Sharing My Work From Home Experience

It’s been sixteen months that I have been working from home and I have just renovated my home office for the third time.

When I started for an office job six years ago,  I sometimes thought,  can we at the Workforce department do work from home set up.

There was one particular department at the company who was allowed to do work from home whenever they couldn't report to the office for certain circumstances. Sometimes when the weather is bad or they need to look after their kids because their partner is out, they will send call-in advice to do work from home instead.

When I was transferred to the support group from operations, most of my tasks at workforce were capable of doing even without reporting to the office. I am currently the scheduler and submit reports only internally.

So I wonder, if some employees in the company are allowed to work from home, why not give some department privileges to do the same? Anyway I didn’t dare to ask some people I know at the higher position. For sure there are reasons why some employees can do a WFH schedule.

Working From Home To Avoid Being Infected

Here comes the pandemic, honestly I was rejoicing when the company declared to have all employees do work from home. But don’t get me wrong nobody wants this COVID to happen and by having employees advised to work from home in some companies was a good move. At least to avoid being infected by this virus. However not all types of jobs can do work from home set up.

I felt content when finally I am now working at the comfort of my home but sad at the same time that the reason was about the pandemic.

Actually I wasn’t prepared to do work at home. I am living in the largest city of metro manila and I don’t own a house. So it’s kind of hard to make a home office if you are just renting and living with neighbors you don’t personally know .

During the first month, I felt the struggle. It was summer when the President declared a lock down and during that time the heat was unbearable. We don’t have an air conditioning system at home so it is hard to endure the heat in such a workplace.

I made a table out of a used TV rack and set up my small office in one corner of the house.

The computer system generates heat and it adds up to high temperatures at home. Good thing my in-law gave me a Cool Air, a fan with a water container. At least it helps to lessen the heat.

Struggles of Working at home

I thought working from home would be like no hassle because you need not have to hurry. You can start working even when you wake up ten minutes before your shift starts. You will not have to worry about traffic. You will not get wet when it rains. You can save money for transportation. You will no longer worry about what to wear and or you will no longer see the people you don’t like.

Those are the only things that seem favorable when working at home. However I really have struggles during the first quarter of working at home. I am still not getting used to it because there are things to consider about having an office at home.

The first factor affecting working from home is the sudden electricity outage. If you are a freelancer that’s not really a big deal. But if you are working on a schedule basis, that’s kind of different. Another thing is internet downtime. Even if your electricity seems stable but your ISP doesn't seem to cooperate, it is still a big problem. Some companies are having this offsetting of schedules but there are companies who are strict with their policy. They just don’t accept offsetting.

If you are living in an apartment I guess it is more convenient to work at home. But if you are living in a rented house surrounded by neighboring people who seem to have occasions every night, it is kind of a real struggle. Then during the day kids are playing outside shouting and yelling like there is no deadly virus spreading is another struggle.

Mr. DIY Guy

I mentioned earlier that I just made my office table, it's DIY. At first I felt comfortable with the table I made, but as days went by I felt numbness in my right arm up to my shoulder. It appears that the height of the table was not proportional to the height of my chair. So I did some renovations with my home office to make it a more conducive working place. 

The funny thing was, I am a person who seems to work on certain projects whatever comes to mind. I don’t  look for guides or search for the proper standard of measurement of something. 

So when I’m done with the third renovation of my table, that was the only time that I decided to look into the internet about the standard height of a computer table. But as per checking, it seems there is no standard height. There are 27 inches, 25, 22 and even 30 inches which was the first setting of my DIY table. 

Today I just lowered it down and made it 26 inches high. I hope it’s not that low but I don’t feel any numbness in both of my arms while I am writing this article for more than two hours now.  

Anyway this has been one of my stories while still working at home. Some employees at the company are now working onsite in the office and we can still choose to work at home. Unless the management had ordered for all their employees to stop working at home and report to work at the office then, I can do nothing but to obey. 

However the pandemic is not over yet and the COVID cases are not decreasing so I think they will not risk employees' lives just to work in the office.

I am kind of used to this working set up somehow. But I also miss working in the company's premises. I miss the fun and the events. I just hope this pandemic will end soon.

Thanks for reading. Ciao! 

Feel free to check my previous posts:

Little By Little

Faith Healer: Santigwar

Regretfully Yours

The Free Unlimited Browsing Technique

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