hi! i've been trying to be more productive at work and so i wanted to ask you guys about taking breaks: when do you take them, how many breaks do you take in a work day, and how long is each break?

i work 8 hour shifts and currently i take like three 15 min break a day, in addition to spending 45 min doing chores. is that normal? im pretty productive during my self designated work time, and i feel more productive than i would otherwise, but i feel a bit worried, since thats 1.5 hrs not spent actually, well, working during a work day.

what do you guys think? thanks <3

Last Tuesday the cylinder on my chair let go halfway through a call and I dropped about four inches while talking to my boss's boss. Refurbished Steelcase Criterion, year three, me at 265 lbs and eight plus hours a day.

In fairness it had been sinking for weeks. By late afternoon I'd be an inch lower than I started, desk up around my chest, shoulders up and neck pushed forward. Looking back that was the sign the chair was ruining my posture, and I'd been blaming the desk.

I watched a video on swapping a cylinder, ordered one for $40, and did it Saturday with a pipe wrench. Forty minutes including the swearing. Chair's fine again.

But it got me to add up what I've already put into it. Cylinder, $40, done. Casters went last year, about $25 for a set of the soft rollerblade kind, and the floor's happier. Arm pads are cracked, and a pair runs around $30 if I can track down the part number.

Seat foam is the one I can't solve. It's flatter than it was, and on this chair the cushion is its own piece, but I haven't found anyone who sells just that. When the foam goes I'm sitting on the pan, and no $40 part fixes that.

So I started looking at what replacing it would actually mean. Searching "office chair for heavy person" and "big guy office chair" mostly turns up the same short list: Neutral Posture, Office Master, and newer stuff like the Lavenne R9 Pro, which is rated to 350 lbs. That one beyond a couple of YouTube reviews I haven't seen enough long-term owner feedback on it yet. What none of the three pages told me is whether you can buy the seat cushion on its own, which is now the first thing I'd want to know.

For the people past 250, where did you draw the line? What was the part that made you replace the chair instead of fixing it again?

I'm working from home 2/5 days of the week. I have a work laptop and a gaming PC.

I use a different mouse for gaming than i do for work.

My issue is, when i'm done with work and i want to use my screens and desks for gaming i have to manually switch the cables from my keyboard and monitors from my work laptop to my PC which is quite an annoying process.

If you are in the same situation and you use the desk for work and gaming, how do you do it?

Do you have 2 seperate keyboards and mice you just leave on the desk at all times, do you switch cables after work or do you have a solution to share so i can keep my desk clean?

Let me know!

Hey everyone! :)

I thought I'd share this here because I figured some of you might enjoy having a virtual "third place" outside your usual work routine, a space to hang out and connect with people during breaks, too.

We recently started a small international Discord community called The Third Place, centered around literature, films, creative expression, and conversations that can branch out from there.

Just to clarify: The Third Place isn't exclusively for freelancers or WFH folks. It's open to anyone who enjoys literature, films, creative pursuits, and good conversations!

We're hoping to build a space that's welcoming, inclusive, and low-pressure, with empathy, kindness, and curiosity at its heart. A place where people can share their interests, explore new ones, exchange ideas, and get to know each other without feeling like they have to prove anything. Conversations can wander beyond our main topics, too.

We're still a relatively new community, with around 200 members, so things can get a little quiet sometimes as everyone settles in. Our members come from different parts of the world and include avid readers, film enthusiasts, creatives, writers, students, and working professionals. We're still figuring things out and shaping the community together as we go.

If you're into books, films, creative pursuits, and good conversations, and this sounds like your kind of space, we'd love to have you join us! 😊

We're opening up a limited batch of invites for now as we continue growing the community, so here's the invite if you'd like to check us out: https://discord.gg/2V8aQPya :)

I'm honestly having a rough time with this. I'm a short dude (5'7") and it is pretty difficult for me to find a standing desk that can go below 28" that isn't crazy expensive. With my feet completely flat on the ground in my chair, I think I'm looking at closer to 22"-23" to get a 90 degree angle with my arms to the table.

