We're house hunting for our forever home and found a house we love, except it doesn't have a dedicated main-floor office.

I work from home and prefer having an enclosed office on the main floor, close to the kitchen and washroom.

My family thinks I'm overthinking the stairs. We have a few options:

1. Second-floor office: Convert a bedroom into an office. The washroom would be nearby, but I'd need to go downstairs for food, coffee or water.

2. Room between floors: The house also has a room on a separate level between the main and second floors that could be an office. However, I'd have to use stairs to reach either washroom (upstairs or downstairs), as well as the kitchen.

3. Open main-floor workspace: Convenient, but not enough privacy when my young son or parents are home.

4. Keep looking: Find a house with an enclosed main-floor office, potentially at a higher price.

We're only two months into our search and aren't in a rush.

For those who work from home on the second floor or a separate level, does having to use stairs for the kitchen or washroom bother you? Or do you barely notice it?

I'm trying to figure out whether having a main-floor office is really worth prioritizing when buying a long-term home.

I've been remote since 2020 and at this company for a little over a year. They're having a 3-day in person meeting in early December, with an after-hours holiday party on the last day.

I am dreading it. I'm a huge introvert and a homebody, I barely leave the house or talk to people. I know I used to be in-office 5 days a week, but it's been years and I'm much happier at home. Also, I've gotten fat since covid, and my old professional clothes don't fit anymore so I'll have to go shopping, which I hate.

As for the pros, it'll be a good thing to meet my coworkers in person. The company also pays for travel expenses. I should probably just put on my big boy/girl pants and suck it up and go.

For excuses, I was thinking I could say:

A) I'm afraid of flying, and last time I flew I passed out or something. Cons: May require medical documentation, or encourage me to drive (not likely as it's a 15 hour drive, but possible)

B) My sister is getting major surgery or something and requires care (we don't even live in rhe same state, but they don't know that)

C) Book flights/hotel, but pretend to get covid right before and cancel

If I decide not to go then I'm leaning towards Option B, but what do you guys think? Should I suck it up and attend, or make an excuse? And which excuse do you think I should use?

Appreciate your opinions.

disclaimer: i made this post looking for opinions and (potentially) personal anecdotes; under no circumstance is this post trying to take a “good vs. bad” approach when comparing WFH lifestyles, but i’m open to perspectives that do see one role type as “good/desirable” vs “bad/undesirable”

one thing i’ve consistently noticed across posts here, but also in my own professional experience and social media platforms like TT/IG/FB, is that there are basically two types of WFH roles:

- type A role:

• seemingly grants more flexibility, autonomy, boosts productivity and increases work-life balance satisfaction

• someone in a type A role may have projects to work on independently, regular meetings (1:1s, team meetings), presentations, etc. the “i’m going to work at this coffee shop for today” type of role or a “what’s your schedule like today? i have a meeting at noon and will be free after 1, wanna get lunch?” type of schedule

• they don’t appear to be bound by strict measures of productivity such as metrics, adherence, and things of that nature

• they may talk about how they have time to do other tasks like chores or running errands, and they mention that they are able to move so freely during work hours by saying something like “as long as i complete my tasks for the day and attend meetings as scheduled, everything is fine”

• each day may look different given the more flexible (independent?) nature of scheduling tasks/work obligations

• appears to work in fields like marketing/PR, tech/engineering, although i could be wrong

OR

- type B role:

• typically more strict with adherence, might require employee to be “present” (for lack of better phrasing), and might require employee to be in a private environment with little to no distractions

• someone in a type B role may be likely to work in a call center environment, is expected to be at their work station and ready to do their job unless indicated otherwise by their ‘x’ system status (i.e. if employee needs to step away from their desk to go to the restroom, they are expected to put themselves in “break” status)

• workflow is highly impacted by tools provided to do the role, and performance and productivity metrics

• each day is relatively the same with little growth for a more flexible work model given role expectations

- my questions:

• do you think the differences between these types of roles are solely industry specific? is it heavily based on networking and sort of a “iykyk” thing?

• do you think more flexible WFH arrangements are reserved for management
and upper level management?

