Meanwhile, working remote, I can lay on the couch or in bed and hack meaningfully for 12 hours and do it again the day after. Actually, this is what I do for side projects while I'm on vacation, and it's how I truly de-stress and relax. It strikes me as completely strange that I have to explain this to pretty much every single (non-recruiter) person that emails me about a job about why I am only interested in remote positions. How can the tech industry be so old and this idea still so foreign?
IKEA now has them for like $8. Pop in a $1-2 LED bulb, and Bob's your uncle.
Of course, my encounter with facilities involved convincing them I'd not brought in a halogen lamp (remember those, in torchiere lamps?) that was going to burn the place to the ground. (Back then, it was a compact fluorescent. A technology I've come to despise for various reasons.)
For something more compact and portable, I might look for a lightweight sconce that I could hang on one of those 3M removable hooks. Or, if they don't bother you, a very compact/portable desk lamp.
P.S. That place, I might have been better off if it HAD burned to the ground.
Hear hear; I work remotely and check-in physically maybe twice a month when delegates come down to our satellite office. I find artificial lighting absolutely grating. Working from home it's a rarity for me to turn on a light until as late as dusk.
Anyway, there were a few corner offices I eventually set up a little system with: if that office owner didn't want their bulbs replaced, to put a sticky note covering the light switch. I'd come through, check for a sticky "okay, no new bulbs for this manager" and move along. Was a pretty good system until our facilities manager politely asked me to stop and change the bulbs anyway.
But IME it's a solvable problem: Train others in the house that just because you're "home" doesn't really mean you're "home", during the workday. Improve soundproofing as needed. Adjust work-habits in some cases, etc.
If companies would put as much money and attention into getting remote workers properly setup as that otherwise would have put into facilities management, office-space rental, etc., I bet the gap would close pretty quickly.
Another of life's little Catch-22s I suppose.
Problem, the industry I work in (defense) doesn't do remote, for obvious reasons.
That's an interesting argument. I guess it's just an example and I shouldn't read too much into it, but to me the opposite is true: at home I am completely in sync with my surroundings, have no distractions and have certain "rituals" that make me more productive. It's the constant interruptions and distractions at the office that would make me terribly unproductive if someone would fly me in to assess my abilities on-site.