Working from home - my thoughts one year on 🏡
It's been over a year since we started working from home - something I thought I'd never do.
I remember in the first job I had, I worked from home for 2 hours once. And I hated every second of it.
Maybe it was because I had to RDP onto the machine I was using. Whatever the reason, I thought I'd never have to work from home.
But, here we are. In a strange, new world of work.
I'm not a fan of change, I prefer a routine. So I thought that in this week's blog post I'd share my thoughts on working from home (after working from home for over a year).
The setup
A challenge that I found early on is space on my desk. It's not unusual for me to have multiple devices on my desk (at one stage recently, I had my iPhone, iPad and Mac on my desk!)
So, a few months after the switch to working from home, I decided to invest in a bigger desk. In fact, here's a picture of my setup!
There are a few things I need to do, such as upgrading the webcam to something more modern. I'm still using a Microsoft LifeCam HD-3000 which came out in 2010! 😱
The desk came from IKEA (which I can't remember the name), and it's a massive desk. Seriously, I can fit so much stuff on here! It's great when I'm using multiple devices. When I got my desk, I ended up rotating a lot of the furniture in the room I'm in to make better use of the space available.
For those wondering about the rest of the setup...
- Work laptop is Lenovo ThinkPad
- My PC (where I do most of my projects on, like this website!)
- Intel Core i7 6700K @ 4.00GHz (Skylake)
- 16GB Dual-Channel RAM @ 1499MHz
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (MSI)
- The OS (Windows 10) runs on a Samsung SSD 750 EVO 250GB
- Whilst everything else is on a 1TB Seagate hard drive
- The monitor is an Acer Predator XB271HU 27 inch Monitor (1440p resolution)
- The speakers are Creative T30 (still going strong after six years of daily use!)
- Headphones are Microsoft Surface Headphones 2 (Multi device support is so useful!)
- The mouse is Microsoft Intellimouse (still one of the best wired mice available)
- The keyboard is a Ducky One 2 SF 65% mechanical keyboard (Cherry Brown MX switches)
- The chair is a Humanscale Freedom chair. I got this second hand nearly five years ago!
I like my setup but I think I'll be upgrading my main PC at some point (maybe I'll switch to a Mac for my next machine - the performance on the M1 is appealing. Heck - maybe even give Linux a spin?)
But enough about my setup, let's get back to talking about working from home.
What I like about working from home.
The first benefit I like is that I don't need to do a commute to work - which means I don't need to wake up early. Getting more sleep has been great - it'll be something that I'll miss when I go back to the office.
Another benefit is the fact that I'm much more relaxed at home. I didn't expect this since I'm still doing work but the change in environment has improved my mood. I guess this goes hand in hand with the fact that I don't have a commute anymore.
A hidden benefit that I didn't notice until recently is that I can customise my home office to my liking. I'm not restricted to the setup I had in the office. I can use my own monitors, keyboard, mouse and so on.
What I don't like about working from home
One thing I miss is the social interaction with colleagues. From discussing work, to getting lunch - I do miss socialising with people in person. There are some colleagues that I don't work with on a day to day basis but saw them in person in the office.
Something else that I (oddly) miss is the office atmosphere. It sounds strange to miss it, but I do. It's something that I've gotten used to over the years and for that to disappear is strange to me (I don't like change so it might be related to that).
I don't like the fact that work is always within arms reach. From the photo I posted above, you can see my work laptop to the left hand side. And I have found myself working overtime and working on the weekend more often than I have before the pandemic started. Improving the work/life balance is something I want to work on so that I can finish work for the day without thinking or worrying about it.
Another problem I could see happening is getting support if any of my hardware fails. If there's something that can't be done remotely, it's getting hardware support. If a replacement machine has to be sent to me via courier then that could take days, and then I need to set everything up. Which leads me to my next point...
Not everything can be done remotely. There are some things that can only be done in person.
Am I sold on working from home? And is it the future of work?
From the above it would seem that there are more negatives than positives. But in my view, the positives do outweigh the negatives. I think working a few days a week in the office will address majority of the issues I have, but we'll see how that works out when I start going back to the office.
But am I sold on working from home as the future of work?
Not yet.
I think there will always be a need to meet people face to face. Whether it's at an office, a conference, an event etc. The need to meet in person will be there. Plus, working from home isn't for everyone. The office might be a place where someone can focus on their work or they might not have space at home - so we shouldn't write off the office just yet.
But the technology of today has made it way easier and possible to work from home (no more using RDP for me!)
What next?
There are a few improvements that I want to make to my home office (such as getting a modern webcam for video calls), and I may have to get around to upgrading my personal PC at some point (but saving money comes first).
But apart from that, I'll continue to work from home with the setup I have.
If you found this link on LinkedIn, why not share a photo of what your setup looks like? Or share your thoughts on working from home!
Thanks for reading! 👍
