A guide to coworking

measures to limit the spread of coronavirus ramp up across the world, more and more people who’re lucky enough to have jobs that they can do remotely are now conducting their nine-to-fives from home. As such, lately, there’s been a lot of chatter online about how to work from home effectively. The majority of the advice is the same: put real clothes on, set up a desk space that’s not your bed, and go about your morning routine as though you’re actually heading to work. I (politely) think that’s bullshit: the beauty of working from home’s the ability to sit on your couch in holey underwear while you type up expense reports. But if you live with your significant other, it might not be quite that simple.

Hypothetically, it sounds great – getting to be around your boo all day every day, for weeks on end. That’s probably all you wished for back when you two first got together and were having sex seven times a day. But when your partner excitedly barges into the room to show you that video of the penguins touring an aquarium, which we’ve all seen, interrupting your train of thought for the third time while you try to draft a delicate email to your boss, you might feel differently.

Keith Pandolfi, a writer who’s now working from home alongside his wife, tweeted, “To my wife, who has a much more important job than I do – I’m simply a lazy coworker who always wants to talk about my inner life and what I just saw on the internet while she’s actually trying to get shit done. If I worked for her, she’d fire me.”

Look, my boyfriend loves me, but I can tell you right now he’s less than enthused about the prospect of us both working from home full time. He’s used to silent, slow days at home full of coffee-drinking and movie-watching (his actual, enviable job). When I work from home, on the other hand, I’m like a pinball bouncing between the energy levels of a sleepy cartoon rat and a hurricane that drank a

Red Bull. We’ve each worked from home on and off for five years, so we’re a little prepared for this, but now, for the foreseeable future, we’re stuck together – without nights out with friends or separate hobbies to provide a buffer. The best we can hope for is some alone time while one person takes a shower.

To find strategies, I talked to people who usually work from home alongside their partners (precovid-19) to see what it’s like and how they make it work.

Your apartment isn’t a university, and you (probably) aren’t a professor, but you should maintain a normal work schedule while you’re working from home. Not only should you stick to your schedule, but you should communicate with your partner each morning about what the day looks like. Remind them of any important calls you might need to make where you’ll need extra quiet or no interruptions. Share a Google calendar or even write one out on a piece of paper and stick it to the fridge.

If one of you is more prone to distraction and the other needs complete quiet to focus, schedule

The idea of working in proximity,

playing footsie under the dining room table while you’re both dialled into conference calls is romantic, but not great for actually, uh, working. If you have room in your house to do so, split up. Ideally, neither of you should post up in the kitchen, which should be a neutral break space, but if that’s where you have to work, it is what it is. If you’re stuck working in the same room, use headphones, be extra-respectful about noise and interruptions and try to carve out specific corners that are yours alone.

Your productivity working from home may change compared to the office – in either direction. That’s okay. You’re not a machine, you’re a person (and a person who now has a nice bed for procrasti-sexing a few metres away). You aren’t working every single moment you’re in an office, so give yourself and your partner a break.

Obviously, you need to give your partner space during conference calls and important meetings, but respect their work hours throughout the day too. You’re coworkers now, so get used to asking coworker-type questions like, ‘Do you have a minute?’ rather than simply walking into their workspace and talking about the tweet you just saw or the dump you just took. That said, as Van der Merwe pointed out that unlike with coworkers, you can be blunt. ‘At least with my husband,

I can say “Dude, I’m really busy – can you just show me the meme later?” without sounding rude.’

You don’t have to totally isolate yourself from your partner (unless you’re sick, then do so as much as possible). Take advantage of the fact that you guys get time together that you don’t usually. Pandolfi said he and his wife eat lunches together when they’re both working from home. ‘It’s almost like a date in the middle of the day,’ he said. This will also give you a set time to talk about the aforementioned tweet or dump.

Working from home usually translates to even more hours of the day spent seated or supine than a traditional office setup does, so get up, go outside, and take a walk for at least 10 or 15 minutes. Hold hands, even.

One of the hardest parts of working remotely is the blurred lines between the office and home. As Reese Cassard, 26, pointed out, ‘The stress of work plays out in the same setting as so many other important parts of our relationship. If I’m having a rough day, it’s hard not to carry frustration or doubt from work right into cooking dinner a few hours later because I’m literally in the same space.’ Do your best to turn off work when it’s over. Take a shower, change clothes, take another walk, pour a drink. Do something to signify the end of the workday, that it’s time to be back in your house with the person you bone.

I took two informal, non-scientific Twitter polls – can you tell I have too much time on my hands right now? – asking people who’re now working from home with their partners if they’re fighting more or less than usual, and if they’re fucking more or less than usual. To the surprise of perhaps no one, couples said they were having both more arguments and more sex (although arguments increased more than sex, unfortunatley). Being at home this much with a partner is a bit like a pressure cooker, so make sure to communicate clearly and exercise extra patience. The more boundaries you create early on, and the more you talk about how you like to work, the better.

That said, many couples reported enjoying the newfound time together. Van der Merwe said that mutually working from home ‘lets us take care of each other in ways that weren’t possible when we were commuting. I can make him lunch when he’s got lots of work to do.’ And, of course, there’s nothing like replacing your morning commute with a morning hookup.

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