“I can’t tell you how much washing I have put on’: Why I hate working from home

Phil Brown has always been sceptical about people who “work from home”. Now that he’s had a taste of toiling remotely, he can see why some people like it, but there’s one big thing that turns him off.

When people used to talk about working from home I always used to do those Dr Evil air quotes. You know the ones he used to emphasise words such as “laser”.

“Working from home”. I would usually raise an eyebrow as I did this to indicate some scepticism about the idea.

I’ve always been of the opinion that work is for work and home is for, well, not working. Covid has messed all that up of course and now just about everyone is working from home. I am as I write this.

Personally I prefer to go to work but these last couple of weeks I have been “working from home” in my downstairs study which is pretty well set up.

You just have to get me in there. At home there are so many distractions. I can’t tell you how much washing I have put on and hung out since “working from home” and how many tedious domestic chores I have found to do when I should be at my desk.

Working from home? More time to sort!

The house is quite immaculate now as a result. I have cleared out my bookshelves and gone through storage boxes and found all sorts of things. “Working from home” led me to find my primary school exercise books from Kowloon Junior School in Hong Kong dating back to the 1960s. It was like unearthing the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Eventually I did get to my desk and do some work you will be pleased to know.

As I understand it some people just love “working from home”. I know there are those among you who spend the entire day in your pyjamas revelling in the whole process.

I find it distracting and to know that I could actually be upstairs bingeing on episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm is sometimes just too tempting.

I like to go to the office and of course I will be back there soon but in the meantime I have to navigate being at home and dealing with the inevitable ennui that ensues on hot summer days.

The thing is that when I am wearing shorts and a T-shirt and my slippers it’s hard for me to get in the mood to work. I find that I can do it if I pretend I am actually at work.

That means sticking to my regular office timetable of shaving and doing my hair and brushing my teeth and getting at least a bit dressed up. Long trousers help and if I go straight down to my study once I’m ready and get stuck into it I can be quite productive.

Too many distractions at home for Phil Brown.

I listen to some music, ABC Classic, and away I go. Of course there was another distraction in recent weeks and that was the cricket which I had on in the background and on loo breaks I would stop an watch a bit, sometimes a lot.

I miss the interaction with colleagues though and I’m sure they miss my office theatrics and my swearing on the telephone. I also miss the arctic aircon of our building. We have limited aircon at home so one tends to wilt a bit after lunch.

If I don’t go straight back down to my home office then all is lost.

I could spend the whole afternoon getting distracted by leaves in the pool or a dirty window that needs attending to or some exciting cricket although the Poms didn’t offer much of that in the recent Ashes Test series, did they?

I know there are some people who would like to stay at home forever but I’m not one of them. I’m looking forward to getting properly dressed, donning a sport jacket and going back to the office.

And as for “working from home” well, I get it now. And I can do it. But I really don’t want to. I agree with the American author Larry Winget, knows as the Pit bull of personal development. He wrote a book entitled It’s Called Work For A Reason. And I think he would agree with me that to work you really should go to work. Just saying.

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