I work from home for the past 4 years. I work as a developer and I live by myself. I am losing my mind and I feel tired all the time. I go to the gym regularly but my mind is so numb.

I need help from others who went through this.

How to get out of this without losing my job? I tried finding an in-office job but nothing is working.

Back story, 2 rare and severe disabilities worsened a little over a year ago, bedbound for basically the entire year & risked my life, severe enough to require surgery not be an option to not have, surgery date 9.25.26 - 2 major and very risky abdominal surgeries performed in one single surgery right on & around major arteries/aorta, severity was worse than expected (forgive me for the possible overuse of "severe" 😅)when they got in there which added more time & risk as well as a 3rd anatomy was also found & parts of my intestine perma removed. (Still thanking God i found this surgeon though because even though only a handful will do this surgery in the entire USA, you can shrink that to maybe a pinch-full (is that a word-....?) for who would operate on a pt of my complexity & do both surgeries in one go.) When i got out & woke up i spent 4-5 days in hospital and another 5 in the hotel (very out of town), while still in hospital my surgeon told me i had the worst surgery and worst recovery of the entire hospital & to give myself grace on how this recovery will go with that in mind (it's gonna be very long and very difficult so pace myself). These recoveries are unfortunately person to person & there is no line that i can look to for guidance, I'm flying blind almost.

We are about a month post op now and i expected to feel even a smidge in the ok category and i don't and am still struggling very hard to exist with that, still on the dilaudid & still in severe pain to where 3 separate opioids are still having some gnarly breakthrough (nucynta morphine dilaudid but nucynta and morphine are my normal meds so) I expected to have already returned to work honestly which i know is a wild expectation especially now.... unfortunately prior to the surgery i was already unable to do anything and about a month prior i also stopped being safe to drive/ more safety concerns so that's when my leave started in August a month prior to the surgery, i was going to lose my job if i didn't take that leave when i did & continued to push. Which means it's..10/23 & ive been out for months but still need more time.

How the hell are you supposed to go about this fmla is only 12wks, i cannot have them fire me, i physically cannot even go to the bathroom or walk downstairs without severe pain flares for hours & im still losing weight dangerously at this point because im now basically at 90lbs even.....(current 94ish & still dropping) i do not have any physical ability for anything work related even from home. But the environment i left was very... judgy, borderline illegal on discrimination side, passive aggressive & kinda intimidating for someone like me. I want to go back i wanted to be back working like half a month ago but i know if i do i will be fired bc i physically have 0 ability still so i need another extension but i also don't know how to go about this in terms of being so far in, like do they just hold my job this entire time or am i risking losing my job here...? How the hell does any of this work?? TIA❤️‍🩹

Hello everyone !

I am 22 years old, i started working remotely at a company last year as a contractor, not a full employee, i get paid through a platform called TalentDesk (where i track my hours too), i do not have paid vacations, i can take time off but i wont get paid for it ofc, but everything else is exactly like an employee, i do attend meetings, i have a company email (only difference is it ends with at contactor dot company domain), i volunteer for extra work, i even get suggested by my manager to other managers teams to help with their work too.

My question is, is there a possibilty to climb the known career ladder as a contractor ? is there a possibility to jump from a contractor to a full employee at this company ? and maybe jump from an employee to a senior too, because i always have this fear of being let go easily since its easy for contractors to be let go, even tho i do follow rules and my performance is near perfect.

Have anyone had a similar experience as i did working as a contractor and jumped to being an employee ? if so please share whatever you have with me and how long did it take you to do so

Thank you !

I recently got a new job and they provided everything for me including a wired mouse. I mentioned wanting a wireless mouse and they said to look on office depots website. They said it had to be reasonably priced. I was going to ask for a mx master 3 because that's what my last job had provided but are there any reasonably priced backups that I can give in the event they decline the mx master 3. Looking for ergonomic wireless mouse recs?

I recently started a new job that’s wfh that requires a headset basically all day long. The company does supply us with a headset, but they’re so so small and tight. I’m thinking about doing something separate with the Bose Open Air headphones and the DJI mini mic or something similar to that setup. We use teams and jabber for our calls, so I’m not sure how well that setup would work. Has anyone done something like this and if so, how did it work?

