Working From Home

[Funt Solo]

Yeah - my desk space gets taken up by the laptop - whose keyboard is anyway set way back behind the touchpad.

I reckon those arm supports will come in handy - and a separate keyboard will solve the problem of having to stretch over the touchpad.

My setup at work makes much more sense - it's a huge desk that I rest my arms on when typing. At home, my elbows are always floating. I need anti-grav elbow bowls.

[IndigoPrime]

Laptops are terrible. Get an external display, keyboard and trackpad, and either use the laptop as a second display or just have it mirror and avoid using it entirely. The error most people make is in having keyboards right at the edge of the desk. If you don't have the space, fair enough, but some people do and still make that error.

[von Boom]

Laptops are terrible. Get an external display, keyboard and trackpad, and either use the laptop as a second display or just have it mirror and avoid using it entirely. The error most people make is in having keyboards right at the edge of the desk. If you don't have the space, fair enough, but some people do and still make that error.

I turn the laptop lcd off, close the lid and put it out of sight, myself.

[Jim_Campbell]

Laptops are terrible. Get an external display, keyboard and trackpad, and either use the laptop as a second display

Yeah. This is exactly what I do. It's on a stand to the right of the Cintiq acting as another screen, while I work on an external keyboard and mouse in front of the main display. I don't know why, but Illustrator is terrible to use with a trackpad, but I've always used my mouse more like a trackball — I don't make expansive movements with it, it's move-lift-put-back-where-it-started-move-again for any operation that requires a lot of travel.

[Barrington Boots]

Echo what Jim said about laptops - they're totally unsuitable for long term working. I think a lot of people are now using them, hunched over them at their kitchen tables like vultures 

Get a cheap PC monitor and connect it to the laptop if you can. Having two screens is wonderful and you can work on the big one and use the laptop screen for other stuff you don't look at too much during the working day like, say, this forum. Elevate the screen so it's a good height as well - a screen stand is best but you can use a box if it's stable, it'll save your neck. A seperate keyboard is also a really good idea if possible.

[Funt Solo]

Sorted it out a bit:

[repoman]

I love working from home.

I work in an office normally but I get a new job in Feb and it wasn't long before COVID shut it all down.  Prior to that it was a 35 min drive in every day.  Shirt and tie dresscode.  And I'm in the weird position of working as part of two teams.

Team 1 - all female, only one of them over 30.

Team 2 - mostly male but only two of them under 60.

I'm 46 next week and so both were slightly awkward fits despite me being very personable.

It was a hotdesking situation.  Rubbish desks, no screens, working off a laptop on a flat surface.  Absolute toilet.

So now I've got no commute, I've just moved house and have set up a nice office space with a decent desk, a really good chair and a docking station with two monitors.

I've got literally no reason to go back in and given that we were short on space for corporate staff I might be able to ride this out for years.

My plan is to retire at 55 (Oct 2029) but if it stays like this I might actually stay on.  Probably not though.  I'm about that retirement life.

[broodblik]

I also prefer working from home. I save more than 2 hours due travelling a day by not going to office.

Initially a lot of people were very skeptical about working from home but is looks like these naysayers has been proven incorrect. Our team has been more productive than ever before.

[JayzusB.Christ]

The English school where I work is opening again soon.  It's going to be alternating weeks of classroom lessons and online lessons, to half the number of students and teachers in the building at any one time. Loads of perspex, sanitiser and ventilation is in place.  Kind of looking forward to it, but also kind of glad that I'll get a small lie-in every second week.

[Rately]

In on OT, and just got handed a computer and a pile of gear that would seemingly allow me to work from home. Take it home and store it safely, according to boss.

Office policy is that we are still going to work in Office till notified by the higher-ups, but it would seem only a matter of time considering the infection rate in NI at moment.

[repoman]

I also prefer working from home. I save more than 2 hours due travelling a day by not going to office.

Initially a lot of people were very skeptical about working from home but is looks like these naysayers has been proven incorrect. Our team has been more productive than ever before.

I used to be fairly strictly an 8am to 4pm guy but now I'm happy to log on whenever and get things answered in the evening or on weekends so I feel like I'm probably more available now.

Equally if I want to run an errand or something and it's outside of my lunch time, it's all good.  The work gets done, I'm saving a lot of cash and my carbon footprint is a bit less. 

[IndigoPrime]

^ That is where things should go. If you don't have a job where you need to be present within specific hours, what does it matter as long as you get the job done? The UK has a terrible case of presenteeism, awful managers who think staff need to be watched, and yet poor productivity and dismal retraining. We're not as bad as the USA, but close. We should be fighting for a future with more flexibility, where parents don't have choose between a career and being able to see their children, and where a fifth of people's waking hours isn't spent commuting.

[Mardroid]

I also prefer working from home. I save more than 2 hours due travelling a day by not going to office.

Initially a lot of people were very skeptical about working from home but is looks like these naysayers has been proven incorrect. Our team has been more productive than ever before.

My manager told me a little while ago that the department has actually worked out more productive since working from home.

Personally, I never got to do much in the end. I had one day working at home with a company laptop (that had just been provided) then I was put on Furlough the next day which I've been on ever since. Not that I particularly mind. Pay has dipped a bit, (80% what I originally received) but as I'm home and don't have much in way of expenses, and I'm not working anyway, that's fine.

The rest of the team (aside from another temp guy who's contract recently ended) are now back working from home. (At the start of the epidemic our whole department aside from managers was put on Furlough. Orders dropped that much*.) So now I'm the only person on Furlough. There was talk that I might have been called back last week, but that hasn't occurred, so they're obviously able to absorb my work between them.

I doubt I'll be called back now, but as my contract finishes on 25th of this month, that's not such a bad thing.

*We sell coffee and related stuff mainly to businesses and cafes.

[repoman]

yeah, that's the downside. 

I love WFH but it comes at a cost when I have friends and some family working in retail.