London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Aug 22, 2025

'Why I hate working from home'

'Why I hate working from home'

It was fun for a week or two - a welcome change from the stresses and strains of the daily commute. But almost six months have now passed since many of us began working from home, and for some, it feels like it will never end.

Four people explain why they're finding home-working unbearable.

Tara Hudson hates working from home.



Tara Hudson says her back is now "in absolute agony"


"At first it was fun because we were all in this together, we have got to do it to keep everyone safe," says the local council worker.

But she says the lack of space and proper equipment in the one-bedroom East London flat she shares with her husband makes it unbearable.

After five months of working from home, she says her back was "in absolute agony" from sitting hunched over her laptop without a proper desk.

Both she and her husband work from home. They only have one fold-out table in the living room and have to alternate who gets to work on the table. It's often "whoever gets it first".

"We did try and bring in the garden table, but it's not really big enough," she says. "We both have jobs where we need to speak about confidential information. Sometimes I'm sitting on the floor in the hall because he's in the living room."

She often end up sitting on her bed. "There will be a whole generation of people who are working on their bed who will have spinal problems because of coronavirus," she says.

Although both her and her husband's employers have offered them home equipment, Tara says there's nowhere to put it. She says: "It's depressing - work, sleep and play in all in one room."

Tara was allowed to go back to the office for the first time earlier this month, after mentioning how hard she was finding home-working.

"It was so nice to have an office chair. You know correctly having your feet, having two monitors. I was so much more productive."

Lily O'Hagan has had enough.


The 26-year-old works for the claims department for a car insurance company in Cardiff and lives in a house-share with four men. Three of them are also working from home.

"My room is right next to the front door, so it's almost my unsaid duty to answer it when we get deliveries," she says. It has begun to get frustrating and the house has got messier.

Initially they struggled with the WiFi, as everyone tried to use it at once. "We had to get the landlord to get business broadband set up to make the WiFi faster as it was awful."

Lily works with customer's confidential information so she feels she can't use shared spaces in the house. "Where I am living at the moment there is a bit of a communal area but it's like a staff room. I don't want other people to be able to hear me, so I can't work in there".

And she misses her colleagues. "If I need help we can talk more easily in the office. IT issues make communicating and asking questions much harder".

Her company has said they will eventually let people to return to their buildings, but Lily will be one of the last back as she has asthma.

So she has taken things into her own hands. "I'm moving into a house with more girls - because they're tidier."

Gemma Shaw is still working at 10pm.


She says she is trying to "juggle" home schooling and doing her job from home. "I feel like a failing parent and a failing professional," she says.

The 38-year-old from Lincolnshire, is head of fundraising for a charity. She says she finds the creative part of her job much more difficult at home.

"I had the opportunity to work from home occasionally before lockdown started, but I rarely did. I work in a very creative team and it's best to be together to help the creativity. Working alone on projects is hard."


Gemma Shaw uses her kitchen table as an office and to teach her children


Gemma and her husband have also struggled to home-school their two children while they have been maintaining full-time jobs.

"A child nudging you when you're trying to do something important, like write a press release, means you're not getting any work done but you're not educating them either," she says.

They've also had to use their annual leave, taking two weeks off work separately to cover four weeks of the school summer holidays. "That's not family time that's just holding things together," she adds.

"I work after the kids have gone to bed," she says. "So from 8pm to 10pm at night. My husband and I take shifts working and looking after the children during the day, but I still need to finish all my hours. It's so stressful".

Paul feels unmotivated.


He lives in Newcastle and works in IT. He resisted working from home as long as he could.

"We were given the option to work remotely but I held on for another week until we were instructed to go home" says Paul, which is not his real name. And he says it has affected his mental health.

"I'd been on antidepressants and by March I was feeling like there was light at the end of the tunnel," he adds. "But being in lockdown makes me anxious and I get distracted by anything around me.

"The biggest thing for me is the lack of social interaction. I have some good friends at work and we go for a run in our lunch break. Not having that exercise and interaction is difficult."

Paul says he has lacked motivation to complete his daily tasks. "I don't like my job, so staying engaged can be hard.

