MAY I SEE YOU IN MY OFFICE?

MARCH 2019

Making your workplace work better. For many people these days, it also means having a comfortable, well-designed workplace…at home.

That’s because more and more of us are finding ourselves either working from home, telecommuting, working evenings and weekends—away from the office—and doing it all or lots of the time.

And while this issue may not talk about the typical workplace recruiting, retention, and human capital topics I usually share, I think you’ll find it both interesting and useful. I did.

MAY I SEE YOU IN MY OFFICE?

Making your home workplace work better.

Tips for creating—even sharing a home workplace.

They say home is where the heart is, but for millions of Americans, it’s also their place of employment. And for many others…a workplace away from the office.

According to a report released with Global Workplace Analytics last spring, nearly 3% of the US workforce, or 3.9 million people, telecommute at least half the time. That’s a 115% increase since 2005. And that number is likely to go up.

And what if you had to share that space? With more people flocking toward these arrangements, more families, couples, and roommates are finding themselves facing each other (literally) and the challenges of working together in close quarters.

WHAT’S THE FORMULA FOR A CONVIVIAL WORK ENVIRONMENT FOR TWO PEOPLE?

Having similar personalities and work styles helps.

Create a gender-neutral office with accessories that personalize your work area. Working on similar or like things help as well. And being equally neat or messy makes things easier. One of the biggest challenges of sharing space is the ever-constant sprawl of tasks that keep both parties busy.

There’s a psychology to sharing spaces that can easily be adopted by anyone, according to R. Terry Cline, an architect from Portland, Maine, who believes that finding and creating the right space at home is key.

“Being crammed in an undersized space can feel like being a sardine in a tin can,’’ Cline said. “We’re much larger than our physical bodies. Our ergonomic reach defines such a larger body. Violating these body spaces without permission can add a sense of stress.’’

Accessibility and ease of use is another prevalent driver.
Even if couples have agreed to share a coworking space, having one’s own dedicated area within that space is crucial to both productivity and relationship-building.’’

If the space is small, solutions do exist.

Floating desks can make the space appear less cramped, and if organized properly, will provide ample personal storage underneath.

Experts say don’t be a space hog. When planning your furniture layout, realistically assess your own and the other person’s space and time requirements. Sure, the perfectly symmetrical partners’ or double-desk setup looks great, but if one of you is only in your office for a couple hours a day, and the other is in there grinding it out from sunup to sundown, with the commensurate collateral to support their habit, then play nice and assign them the larger part of the space if they need it.’’

And don’t forget to take the time each person works into consideration when you are picking lighting. Early birds should be stationed nearest to windows to catch the daylight; night owls need adequate lighting, both task and overhead, to burn the midnight oil.

SOMETIMES, THE KEY TO COHABITATING AND COWORKING TOGETHER IS IN THE FINER DETAILS.

Get some soundproof headphones.

People focus in different ways. Soundproof headphones can be a work-saver when you want to control the environment around you.

Organize your paper-handling personality.

Sound pollution with your office mate can be distracting, but the same can be said of paper excess. Are you a stacker? A minimalist? Or a mess? Organize for your paper-handling personality. Even if someone swears that they know where everything is, desktop chaos is still an eyesore to look at and distracting to work next to.’’

You should develop an organizational plan everyone can commit to. If you’re sharing an office or area with your organizational antithesis, know that anyone’s resolute refusal to rehabilitate his or her bad habits is flat-out partnership suicide.

Need a viable solution for the interim paper shuffle?

Tiered rolling carts are perfect drop zones to smartly corral papers and files between sorting and eliminating that partnership-wrecking ‘unkempt stacks and piles’ look.

RESPECT DEADLINES AND CREATE A DISTINCT LINE BETWEEN WORK AND LIFE.

Beyond the litter of a shared office, there are other obvious principles that warrant attention.

There are times when one of you will have no work at all but the other needs to work into the early hours. This can easily ruin dinner plans or throw a wrench into any evening activities, but it must be respected as the tables can easily be turned. Thankfully, when you both work from home, plans can easily be changed.

“Set firm boundaries between work and personal life,’’ added Natalie Hornyak, an SEO specialist. Both Hornyak and her husband Chris work remotely and full time together in a shared office. “When Chris and I close the office door behind us at the end of the day, we remind ourselves that work stays in this specific room.” It’s difficult, because when you work in the same place — whether in the same physical space or at the same company — your spouse ceases to be the best sounding board for work stress, because it’s easy to take their stress on as your own.

If you spend a lot of time at “the other office” and because your work there never really stops, get to work. There’s no reason not to make your home workplace work better.