Is working from home still working for you? Part 1

Simone Scott is a friend who told me about her troubles with working from home. I thought I would share her story with you as I am sure many people can relate to it. This is a two part series, the first part is all about the "working from home woes" in Simone's words. The second part, is all about what can be done to fix these woes, where I give some tips. First here is her story.

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I don’t know about you, but when this COVID-19 pandemic first started I was actually quite excited about one thing…the prospect of working from home. There was something about the idea of not having to sit in traffic in the mornings, not having to plan and pack lunches and being able to wear whatever I felt like while working.

Even though I was happy to work from home for a few weeks I never thought it would turn into a few months! You see I’d worked from home before when I was in my twenties. Back then I remember thinking how hard it was to separate work life from home life, and not loving that aspect of working in my living space.

But, now that I’m in my thirties and seem to be suffering from constant back pain…well, let’s just say I had a whole other set of concerns to consider this time around. For the first two weeks I think it went quite well. I seemed to be able to work with minimal pain if I rolled my wheelie chair forward and sort of slouched over the desk.

I mean, it wasn’t meant to be a long-term thing so I propped my screen up on the desk with some old books to give it some more height and got to work. By the end of week two it was a different story. By then the pain had gotten quite bad so I had to find another chair and switch them around every couple of days.

I rearranged things a tiny bit (as best I could in my limited space) by following guidelines a physio friend shared with me. But still every few days I would be in pain. Then the seasons changed, and man let’s just say I battled to stay positive while freezing at my home desk. Since lockdown first started I’ve moved house and am now in a completely different space but those same problems still plague me.

When I first moved to my new room/office I couldn’t see much on the screen because of the sun shining directly in my face. I’m lucky enough to have the only room in the house that gets a bit of natural sunlight each day. It really helps to warm me up, but on the other hand it also seriously impacted my ability to read what I’m looking at (not great when you’re a copywriter and editor)!

After a few weeks of struggling in this way I got fed up and reshuffled all of the furniture. I think it’s now arranged in such a way that I can never move anything again. Although this small space gets a little cluttered every now and then, and sleeping and working in the same space is far from ideal, it’s probably the best I could do for now. I know my situation is possibly unique. Not everyone is working from the same room that they sleep in. But I suspect that many of us are probably dealing with the problem of not having enough space, or our work surfaces just not being arranged in the most logical/optimal way. And who can blame us. Simone Scott.

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In the next post, I share some strategies that both Simone and you can use to make working from home a better experience. Shelly :)