Whilst a proportion of the remote workforce may have used the last 12 months as an opportunity to upgrade their home-working space, a study revealed by The Sun earlier this month discovered that millions are still working from makeshift spaces such as on ironing boards and in bed.
And, in fact, one professional recently told Nottinghamshire Live that she was so ‘fed up’ of attempting to work in her home that she opted to create a new makeshift office space somewhere else – her car.
Worker Donna Powell, revealed to the news site that she became so tired of being inside her Nottingham home constantly that she instead opted to move to the only other space that she had available, her Ford Focus.
The last straw for Powell came when ongoing building works to her home made finding mental clarity impossible, a situation she described as an ‘absolute nightmare’ noting that being unable to escape the chaos made her feel like ‘a prisoner’.
“As soon as workmen turned up with their scaffolding last April, I felt trapped as I was working from home,” she said.
“I couldn’t disappear anywhere, and I was doing Zoom calls with drilling in the background. It was so bleak in the living room and my garden was a no-go zone, it was full of tools and ladders.”
She instead packed up her things and created a new working space inside her car, replete with cushions, motivational books and snacks.
“It’s my guilty pleasure, my little haven just on my driveway,” she added.
Whilst Powell’s solution may have given her an ideal place in which to work, the majority of workers likely wouldn’t be so keen to work from their car. However, ensuring that workers have the correct equipment that they need to work effectively still appears to be a key issue for HR.
A recent poll of 2,000 workers by REHAU found that 61% still consider their remote working environment to be temporary, having resorted to using ironing boards, sofas and even their beds to carry out their roles.
Shockingly, three per cent of respondents noted that they were working from a walk-in wardrobe, whilst nine per cent have set up a makeshift office in the middle of their room.
And whilst these less-than-ideal set-ups are concerning for the physical wellbeing of employees, there are also damaging psychological effects; for example, three in ten stated that they have no natural light whilst working, with 65% stating that this affects productivity.
