me to spend only a few hours a week in the office. The desk was more a formality than anything. Plus now that I'm around the corner, if I am needed in the office I can be there in sub 5min.

Makes sense. Has worked for the last week or two just fine because I'm only here or maybe an hour or two a day.

We are reaching a deadline on a deployment. It's a big one, a complicated one and it was going to hell in a handbag. I just got my schedule cleared and was told to take over this project and work on this and nothing but this, remotely (read from my house) till we flip the switch Friday afternoon.

Ok, cool. Set up a desk, got my computers laied out, pulled up the recliner to the desk and sent kristen to staples to get me an office chair.


And then....

Its god damned hard to get into "work zone" sitting in my house (notice I'm on the forum right now). The office is also tough, but over there it's because the guys are always coming to me to ask for help/advice on work things.. so at least I'm working.. here it's dogs, wife, neighbor, mailman, contractors, my fridge,


Am I just super a.d.d or do others have this struggle working from home?


I'm thinking noise canceling headphones may help...

[JanM]

It is a common problem and there are several things to be aware of:

1. you must have acceptance from the other persons (and animals..) that you are now working and are not available for domestic stuff. Easier said than done. One thing that can help is a dedicated office area for you, maybe with a door...

2. you must remove distractions so you can make it your homeoffice for working your dayjob, also not easy...

3. why do you allow yourself to be distracted - is the dayjob or specific task not that interesting? If it is something you want to do, then you must get help and acceptance from your household to make it happen. Or choose something else, if it is because it really isn't that interesting to work with. Here a location remote from your house (like the office, but there isn't room) can help.

I don't really like working from home myself...

[bones]

Point Number 1 from JanM is especially important.
After 2 years of being completely remote or half time remote, we are back in the office full time this week.
It was real tough to convince the woman and the kid that just because I am at home does not mean they can come into the room at any time and interrupt me during work hours.
At first it was crazy how often they would come in, even in the middle of conference calls, and just want me to do something or as me a question.

[tian647]

I've worked remotely more or less since 2017. At first it was awesome, the flexibility to work whenever and take care of things as they arose. Then work became a distraction and everything else way too easy to engage, to the point I was a lousy employee and a worse professional.

I intentionally took an in-person job in an office in 2019 to refocus my professional discipline, and then the world shut down and sent me back home...

I now work for a company that actually does remote work well - providing tools, culture and opportunities to minimize the disconnectedness but still also afford the freedom to run errands as needed, or do some therapy wrenching in the garage while I work out a solution to whatever business challenge I'm trying to address. The right support makes a huge difference, no matter the setting.

[Toxicwst]

I bloody HATE working from home. Personally I love my home, my wife, my things, and my comfort.... but hell! WHEN DOES IT END! I cannot be working from home when my wife comes in during a conference call, I would lose my sh*t! I gotta work away from home, then I can also LEAVE my work AT WORK.... much better... when you start bringing work home.... ungh.... dread!

[69Falcon]

It’s point Home When my daughter moved in at the start of the pandemic I had to tell her she couldn’t disturb me. And since my home office is in the living room, she had to not be there.

[6]

Luckily for me this stretch of home is short lived. I'll still work "from" home moving forward, but after this project I'll go back to working "from" not "in home" as soon as I start getting on site calls back on my schedule. Then I'll probably do an hour or two a day here.. not too bad.

Yesterday I did get my work done. Everything I had planned. I'm not going to lie, by about 3:30 I had pretty much transitioned from my desk to walking around the house and answering the phone if it rang, and that's about it he "work" I did for the last hour/hour and a half..

Today's a new day. I'll shut the door and put on my head phones and see what I can bang out. I have a very specific goal. I need to to a test run. A-z of the deployment. If I get that done I'll call it a success of a day.. if it's early, then cool..

I'ma also send kristen out with the dogs (or at least crash) as soon a she gets up. She can go do errands and I can try and not be a dog with a squirrel in the he house.
Funny. Working from home seems easier and more fun that it is. I still VASTLY prefer it to working in the office, by a LONG SHOT. But I think I prefer being on calls on job sites more. I'm just not made to be in one spot all day looks like....

[Maritime]

I had to work from home for a few weeks at the first of Covid and it was hell. I had a dedicated office doors to close but the cats/kids/wife always interrupted my calls and my work. I was soooo happy to get back in the office. I can do my job remote, at least most of it but it is not fun with A.D.D. and family it was terrible. I feel your pain.

