is it my responsibility to have a work-from-home set-up even if I don’t normally work from home?

by Alison Green on March 27, 2025

A reader writes:

I work for a company that has around 600 employees and several offices in a few different countries. Recently a different office was refurbished, and during the refurbishment all the employees who worked there had to work from home. It ended up taking longer than planned and they were all working from home for around two and a half weeks.

Our employer is very pro-working-from-home, and I’m one of a small handful of employees who works in an office every day. I like office working, but part of the reason I do it every day is that I live in a shared apartment in an expensive city where my room could be described as “cupboard size.” There is a small table in the shared kitchen/living room which I have used to work from at in a pinch (e.g., I need to let an emergency plumber in when neither of my roommate could be at home). This is definitely not something I could do for more than a day without it being really annoying for me and my flatmates. I live within a 15-minute walk of the office so while I don’t love cupboard life, it works for me, and the crazy rental market here means I am in no hurry to look for somewhere else to live.

My question is this: if a similar office refurb was announced for my office, what would my options be? Is it just an expectation for employees at work-from-homeable jobs to be able to make it work? Realistically I could ask around and find friends or family who could find the space for me to work for a week or so, but it’s quite a big favor to ask. The kind of work we do requires multiple screens to be efficient (people who work from home regularly are provided with monitors) so it’s not something I could do from a library or a coffeeshop. Could I ask my company to pay for a coworking space (one of the fancy ones with monitors) for the time spent with no office? Would it be really out of touch for me to ask?

This is a hypothetical question because I don’t see it happening for my office but I’m interested to know what the etiquette is.

As with so many things about work, there’s what should happen and then there’s what does happen.

What should happen is that if your office expects you to work from home during something like a renovation or an electrical outage or so forth and you don’t have the ability to work from home — and you didn’t explicitly accept the job knowing that sometimes working from home would be part of the deal — they should either (a) provide alternate space for you to work from (like a coworking space) or (b) give you paid time off for that period (which shouldn’t come out of your normal vacation time, because you’re not choosing to use your time that way).

What often happens in reality, though, is that you’re just expected to find a way to make it work on your own — meaning you either work from that tiny table in your shared kitchen, or you go to a coffeeshop or a friend’s house, etc. If the office disruption is just for a day or two, you might end up being given paid time off to cover it, but otherwise they’re likely to expect you to figure it out. You could probably get them to provide you with another screen though.

But that’s not to say it would be out of touch to ask about options! You could definitely ask about getting a coworking space covered, particularly if it’s going to be longer than a couple of days (and if the situation is looking like it’s going to be more than a week — and especially if it’s stretching to a month or longer — your chances of them saying yes go up).

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  1. Kevin Sours*

    It’s usually worth asking because all to often the response is a mortified “we didn’t consider that of course we’ll fix it”. Assuming that your own circumstances are more universal than they are is a very common human failing.

    1. Not Tom, Just Petty*

      This. If you don’t ask, nobody will know. It’s not malicious, it’s apathetic, it’s just people reacting to a situation.
      15 years ago, our business continuity program had a test procedure. Each year our boss would call each of us and assign us, work from our regular, satellite office, work from home or go to the main office. I lived with and cared for two elderly, invalid parents. I had caregivers during the day. Everyone wanted to be picked to work from home, ‘cept me.
      I asked the question, about me and my boss made a decision, about me.
      In OP’s case, there might be more people whose situation is like OP’s than like the decision makers’ who announce, “work from home for two weeks.”

    2. FashionablyEvil*

      Yeah, when Covid hit, all of our executives lived in big houses in the suburbs. They had utterly failed to imagine people living in small apartments (of which we had many in our urban office) when they worked out the WFH stuff. Failure of imagination.

      1. I Have RBF*

        We had the option to WFH one day a week at the place I was at before Covid. People who lived with roomies in small apartments or that had small kids at home didn’t avail themselves of the opportunity. They had to scramble during Covid because now they had to find a way.