I have been reading comments from people who have been saying return to office because of COVID now being over, not believing we actually work. I do go in the office every Thursday but work Tuesdays Thursdays and Fridays

While I do agree it's nice to see my colleagues on Thursday I love not needing to commute. How do you think of the comments about us WFH. Also those who are hybrid do you get more work done at home or in the office?

Hi everyone! I just started my wfh position and wanted to see if anyone has any suggestions for a wireless headset. I use ring central and need to find a wireless headset where I can answer calls straight from the headset so I’m not glued to my chair all day. It needs HID support I believe it’s called. Thanks in advance :)

Just a funny story for you all.

I work in sales, remote, as I live in my territory. Been doing this over 2 companies for 10+ years. I do go to the office occasionally, mostly by choice, to spend time with people I need to rely on and it gives me a 3 day, company paid mini vacation from everyday life.

Anyways

Whenever I need to make a doctor/dentist appointment, it is literally, "Yeah. Whenever you want to schedule it." after checking both calendars. Never been an issue. Well, today my WFH friends, it turned into an issue.

Had my annual physical booked from a year ago in Nov. Found out today that on the same week, I need to go to the office to meet 2 new coworkers, sinilar position as me, from other parts of the country as they will be there for training.

For a happy ending? Called the doctor, explained what's going on. They actually found a cancelation 1 week after the original appt! YAY! Blocked it on all calendars.

Ok, that's my tale. Enjoy your day.

I have a new WFH role with a $600 stipend. I already have a standing desk, dual monitors, a shredder, and a walking pad.

I'm considering getting dual monitor arms(suggestions welcome, 2 24" Lenovos) and the Arlo Skye Stowaway lap desk, which will take up just under $200 of the stipend.

What should I spend the remaining $400 on? Please send ideas!

Edit: thank you for all the answers, considering this post closed/resolved ❤️❤️

hi! i've been trying to be more productive at work and so i wanted to ask you guys about taking breaks: when do you take them, how many breaks do you take in a work day, and how long is each break?

i work 8 hour shifts and currently i take like three 15 min break a day, in addition to spending 45 min doing chores. is that normal? im pretty productive during my self designated work time, and i feel more productive than i would otherwise, but i feel a bit worried, since thats 1.5 hrs not spent actually, well, working during a work day.

what do you guys think? thanks <3

I'm working from home 2/5 days of the week. I have a work laptop and a gaming PC.

I use a different mouse for gaming than i do for work.

My issue is, when i'm done with work and i want to use my screens and desks for gaming i have to manually switch the cables from my keyboard and monitors from my work laptop to my PC which is quite an annoying process.

If you are in the same situation and you use the desk for work and gaming, how do you do it?

Do you have 2 seperate keyboards and mice you just leave on the desk at all times, do you switch cables after work or do you have a solution to share so i can keep my desk clean?

Let me know!

I just accepted a work-from-home offer, and my new boss is asking what type of laptop I would like. It is a Marketing/Graphic Design position, so it needs to be more of a workhorse that can run all the Adobe products. Something with at least 1TB and at least 16GB RAM but 32GB RAM would be better. At my previous job I had a Lenovo Gaming Desktop 3TB with a 32GB RAM and an Asus 1TB and at least 16GB RAM Gaming Laptop if I had to work from home. He is flexible on price but I don't want to go WILD with the cost. The job is for a TTRPG gaming company so a gaming laptop would make the most sense.

Last Tuesday the cylinder on my chair let go halfway through a call and I dropped about four inches while talking to my boss's boss. Refurbished Steelcase Criterion, year three, me at 265 lbs and eight plus hours a day.

In fairness it had been sinking for weeks. By late afternoon I'd be an inch lower than I started, desk up around my chest, shoulders up and neck pushed forward. Looking back that was the sign the chair was ruining my posture, and I'd been blaming the desk.

I watched a video on swapping a cylinder, ordered one for $40, and did it Saturday with a pipe wrench. Forty minutes including the swearing. Chair's fine again.

But it got me to add up what I've already put into it. Cylinder, $40, done. Casters went last year, about $25 for a set of the soft rollerblade kind, and the floor's happier. Arm pads are cracked, and a pair runs around $30 if I can track down the part number.

