My husband has one of the best work-from-home setups I’ve ever seen. I don’t think he knows how good he has it.
He works fully remote (and has since last March). I’ll typically go into the York IE offices or meet with our startup partners a few days a week, limiting my work from home days to one or two.
Because my husband is at the house every day, he naturally has moved into our extra room and made it his office. This guy’s got a full-on command center in there: TV-sized monitors hanging from the wall, corner window views, height-adjustable desk, perfectly ergonomic and throne-like chair, you get the idea. I get nervous he’ll bring the espresso machine in there and then really never leave the room!
Joking aside, this all makes sense. My husband needs to have a robust remote work setup to get his job done because he doesn’t have access to a real-life office.
When I work from home, it’s a bit of a different story. Because I’m only there once or twice a week, I’ll typically set up in our dining room right next to the kitchen. Instead of a comfortable tech-forward setup, I’m often feeling like I’m dropped right in the middle of the house: a load of laundry that needs to be done to my right and a pile of dishes to put away on my left.
But that never stops me. I’m still just as productive (if not more) when I work from home. If my years of experience working in the tech landscape have taught me anything, it’s that things don’t always go perfectly. In high-growth companies, we are often uncomfortable, under-resourced and distracted. With all that, we still have a job to do and we are going to get it done!
Being flexible is the key to plowing through any obstacles. This is something I see with many of our successful startup partners. The key to navigating early-stage growth is compromising with other stakeholders, utilizing the resources you have available and staying committed to the vision — even if everything around you isn’t aligning perfectly.
My husband and I can compromise on workspace and both still achieve what we set out to do. A little give-and-take and flexibility can go a long way. Startups need to remember that too.