  2. Generic Name*

    I don’t think that people are generally expected to have a dedicated WFH space if you have an in-office job. When my last company moved offices, employees were told to work from home for like 3 days. At the time I didn’t have a home office, so I ended up taking a monitor home temporarily and working from my kitchen table. Not ideal, but fine for a few days. When I later had to change my schedule to work from home part days (to pick up my child from middle school), I set up a dedicated office space in a separate room in my home before I pitched my request to my boss. The difference in the two situations was one situation was an isolated period of temporarily working from home and the other was a more permanent arrangement. If I had not set up a home office, I think it would have been reasonable for my boss to tell me no unless I had a dedicated home office set up.

    1. Wallaby, Well I'll Be*

      I actually don’t think that it’s reasonable for someone to be denied WFH unless they have a dedicated home office. I think the vast majority of people don’t need an actual, formal home office to be able to work from home. I’ve been WFH for 3 years, and I work at my kitchen table everyday. It doesn’t prevent me from doing my job, and I like it. I really don’t think an employer can or should require an actual home office to allow WFH, unless of course you’re an attorney or therapist and exchange confidential information with clients. (But if you live alone, then who cares?) I’ve never once been asked to describe my home working space.

      1. WellRed*

        But a dedicated space doesn’t need to be an actual office. My dedicated space is a corner of my living room. I’d love to move it into a spare bedroom but I can’t afford spare bedrooms.

        1. Generic Name*

          Yes, I wasn’t clear in my phrasing. My request was also pre-COVID, so it was seen as a bigger deal to “telework”. Our telework policy actually said that you may be asked to provide photo documentation of your work space. I never was, but I think the fact that I had a desk space with a door dedicated to working made the suggestion that I work 2 hours in the afternoon with my middle schooler at home more palatable to management. Again, pre-COVID.

        2. Nightengale*

          Yes I live alone in an apartment. I don’t have anything that could be called “an office.” I work on a laptop sitting on a couch in the living room. When I am not working, I am often on my personal laptop on the same couch in the same living room. This position is much more comfortable and productive for me than sitting at a desk/table due to disability although when I am working in the office I do sit in a chair. (With my feet up on a drawer and a laptop still on my lap.)

          It makes sense to require a private place to work, but that place should not have to look like “an office” or be dedicated just to work.

      2. Beth*

        I think the smartest WFH requirements are less “you need to have a separate room that is a home office and nothing else” and more “you need to have a space with an adequate tech setup, adequate privacy for your role’s data security needs, and adequate quiet for any meetings you might be on.” Focusing on the actual business need makes policies make sense to workers, and makes it easy to measure (via productivity dropping) when someone might need to have their permission revoked.

      3. Raida*

        Dedicated, ergonomic space in which they can work without serious distraction.

        That’s close to the phrasing we have – as in “If you work hunched over your laptop at your kitchen table, and thus have lied on the ergonomic check, guess who isn’t suing the company for back and neck pain?”

        1. TeaMonk*

          ( is actually pretty interested in the ergonomics check, but cant articulate it. like how do they carry it out?)

          1. Sara K*

            I’m not Raida but in my org, if you ask for an ergonomic check they’ll send someone (a rep from a company with expertise) to carry out the check and make recommendations for things the org can do to make the set up more ergonomic (e.g. buy the person a footrest)

            1. TeaMonk*

              Ah. the way she said it it sounded mandatory. I’ve never been high up enough to rate my own desk*, so I was curious.

              *at the office. I have one at home

        2. amoeba*

          In Germany, the law on this is actually pretty interesting – if it’s officially called “home office” then yes, you do need that ergonomic set up and all that, and I believe it’s actually upon the employer to ensure that (e.g., buy you the chair, etc.). However, almost nobody has that, and since COVID, of course, a lot more people have WFH arrangements – these are now officially called “mobile working” instead, so, no requirements whatsoever, problem solved. I believe the former was previously meant mostly for working when travelling or for people who WFH every now and then, not full time, but since COVID, it’s basically become ubiquitous… which is nice for people who don’t have the space for a “real” set-up, but kind of sucks because all the laws for providing a safe and ergonomic workspace don’t apply anymore. And of course, your employer then typically doesn’t pay for your office equipment anymore, while he would have to in the “classic” model.

      4. DannyG*

        If you work with HIPAA covered materials or confidential financial information a separate, lockable space is reasonable. I do real time medical reviews and had to submit documentation (photos) of my secure, private workplace. In the aftermath of hurricane Helene I had to move to my son’s home as he had power and internet, but I had to submit the same proof before resuming work.