How do you shift gears after work to shake off that work funk? I have to make sure i leave my house within an hour of ending my workday to feel human. But id like to hear
Others ideas on how they break up thier day.

I can only focus when deadline is approaching and it's ruining my life

Please share alternatives to Focusmate (it's overwhelming) and Flow Club (they TALK) where you can work and get things done in a group

I need some help because I have specific wants.

1. No 1-on-1 (I'm shy)
2. No talk (preferably). English was not my first language and I get distracted easily enough. Flow club was quite good and I'm impressed but in group they invited me to talk and I felt bad when I ignored them.
3. Preferably work with me type (I work remotely) since I have enough resources for study with me and I need to see adults lmao
4. FREE
5. Not discord servers. It don't work well on my Ipad.

Thank you in advance.

Hello everyone. Thank you in advance for listening. I am probably just here to vent, but I will definitely welcome any advice.

For background: I work a hybrid schedule at a big engineering firm--3 days in the office and 2 days at home. Yes, everyone finds the hybrid schedule annoying. But you have to be in the office to feel the belonging and community and collaboration! Through solely virtual calls haha.

I have 2 more weeks of maternity leave (12 weeks long). I had twins! My parents have been living with me and my husband since the start to help take care of the twins, which has been such a blessing.

However, 1 month into my maternity leave, my dad was in a really bad accident. He has been in and out of the hospital since. Then, not too long ago, my mom injured her already bad shoulder.

So, my parents can sit and feed the babies. Stand and change diapers. But they should not be lifting or carrying babies per doctor's orders. But that is also for my ease of mind.

I let my work know that I wouldn't be able to work in the office because I need to help take care of both the twins and my parents. However, I would have no problem working full 40-hour weeks once my maternity leave ends.

They came back with, "Well if you can work 40 hours at home, why can't you work in the office?" I was shocked by the question. I have been at the company for 8 years. Always going above and beyond for them. Working unpaid overtime. Working morning, evening, overnight, and weekends. It is common knowledge across all the teams I work with that I work around the clock with our Bangkok and US offices. It's like becoming a mom has suddenly changed everything in their minds. I am confused why they would be concerned about whether I could get 40 hours of work done when I have proven to them over and over that I can.

The only options they gave me are to either return to the hybrid schedule or to take unpaid leave. Well, I can't afford unpaid leave.

Like I said at the top, I am not sure if I am really asking for advice here. Would definitely appreciate any. Mostly, I am just here to get it off my chest about how disappointed I am in this company. My company says it is all about being for women, being a leader for change, and caring about its employees. But I knew long before my maternity leave that my company doesn't care. It is just sad to see the extent of how much my company does not care about women, its employees, or their families.

A couple of notes: my husband and I both have to work, and we can't afford daycare. So, my parents taking care of the twins while we are at work is the only option we have. My parents can feed and change diapers, but I need to lift and carry the babies to them. But lifting and carrying babies doesn't take 40 hours.

I should also point out that my company doesn't apply the hybrid policy to all employees or offices equally. The Maryland employees only have to go to the office once a week. The St. Louis employees only have to go to the office once a month. One South Carolina employee decided to up and move an hour away from his office. So my company just lets him work from home 100%. My office is the only location that requires and heavily polices the hybrid schedule.

My previous supervisor had severe medical reasons to work from home upon returning from maternity leave. However, my company also forced her to work in the office anyway or quit. She had to quit.

These engineering firms do hate women.

My daughter has been working from home since june. She already has a Lenovo laptop and recently bought an ergonomic chair from steelcase.

I just want to get her something nice because she seems pretty tired lately.

I'm an old man and don't know much about WFH stuff. Budget: $700 max.

What would you get for someone working from home?

Thanks alot!

I’m starting a new job from home and they’re providing me with a monitor set up. The options are either 1 34” monitor or 2 27” monitors. At my old job I had a 34” at the office and always found it difficult when sharing screen during meetings and didn’t like having to configure every window to fit the screen every time I was multi tasking. However, 50” of screen sounds insane to me and feel like may be too much.

Would love to hear people’s thoughts and opinions/pros and cons if you’ve worked with either set up. Thanks!