[wildwhl]

I love working from home...of course I live alone but when I did not, the big, over ear, noise cancelling headphones was everyone's clue that I wasn't really there unless it was truly an emergency

WW/R

[riot]

I work from home since COVID, and I’ve gotten pretty used to it. My wife has worked from home for years, so she kind of helped inculturate me with what works.

A couple of things that we do:
- Send the kids away, they are at school (now summer camp) just like if we were at an office.
- Strictly work from 8 to 5. I try to be on by 8am, and available for IMs etc, take a strict hour for lunch, and quit at 5. I try not to do personal stuff (exercise, work on bikes or personal projects, or clean the house) during work hours, and I am pretty strictly not going to work on things during non-work hours. In engineering (and my personal life for that matter), there is always more work than can be done, so it is important to have a clear line.
- I don’t log onto any social accounts from my work computer, including the Forum. My other computers are out of arms reach. Early in the pandemic, I was doing a lot of distraction on these, mainly because it was hard to adjust to the anti-social WFH situation. Now I am used to it, which improves my productivity.
- I try to set up social engagement, like lunch with people (normally friends and former co workers) at least once a month, so I can stay social. This is really the only thing I miss about the office.
- Get sleep. This is key for productivity in any situation.
- Get over guilt about distractions. It’s gonna happen. Especially if I’m doing a task that sucks, like PowerPoint. Now I just bake the time into my planning. I have found that, in spite of my distraction, if I do the above things, I am still equal or more productive than my coworkers/competition.

The big plus is the money and time I save on commuting. I’m saving probably an hour a day, and my 2014 car still only has 62k miles. Now that gas is so high, it is huge, and avoiding traffic aggravation is good too.

I can do more focus work from home, because I don’t get drop ins. The down side is that when I need to collaborate or get hands on something it is way tougher. Now that I can travel again, this is less bad, but still a problem when something urgent comes up.

in the end, WFH is still Work though, so it comes with all the same BS. If your tasks are engaging and your boss and team are good, it will be good. If they’re not, it will suck, same as always.

[rpcraft]

A mix of alternating your work day from home and office at different periods of the week is what I find works well for me but I pretty much at other peoples offices non stop so less work from home than it was for some time. I prefer the office when their is office work and good internet personally and when home there are too many distractions so if I have little to do I don't mind it but when I gotta get things done I really hate being at home, lol.

[mikoxi]

So for the last 2 months, I've been working from home. My desk at home isn't ideal, but I've gotten it increasingly set up well for how I need to work. However, early on I found that the reclining chair I've had at my desk for a while- a fairly traditional but not terribly expensive 'desk' chair- was just not working and was uncomfortable. If anyone would like to throw in some suggestions from these, maybe it will get me out of this rut.
Things I like
Kengo Kuma
Saucier + Perrotte
Black, Grays, minimal.

[lamelylounges]

I've been working from home since 2013. Since I can spend somewhere near 8 hours a day in my office chair, I finally broke down and treated myself to a good quality one. Herman Miller Mirra was my choice. Used them at a previous job and after trying out several it seems like the best bang for the buck. I think I paid close to $500, but you may be able to get them used for less (for instance there is a pretty great office chair store somewhere just into New Hampshire that was pretty close. I also like knowing that the chair is repairable, so it's an investment that should last 10(+) years.

Good luck with your decision.

[rpcraft]

I sometimes work from home but I also spend time doing some gaming and designing 3D print items so I definitely get a fair amount of seat time. As such I've tried a few chairs over time and one of the better and more affordable ones I have come across recently is the Hyken Mesh Task Chair, which can be found at Staples, Amazon, and a few other outlets if you check google shopping for around 208 USD. I was unsure when I first got it but looked through some reviews and I have to admit it is a great chair now that I have had it for a while. The only drawback might be is if you sit around in really thing shorts then the mesh on the back of your legs may be uncomfortable. I've had it over a year now and it seems to be holding together fine.

[bones]

My stepson gave me a gaming chair and I took it to work to use at my desk and I love it.
I would never have thought to use a gaming chair but I love it.
Extremely comfortable and reclines when you need a break.
Mine is a Secret Lab Omega.