      5. Sara K*

        In some places there might be OH&S regs that apply to wfh scenarios. My organisation requires us to fill in a checklist about our home working environment and sign a statement about it. This covers everyone in case of a work related injury. There are some pretty serious statutes in place about workplace safety in my country and most employers take that seriously.

  3. RIP Pillowfort*

    OP- So we had a small disaster in our section of the office. Burst pipe over a long weekend and it water damaged our entire area save for 2 offshoot halls that were untouched. To complicate things this is an old building with asbestos. So not a simple clean up!

    We have a mix of people that had to work from the office and those that could work from home. Those that could work from home did and those that had to work from the office (or wanted to) were found some empty office space in other parts of the building. The damage was in 1 specific area that could be closed off so other people were safe. And this was not an office that was always WFH friendly. We had only just started hybrid return from COVID when this happened!

    Don’t be afraid to ask about options. Even our WFH people asked about what equipment was okay to move into their spaces. People still at the office asked about having their specific furniture, etc. especially the multiple monitors because we do work that helps to have that too!

    1. RagingADHD*

      Was about to post the same thing – if there’s a possible alternate space onsite, even if inconvenient, that would probably be the first choice before a separate coworking space. I’m pretty sure my company would just set people up in a conference room or spare cubicle on a different floor if they didn’t have WFH space.

      1. The Unspeakable Queen Lisa*

        Ah, memories of the 2 months I and 20 coworkers spent working in a conference room turned open plan office when there was a snafu with a lease and newly constructed space hadn’t been finished yet. Nobody worked from home, we sat in pairs facing each other with our monitors back to back. Only desks, no other space/equipment. Even the directors had to put up with it. It suuuucked.

  4. Goreygal*

    My expectation (maybe different as I live and work in UK) is that if i cannot go into the office as an office worker on a typical work day because of something the office is doing then that’s not my problem to solve. It’s on the employer to consult with me on alternative options to try and see if we can come up with a solution that suits everyone and doesn’t “cost” me.

    1. Not Tom, Just Petty*

      Yeah, so you have one of those “contract” things I keep hearing about. In the US if the office building can’t be used, there’s nothing other than good will of management to make things work. And I’ve always found that, in my job, in most drastic situations. But you can be told, make it work and that’s it.

      1. Sashaa*

        Yep, that’s why it’s so different. If I’m available for work, I’ve held up my side of the contract. If my employer can’t provide me with work to do (or somewhere to do it) that’s their problem to fix, not mine.

        Obviously there are things like zero hours contracts, where there is no guarantee of work. But those aren’t standard employment contracts.

        Does anyone know how employment rights came to diverge so much between the two countries? It’s just unthinkable to UK workers that anyone in a proper job wouldn’t have a contract. I even had one for a summer job selling ice cream aged 16.

  5. Beth*

    For a long office closure, I’d absolutely be asking for a membership at a local coworking space–and I’d be checking with my team to see if anyone wants to band together to make that request. You live in a big city. Small homes are a common big-city reality. You can’t be the only one with the problem of not having space at home for an office! I’d bet even a lot of your coworkers who work from home sometimes, aren’t set up to do ALL their work at home. It’s in your employer’s best interest to ensure you’re equipped to work through the closure, and a 2-week coworking space membership is a relatively cheap way to do that.

  6. learnedthehardway*

    I have worked from home from long before it became a trend, and even I have had to change up my work environment once in awhile. My home office fits into a backpack and I am able to work from anywhere there is a good internet connection. I did this recently, with nobody knowing the difference.

    If you have a laptop, the capability to use replacement backgrounds on teleconference calls, and a good noise cancelling headset with directional microphone, you’re good to go. My laptop doesn’t even need the noise cancelling headset (it has a build in microphone as well as camera), but I like to have the headset in case I’m in an environment which is not perfectly quiet – the directional microphone means that nobody else can hear the ambient noise around me, either.

    That and a mobile phone or (in my case, an internet phone), and I am able to work anywhere.

    While I have a dedicated home office, I can easily work from anywhere else in the house. It was more important to have a dedicated space when my kids were small (and louder).