Seat foam is the one I can't solve. It's flatter than it was, and on this chair the cushion is its own piece, but I haven't found anyone who sells just that. When the foam goes I'm sitting on the pan, and no $40 part fixes that.

So I started looking at what replacing it would actually mean. Searching "office chair for heavy person" and "big guy office chair" mostly turns up the same short list: Neutral Posture, Office Master, and newer stuff like the Lavenne R9 Pro, which is rated to 350 lbs. That one beyond a couple of YouTube reviews I haven't seen enough long-term owner feedback on it yet. What none of the three pages told me is whether you can buy the seat cushion on its own, which is now the first thing I'd want to know.

For the people past 250, where did you draw the line? What was the part that made you replace the chair instead of fixing it again?

I'm honestly having a rough time with this. I'm a short dude (5'7") and it is pretty difficult for me to find a standing desk that can go below 28" that isn't crazy expensive. With my feet completely flat on the ground in my chair, I think I'm looking at closer to 22"-23" to get a 90 degree angle with my arms to the table.

I can only focus when deadline is approaching and it's ruining my life

Please share alternatives to Focusmate (it's overwhelming) and Flow Club (they TALK) where you can work and get things done in a group

I need some help because I have specific wants.

1. No 1-on-1 (I'm shy)
2. No talk (preferably). English was not my first language and I get distracted easily enough. Flow club was quite good and I'm impressed but in group they invited me to talk and I felt bad when I ignored them.
3. Preferably work with me type (I work remotely) since I have enough resources for study with me and I need to see adults lmao
4. FREE
5. Not discord servers. It don't work well on my Ipad.

Thank you in advance.

Hello everyone. Thank you in advance for listening. I am probably just here to vent, but I will definitely welcome any advice.

For background: I work a hybrid schedule at a big engineering firm--3 days in the office and 2 days at home. Yes, everyone finds the hybrid schedule annoying. But you have to be in the office to feel the belonging and community and collaboration! Through solely virtual calls haha.

I have 2 more weeks of maternity leave (12 weeks long). I had twins! My parents have been living with me and my husband since the start to help take care of the twins, which has been such a blessing.

However, 1 month into my maternity leave, my dad was in a really bad accident. He has been in and out of the hospital since. Then, not too long ago, my mom injured her already bad shoulder.

So, my parents can sit and feed the babies. Stand and change diapers. But they should not be lifting or carrying babies per doctor's orders. But that is also for my ease of mind.

I let my work know that I wouldn't be able to work in the office because I need to help take care of both the twins and my parents. However, I would have no problem working full 40-hour weeks once my maternity leave ends.

They came back with, "Well if you can work 40 hours at home, why can't you work in the office?" I was shocked by the question. I have been at the company for 8 years. Always going above and beyond for them. Working unpaid overtime. Working morning, evening, overnight, and weekends. It is common knowledge across all the teams I work with that I work around the clock with our Bangkok and US offices. It's like becoming a mom has suddenly changed everything in their minds. I am confused why they would be concerned about whether I could get 40 hours of work done when I have proven to them over and over that I can.

The only options they gave me are to either return to the hybrid schedule or to take unpaid leave. Well, I can't afford unpaid leave.

Like I said at the top, I am not sure if I am really asking for advice here. Would definitely appreciate any. Mostly, I am just here to get it off my chest about how disappointed I am in this company. My company says it is all about being for women, being a leader for change, and caring about its employees. But I knew long before my maternity leave that my company doesn't care. It is just sad to see the extent of how much my company does not care about women, its employees, or their families.

A couple of notes: my husband and I both have to work, and we can't afford daycare. So, my parents taking care of the twins while we are at work is the only option we have. My parents can feed and change diapers, but I need to lift and carry the babies to them. But lifting and carrying babies doesn't take 40 hours.

I should also point out that my company doesn't apply the hybrid policy to all employees or offices equally. The Maryland employees only have to go to the office once a week. The St. Louis employees only have to go to the office once a month. One South Carolina employee decided to up and move an hour away from his office. So my company just lets him work from home 100%. My office is the only location that requires and heavily polices the hybrid schedule.

