Quarantine work is not remote work
hanselman.comI am also a remote worker for the last 6-7 years or so.
There is a few things I would like to point out to people that are now working from home for the first time and think it is the best thing ever. (Though many may not have the possibility to do)
a) Stop working on your laptop that work sent you. Get a damn monitor and get your back straight
b) Stop working from your dinning room table or what not. Get a desk/comfortable chair
c) Take breaks from the screen. Walk to the kitchen, make coffee and talk with the dam wooden spoon if you have noone else.
Most of the problems with not doing this don't show up in the first few weeks of home working, but will be with your for much longer than that after a while.
(if you can exercise, even better, but I won't recommend you to go to the gym at a time like this)
This is well and good, but our apartment which is great to live in is not large enough for two work spaces. Nor can we afford to lose the space for as many monitors. And it's not like we can suddenly move in the middle of pandemic quarantine to a new place with more room. When we weren't working at home we did not plan for our living arrangement to also be our working arrangement.
Your advice is great, but only if you can arrange your home around being one or more offices in addition.
Definitely follow c) then.
I've been working from home for almost the past 6 years. My home is not huge - we managed to have an extra room for the 3 years between moving in with my now-wife and having a kid, but I was in a small 1BR before that and the kid consumes all available space (like literally all available space) after that. I don't have an external monitor, and I usually work from couch/bed/floor. My posture is terrible.
What has so far saved me from serious occupational injury is that I don't stay in one place for long - usually no longer than 5 minutes or so. I might shift positions, or stick my laptop on my lap, or start lying down, or get up and have some water. You can get away with pretty contorted working positions if you're only in them for 2-5 minutes and go do your thinking while pacing around.
Humans weren't made to sit still. Don't.
Yeah, I understand that and I mentioned not everyone can do it. At least, if possible, try to get a small desk from Ikea or something and put it in the living room or a corner of the room if you can. Sure it will be cramped but your back will thank you for it. Again, I know it isn't a possibility for everyone, but during these times, and hopefully temporary ones, just try to re arrange as much as possible to keep healthy. Sure you have to go jump over the bed to reach for the wardrobe, but remember, it is temporary only. Move the dining table/sofa against the wall and setup something in the corner.
I know the difficulty for a lot of people with small apartments with kids + partner + themselves now at home all the time! Was just trying to get people to think a bit about their long term back/body health (because even 1-2 months of this may bring you pain for a long time)
I find it hard to believe you live in an apartment that is too small to accomodate two work spaces. I can believe you live in an existing space that you could not have two workspaces added to it, but that's not the same thing. It may take sacrificing the normal living room/TV/kitchen/common area, but these aren't normal times we're living through.
Whether you want to, is a different matter.
I lived in apartments that had hard time accommodating even one work space.
If you're a couple without kids living in a dense city like NYC or Chicago, you can rationally choose to live in a tiny apartment with 10-15 mins of commute for both of you, and with everything within easy reach from home. I lived like that. But if suddenly both of yo have to WFH, your optimizations backfire.
To be fair, we now live in a 2-br apartment and only have one school-age kid, and still getting three proper workplaces for all of us is not easy. Good thing I can oscillate with my laptop between my kid's desk and the kitchen table. I'd love a large monitor, and would even shell out unplanned $300-400 for it, but I have little idea where to install it.
> It may take sacrificing the normal living room/TV/kitchen/common area
Because the best way to avoid losing your mind is to completely eliminate the only relaxation space in your home, yes?
Folding tables always work.
Monitors and furniture all cost money though, but I agree, this thing would be sweet: https://media.manufactum.de/is/image/Manufactum/750s_shop/se...
If you got the funds: 1 high res monitor and the laptop folded or under the table or anything is also already better.
> lose the space for as many monitors, or maybe projectors
You can hang monitors from above.
What are you going to do, work on your back?
I am sharing an "office" with two desks and chairs and we have 23-inch monitors. Which is not great. I could get some screen goo reflective paint and paint a square on the wall and hang a projector pointing at that spot from across the room. With the reflective paint maybe it would work with the Sun leaking in. As long as beams of light don't interfere with each other as they cross (that's a joke physics fans), we could have a beam crossing the room the other way too.
Also a remote worker for 7-8 years, I would agree with these suggestions if you are able. I would add:
a) If you can and your company is willing, request a monitor. If your laptop allows for more than 1 monitor, ask for more than 1. Also I prefer to use a mouse and external keyboard, so why not request that as well. Your home is now your office so in an ideal world, your company should treat it as such and supply you with what you need.
b) Treat working from home as if you are at work. If you are new to this, then dress like you are going to work or something similar that gets you into the work mindset. Also make sure spouses, children, roommates, etc. understand you are work and not available.
I actually prefer the macbook keyboard but yeah, monitor + whatever is ergonomic for you
Regarding b) I agree with you, but after 6-7 years, I'm so used to work in underwear (or sometimes drenched in water from a swim on the pool during summer) that I forgot that it takes sometime to be mentally able to get in/out of work mode:)
This new 'quarantine work' is just an awkward retrofit - those positions (and their managers) were never designed to work remotely in the first place.
I spent 4 years remote in a position designed for it, and it was still a challenge even on the best days. You have to communicate twice as much as everyone who is on site.
It's hard to learn all the remote working lessons at the same time as everyone else in your family is also learning them. Crash course in boundaries.
I've worked remotely most of my career, and this reflects my feelings as well. This time is not representative of my years of remote work at all, and anyone who is feeling stress and burnout in this time (I certainly am) should know that you're not alone, you're not failing in any way, you're having a normal reaction to a very unusual and stressful situation.
Quarantine work + 5 Year old without childcare = Extremely Difficult
I've worked remotely 90% of the time for the last 7 years and this ain't it.
My partner and I are now homeschooling both of our children while attempting to work full time remote. The results are mixed, with the kids mostly getting the short end of the stick so our lively hoods can remain intact.
In addition to the points in the article, it's also worth considering that the amount and kind of work you're doing at the moment also likely isn't normal for remote working.
That's because if your company is client based, many of said clients have likely stopped paying for work at the moment, and many organisations are struggling to find anything for their employees to do at all. They're also likely going to use this time to focus on internal projects and maintenance too, since that's the kind of work that's available right now.
So if you do remote work after the pandemic/lockdown ends, you'll likely have a lot more on your plate than you do at the moment. For better or worse.
Working remotely is normally great, but working during this epidemic feels much harder, less enjoyable, and less productive - probably due in part to the steady barrage of warnings, restrictions and alarming news, all of which seem to contribute to worry and stress. Not to mention the increased isolation. Just taking care of basic necessities seems to be a lot harder and more time-consuming.
But I can't complain much, since being able to work at all (not to mention staying housed and fed) is a pretty good thing! I've also caught up on sleep to some extent, which I highly recommend.
I'm also feeling burnout, I suspect because I'm actually working more hours now, sometimes out of sheer boredom.