    1. KayDeeAye*

      The OP says that they and their coworkers need multiple screens to do their job efficiently. That makes it a lot harder to have an office setup that fits in a backpack.

      1. Over Analyst*

        I wonder if they could get a portable screen. My brother got one that folds up and it’s perfect for traveling, takes up little space, and is easy to set up and put away.

        1. KayDeeAye*

          Great idea. Although sometimes adding even a few extra ounces to my backpack makes me pretty darn whiny. But maybe that’s just me!

          1. Aerin*

            This is why I got a rolling laptop bag rather than a backpack. I couldn’t handle the weight!

            I do my job on 3 monitors normally. I’ve made it work with the laptop and a USB monitor before, which wasn’t very fun but worked for a couple of days. It was also my choice since it let me travel without taking PTO. I still occasionally will work from the couch downstairs with the laptop and the USB if I’m really tired and on a duty that is easier to do with less real estate.

            The one I’ve got at home only cost like $100 on Amazon. They’ve also got really fancy ones that hook onto the back of your laptop and give you two extra monitors. That seems like a reasonable expense for an office to pick up if it allows someone to work from a library or coffee shop. Heck, it might be a reasonable investment (in employee satisfaction and productivity if nothing else) for an office like LW’s to invest in a couple that they can keep on hand and loan out in cases like the plumber scenario.

        2. Festively Dressed Earl*

          Not a bad idea, but LW’s company would still need to provide the screen or a $200 Best Buy gift card so LW could get one. Employees shouldn’t have to absorb the cost of a remote work setup if they weren’t hired as remote employees.

          1. Slow Gin Lizz*

            Agreed. I WFH and use two large monitors and recently looked into getting myself a portable one so I could work in other places more easily, but those things are not cheap. And if you do the kind of work that requires two monitors, it really affects your workday if you are trying to use a single laptop screen. It’s kind of appalling how long it took me to realize that I could work with two screens and since I’ve figured that out I can *never* go back to one screen. I’ve tried it for like two hours in “emergency” situations (they were not real emergencies) and it’s dang near impossible.

            1. Pam Adams*

              When the pandemic started, we were sent home with laptops. After a day or two, I returned to my office and grabbed my monitors and docking port. They’re still part of my home set up. I got new ones when we returned to the office.

            2. Purple stapler*

              In one of the recent Friday open posts, there was a thread about a company that was allowing a WFH test. Everyone used two monitors in the office and the people who wanted to try WFH had to have two monitors in the office. One guy didn’t (even though he had apparently told management he did) and he was nowhere near as productive has in the office (there were other issues, as well). Commenters in that thread swore up and down that multiple external monitors were not needed. Yet, here we have people saying yes, they need two monitors to be productive.

              1. Purple Stapler*

                Oops – the correct is the employees in the WFH test were required to have two monitors at HOME

              2. RagingADHD*

                Im not entirely sure which thread you’re referring to, but it it’s the one I think, you’re a) comparing apples to oranges, and b) missing the point of both.

                Yes, many jobs can be done more easily with multiple screens, particularly if one is used to working that way. That has nothing to do with whether or not the “test” setup was reasonable.

                It is not fair for an employer to “test” someone’s productivity working in entirely different environments if they aren’t going to supply proper equipment, and the employee should not need to make up the difference or be penalized for not having their own.

            3. Proofin’ Amy*

              I’ve worked remotely since the pandemic but had to move out of my apartment for a month while it was being renovated. So I bought a portable screen for about $130, because I need two screens. Micro Center has a pretty good selection at reasonable prices, and fortunately I live near one.

              But you also need a good backpack to carry all the gear if you can’t work from home.

              Ideally, a company should offer a tech allowance if they don’t provide office space. Mine did when we went remote, and I used it to improve my setup.

        3. But what to call me?*

          I got one of those for school a few years ago and it’s so useful! I don’t know how I made it so long without it. It makes it much easier to work and I can take it anywhere and can also easily pack it up and put it away when I need the space. They’re not cheap, though, so the employer should definitely pay for it if it’s for work.

