Remote workers and home offices - What is your setup?

Mooseboost · June 2018

I have never worked fully remote before, but my new position will be 100% remote. I built my home office to be ideal (I think) for the kind of work I will be doing. Setting the room up was not as easy as I was expecting and I found out that a lot of little things were needed like blackout curtains and a window AC unit. I thought building the office would be pure tech but a lot of other small tasks needed to come together. Worrying about power outlet locations and other things. I've never had a "gaming" room, so to some the concept having to worry about these things isn't new. I've always just had a PC on a desk and that is it.

So what kind of setup do you guys have? When you built your office, what challenges did you come across?

wd40 · June 2018

I don't work from home but I have a similar similar setup

, 3 x 27" DELL P2714H (I bought the sound bar that attaches to the bottom of the screen for the middle one).

I think you need to invest in a good chair if you don't have one.

SteveLavoie · June 2018

I am not 100% remote, but I did have a period where I was at lot at home. Your screen setup is good, but it is a matter of personal preference. There is few thing important to consider. A good chair, nice lighting for work, nice phone with wireless headset, good cell phone reception, a good webcam and mic for online meeting. Do a few test with family member for your webcam, you want to look professional, not as the geek working from his basement, so make sure that your background is appropriate. The acoustic of the room can be considered too, you dont want to sound "echo".

Finally, you need a door to close the office, so your family know that when you are there, you are working. There is nothing more unprofessionnal than doing a call and suddenly your kids, your dogs, or something else interfere. It can ok, if you working at home only in dire situation, but with a fully remote job, those little detail can seriously hurt you.

EANx · June 2018

I rarely work remotely but I have some staff that perform varying percentages of their work remotely. How's your redundancy? Maybe I missed it but I didn't see a UPS in the photo. Also, if power drops in the entire neighborhood, your router still might not get too far even with a UPS. Have you tested the hot-spot capability on your phone with your connection to work? Do you have a device you can use in that instance that has a longer battery life, like a laptop? Of course, a generator would be best if you have one.

networker050184 · June 2018

I've been doing the 100% remote going on five years now. My office is just kind of cobbled together over the years at this point. It started as a single monitor and my laptop. Now I have a standup desk, multiple monitors, new keyboard, etc. Blackout curtains definitely a must if you're going to be on video chat a lot. I usually get bored and end up working all over the house though. Some time on the deck if it's nice, chill on the couch for a bit, I have a bar and stools in the kitchen I hang out at. It's 100% standing when in the actual office though which has been a life saver on the back.

I've contemplated doing a co-working space once or twice a week just to get out of the house a bit, but honestly I'd probably just end up not going and waste my money. The networking with the tech startup folks is tempting me to reconsider though.

cyberguypr · June 2018

I built a bad ass fancy office from scratch in my basement for ocassional remote work. A couple of months after that I moved onto management and now I rarely telecommute. It's the exercise room with a cool unused desk surface.

Mooseboost · June 2018

networker050184 wrote: »

I usually get bored and end up working all over the house though. Some time on the deck if it's nice, chill on the couch for a bit, I have a bar and stools in the .

I envy your ability to work without distractions. The few days I have worked remote at my old job I found myself drifting my attention away if I didn't work in one place away from TVs, windows, etc.

Thankfully I won't have to worry about switching back and forth too much. Thankfully work will be providing me with a MBP, which is what I use at home for most things. The monitors are daisy chained, so switching the cables over is pretty simple. I do want to try and dedicate my work computer for just work stuff.

I.. Actually had not thought about webcams or how to do video. I have a blue yeti setup for podcasting and such, so audio will be covered. Does anyone actually have a webcam recommendation? Usually for filming I just use my Iphone X on a tripod, but I don't think that will work for streaming chats.

yoba222 · June 2018

One 32" at 1080p (technically it's a TV) and one 24" flipped the tall way at 1080p. I don't love this setup. The 32" is a little too big and the 24" is a little too narrow at that resolution.

