Working from home....

September 27, 2015 by Rob Kahl

Working from home

I am surprised I am able to write this! I am currently in the middle of one of the worst bouts of man flu that you can possibly imagine. Well I know you chaps can imagine it and are sending my your thoughts and sympathies, you girls have no idea! If you had something as bad as this you would be crippled and bed ridden for days. Us chaps have to soldier on and as you, as always we keep quiet about it and just man up.

It is always a bit of a tough one when you are unwell though when it comes to work. In a small company like ours you really feel it when a person is off sick. We are so busy that the rest of the team are really under the cosh if we are short staffed, so if you are unwell you feel obliged to go in and try to do the right thing to pull your weight. On the other hand though, if you go in unwell and pass on your germs to everybody else and wipe them out then you are really going to be enemy number one.

Some of my friends are able to work from home which seems to be the perfect solution. Unfortunately, my job requires me to be in the office or out showing property. There are only so many e-mails I can send from home so it is not really an option for me. I think it is always an excuse for a bit of a skive as well. When my daughter was younger my wife and I took her to a baby sensory class thingy and there was a girl there with her son who was from my wife’s work. She was supposed to be working from home and looked a bit shocked when she saw us.

On another occasion, an awful long time ago, colleagues of mine went to value a house. They met the wife downstairs and she said for them to just wander around and help themselves. She did say though that her husband was upstairs working from home. They thought nothing of it and measured up, took some photos and then wandered upstairs. They walked in to the main bedroom and there was the husband, working or sort of. He was sat up in bed with a big wooly dressing gown on, smoking a large cigar. At the foot of the bed were 4 burly men all in suits chatting to him whilst on the bed was piles and piles of cash. He was quite relaxed and invited the guys in to measure the room and do the details, but trust me, they didn’t stick around to find out what was going on.

I have to admit though, that if I was able to work from home, I think I too would be easily distracted. After all Homes Under The Hammer is on at 10am every morning and Countdown is on in the afternoon. Also, at the moment my house is hardly conducive to work from (see my blogs 'Robs Renovation). In addition to building works, I have a 2 year old in the middle of potty training and builders crawling all over the house requiring cups of tea every half an hour!

I have seen some fabulous home offices and studies over the years. They seem to fall into 2 separate categories; the thought out permanent type and the temporary shove in a corner kind. 

A lot of the permanent types tend to be the smallest bedroom in the house being given up for a desk, filing cabinet and computer. Perfect little rooms where people can shut themselves away, close the door and concentrate on whatever it is that they are pretending to do. Even the purpose built studies that are on the ground floor in converted garages or built into roof's can be useful spaces. That said, if they're still within the main house and their as noisy as mine, then if you're on a conference call, it is not very professional to have Peppa Pig being sung at the top of your daughters voice or builders swearing and shouting in the back ground.

Personally the only way I could work from home is have some form of separation. I have seen some great outbuildings converted into offices that are perfect to be able to get away from everything. From detached roof spaces converted into studies or even large offices able to house staff if required, its amazing what you can achieve. You can even nowadays buy purpose built offices to put in your garden. Log cabins or contemporary garden rooms able to be set up as work spaces with separate phone lines and secure enough to leave things like computers and valuables in overnight.

Also, being as I am I always think how it would look if you were thinking of selling your property. I will always recommend that bedrooms are displayed as bedrooms so if you have your smallest room set out with a desk it needs to be moved out and a bed put back so people can see the size and how it can be used properly. Even if you have a study in your house that is fully functional and used every day it needs to be tidy and uncluttered. You may be able to work in chaos (like everybody else that works in my office) but the person viewing your home needs to be able to see past the mountain that is your in tray.....and god forbid that you have to try and work from a tiny desk shoved under the stairs or on the dining table. Note to anyone selling their property; it all needs to go away!

This article is by Rob Kahl at Scott & Stapleton