    2. I'm just here for the cats!!*

      Your comment reminded me that there are extendable monitors that you can get for your laptop. they fold up and look like tablets. That could be a good choice for someone who may have to work someplace like a library but needs multiple monitors.

      1. Mudrat*

        I actually use my tablet itself as a second monitor for my laptop. I have a Windows laptop and a 12 inch android tablet and when I feel the need to flip back and forth between two screens I can dual monitor with a USB cable and the Space desk driver and app. It works great and is super portable. (no plug and I’m not affiliated, it’s just what I use, there’s tons of other software that can do the same thing! It’s free for personal use and you can get a commercial license, I use it for personal stuff)

  7. Non-Controlling Controller*

    Back when I was in public accounting and we moved from paper files to electronic files, which made the need for multiple monitors much more accute, they gave us all portable external monitors that I think could even run off of a USB cord. When we have our auditors out on site, they also often have these.

    While not giving you nearly the screen real estate as a full sized monitor, they are still better than just working off of a laptop, and easily fit in a backpack/briefcase. I think they only cost a couple hundred bucks, so you could probably push to get one reimbursed.

    Funny story on these, this was back before SSDs were standard, and many people still had hard disks. The covers for the monitors attached via magnets, and multiple people had their hard drives erased when they were put in the same box next to eachother.

  8. Over Analyst*

    There’s so much variability in offices! When we went home during covid a bunch of people were just less productive, and that was fine for a temporary solution (productivity improved after a few months). I could also see there being a problem if I worked from home when I needed to (like to let in a plumber) but pushed back that it won’t work from me if they needed me to (like for a refurbishment). As a manager myself, though, I’d give slack to someone with the same inconsistencies realizing that it’s easier to make it work for a day than for a few weeks. Really I think you’d just need to lay it out with your manager if the situation came up. Hopefully they’d be understanding if you’re not typically working from home.

  9. Strive to Excel*

    Basic equipment should, IMO, be on the workplace to provide. Most especially the computer, but also monitors or peripherals as necessary. I can see things like headphones being a grey area for a WFH employee, or higher-priced equipment for non-accessibility needs.

    But the physical space is a different story. If you’ve got an emergency situation (plumbing break, etc) I could see an office pulling out some budget for coworking space or organizing some time at an internet cafe. But if you deliberately go looking for WFH/hybrid work, then IMO it works the same way as needing a car/transport to commute to the office. It’s the responsibility of the employee to arrange that rather than the employer.

    1. Antilles*

      For a temporary WFH situation, monitors and necessary peripherals often have an easy solution of letting the employee take the ones from their desk home with them before the office shutdown. Which helps your employees have the needed equipment, but also has the nice benefit of the electronics being out of the contractors’ way to avoid damage, dust clogging, etc.
      The physical space very much depends on the length of the shutdown. Even in OP’s tight living quarters situation, I could certainly see an argument for just asking OP to do the best they can for a week or two. But once it stretches beyond that, the company spending a few bucks to rent a co-working space should very much be on the table to make things more effective.

  10. Ann O'Nemity*

    As a manager, this is the kind of thing I’d like to handle quietly as needed. We don’t have the budget for everyone to go to the paid co-working spaces, but I could certainly swing it short term for people who are in a tough spot!

    1. I'm just here for the cats!!*

      Yeah, I do think that if the construction or whatever is being delayed that the company needs to eat the cost of either paying for a co-working space, or figure something else out. Like is there another building or something that is available for people to use. I also don’t like Alison’s suggestion that they should just get paid and not work. In theory that would be ok but in reality that work is (most likely) be given as more work for other employees. It also could mean that the person who can’t work misses out on opportunities. If they are working on the Llama project for 2 months but the last month Sally takes over because the OP is unable to work, then Sally gets credit for the project. OP looses out on the clout, experience, or whatever. It can also be problematic for the team, as they might resent the OP for not working.

  11. Library worker*

    It’s not quite as comfortable as a home location, but as a library worker, MANY people work from the library. If you need to take meetings, see if your library has reservable meeting rooms.

    1. I'm just here for the cats!!*

      but the OP needs multiple screens to work. I’ve never seen a library that had a setup like that.

      1. HSE Compliance*

        I have a travel screen for my laptop that takes up less space in my backpack than my actual laptop. I requested it from my employer – I’m a 50% travel employee and need multiple screens to do my job effectively.

