Working from Home

Mitechniq

Starting next week I will be working from home, I have a very spacious Study room. I was wondering what type of equipment do you see essential in your business office.

I was looking at buying a Jabra MS 510 for a conference phone.

scaredoftests

My husband works from home. I did it for 6 months. Anyway, A MFC printer..a standup desk and a 'Do not Disturb' sign

Expect

I have been working from home for the past 4 months...

Essential hardware:
1. make sure you have a good monitor (dual screen setup is the best if you ask me)
2. Headphones - extremely important
3. comfortable set of a mouse and a keyboard (mine are both ergonomic, theyre more expensive, but they're definitely worth it
4. Comfortable chair

nice to have:
1. good internet connection for VPN
2. Docking station for the laptop

Mitechniq

So I have dual monitors now, but I will look for a better mouse and keyboard.
My laptop should come in this weekend, I will look for a docking station once it comes in.

scaredoftests

coffee machine..so you don't have to leave the room. KIDDING. you need to get up and walk around. My husband has a treadmill desk, so at least he is active while working.

Cyberscum

Beer or wine, keep the hard stuff out of the office. You have to have limits.

scaredoftests

Cyberscum wrote: »

Beer or wine, keep the hard stuff out of the office. You have to have limits.

LOL..Good one

joelsfood

Whiteboard
Desk phone with headset (sometimes nothing beats a handset)
Dual monitors
docking station
a door with a lock
Comfortable chair
window (need sunlight)
Someone to make sure you take breaks. Don't stay at you rdesk all day, you'll end up working more than you used to when you went into the office, not necessarily a healthy thing

networker050184

A nice phone set up is key if you're going to be on calls a lot. I had my company send me an IP phone/VPN and headset. Soft phone was just too unreliable.

Boundries are a must. Sometimes I'll end up working 12+ hours a day because there isn't that commute to break it up.

stryder144

joelsfood wrote: »

Someone to make sure you take breaks. Don't stay at your desk all day, you'll end up working more than you used to when you went into the office, not necessarily a healthy thing

Solid advice! I would also make sure that your desk gives you ample leg room. Mine doesn't give me enough, so, that actually forces me to stand up and walk around rather frequently.

Mitechniq

I have a google voice phone number, has anybody used this VoIP phone:

[h=1]Obihai Technology OBI1032PA IP VoIP Phone[/h]

bryanthetechie

If you have needy pets, you may want to put a buffer between them and your door if possible. I've used one of those child gates to keep our pets from coming down the hall to my office so they don't scratch or whine at my office door. I tried to sit them down and tell them the importance of my work, but neither dog nor cat really seem to care...

olaHalo

Make your second monitor a vertical monitor. Saves more time than you'd think

UnixGuy

5 seasons of The Big Bang theory and Modern Family. Gotta be productive!

E Double U

Worked from home this week with my boys (ages 2 and 3) because daycare is closed until next Tuesday. My essentials for survival:

- Conference calls must be scheduled during their nap.
- My phone's mute button when I am on a team meeting and my boys are awake.
- FaceTime call with oma and opa for as long as possible.
- Every single toy in our home to keep them busy.
- I hate to have the tv on during the day, but sometimes Dora and Elmo are lifesavers.

Whenever I work from home without the boys:

- Hefeweizen w/ lunch
- Philips iPhone/iPod speaker dock

HailHogwash

A nice ergo chair(pricey though)..http://www.amazon.com/Aeron-Chair-Herman-Miller-Adjustable/dp/B00023SWXC.

kohr-ah

A comfy chair and a physical phone that vpns to your cucm/pbx.

I sometimes hook my laptop to the tv that way I can get up and walk around but see my laptop on a big screen if something comes up.

Mitechniq

Well the company is giving me an iPhone, so I back to getting a Jabra for conference calls.

What I have on my Amazon wish list so far:

Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 for Business

Logitech M570 Wireless Trackball

(Replacing my Dell s2340m) HP Pavilion 27xw 27-in IPS LED Backlit Monitor

Jabra SPEAK 510 Wireless Bluetooth Speaker for Softphone and Mobile Phone

I currently have a HP OfficeJet Pro 8620

I am also a huge music buff so my study room is already setup with music equipment:

BW PM1
NOVA 125SE
OPPO 103D

HailHogwash,

That chair does look awesome, lets see if I can convince my wife.

RHEL

Large desk to separate my personal desktop gear from my work stuff, comfortable chair, wireless printer, file cabinets, good headset, 2x 29" ultrawide monitors, beer fridge, door

NetworkNewb

HailHogwash wrote: »

A nice ergo chair(pricey though)..http://www.amazon.com/Aeron-Chair-Herman-Miller-Adjustable/dp/B00023SWXC.

Have you used that chair? I worked at company that used them for everyone in the office and I did not care for them. It was a couple years ago, so don't remember exact specifics of what I didn't like but I remember a few of us trying to lobby for different chairs than these.

I remember looking them up and couldn't believe how expensive they were.

Verities

Expect wrote: »

I have been working from home for the past 4 months...

Essential hardware:
1. make sure you have a good monitor (dual screen setup is the best if you ask me)
2. Headphones - extremely important
3. comfortable set of a mouse and a keyboard (mine are both ergonomic, theyre more expensive, but they're definitely worth it
4. Comfortable chair

nice to have:
1. good internet connection for VPN
2. Docking station for the laptop

I'm setup like this... one monitor displays the desktop of my home pc and the other monitor connects to my work laptop docking station. Attached to both computers I have a KVM switch so I can switch input between the two computers without having two sets of keyboard/mouses. I highly recommend installing a software based KVM if you can, specifically:

Input Director - Software KVM to Control Multiple Computers

Blackout

I can't work from home, my wife thinks when I am at home I can work on the honey do list.

E Double U

Blackout wrote: »

I can't work from home, my wife thinks when I am at home I can work on the honey do list.

Groceries on my lunch break. Laundry, picking up toys, cleaning the kitchen, and other miscellaneous things throughout the day.

HailHogwash

NetworkNewb wrote: »

Have you used that chair? I worked at company that used them for everyone in the office and I did not care for them. It was a couple years ago, so don't remember exact specifics of what I didn't like but I remember a few of us trying to lobby for different chairs than these.

I remember looking them up and couldn't believe how expensive they were.

Yes I have.. I worked at a place that used them and I thought they were really good. I do know there are different sizes of this chair e.g medium or large, plus head rest attachment that makes it even more expensive.

NetworkNewb

HailHogwash wrote: »

Yes I have.. I worked at a place that used them and I thought they were really good. I do know there are different sizes of this chair e.g medium or large, plus head rest attachment that makes it even more expensive.

Yea, it was kind of funny. There was only a handful of large chairs in the call center I worked at. Everyone wanted the large ones, they would grabbed up quick if there was ever a free one.

Blackout

E Double U wrote: »

Groceries on my lunch break. Laundry, picking up toys, cleaning the kitchen, and other miscellaneous things throughout the day.

Man I wish I had 4 hands so I could give this four thumbs up.