TMA Working From Home

[brocoli]

I'm making the jump and moving to remote work. I've got the desk, the chair and the double monitors, but what are some other essential Work From Home things needed? What can you not live without?

Also, if anyone can reccomend a good headset with microphone I'd greatly appreciate it. Bonus for wireless.

[OutOfTheCube]

A Nintendo Switch.

[photon]

I've got a Corsair HS70 (or HS70 Pro, not sure) and I would say it's pretty decent. Pretty solid bluetooth connectivity and the mic and meetings sound fine. I personally hate closed headsets but I couldn't find a wireless bluetooth open headset without spending a lot, and I already have an expensive headset on my home computer.

A good docking station is nice as it lets me hook up everything with just one cable.. I can use ethernet instead of wireless, has monitor outputs etc. So when I want to go mobile or into the office it's just one cable.

I use my main home computer monitor for both work and play and I'm starting to get a bit worried that I'm going to wear out the controls by constantly switching back and forth between inputs to switch between work and home. I might get an external switch to switch back and forth.

Timers on your phone to remind you to get up and walk around or have a snack or whatever.. without the natural interruptions you get in the office it's easy to forget and realize it's past lunch time and I haven't even looked up from my computer. For me anyway.

[Fuzz]

Pyjamas.

[Scroopy Noopers]

Don’t let yourself fall into a habit of working outside of regular work hours.

[Torture]

A couple nice to haves from somebody still working at home and not going back to an office any time soon:

Standing desk
A door you can close. Especially if you have anyone else at home during the day, and having a separate area with physical separation is nice.
I got a phone charger/organizer thing like this:

[TorqueDog]

I use a Steelseries Arctis 5, which is a wired gaming headset with a USB chat-mix, and the chat-mix is key.

Why?

Because you set whatever conferencing application you use -- Teams, Zoom, whatever -- to use the "SteelSeries Arctis 5 (Chat)" device as the output. But you set your PC applications to use "SteelSeries Arctis 5 (Game)" as the default sound output device. This way, you can change the volume balance of whatever you have going on in your conferencing app versus if you're listening to music or the like.

For the mic, I use a Blue Yeti X on an iXtech boom arm, with a shock-mount and pop filter. But I'm a stickler for my mic quality and put considerable time into tuning the EQ.

[Hack&Lube]

Webcam if you are going to be doing Zoom/Teams conferencing etc

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Scroopy Noopers

Don’t let yourself fall into a habit of working outside of regular work hours.

Or, nap in the day and catch up at night as flexibility allows is actually one perk if you don't need to be constantly supervised/in communication & collaboration with others and just have goals to accomplish

[Scroopy Noopers]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Or, nap in the day and catch up at night as flexibility allows is actually one perk if you don't need to be constantly supervised and just have goals to accomplish

It’s a perk for sure. It can also slowly eat you alive. Depends on the individual and the circumstances.

[RoadGame]

A good set of headphones with a mic that you can plug into your phone (different than the headset you'd use for your computer setup). For low-stakes meetings, taking it while on a walk or walking to a nearby park and taking it from there (obviously moreso summer than right now) can be helpful. Too easy to become even more sedentary at home than in an office job.

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by Torture

A couple nice to haves from somebody still working at home and not going back to an office any time soon:

Standing desk
A door you can close. Especially if you have anyone else at home during the day, and having a separate area with physical separation is nice.
I got a phone charger/organizer thing like this:

A separate room with a door is so essential, and a proper desk(standing or otherwise). I started at one day a week working from a kitchen table or whatever, and it was never really a good day of work. An office and when you're in there, you know you should be working and there are no distractions, and when you leave, work is out of site and mind.

[wireframe]

I bought a new laptop stand (Nexstand portable folding laptop stand), a mouse (Logitech MX M3) and keyboard (Logitech MX Mechnical) recently. I don't know what you're going to do for work but, as a software guy, I can't believe I didn't upgrade those things sooner.


I also like having a nice set of bluetooth headphones that connect to my phone and computer for meetings. You don't need to spend a lot to get something pretty good.

[brocoli]

Thank you all for your suggestions. I have the separate room along with the desk that can be changed to standing throughout the day. Will look at a gaming headset as that seems to be the best considering i'll be on the phone all day

[belsarius]

Originally Posted by brocoli

Thank you all for your suggestions. I have the separate room along with the desk that can be changed to standing throughout the day. Will look at a gaming headset as that seems to be the best considering i'll be on the phone all day

I've been 100% remote since March 2020 and I picked up a Logitech G432 early on because I couldn't do the company issue ear dongles for very long at a time and it is still working great. Under $50 and I find it comfortable enough to wear 90% of the day and I am either on the phone or leading training sessions and the microphone and sound quality have been great. Plus I found the auto-mute feature when I flip the microphone arm up really handy.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Don't forget some good lighting - don't be that guy with a pixelated grainy image working from the basement bedroom with dual 60W bulbs that people can barely make out.

Something like these $30 lights can make a huge difference if properly placed.

https://www.amazon.ca/Portable-Photo...%2C140&sr=8-18

[photon]

Yeah mic quality is the biggest thing. I HATE going to meetings where the other people have speakerphones with kids and dogs running around in the background and they don't bother to mute themselves when not talking. This kind of thing got a lot better after everyone was WFH for a few months, but to start with it was brutal. And there's still some that don't seem to have any consideration for others or care if anyone understands them.

/rant

As mentioned a good keyboard and mouse are good too, I generally bring my own wherever I work since the standard ones are usually garbage and it seems like a relatively inexpensive quality of life improvement.

Get one of these U shaped Window ACs for the summer if your house doesn't have AC https://www.rona.ca/en/product/midea...a4rcm-21615071. WFH when it's really hot is enough to get me to go into the office.

One feature I like with Spotify is I can use my main PC's expensive headset to listen to music and control it from the Spotify client on my work Mac laptop.

Oh yeah I got a little tripod for my webcam as I normally don't have it setup for meetings and my laptop isn't oriented well for meeting use. All the tech people meetings I go to no one uses their webcams. Higher management, marketing, etc they all want to use it.. "I don't have it connected" is a nice excuse.

[boogerz]

I've been 95% remote since March 2020.

A sit-stand desk is crucial, especially if you'll be tethered to your desk most of the day every day because of meetings.

I upgraded my monitor arms earlier this year to a floating, articulating style and that's been really nice. It opened up a ton of desk space and has made getting into a ergonomically comfortable position a lot easier. It's an underrated upgrade.

My next upgrade will be a chair. Cheap office chairs, like the basic ones at Staples, just do not have the same-level of comfort and durability as the ones at the office.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by brocoli

Thank you all for your suggestions. I have the separate room along with the desk that can be changed to standing throughout the day. Will look at a gaming headset as that seems to be the best considering i'll be on the phone all day

Dont forget the Hookers and Blow.

A key part of all office requirements. Having them at home cures some but also causes some problems of its own, but you'll get the hang of it.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Pro tip: one of the wonderful things about working from home is doing laundry during your workday instead of on your weekends.