Many people in the region have been thrust into not-so-great work from home situations. This stock photo shows a minimal setup, but a less-than-ideal ergonomic situation.

Charles Deluvio / Unsplash

Everyone is experiencing the coronavirus pandemic a little differently.

But for city dwellers working from home and young professionals working out of tiny apartments, adapting to the new environment has been, well, challenging at best.

It’s been nearly two months since office workers were thrust into uncharted territory filled with noisy distractions, back pain, needy pets, and loud-talking roommates.

Noise complaints—for construction, for neighbors and more—are up 22 percent in the Washington region since the pandemic began here, according to data provided by the District. Residents placed nearly 3,200 calls for noise in March and April. D.C.’s Office of Unified Communications wants residents to use the police non-emergency number or 311 for reporting noise complaints.

All of the people interviewed for this story say their problems come from a place of privilege. They believe noise and other issues are insignificant compared to people losing their lives or loved ones to the virus and workers getting laid off, furloughed or having to go to work in places where they may be potentially exposed.

Still, many are thrown into uncharted waters and are getting more than they bargained for.

When Your Noisy Neighbor Is Also Your Landlord

In mid-March, Maria was forced out of her non-profit office building and into her suburban Maryland basement apartment full time.

She lives below a family who is now also staying at home. There’s a kid and a dog. And some heavy-footed walkers, “like they’re trying to kill giant cockroaches with every step.”

She calls it “impact noise.” Maria has researched every facet of noise, sound-proofing, and insulation because of this. Her ceiling has little sound insulation. Don’t get a basement apartment with recessed lighting, she says, because holes in the ceiling make it that much noisier—“You don’t want holes in your ceiling.”

On top of work, she also is dealing with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder—she says she struggles with focus. So how does she cope?

“It’s an awkward situation when your landlord is both the neighbor who you are complaining about and also being in their home and paying them money.”

“I cast white noise or rain sounds to the TV, then I put on over the ear headphones that I keep on all day,” Maria says. She listens to heavy bass and EDM music to mask the impact noise. “But I also don’t want to damage my ears, so I wear foam earplugs. The system works pretty well.”

She vividly remembers the early days of the pandemic.

“I had a bit of a meltdown,” she says. “My stress level was already high [because of the pandemic], but I got into a fight with my landlord, where he—in the middle of a pandemic—told me that I should probably find somewhere else to live or work.

“And he was like, can you go to [where her family lives out of state].”

She says they have largely smoothed it over.

Maria asked that we change her name to avoid possible retaliation from her landlord.

She’s now saved up enough money to move out to a quieter place, but now faces a new problem: “I hope I can find somewhere to rent between July and September … I’m not confident we won’t have to do this again in the fall or winter.”

When Your Neighbor’s Sex Is So Loud, You’re Worried Coworkers Will Hear It Over Zoom

One woman says she and her partner have a, um, different … kind of noise disturbing their workday.

“Our neighbors have really loud sex all the time—like multiple times a day, at all hours,” she says. “I, like most people right now, am on conference calls all day and my biggest concern is unmuting myself to make a comment and my entire team hearing just how much my neighbors like each other.”

(She didn’t want to be named so she wouldn’t be embarrassed at work and have her name tied to a neighbor’s sex story for the rest of her life whenever someone Googles her. Understandable.)

It’s so bad, the walls shake. Her boyfriend has heard it through noise-canceling headphones.

“You can’t escape it,” she says.

The District resident, who lives in a 700-square-foot apartment in a 20-unit building with thin walls, says her neighbor’s sex noises were so bad that another neighbor left letters under every door on the floor.

“It didn’t work,” she says.

The woman, a federal worker, says she was excited to work from home because she usually can’t. But it’s gotten old.

“We noticed (the noises) before this (quarantine) started, but when you’re home all the time, you start to notice how much this is happening,” she says.

When Construction Noise Drives You Nuts

Mary Proietti moved from Richmond to Alexandria in January, never expecting to work from home a few months after arriving in the new city.

She was greeted with construction noise outside her apartment from an I-395 off-ramp at Duke Street.

It’s jackhammering in the morning, trucks beeping throughout the day and even work overnight.

“I noticed it pretty immediately and thought ‘Wow, this is going to be a problem,’” says Proietti, who works in the medical supply industry. “The night-time noise is bad because I’m not sleeping much anymore, which isn’t helping me during the day.”

She’s enlisted a box fan, a white noise machine and music to help cope.

The bright side is the Virginia Department of Transportation said the work should be done in two weeks. For now, she tries to keep the noise in perspective.

“I’ve got income coming in, I’m feeling lucky for that job that’s an important role to play right now,” Proietti says. “So I can’t complain, but some days I try to keep it in perspective … a lot of my friends are out of jobs and a lot of them know someone who has passed away.”

