“At first it was fun because we were all in this together, we have got to do it to keep everyone safe,” says the local council worker.
But she says the lack of space and proper equipment in the one-bedroom East London flat she shares with her husband makes it unbearable.
After five months of working from home, she says her back was “in absolute agony” from sitting hunched over her laptop without a proper desk.
Both she and her husband work from home. They only have one fold-out table in the living room and have to alternate who gets to work on the table. It’s often “whoever gets it first”.
We did try and bring in the garden table, but it’s not really big enough,” she says. “We both have jobs where we need to speak about confidential information. Sometimes I’m sitting on the floor in the hall because he’s in the living room.”
She often end up sitting on her bed. “There will be a whole generation of people who are working on their bed who will have spinal problems because of coronavirus,” she says.
Although both her and her husband’s employers have offered them home equipment, Tara says there’s nowhere to put it. She says: “It’s depressing – work, sleep and play in all in one room.”
Tara was allowed to go back to the office for the first time earlier this month, after mentioning how hard she was finding home-working.
“It was so nice to have an office chair. You know correctly having your feet, having two monitors. I was so much more productive.”