  12. Cat Lady in the Mountains*

    If it’s just for a couple days, I don’t think it’s unreasonable for the company to ask you to work from your laptop without multiple monitors and just take the efficiency hit. (If there are medical accommodations in play that would change things.) That would open up options like a cheaper coworker space or a library. “Good enough” might be the best they can do for very-temporary disruptions.

    If it’s for more like a week+, I’d expect the company to provide options for employees to make it more viable. Like maybe letting folks choose between taking monitors home or using some kind of temporary office space (whether at a coworking space or at a short-term-rental office or something else) where you could set up monitors.

    In either case I’d definitely hope they’d be open to employees speaking up about specific circumstances that need a different solution.

  13. cncx*

    I don’t typically home office and after 2021 I ditched my home monitor. I don’t like work energy in my living space. My employers since then know I have no setup at home and that if I am forced to stay home there is an efficiency hit if it is only a day or two. The last two times I home officed against my will, it was agreed with my bosses that it was phone, email and urgent tasks only. I would expect work to chip in for a monitor or coworking space (although I have two friends with coworking spaces who wouldn’t charge me full price) if it got into two week territory because I was explicit when I was hired that I don’t have the setup at home. I feel like these options are reasonable for OP: if forced to be working off a laptop two or three days, work should show some grace; if more, show some cash. The only way I will ever work from my home again is another lockdown. I don’t want work in my home which is my safe haven from Work Stuff.

    1. TGIF*

      I will never stop working from home, it’s so much easier!! And it gives me so much time back. I can’t imagine being in an office again YUCK.

      1. TeaMonk*

        I like both. I like home because it’s nice to be able to have as many breaks as you need and less noise and fewer people who want to bother you, but the office is good when people break out the lawnmowers and light construction. The printer is better too.

        1. TGIF*

          I just went through 6 months of hell with the roof AND the siding and windows and doors being replaced in my apartment building, it was the loudest thing I had ever been through, and it was still better to to work from home than the office. And my printer is perfect just the way it is.

  14. Elizabeth West*

    LOL cupboard life; I love that. I’m with everyone who says just ask them about it. You won’t know what they’d be willing to cover until you do. Then you can plan.

  15. I'm just here for the cats!!*

    I read the title and my first thought the worst. I thought that the OP got in trouble because they didn’t have a nice spare office to work in and that the boss was tone-deaf. I’m glad that this is not the case,

  16. Kay Tee*

    I’m similarly the odd one out in my office who doesn’t work from home. I have the space, but I don’t enjoy it. My commute is easy, and I prefer the work/home separation. My work computer is a desktop, and I don’t own a personal laptop. But I have to give an awkward reminder to my supervisors every time there’s a snow day that I don’t work from home, and I get this feeling (correctly or not) that people are raising an eyebrow at me for taking the day off.

    1. Piper*

      Good for you! I wonder if they insisted you work from home, would they then supply all the equipment – computer, internet service, cables?

  17. Lynn*

    I do think that companies are going to more and more expect/assume that staff can work from home when required, unless the work itself if hands on. It might be that we need to be as clear with employers about not being able to WFH as wanting to WFH.

  18. Aggretsuko*

    My old job sent us home with a full office setup. I was surprised when I applied at another office in the next building over and they were all “oh, we don’t provide you with anything, we’ll let you work from home one day a week after six months, but it’ll have to be your own home setup and your own personal machine.” Without any security either, which shocked me. These days you can’t get much done without giant screens and I was flabbergasted this job didn’t do that.

    1. amoeba*

      Wow – I mean, providing your own screen isn’t super uncommon, but most companies have laptops nowadays, and I just cannot imagine being asked to use my personal device for work! It’s actually super strictly forbidden to have any company data on there at all, that sounds like a data security nightmare… (although I kind of like the idea of finally having admin rights and being able to install all the software I’d like, lol!)

    2. I Have RBF*

      I work 100% remote. My employer sent me a laptop, keyboard, mouse and monitor. All I had to provide was a desk and my chair.

      I actually had to buy a new chair, because my previous one was not working out. It cost me nearly $700, but it was worth it for a chair that I spend 8 or more hours a day in.

