
Ask HN: Do you have a home office (if you work from home)? - Tharkun
Am considering taking on a new job which would involve 2 days&#x2F;week of remote work. My apartment is pretty small, I don&#x27;t really have room for a home office. Most of my out of office coding is done on the couch, but I don&#x27;t think that scales to 16+hours&#x2F;week.<p>Do you have a home office? Why (not)? Any tips?<p>Thanks!
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p0d
I’m in Ireland and made a shed office in my garden. I’m aware being in an
apartment probably means you are gardenless but I’ll throw my hat into the
ring anyway.

My shed is 10x8 and insulated. It has double glazed windows I got from
gumtree. I have power running from my house and an ethernet cable. Both above
ground for most of their run.

I have a raspberry pi turning a 500w heater on/off using a relay and
temperature probe. I have conquered the winter months but I have not been able
to handle the recent heatwave. I’m working on this at the moment.

Being out of the way is important for both myself and my family. I don’t want
to be disturbed by them or spoil the general atmosphere for them either.

We are blessed in Ireland with much green. Apologies if my answer is out of
reach for you. I just like talking about my shed.

~~~
mark212
Sounds like a great set up. I have something similar (a bit bigger at 12’ x
14’) here in Southern California. No heat and in the summer it does get stuffy
but I have a standing fan and a ceiling fan and that helps. When we built it,
I had the electrician vastly over-wire the place with outlets and circuit
breakers.

I agree 100% about separating work from home. Feels wonderful to shut the door
on work and go home at the end of the day, even if it’s only a few steps away.

~~~
p0d
As a favour I made a one page website for an electrician I knew eight years
ago when he started out on his own. He returned the favour by wiring my shed
office years later.

The webpage is terrible but it has brought him a lot of business :-)

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montrose
I've worked at home for decades. In the beginning when I had small apartments,
I used to put a table with my computer on it inside a closet. I'd open up the
closet door, pull up a chair, and voila, office.

In those days, monitors were thick, and the web didn't exist. Now that
monitors are thinner and computers have become many people's de facto TVs,
there would be less advantage in doing this.

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saluki
I've been working from home for almost six years.

Last year I finally setup a desk area in a finished room in the basement. It's
my main office space, has windows so I can see the backyard.

Tables and office chair is from IKEA they have some good ones that look nice
and are priced reasonably and comfortable to sit in.

I have a desktop (pc) setup with dual monitors and a laptop (mac)
stand/external monitor both setup. Check out the rain laptop stand on amazon.
Definitely work with dual monitors or laptop screen and an external.

And get an external laptop keyboard and mouse (I use apple keyboard and
mouse).

Before that I had a computer enclosure cabinet where I would setup my laptop
and external monitor. We just happened to have that though.

Before that I worked mainly on my laptop at the kitchen table, breakfast bar,
recliner, sofa, coffee shop or sports bar.

I still move around quite a bit and work out of the house if I need a change
of scenery. Although I do less of that now that I have a nice desk area.

In the beginning I would just use what you have. Then add an office chair,
then a desk. Till you see how you like working. You definitely don't need a
dedicated room.

When you are working around the house with your laptop I would get an
inexpensive plastic laptop stand that you can use if you do work from a sofa
or recliner at first. They prevent the laptop from getting overheated, if you
just have it on your lap or pillow it can prevent air flow around it.

Working from home is one of the greatest things out there. When I think back
to commuting, spending time going in to the office every day I wish I'd done
it sooner.

Good Luck.

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brudgers
In my home office, I use a Poang chair from Ikea. Been doing it for about 2.5
years. I don't have a lot of paper in my workflow. A couch would work for me
about as well...

...anyway, to me there's no reason not to use a couch first and figure out if
it does or does not work. If after a few weeks or months it doesn't work,
you'll have a better idea what will and won't work for you. Before spending
money.

Good luck.

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bowlich
I've been working from home remotely 100% of the time for five years now. I'd
say a dedicated space for the majority of the work is a good plan, although
it's also nice to grab the laptop and go out to a cafe, or work on the porch
on a good day.