"Work at the moment is way down on my priority list - if I was in the office the support network around me would help make it not so bad."

And he says getting the right equipment has been difficult. "I need two monitors to do all the comparisons I need to do and I only got the second one recently."

Paul's company is now offering bookable hubs for employees to work from instead of returning to the office. But for him, like so many others, working from home could become the new normal.

And that's not something he is happy about. "Why should my dining room become their office space?"

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
After 200,000 Orders in 2 Minutes: Xiaomi Accelerates Marketing in Europe
Ukraine Declares De Facto War on Hungary and Slovakia with Terror Drone Strikes on Their Gas Lifeline
Animated K-pop Musical ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Becomes Netflix’s Most-Watched Original Animated Film
New York Appeals Court Voids Nearly $500 Million Civil Fraud Penalty Against Trump While Upholding Fraud Liability
Elon Musk tweeted, “Europe is dying”
Far-Right Activist Convicted of Incitement Changes Gender and Demands: "Send Me to a Women’s Prison" | The Storm in Germany
Hungary Criticizes Ukraine: "Violating Our Sovereignty"
Will this be the first country to return to negative interest rates?
Child-free hotels spark controversy
North Korea is where this 95-year-old wants to die. South Korea won’t let him go. Is this our ally or a human rights enemy?
Hong Kong Launches Regulatory Regime and Trials for HKD-Backed Stablecoins
China rehearses September 3 Victory Day parade as imagery points to ‘loyal wingman’ FH-97 family presence
Trump Called Viktor Orbán: "Why Are You Using the Veto"
Horror in the Skies: Plane Engine Exploded, Passengers Sent Farewell Messages
MSNBC Rebrands as MS NOW Amid Comcast’s Cable Spin-Off
AI in Policing: Draft One Helps Speed Up Reports but Raises Legal and Ethical Concerns
Shame in Norway: Crown Princess’s Son Accused of Four Rapes
Apple Begins Simultaneous iPhone 17 Production in India and China
A Robot to Give Birth: The Chinese Announcement That Shakes the World
Finnish MP Dies by Suicide in Parliament Building
Outrage in the Tennis World After Jannik Sinner’s Withdrawal Storm
William and Kate Are Moving House – and the New Neighbors Were Evicted
Class Action Lawsuit Against Volkswagen: Steering Wheel Switches Cause Accidents
Taylor Swift on the Way to the Super Bowl? All the Clues Stirring Up Fans
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Apple Expands Social Media Presence in China With RedNote Account Ahead of iPhone 17 Launch
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Cambridge Dictionary Adds 'Skibidi,' 'Delulu,' and 'Tradwife' Amid Surge of Online Slang
Bill Barr Testifies No Evidence Implicated Trump in Epstein Case; DOJ Set to Release Records
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
The CEO Who Replaced 80% of Employees for the AI Revolution: "I Would Do It Again"
Emails Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Character.ai Bets on Future of AI Companionship
China Ramps Up Tax Crackdown on Overseas Investments
Japanese Office Furniture Maker Expands into Bomb Shelter Market
Intel Shares Surge on Possible U.S. Government Investment
Hurricane Erin Threatens U.S. East Coast with Dangerous Surf
EU Blocks Trade Statement Over Digital Rule Dispute
EU Sends Record Aid as Spain Battles Wildfires
JPMorgan Plans New Canary Wharf Tower
Zelenskyy and his allies say they will press Trump on security guarantees
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Escalating Clashes in Serbia as Anti-Government Protests Spread Nationwide
The Drought in Britain and the Strange Request from the Government to Delete Old Emails
Category 5 Hurricane in the Caribbean: 'Catastrophic Storm' with Winds of 255 km/h
"No, Thanks": The Mathematical Genius Who Turned Down 1.5 Billion Dollars from Zuckerberg
The surprising hero, the ugly incident, and the criticism despite victory: "Liverpool’s defense exposed in full"
Digital Humans Move Beyond Sci-Fi: From Virtual DJs to AI Customer Agents
YouTube will start using AI to guess your age. If it’s wrong, you’ll have to prove it
×