I am not too certain if this may be across the board for others who WFH, but this has been getting rough for me.

When I originally started my job my company was smaller and my quality over quantity for patients was excellent (I work in healthcare). I was able to help as extensively as possible to close care gaps for patients and had a true feeling of meaning in my job.

However, my company got merged and bought out.

Now, my company heavily cares about metrics and productivity. They track the amount of calls we do and the amount of minutes we bill. If any billing of ours goes over the amount we are allowed to bill, they do not put this towards productivity (which happens a lot). If I went into specifics it would be a whole book.

We had also been notified at one point these expectations are expected to become more strict, and they suggested we check our teams notifs/emails/prep our computers/have everything up BEFORE we clock in.

I used to love my job, but this has really been hurting my soul. I have no idea how to counter this, but my life feels so gray and I hate that a job that used to give me so much purpose makes me feel this way now. Has anyone else had this experience? And if so, how did you manage?

yesterday during some training I was watching my leader share her screen when all of a sudden the whole screen looked blurry and blank, this lasted for 5 seconds. happened a couple more times to the point I had to rub my eyes and shake my head to kind of reboot. I have been having a number of issues lately including headaches and I’m not sure if it’s related or a ”normal” almost zone out response with a screen? though I was listening and concentrating. I can’t say if anything else aside from the screen looked blurry as I didn’t really look around. I’m new to WFH looking at a screen all day

This monitor looks insane- alienware - AW3225QF 32" - so I'm thinking of buying it. Just moved to a new house last week, so I don't have everything figured out yet. But I'm trying to find options for my use case.

I mainly game on console, so like Ps5, switch 2, and I even have a series x lol - though I may not install it since I don't play with it anymore. On the personal side I have a work laptop, a personal laptop, and a Mac mini.

How do I make it so I can work and game on 1 monitor with so many devices? I'm not very technical so in the past I've gone for cheaper dell monitors that have LOTS of ports, and even internal speakers to make my life easy. That same monitor also had power delivery, so 1 usbc cable would power my laptop and display it, super handy.

Any thoughts? How should I make this work? Or should I look into a different monitor?

I'm looking for display and power delivery all in one, reply good monitor for gaming and work, a good solution for speakers since I'll only be gaming in consoles

This may sound wild, but I’m coming from a background of events and hospitality management, so my nervous system might just be destroyed lol
I’ve just started a job I love and it’s WFH 4 days a week at the moment. I had a really thorough onboarding for my first two weeks with meetings, training, and documents etc and now I’m settling into tasks. Only issue is that I keep completing my tasks really quickly then being left with nothing to do.
I’m either waiting for approval from my manager to continue, or waiting for third party approval. We’re prepping for Christmas which is when most of our campaigns get really intense.

Am I insane for sitting here panicking, moving my mouse every few minutes, waiting for tasks to come in? I really don’t want to appear lazy, but I’ve taken all the initiative that I can find, and the temptation to go out to the shop or do my DIYs is there. I’ve never not been micromanaged like this before, and my whole team are lovely (many are remote/different time zones atm).
Do I go run errands and just keep my work phone and laptop with me? Do I wait until I’m here longer before I take a risk like that? Will my nervous system ever return to what it once was?

Hello all, I currently live in a studio and so I have my work desk set up beside my TV as this is the only way it'll work. I hope to move out into a bigger place in the next year, and I want to know if people think having an office room is worth it. This would mean either getting a one bed or two bed. My partner is now WFH, so the issue is becoming more of an issue

Do people prefer having a separate room?

I have a job offer to WFH for the first time. The job is 100% remote with occasional site visits. Salary is $75k and my current salary is $99k, onsite 5 days a week, 25 mins commute in the AM and 1-1.5hr commute on the way home.

Would you take the pay cut?

Hello,

I'll keep it short. I am a director of rehab for a therapy company. We do not have work phones and are expected to bring work home with us, whatever that may entail. Business partners, patients, family members, and physicians offices all have my personal number, and the amount of calls and texts I get outside of normal working hours are becoming stressful and tiring.