My set up:

300 square foot room, dual 24" monitors on an 4'x6' drafting table + stool for
sitting/standing. Desktop, plus battery back-ups (desktop is set up to
automatically boot back up if there's power loss), two internet providers for
fallback, static IP from the primary ISP to the desktop so I can easily remote
in while on the road. Synced laptop so I can just grab it and go with my
current work-state already saved.

~~~
AlexAmee
How do you sync your laptops ? I've tried that a few times but I always missed
something.

~~~
bowlich
I use Resilio Sync:

[https://www.resilio.com/individuals/](https://www.resilio.com/individuals/)

Although, I've also been hearing some good things about Sync-Thing.

For a while I used a set of rsync and unison scripts but they required too
much manual intervention resulting in a lot of collisions.

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alexbrower
I have a home office in San Francisco. With a remote team including direct
reports nine hours ahead of me, it’s important to me that it’s a specific room
that’s mostly dedicated for work. When I’ve had guests in town who take the
room, I work from the living room but it’s not the same. I can work from
anywhere—but day-to-day, I like to have \- a decent sized desk \- pen and
paper handy \- screen real estate (e.g., home office, I have two 27” monitors
in addition to my MBPR; setup isn’t as polished at corporate office where I
have one 21” external display. Still, better than one.)

Prior to being in a position where I pretty much _had_ to work from home
certain days, I found it unnatural. I couldn’t imagine not going into the
office... Getting the workspace right helped. Leveraging communication tools
helped replicate the hallway conversations I missed a lot initially. (Quick
video calls > chat > email).

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rahimnathwani
The best tip I can give is to set up your desk, chair, screen and input
devices at the best heights.

This means, roughly:

0) Make sure you have an external keyboard, mouse and monitor so you don't
have to put up with laptop ergonomics for extended periods of time.

1) Set the height of your seat as high as you can whilst keeping your feet
firmly on the ground.

2) Set the height of the keyboard and mouse so that, when you sit on the chair
with your shoulders relaxed, and your fingers on the keyboard, your forearms
are parallel to the ground. If you cannot adjust raise your desk, stack pieces
of wood on the table. If you are short, like I am, add a wooden slide-out
keyboard tray under the desk surface.

3) Set the height of the monitor so that your eyes are level with the vertical
centre of the display.

4) (Optional) Get a folding laptop support stand, to elevate your laptop such
that its screen in the same way as the monitor.

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davismwfl
I've worked remotely since around 2008, both as a founder with employees and
as an employee.

Yes, having dedicated workspace is the best way to go, but it doesn't have to
be a dedicated office though. Personally, I do have a dedicated office, but I
also have equipment to support the hardware development lifecycle, so I need
that extra and dedicated space. However, I work some days from the kitchen
table, the couch, the patio or wherever I might be. Personally, I find by
mixing it up makes me way more productive than if I just sit in my office
everyday.

So if I was you I wouldn't rush for dedicated space. Try different places and
just mix it up some for awhile and figure out what works for you. 2 days a
week isn't hard to do from the couch/table if you personally are productive
from there.

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nataz
You may find this arstechnica home office exposed article useful. It's kinda
dated now, but you can see pictures plus a short blurb from folks who work at
home in a remote office set up. It's part of a bigger series they run,
including a "chairstechnica" in the article as a link.

[https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/11/where-and-how-do-
ars...](https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/11/where-and-how-do-ars-staffers-
work-our-computers-let-us-show-you-them/)

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Samon
I work from home 3-4 days a week, and absolutely have a home office setup. As
it falls into the "two or more days per week" category, my home office is
considered a "remote office" by my employer for workplace health-and-safety
purposes. This means I needed to take photos, and fill out a declaration that
the setup was ergonomically sound (chair, desk/keyboard/mouse/monitor height,
lighting, etc), that there werent any dangers/risks around, etc. Certainly no
way I could get away with sitting on a couch or at the kitchen table (well I
_can_ , I just have to say that I'm not...). Welcome to big corporate CYA!

~~~
Tharkun
Home office bureaucracy? That's a new one. Is this because your employer
mandates it, or is it some kind of government regulation?