For those of you guys on three 27s, are you at 1080p on all three? Maybe that's a better sweet spot.

wd40 · June 2018

I have 3 * 27" @ 1080p, I upscale text etc to 125%.
I had the expensive Dells because they rotate thinking that this will be useful, however I don't feel the need for this now.

----
If you will use separate work and home computers then Wireless keyboards and mice will help.

In the rare cases that I work from home I connect the work laptop to 2 of the monitors and use my second set of wireless keyboard and mouse.

Mooseboost · June 2018

yoba222 wrote: »

One 32" at 1080p (technically it's a TV) and one 24" flipped the tall way at 1080p. I don't love this setup. The 32" is a little too big and the 24" is a little too narrow at that resolution.

For those of you guys on three 27s, are you at 1080p on all three? Maybe that's a better sweet spot.

I run three 34s @ 1440p. Upscaling text for me is a must. I run at 125% like wd40 does. At first, I regretted the purchase (I only got them because of a sale), but having the real estate during the OSCP made me glad of the decision. To be fair though, if they were not on sale, I would not have purchased and would have been just fine. If I was doing it again, I would go with 27s.

DZA_ · June 2018

Good job on the height adjusted desks, I had that in my old work place which worked well but now I get this low level IKEA desk at work.

tedjames · June 2018

Nice setup, especially with multiple monitors. I just remote in on my normal home desktop system. Yeah, distractions are there, but you just have to work around them.

E Double U · June 2018

My home office (aka the small space in the house that my wife allows me to use) is just a desk, docking station, and monitor.

paul78 · June 2018

Hey everyone - I haven't posted in about a year but I came upon this thread when searching for something else so thought I would add my 2 cents

I work from home 100% except for the occasional visit to clients. My home office is cobbled together over the years. And I tend to make investments as I need. Most recently, I converted my desk into a stand-up desk. The standup desk was a great improvement since it forces me to move around a lot more.

I use 6 monitors at 1080p and I keep 2 workstations and a laptop in my office. I also have a half-rack of servers in the basement where I run most of my VMs. I will probably move the second workstation into the basement lab soon.

Some things that I've done for comfort include putting a nice leather reclining couch for when I am reading reports, making calls, etc. I installed a ceiling fan to move the air around when I don't want the A/C on. Lighting is important to me. I installed lights so that I don't need to use shades when I have video calls. I also use full-spectrum bulbs which I prefer for in winter months.

I also invested building a custom waterloop so that noise is more manageable.

Right now my biggest problem is heat when I'm running full workloads on the workstations. Unfortunately the power draw in my office can trip the breaker if I run the window A/C and workstations at full-load so that's what I'm grappling with.

My essential home office equipment is a pair of Bose noise cancelling headsets.

JoJoCal19 · June 2018

Still working fully remote and loving it. Hoping to never have to work fully in an office ever again. Left side is my personal MBP and HP 27" that I use for browsing TE and other personal stuff. Middle setup is my work setup (all provided by my company) top-spec rMBP and dual 24" Ultrasharps. Right hand setup is my labbing (and some games such as Diablo, AoE, SimCity) setup, a Surface Pro 4 and Dell 29" Ultrawide. Looking to change the Ultrawide to a 48" 4K. As for the rest of my office, I have a short and tall bookshelf. I'm also framing in a single-lite French door as well. Now that I'm running calls instead of just listening, I can't have the noise from my kids coming in. Now if I could just get a chair as nice as my setup. Looking at Secretlab, any thoughts?

NetworkNewb · June 2018

Like the pics. lets see some more! I'll have to take picture of mine when I get home. It isn't very impressive tho, just a couple large monitors. I don't work remotely too often either unfortunately

TechGromit · June 2018

I just moved into my office at work, problem solved.

Mooseboost wrote: »

So what kind of setup do you guys have? When you built your office, what challenges did you come across?

My only recommendation is have office/work computers separate from Gaming computers, No games on work computers, you don’t need the distraction. A nice locked door might be helpful too, when your at work, your not available to help with the dishes, babysit the kids, or other wise get distracted.

