- 35744 Posts
- 227 Topics
- 1578 Solutions
Working on a laptop is all well and good - but at the office, I have a docking station with a nice dual-display setup, necessary for teleconferencing and sharing material with others on the call, whilst being able to reference other material on the 2nd display.
I miss the second display when working off the laptop at home all day.
Having to use PC audio can be limiting as well.
Early days yet, I'd love to see the ergonomics report on how I work at home vs in the office 
- 122762 Posts
- 826 Topics
- 7463 Solutions
Fortunately I am retired now, so nothing of any value to add to your thread @Anonymous
Having said that, there has been a request for retired nurses to return to work. In my case that won't be happening anytime soon.
@pgn wrote:Working on a laptop is all well and good - but at the office, I have a docking station with a nice dual-display setup, necessary for teleconferencing and sharing material with others on the call, whilst being able to reference other material on the 2nd display.
I miss the second display when working off the laptop at home all day.
Having to use PC audio can be limiting as well.
Early days yet, I'd love to see the ergonomics report on how I work at home vs in the office
Yep, got a dual setup myself in the office with a nice beefy i7 based desktop with 16GB (similar to my own system but it's got a 9th Gen i7, 32 GB RAM and a GTX 1660 graphics card but alas no room for a dual-screen setup but am ok with single screen gaming.
I have to use an i5 based laptop with 8GB RAM with work's Windows 10 image on (I have no input into what gets baked into the image but if can bog a machine down and the fan in this thing has been whistling all day even though it's well ventilated, when am allowed to go back into the office after all this is done think I'll be negotiating to see if the Boss will let me buy some extra RAM for it.
I've connected it to cheapo makeshift KVM which consists of a USB switchbox so I can use my mouse and keyboard and an HDMI switchbox to use with my own monitor.
- 3310 Posts
- 31 Topics
- 39 Solutions
Been working at home for the best part of 10 years now. The odd trip to an office when needed as basically the stuff I was doing meant I was the only person who knew so an office thing was more annoying being in it and having to put up with the noise let alone the side conversations. Overtime/weekend working does become more relaxed and sometimes enjoyable to do as there is no added pressure from being in an office with management vultures around.
Well the key to working from home is to make sure you are separated from the rest of the house. I'm fortunate in that we converted the garage to my office so there is no real distraction. Apart from the washing machine in the other part of the conversion but thats what earphones are for! The other part is that you need to be disciplined and not go off and do other things. Keep a routine and literally do your hours (within reason). No eating at your desk at lunchtime unless absolutely necessary! I go off and watch tv or go out shopping.
Also get yourself a good chair. Spend money on it as you will never regret it.
Over the years I've gone from a laptop with having an additional screen shared by kvm to doing this last year after getting a new work laptop 
but the upper left one was a bit fussy with power so I bought a proper 27" one (and for fun had 5 going but back down to 4 screens now). If you think that's excessive, I have to work with 4 different remote desktops plus email and other things going. Think that setup shown used a couple of usb3 hdmi adapters and the hdmi port but the current one uses usb-c which the monitor powers the laptop and daisy chain links to the small monitor. Somewhere - and its an aladdins cave of cables and other 'parts' - behind the screens is a usb switch so I can use the keyboard/mouse with my own PC. Which does have the ability to do connect 4+ monitors....
Other tech - I've mentioned many times I dropped the landline and gone 4G which has been incredibly more reliable than landline. The bonus being that I use VOIP/SIP as a backup to the mobile phone though I must point out that I do still have access to the house's landline/broadband as a backup which is connected via homeplug as well. So unless the battery runs out because the mains power outage is taking ages, I'm always connected to the outside world in someway. Pro-tip: always have a backup system in place even if it means temporarily relocating. Trust me, I've done that more than once.
Yes yes boys you've all got nice toys! 
- 12042 Posts
- 94 Topics
- 1121 Solutions
- 7881 Posts
- 468 Topics
- 55 Solutions
Great thread @Anonymous - it would be nice to see some supportive messages and ideas on the community for those who are working from home. I am one of them too. 
Sounds pretty simple but for me having the radio on in the background is super important so I don't start feeling like the walls are closing in. Also having regular video calls and virtual team meetings with colleagues I think is super important, even just to catch up or have a virtual breakfast together and discuss the tasks of the day. It is much easier to fall out of the loop on what's going on with other teams when isolated at home.
Cool cats @sheepdog 