~~~
Samon
Employer. The paperwork pretty much covered a lot of what would be required if
it were a company operated office, stuff like there being smoke detectors,
fire extinguisher, a basic first aid kit, that the work area was adequately
sized and in an ergonomic configuration, that all exits from the work area are
clear and unobstructed, no slip/trip hazards, that the lighting is
appropriate, proper ventilation and adequate heating/cooling, that all
electrical cords and appliances are in good order (didn't need to go to the
level of 'test & tag' thankfully) and safely secured, etc.

It also stated that the company is entitled to send someone to randomly
inspect my work area if they choose to... I wouldn't expect this to ever
actually occur, it certainly hasn't happened for me in the last 5 years I've
been working in this arrangement.

I know a number of years back there was a legal case where a big Australian
company was ordered to pay the legal and medical costs of an employee who
injured herself after slipping down the stairs twice in two months while
working from home... so I guess it's not that crazy.

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oblib
I work at home and have for a long time.

Right now I'm in our basement in a room that used to be a bedroom for our sons
who've now moved out. It's a pretty big room, about 12' x 20' but I don't take
up near all that space for work.

My desk is just a cheap 30" x 6' table with fold up legs. I have a Mac
connected to two monitors on it (18" and 24") and a Raspberry Pi connected to
another 16" monitor, and a USB switch for the keyboard/mouse to switch between
the Mac and Pi.

You do really want a good chair. I don't have any recommendations for that
except to say you need to find one that's comfortable for you.

Personally, I love working from home. I'm way more productive at home. When
I'm coding I really don't like distractions so I don't want anyone popping in
on me.

After a long session of coding, or when I hit a wall, I need to take a break.
I generally go to Facebook or come here to give my head a rest. I imagine that
would be really hard to do working in an office, especially if breaks were
scheduled.

Having to stop coding based on a scheduled time would be tough for me. Once I
dive into it several hours can go by in what feels like no time at all and I
get a lot of work done when I immerse myself in it like that.

I can imagine that some people might not do well working like this. They'd
miss the routine of going to an office and working with others and even not
having anyone looking over their shoulder making sure they're working.

For me, learning to code was motivated by the concept of "telecommuting to
work". I think that's a phrase from the mid-80s that was trending in Los
Angeles where I lived and other big urban areas at the time. It took me about
10 years to make the transition but I've been doing it since the mid-90s and
working solely on web base projects since `99.

Other than getting some face to face time, which is a good thing, I don't see
a real need for coders to drive someplace to work. If I were you I'd be
thinking about how I could get them to let me work from home more, or
entirely.

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throwaway541
Get ear plugs if you have noisy neighbors (read: loud music all day).

Working from the couch will hurt your back. Get a chair and a big desk.

Don't tell anyone you're home, they might disturb you while working.

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inertiatic
I've worked in an office where I was doing most of my coding sitting in a
sofa. If you are used to this work style (single screen, trackpad) then you
can be fine for however long you work like that. Might need to get up sooner
rather than later but I don't see any other problems with it.

If you have people around you and you are easily distracted then you probably
need a dedicated office, mostly for the isolation and not for the office
itself.

~~~
Tharkun
I find that long sofa coding sessions leave me with poor posture and neck
pain, but maybe there's a way to improve my sofa posture.

~~~
inertiatic
I have bad posture but it's a lifelong condition. I also have lifted weights
for years nd my back laughs at the notion of hurting from sitting on a surface
that's too soft.

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superasn
Yes you should have it for any kind of serious coding.

Aside from thr other advantages just having a dual monitor setup with a
mechanical keyboard can boost your productivity by quite a lot!

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cygned
Have been working from home for four years. After moving into a larger
apartment, I learned that a dedicated room for work is a must (at least for
me). My office is very minimalistic and only used for work. I hardly work
outside of it - mainly because of my two screens, but also so that I have a
mental separation.

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dyeje
I work remote 4 days a week and have a home office. Having an ergonomic setup
is important to me. If you're strapped for space, I would suggest a small desk
and a nice chair as a bare minimum.

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cm2012
I worked from my couch for a year, now I have a bigger place with an office. I
expected a productivity boost but it's honestly been no different.

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jason_slack
I use a John Boos table, large monitor, external keyboard and mouse,
headphones etc. I keep it pretty minimal.

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gt2
No, because I find it too constraining and would rather setup someplace new
(inside or out) for each new task.

