Working from home can be wonderful because there’s no commute, and it can be easier to focus if you have the right home office setup away from distractions.

What’s not ideal is when your home office is in the middle of a shared living space like a living room and you’re working at a time when other people you live with are home and want to use that shared space.

In today’s story, one person has found themselves in this situation. While they are working from home in their bedroom, their roommate has started working from home in the living room.

Let’s read the whole story to see why this is such a big problem.

AITA for asking my flatmate to work somewhere that isn’t our shared living space?

I live in London with two friends in an old pub convert, that has a large basement space and two upstairs bedrooms.

Jason (not real name) lives stays in one of the upstairs rooms, and I live in the other.

Isaac (not real name) lives in the basement, which is huge as it used to be a pub cellar, and is the size of the entire upstairs.

Each of the roommates has a different work situation.

I work from an office 3 days per week, and work 2 days either in my room or a cafe from my laptop.

Jason works in hospitality so isn’t here much.

Isaac used to be office based, but decided to quit his job about 6 months ago and go into consulting, which means he works from home constantly, but has basically set up an office in our front room, where our TV and sofas are – basically where we chill.

This has become a problem.

At the beginning this didn’t bother me much, but now he takes calls all the time, with his camera on which means I basically can’t use the room when he’s in there.

I’ve asked him to stop taking calls upstairs, and he flipped out saying he can’t be expected to work in a basement with no windows (despite this being what he pays for. We all pay the same rent btw, and I have the smallest room).

He now has a desk set up in our front room, and works from there till late into the night, with his back to us basically all day, only ever getting up to get take away or smoke.

OP really can’t stand this setup anymore.

I feel like I’m basically living in his office, and have asked him now repeatedly to find somewhere else to work, explaining it isn’t fair he’s co-opted a space we’re all paying for especially when he has so much private space available to him.

It’s now got to the stage where I’m considering asking him to move out (he isn’t on the lease) if he can’t work downstairs/anywhere else that isn’t a shared space.

AITA for considering this as an option?

Would Jason consider switching rooms? Maybe if he had an upstairs bedroom he could work from there since there would be windows, and OP could have the huge basement.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This person suggests using the space normally.

Or perhaps be extra annoying in that shared space.

If OP keeps using the space, the roommate might leave.

This person is pretty sure the roommate will eventually start working somewhere else.

Working from home doesn’t mean inconveniencing your roommates.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.