Working from home is sometimes easier said than done, especially when multiple people are working from home at the same time.

Not everyone has room for a home office or two which means converting part of living space like a living room or bedroom into an office.

In today’s story, a husband and wife both work from home, but the wife is unhappy with the current arrangement.

Let’s see why the wife and how she wants things to change.

AITA for asking my husband to leave his desk in the main living space sometimes?

I’m (30F) at my wits end because my partner (34M) dominates the use of the living room, where he has his desk set up for work.

We live in a two room apartment in Paris that is 35m2. And have been here since the second Covid lockdown.

We both work from home and from the beginning he claimed a large portion of the living room by buying a large glass desk that takes up much of the room.

She can’t even walk into the living room.

He gives French language classes online.

On days like today, he had four classes going on.

When he’s on a call I can’t walk into his screen, therefore I’m limited to the bathroom and bedroom.

I understand that he’s busy and stressed, but I also work full time and need to be able to come into the living area / kitchen when he’s working.

To have lunch, make myself a warm drink, and just generally take intermittent breaks from working.

Here’s how her desk setup compares to her husband’s setup…

My desk is significantly smaller and in the bedroom.

One could argue that I need more space for my job than his, since I’m a data analyst and often working on two screens is an imperative.

I have a second screen but can’t get a larger one that would be more efficient due to the bedroom space constraints.

He has a nice, big screen that he got for himself, which he uses for music production.

He often uses it between working hours too so I don’t really have any opportunity to use it.

She thought it would get better…

This arrangement is causing me significant distress, but when I ask him to take calls from the bedroom he hardly agrees.

If I push firmly, like I did today, he gets upset, throws a mini tantrum before agreeing (often using words like “shut up okay I’m going”).

As one might imagine, i ask less and less for fear of disrupting the household peace.

I thought this would get better since we discussed this issue at large over the summer.

Occasionally since he has agreed to work in the bedroom for individual calls, but it’s still far from the equality I’m expecting out of this relationship.

She’s wondering if her demands are reasonable.

Is it reasonable for me to demand we split days 50/50, even though he technically bought the desk and screen in the living room?

Should I try and impose a rule like: all calls are taken from the bedroom, unless we have calls at the same time?

Final note — the living room/kitchen is more spacious, and has nice lighting and the sound of birds out the window, whereas the bedroom is smaller.

It has poorer WiFi connection, faces a small courtyard, captures noise from the street, poorer light, same place as where we sleep, no access to facilities for snacks and drinks, etc.

It sounds like the husband took the good spot for himself.

He really should be the one in the bedroom since he’d still be able to walk into the living room when she’s working.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted…

Make some noise!

Her husband could use a filter.

Rearranging the furniture could help.

It might be time to move.

She could buy the big monitor anyway.

If her husband were sitting with his back against the wall that would make a huge difference!

They certainly have options, if he’s interested in discussing them.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.