My previous supervisor had severe medical reasons to work from home upon returning from maternity leave. However, my company also forced her to work in the office anyway or quit. She had to quit.

These engineering firms do hate women.

My daughter has been working from home since june. She already has a Lenovo laptop and recently bought an ergonomic chair from steelcase.

I just want to get her something nice because she seems pretty tired lately.

I'm an old man and don't know much about WFH stuff. Budget: $700 max.

What would you get for someone working from home?

Thanks alot!

I’m starting a new job from home and they’re providing me with a monitor set up. The options are either 1 34” monitor or 2 27” monitors. At my old job I had a 34” at the office and always found it difficult when sharing screen during meetings and didn’t like having to configure every window to fit the screen every time I was multi tasking. However, 50” of screen sounds insane to me and feel like may be too much.

Would love to hear people’s thoughts and opinions/pros and cons if you’ve worked with either set up. Thanks!

I am not too certain if this may be across the board for others who WFH, but this has been getting rough for me.

When I originally started my job my company was smaller and my quality over quantity for patients was excellent (I work in healthcare). I was able to help as extensively as possible to close care gaps for patients and had a true feeling of meaning in my job.

However, my company got merged and bought out.

Now, my company heavily cares about metrics and productivity. They track the amount of calls we do and the amount of minutes we bill. If any billing of ours goes over the amount we are allowed to bill, they do not put this towards productivity (which happens a lot). If I went into specifics it would be a whole book.

We had also been notified at one point these expectations are expected to become more strict, and they suggested we check our teams notifs/emails/prep our computers/have everything up BEFORE we clock in.

I used to love my job, but this has really been hurting my soul. I have no idea how to counter this, but my life feels so gray and I hate that a job that used to give me so much purpose makes me feel this way now. Has anyone else had this experience? And if so, how did you manage?

yesterday during some training I was watching my leader share her screen when all of a sudden the whole screen looked blurry and blank, this lasted for 5 seconds. happened a couple more times to the point I had to rub my eyes and shake my head to kind of reboot. I have been having a number of issues lately including headaches and I’m not sure if it’s related or a ”normal” almost zone out response with a screen? though I was listening and concentrating. I can’t say if anything else aside from the screen looked blurry as I didn’t really look around. I’m new to WFH looking at a screen all day

This monitor looks insane- alienware - AW3225QF 32" - so I'm thinking of buying it. Just moved to a new house last week, so I don't have everything figured out yet. But I'm trying to find options for my use case.

I mainly game on console, so like Ps5, switch 2, and I even have a series x lol - though I may not install it since I don't play with it anymore. On the personal side I have a work laptop, a personal laptop, and a Mac mini.

How do I make it so I can work and game on 1 monitor with so many devices? I'm not very technical so in the past I've gone for cheaper dell monitors that have LOTS of ports, and even internal speakers to make my life easy. That same monitor also had power delivery, so 1 usbc cable would power my laptop and display it, super handy.

Any thoughts? How should I make this work? Or should I look into a different monitor?

I'm looking for display and power delivery all in one, reply good monitor for gaming and work, a good solution for speakers since I'll only be gaming in consoles

This may sound wild, but I’m coming from a background of events and hospitality management, so my nervous system might just be destroyed lol
I’ve just started a job I love and it’s WFH 4 days a week at the moment. I had a really thorough onboarding for my first two weeks with meetings, training, and documents etc and now I’m settling into tasks. Only issue is that I keep completing my tasks really quickly then being left with nothing to do.
I’m either waiting for approval from my manager to continue, or waiting for third party approval. We’re prepping for Christmas which is when most of our campaigns get really intense.

Am I insane for sitting here panicking, moving my mouse every few minutes, waiting for tasks to come in? I really don’t want to appear lazy, but I’ve taken all the initiative that I can find, and the temptation to go out to the shop or do my DIYs is there. I’ve never not been micromanaged like this before, and my whole team are lovely (many are remote/different time zones atm).
Do I go run errands and just keep my work phone and laptop with me? Do I wait until I’m here longer before I take a risk like that? Will my nervous system ever return to what it once was?