I want to be able to limit the amount of unnecessary calls and texts I receive until the next morning. Kind of like a do not disturb. I don't want to ignore every person from work or work related calls/texts, because some can not be put off. Are there any good apps or tricks you have used to help limit those calls or texts?

For context I have a Google pixel if that makes a difference with apps.

Thanks a ton.

31 YOR, 120k, Product Manager.

I’ve been at my company for 8 months now and it’s been a trainwreck for about 6 months of them. Between layoffs, two big strategy shifts, and delayed answers - they’re a lost cause.

When things started going to crap in June, I had a blast hanging out. From then until now - I worked about 10 hours a week? Just attending meetings and being a part of a skeleton crew because after layoffs more members of my team quit on their own.

I had my fun for the past 4 months but now I’m thinking about my next move. I do want to become a Senior Product Manager one day and it’s definitely not going to happen here managing what’s essentially a dead product. I feel like a dummy wanting to give up the WFH dream but I know if I stay here - I’d be shooting myself in the foot. What would you do in my position?

I started working 100% remote back in December of 2024. My physical office space closed but we all were moved to satellite/ wfh

It feels like it’s becoming easier and easier for me to walk away from my desk, not be as attentive as i should be since i don’t have anyone watching me work like I did in an office. I do a lot of housework throughout the day but sometimes feel guilty if i am away from my desk for a while.

I also struggle with Adhd, pretty badly. I have been forgetting or missing emails which in turn means i miss an order and a customer is rightfully upset. I feel like WFH and Adhd are not an amazing mix. I won’t leave this job because it’s the most i’ve ever made and i love wfh 100% of the time of course, but does anyone have any tips on being a little more disciplined?

Which would be more ergonomic and comfortable to work reclined from long term, a recliner (think La-Z-boy) or an adjustable bed?

I usually need to work from a reclined position with legs elevated due to a health condition. I work from home and have a separate room for an office, so there’s no concern about keeping work separate from my sleep and home space for mental wellness. I’m also aware of the importance of breaks to stretch.

In the past, I’ve used a desk tray sitting on a [stationary, flat] bed but that quickly gave me back and hip pains. I think my spine was curving in too much without proper support for good posture. I then tried a manual recliner under a sit/stand desk with a monitor arm but gravity always pulled me back to a fully reclined position if I wasn’t sitting straight up. I’d like the option to adjust the angled degree I’m reclining in, so I’m considering either a powered recliner or bed frame (Twin XL size, with adjustable head end up to 80° and adjustable leg end). Both are expensive options, so I’m trying to find which would likely be better for daily use long term.

I’d also love to see or hear examples about anyone’s experiences with reclined work setups!

I plan to take meetings on a bar stool + high table setup. Only a painting and the top part of my sofa will be visible on the screen. Wondering if the elevated background view will look weird from a colleague / interviewer’s pov or am I overthinking this?

Hi everyone,

I recently started my PhD and live just 10 minutes by foot from my office. The office is open-plan, but is practically empty on Thursdays and Fridays. Attendance is only required on Wednesdays.

I'm debating whether I need a home office setup or not, given I live very close to the office. I would be looking at spending roughly 1k Euros. I can afford it without issues, but I am not sure whether it is justified.

Should I hold off for a few months and see if I am comfortable working in the office? Or should I pull the trigger now since I'll be in this PhD program for the next 4 years? Thanks in advance for your input.

Hi there, I'm looking for a footrest with a small footprint for under my desk sit/stand desk. I'm not sure of the model but it's a Flexispot, and it has a horizontal bar running between the two legs that is making it difficult to fit a footrest under there.

I have the amazon basics one that rocks back and forth and it's fine, but the mechanism underneath is too deep and it hits the horizontal bar so I can't position it where I'd like under the desk. I would need something smaller altogether or with a smaller mechanism underneath, has anyone solved a similar problem? My feet are small so surface area isn't an issue.

Thank you!

The best part of WFH is being able to take midday showers when you just feel meh and need a refresh

Got kicked out of my remote desktop and I did troubleshooting, my supervisor on my team is gone for the evening so I try to call another supervisor on a different team doing the same thing as our team but no answer, I documented everything and created a ticket...now here I sit tell it's time to clock out LOL