TechGromit · June 2018

paul78 wrote: »

Right now my biggest problem is heat when I'm running full workloads on the workstations. Unfortunately, the power draw in my office can trip the breaker if I run the window A/C and workstations at full-load so that's what I'm grappling with.

Sounds like you need to hire an electrician to run a couple dedicated circuits in your house.

EANx · June 2018

Maybe not. Sometimes all it takes is swapping out a 15 amp fuse with a 20 at the panel and replacing the outlet. Figuring out the required load should be simple math and you go from there. Of course, if the circuit already has a 20 or if the wiring won't handle it (old) that's a different action plan.

Mike R · June 2018

Still kinda new in the field going on year 3. It's about 90% remote from my home. Right now I just have a plain desk with a couple of drawers and a single monitor. I do work from my custom gaming PC since work doesn't provide anything. The biggest thing is just self discipline, I'll admit to working on WGU stuff and reading various tech forums when we aren't busy or between calls.

I personally feel the biggest downfall of near 100% remote is the spontaneous collaboration that just doesn't happen. It's perhaps just me though still being new to the field and trying to play catch up.

Dojiscalper · June 2018

EANx wrote: »

Maybe not. Sometimes all it takes is swapping out a 15 amp fuse with a 20 at the panel and replacing the outlet. Figuring out the required load should be simple math and you go from there. Of course, if the circuit already has a 20 or if the wiring won't handle it (old) that's a different action plan.

Depending on the size of the wiring installed in the walls simply swapping a circuit breaker may work or it might cause a wire rated at 15 amps which is ran a long distance and then bent or looped somewhere in the wall to heat up and then bad things happen. Normally you'd see 12-2 wire but homes can be built with 14-2 to save money since its only designed as a 15 amp circuit.

Two more possible problems. First the breakers could be old and not working well which will cause them to trip (some breakers even have safety notices about this). Secondly the breaker could be a GFCI type which is designed for use around water and bedrooms per electrical code. These breakers are very sensitive and can trip easily when a motor kicks on in something like a vacuum or window AC unit.

Dojiscalper · June 2018

My office setup is a 4th bedroom in our house. I'm pretty cheap so everything is something I already had or found at great discounts. I picked up an awesome corner desk at a ReStore. I'm running a PC that I built a few years ago, but it handles my business and gaming needs very well. Its hooked up to two 32" LED TV's, some really old JBL PC speakers for some decent sound. I have the usual stuff you find in an office, file folders, a few stand alone book cabinates. I added some shelving and power to the bedroom's closet and use it for storage of my network equipment, a few 1U HP servers, some Cisco switches and the cable modem and wifi access point stuff.

Its my little man cave, but my daughters are getting old enough that they enjoy hanging out in there to. Their pretty curious about my "nerd stuff".

EANx · June 2018

Dojiscalper wrote: »

Depending on the size of the wiring installed in the walls simply swapping a circuit breaker may work or it might cause a wire rated at 15 amps which is ran a long distance and then bent or looped somewhere in the wall to heat up and then bad things happen. Normally you'd see 12-2 wire but homes can be built with 14-2 to save money since its only designed as a 15 amp circuit.

Two more possible problems. First the breakers could be old and not working well which will cause them to trip (some breakers even have safety notices about this). Secondly the breaker could be a GFCI type which is designed for use around water and bedrooms per electrical code. These breakers are very sensitive and can trip easily when a motor kicks on in something like a vacuum or window AC unit.

Note that I never advised DIY, just that the problem might be easier to solve than on first glance. Of course, you should never try to run 20 amps across something rated at 15 but if you read the response above mine, it was suggesting the possibility of running dedicated circuits. They might be needed, they might not.

Dojiscalper · June 2018

I get it. I don't usually play the DIY police. I just thought I'd throw out a few ideas, etc.

paul78 · June 2018

@Dojiscalpher and @EANx - thanks for the ideas. I actually ran a power cord from the window AC today down the hall to another outlet because it was too darn hot

It's a temporary solution ugly but functional. I actually had an electrician last year install a new subpanel and new circuits for the servers in the basement. I should have just had them run new circuits into the office - oh well.

Remote workers and home offices - What is your setup?

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