Remote

[owlmoose]

Last week, my employer announced that we will not be returning to our offices in 2020. And the implication was not that we'll be back at the beginning of the year -- to the contrary, the lease on one of our offices is expiring in January 2021, and the email said the organization will work with any employees who still have offices there to help them get their stuff back. (The lease ending isn't a surprise; staff have been moving out of that building for at least a year now.)

It seemed inevitable, in a way; once Google [announced that employees would be working remotely until next July](), with Apple soon to follow, I have to imagine the dominoes will fall for the rest of the text companies and any other business where work can be conducted, wholly or in part, from anywhere with an internet connection. Still, I wasn't ready to hear that I'll be working from my house for at least another six months, and I need to really figure out how to create a better work space for myself. What I have isn't terrible, but there's much room for improvement. I've already put in a request for a second monitor, with a webcam -- I've been using the webcam on my laptop, as well as treating the laptop screen as my "second monitor", and it puts my neck and back into an awkward position for hours at a time. Even worse is my desk, which I truly hate. It's rickety, it's somehow both too small and too large, and I don't have a decent flat surface for writing. Also, the built-in keyboard tray is much too high. I've long wanted to replace it, and this will be my impetus to do so -- I just need to figure out with what, and also how to choose a desk without being able to sit it and see how it feels. Unfortunately, unlike with the monitor and any other tech equipment, for the desk I'm on my own. Time to poke around the Ikea website and other online furniture options and see what I can find.

Any recommendations?

Comments

Work from home permanently

[elainegrey]

Since i'm working from home all the time, i've made some investments over time. I'm using an Ikea table with VIVO Black Height Adjustable 32 inch Standing Desk Converter to make it a sit stand desk. Because i am not that fond of big screens and second screens, i'm using a Nulaxy Laptop Stand on top of that to get my laptop to a good height. I bought the Steelcase Gesture Chair within a year of working from home full time figuring the investment would be worth it. I've been DELIGHTED with the chair and pretty happy with the sit stand dexk. Not sure you'll find it the right size or with sufficient place to write.

[singedsun]

Yeah our work stated last week flat out, we're not going back in 2020. And they strongly implied that until a vaccine is fully vetted we won't be going back at all. AND EVEN THEN we'll go back in stages, distanced and probably leave a contingent of folks working from home.

[lassarina]

My office is also like this, in large part because at 38, I am solidly in the youngest quintile, and we have a lot of folks who have two or more risk factors (age/underlying conditions), and also because the people coming to our office for service are retirees. Bluntly, we are a disaster waiting to happen given those priors. So we aren't going back at all until there's a vaccine - no more than 9 people can go to the office now, they have to clear it with their leadership and get permission because of all our precautions (which were borne out last week when someone who later tested positive had briefly visited the lobby and had contact with one person who was in the office, so now everyone who was in the office that day is known and we're all banned until they deep clean. It's intense, and I'm grateful.)

[lassarina]

In terms of office furniture, I have a big L-shaped desk that I recently added to because of the long-term nature of working from home now. The original desk has my iMac and a keyboard tray that is at a pretty perfect height for me (I've successfully played MMOs or other computer games for an entire day without hurting myself, which is pretty much the stress test I need.) The other side I added a stand-alone keyboard and mouse tray to; both are removable, so for this week I had off, I could take off the mouse tray and not bump into it. (They were about $80 together on Amazon?) So really, any table that you like can become a desk with adjustable keyboard tray, you don't have to be limited by desk-ness.

Also recommend getting the best chair you can, since it has to be used a lot. I've had the same chair for probably going on ten years now? More? I legit have no idea when I got it, but it's about perfect for me. Though I think I'll need to replace it soon as the cushion is slowly getting compressed. (For me, a huge thing is having padding on the arms, because I lean on my elbows a lot.)