When Your Husband Is A Loud Talker

After nearly 40 workdays from home, Jessa Paruch says she’d gladly trash her husband in print and on the radio.

“I’m discovering his conference call voice is a few decibels short of full-on shouting,” she says.

“The person leading my call asked if everyone can mute their lines,” Paruch says. “They could pick up his exact words from the next room. I was so mortified.”

She was on a Zoom call, so was her husband in the next room.

The newlyweds share a one-bedroom apartment in a 16-unit building on Capitol Hill. They have nothing that resembles a proper work chair or desk. Her shoulders feel awful. Her posture is terrible.

The couple is trying to adapt by splitting up call times as much as possible. She’s also dodging being in the background of his video calls.

“For some reason, he likes to have his calls with the kitchen in the background,” Paruch says. “I needed coffee one time and definitely crawled to get to the kitchen.”

She thinks people saw her phantom hand in the background.

But Jessa is also seeing a new side of her husband—the work side, which differs from her style.

“He’s taken a call laying on the couch—versus me—I’m trying to make my own standing desk out of cookbooks,” she says with a laugh. “He’s a bit more relaxed.”

And while they’re making do—their balcony has been one saving grace—they are looking to move, maybe a little sooner than they previously planned.

“We were looking to buy a condo or a house and we’ve accelerated that a little more if we can afford to do it,” she says. “It would be nice to have a desk that’s also not our dining room table.”

And while she playfully teased her husband for his quirks, she says she has enjoyed some facets of working from home.

“We try to have a drink together at the end of the night or coffee in the morning to check in with each other, even though we’ve seen each other all day.”

When Your Workspace Is A Breakfast Bar And Stool

Chris Bird lives in a tiny apartment with his partner. They don’t have room for a dining room table or a work desk. So that means splitting the workspace.

“I’m on frequent calls to coordinate designs with clients and other staff and I feel bad for my partner who has to hear these long conversations two feet from me at our kitchen counter shared workspace,” he says.

And because the apartment doesn’t have a ton of room, they both share the one surface they have: a high-top breakfast bar in the kitchen.

“It’s pretty hard on my back to sit at a bar stool for nine hours a day,” Bird says. “I’m getting some interesting new bruises on my arms from leaning on the countertop.”

When You’re An Ergonomics Expert

Leanne Wright may be one of the better-equipped people to deal with this new work from home situation.

She does ergonomic consultations for staff and faculty at American University. Many have asked her to help make a less-than-ideal work from home setup, better. [Disclosure: AU holds the license for DCist’s parent company, WAMU.]

Common complaints include upper back and lower neck pain. People are hunchbacks by the end of the night, she says.

“It’s not about finding the one position that’s perfect for your body,” Wright says. “It’s about movement throughout the day.”

While you might not have an eight-hour task chair, she has a few tips using stuff you have at home:

When sitting, you want your knees and elbows at 90 degrees. Put your laptop on a stack of books and get an external mouse and keyboard from work if possible—that allows you to look straight ahead and keep your hands low (they should be as close to your lap as possible). If your seat is too hard, use towels as a cushion and roll one up and put it behind your back as lumbar support.

Some computers can use small TVs as extra monitors, which Wright says can help with sight lines. But it’s also important to make sure your screen’s brightness isn’t at 100 percent to avoid eye strain. Also use the 20/20/20 rule: every 20 mins glance 20 feet away for 20 seconds. When our eyes are focused on the same distance it can cause strain.

You can change up your position by sitting on the couch for a while. Put a pillow in your lap to elevate your laptop. Or use a kitchen counter or dresser as a standing desk, and use a bath mat or towel to lessen impact on your legs and feet.

Overall, Wright says, make sure the setup is good so you don’t have to keep correcting your posture. “It can’t be something you have to think about,” she says. “Once your mind goes to the work, you’ll forget about the posture, so the setup needs to make sure good posture is naturally occurring.”

Lastly, some employers do have ergonomic programs, but many don’t know about them. If your employer has one, request for them to take a look at your workspace.

And Some Other Fun Issues Workers Are Dealing With

Strangers in the house during a pandemic:

https://twitter.com/veleau_monica/status/1244782963616886784

Space:

Internet bandwidth:

Barking dogs:

Pet problems:

Others not working while you are: 

Bad work setups and back problems:

https://twitter.com/corkyrobinson/status/1257669757899341824?s=20

Kids:

https://twitter.com/amibo1012/status/1257691565641871360?s=20

Not being able to go anywhere else:

https://twitter.com/allinsea/status/1257682534491717639?s=20

Exhaustion for no apparent reason:

https://twitter.com/DougKlain/status/1257669981992517633?s=20

This story originally appeared on WAMU.

Filed Under: coronavirus, noise complaints, wamu, working from home,