  19. Emily Byrd Starr*

    I agree that it’s totally reasonable for the company to provide vacation time when they’re renovating the office. My old job did the same thing when they had new carpeting put in. We all got a free extra day off!

  20. Raida*

    If this was going to happen to your office, I would tell my manager “I don’t have a WfH space, is there some odd spot in the building I could move to for the duration?”

    And be clear on a few words – Ergonomic, Connectivity.

    There is no office chair, footrest, the height of the table is wrong, no laptop riser, no monitor, no full sized keyboard and mouse – it wouldn’t pass even the most cursory of ergonomic checks. If you’re directed to work in that space for more than an odd day here or there, you’d need a few hundred dollars worth of equipment to make it ergonomically sound. (And it’s too small to store that stuff, so it’d need to be sold afterwards at a loss.) Maybe you could borrow a few pieces from the office for the duration like a monitor, keyboard, cables, footrest – would the business be okay with that?

    secondly, Connectivity – oh gosh oh golly oh gee my apartment’s internet can be iffy… Don’t know that I’d be getting messages and file access effectively…

    But realistically, unless your boss sucks I’d expect “Hey if we do that refurb too is there space in the building I could work from? There is no WfH setup or space for it in my shoebox apartment – and I have a housemate so I can’t claim the entire living area as ‘my office'”

  21. Pam Adams*

    I would introduce this as proactive thinking- “Having the XYZ office need to work from home made me think- what would we do in that situation if people didn’t have WFH space?” You could use yourself as a potential example as well as some of the other examples from above. Including possible solutions makes you look even more like a forward-thinking team player.

    1. Alton Brown's Evil Twin*

      Right – general contingency planning. Water main break, power outage, somebody spilled mercury in the lobby and nobody can get in until it’s been decontaminated.

  22. FionaLibrarian*

    Not sure about your local library setup, but ours has small conference rooms and computer rooms people use for free when they WFH. You can’t do it every day, but it might be worth looking into in a temporary situation like the one you described.

  23. PurpleCattledog*

    My workplace recently closed for about 10 days. We were informed if we could not work effectively while the office was closed we would have to take leave, which could have been unpaid. While my country usually has reasonable worker’s rights – sadly this area is one where we have no rights and can just lose our income (even if salaried). They committed to casuals receiving lost income but not contracted or salaried staff.

    The informal advice we handed around as colleagues was do the best you can and do not take leave. Given were have jobs without coverage – why should we lose income when we wouldn’t get overtime catching everything up?

  24. Skytext*

    So, one thing I can think of is to look around your neighborhood/orbit to see if any businesses might have some space/a desk they may rent you for a nominal fee. My husband has a small business (mostly just him, the occasional contracted employee, and me helping him out sometimes). He rents a small freestanding office. He has one room as his office, there is a catchall room mostly used as a coffee/lunch room, but that has a desk and could easily be converted to an office, and a big front room with two desks, one with computer and monitor, and printers, restroom, etc. He sometimes rents out desk space to others to help with the rent. But I’m sure he charges way less than an official co-working place. Sometimes as little as $100 a month.

  25. Longtime Reader*

    I totally feel the frustration here, but do want to share for anyone who could make remote work “work” if they could bring another screen with them — portable USB plug-and-play monitors/screens are pretty affordable all of a sudden! My work requires two screens to be efficient and getting the portable monitor has been a game changer, even for when I just get the urge to sit in a different room rather than at my desk.

    Provided you have a laptop with a USB-C port, you can get a portable second screen for under $200 — that was my experience purchasing a reputable brand at a physical store in person, so I’m sure folks willing to buy sketchy no-names online could do so for much less. My second screen fits right in my laptop bag next to my laptop, inside its own case which serves as a stand when in use. Absolutely worthy purchase for the convenience and flexibility it provides.

  26. AB*

    it sounds like your company has multiple offices. are any of the other ones in reasonable diatance (60-75 min?)? maybe if this happened you could ask to work at a different office. or maybe your company has amicable relationship with other companies who share your building and could ask if you could work there. these are things that could be arranged but won’t happen unless you ask. most employers probably don’t consider that some people don’t want to or can’t work from home.

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