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Working from home when you live in a house share isn’t always easy. I know, I’ve been there. Even if you like your housemates, spending all day working together followed by long evenings fighting over the TV is going to test anyone’s patience.
When I first started working from home full time, I was living in a five-person house share. For the most part, it was fine because everyone else worked in an office. But as soon as some of them started working from home a couple of days a week, things started to get trickier.
With many people working from home at the moment, tensions can easily flare in a house share (especially if you don’t really like one another). Here are some top tips to help you work from home effectively in a house share and keep hold of your sanity.
Respect one another’s working patterns
You’ve probably been living in your house share long enough to know who the early risers and night owls are. Not everyone will have a 9-5 working pattern, so you need to be mindful of that when working from home together.
If you’re one of those people who does all their work late in the evening, don’t go blaring your music and waking up those who’ve got to get up early and vice versa.
When you come out of this the other side, you’ll look back and realise just how strong you were to pull through.
Don’t hog communal areas
One of my former housemates insisted on working from our dining room table. The house mate in question even regularly invited their coworkers over to join in the fun. So while my housemate had a great home office set-up, I had nowhere to sit and eat my lunch. This totally rubbed me up the wrong way and made working from home that little bit more challenging.
While it’s important you have your own working space if you want to be productive, you need some time away from your desk to help break up your day. This is where communal spaces come into their own.
Avoid setting up camp in your house share’s communal areas to make sure everyone gets a chance to enjoy them when they need to. It will also help you avoid distractions and keep your productivity levels up.
Invest in a good quality headset
However respectful you are of one another, there will inevitably be moments when background noise from a housemate disturbs an important Zoom call.
While I am a big advocate of muting yourself when you don’t need to speak on a call, it’s worth investing in a headset with a noise-cancelling mic to help avoid these potentially awkward moments. Luckily, you can pick these up fairly inexpensively, but it’s worth asking your employer if they’d be willing to foot the bill. After all, anything to help the smooth running of video calls is in their interests.
Set time aside for social interaction
Although it’s better for your productivity to work in your own space away from other housemates, building in some time to have a chat will help to break up your day. Setting aside a specific time for this, maybe a ten-minute 11am tea break, will give you all that much-needed time away from your desk without getting too distracted.
If you really can’t stand anyone in your house share, pick up the phone or get on a Zoom call with a friend.
Remember, a house share isn’t forever
I know being in a house share can be tough, particularly given the circumstances we’re living in at the moment. I’ve spent many a time desperately wanting to escape house share life and finally get a place of my own.
Guess what? Your day will come. While it might be tough now, it’s not forever. The same goes for anything in life. When you come out of this the other side, you’ll look back and realise just how strong you were to pull through.
