Should You Invite A Friend To Work From Home Together? 

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Anyone who has worked from home for any significant period of time knows just how lonely and frustrating it can be. One of the ways that really helped any bouts of loneliness I was going through was to invite along a couple of friends to work from home with. 

Inviting your friends to work from home together is a fantastic of socializing whilst also being productive at work. People who socialise as they work with friends are much more likely to complete their tasks as well as have quality information exchanges.

So what are the legal ramifications of working with someone outside your workplace? And are there any dos and don’ts of working remotely with them ? Keep trading to find out more 

(Just a heads up a lot of people reading my blog are in the process of designing their own home office. If you want to save some of the painstaking time I did in designing my office, you can find my recommended products here)

Should you invite a friend to work from home together? 

So if you’re anything like me, you’re probably a little bit hesitant to start working from home with your friends.

After all you spend time with your mates to de-stress from work so why spend time with them when you are focused on something else. 

I mean won’t you just end up getting distracted and unproductive? 

The truth of the matter is that working from home with your friends isn’t as destructive as you might think with research from Harvard Business Review showing that working with a friend in your place has been shown to improve your productivity, quality informational exchange and over wellbeing. 

So what do the studies say on working from home with your friends? 

Luckily I’ve compiled a table with all the recent studies which should help: 

Study	Key Learning
KE Kram	Working with friends can help support career development and add mentorship to a work environment
Rath	Employees who worked with friends are seven times more likely to be engaged then theoier counterparts and have higher levels of job satisfaction and retention.
Rawlins	Working with Friends will result in better quality informational exchanges
Methot	Employees who have friends who work with them have higher overall performance ratings from management, although the findings were inconclusive if this was curly down to workplace friendships
KrackHardt	Structuring a team with people who get on will lead to better organizational performance
Lilius	Working with friends can be an effective way to counteract workplace “burnout”
Mehra	Working with friends has been linked to poorer employee performance
Roberts	People who work with friends have better communication then those who don’t

As you can see the vast majority of these studies cite a positive influence of working with friends. Any loss in productivity or other side effects being equal to or less than the positive aspects that come with working with a friend. 

Now whilst all these studies are focused on people who work in the same job as your friends the results still stand even if you want to invite a friend who you don;t work with to your home. 

Questions you need to ask before inviting a friend around to work together 

So now we know that inviting a friend around to work from home together can be a great way to improve productivity and wellbeing, what are some questions you should ask yourself before sending out a mass invite to all your buddies? 

Think of the following questions before you take this any further: 

What do your HR policies say? 

Probably the most important thing to look at if you’re inviting a friend round to work from home together is if your HR policies will allow it. 

Afterall, if your friend works in a similar position to you for a different company your employer might not feel too confident about you sharing your best practice with them.  

Even if you work for the same company sometimes information is soloed out to different departments for example governmental bodies and as such if there is any cahnce this information could be shared you may need to look into it. 

The best thing to do then is just speak to your HR team before inviting anyone over, in most occasions if they allow you to work from home normally it should be fine but you will want to double check. 

What does the law say? 

There are no laws preventing you from inviting your friends to work from home with you. 

That being said there are limits to the amount of floorspace and people you can legally fit in a home office, with most home offices only being able to fit in 1-2 people depending on its size. 

This might put a damper on any plans to invite multiple people around however if your friends work all over the house instead of just one room then you should be fine. 

To read up more about this I’ve written a post which you can check out here: How many people can you legally fit in a home office

Is there enough room? 

Health and safety laws aside you need to be practical about inviting friends over when working from home. 

Even if you have enough space it just might not be practical with the way your home/office is laid out. 

Come up with a plan beforehand if you do decide to invite them round as to where they will work from and if they have access to everything they need. 

Ensuring you are both comfortable is going to be super important if you want to get some of the benefits the studies talked about earlier. 

Do they work for a competitor? 

Again, another one we touched upon earlier but if your friends work for a competitors company then it just isn’t fair on you to invite them round. 

As sad as it is to say you wouldn’t want anything to get in the way of your friendship and imagine how you would feel if they took some of your ideas. 

I mean let’s say you were a programmer and your friend took some of your code for their project or you worked in sales and your friend took some of your leads for themselves, You would definitely feel a little hurt. 

Try to invite people who not only work in different roles but also different sectors. 

Do you share sensitive data when you work? 

Again another important piece – if you work from home it’s likely you are in some way connected to your head office. 

If this is the case then it’s likely you have an information security team who have a bunch of policies in place when handling sensitive data. 

If your role does require you to have access to sensitive information, it’s important you familiarize yourself with these security policies in order to protect this data.

Is your internet data strong enough to handle everyone?

Apartments in particular are notorious for poor internet connectivity. I know my apartment barely cracked 10mps when I first moved in so having a friend or colleague around to my house would definitely drain data speeds. 

If you do decide to invite friends round to work from home, investing ensures you have a strong internet connection. 

One of the things that saved my internet connection to well over 200mps was investing in a data booster – my personal favourite has to be the TP-Link which you can find out more about here. 

Have you worked from home in the past together? 

Sometimes it can take a bit of time to get into the rhythm of work and so inviting a new element into your work life aka your best friend might cause some friction as you figure out how to work with each other. 

There may be some teething issues depending on how you each like to work, all of which can be avoided if you invite over friends who you may have worked with in the past. 

If not, consider doing something like an escape room or a team based activity to get an idea of how you interact with each other – you’ll be surprised how something as simple as playing monopoly can give you an understanding of how people act!

Should you invite your colleagues to work with you from home? 

Inviting your colleagues round to your house when you all work remotely is a fantastic way of breaking up your week and can boost productivity, job retention and quality information exchanged  amongst staff. 

What’s even better is if you house a few of your colleagues round you can sometimes claim back expenses on things like power, internet bills and other utilities your colleagues may be using. 

Inviting colleagues around is also a fantastic way of building relationships and getting facetime in with people you might not often get time with. 

Benefits of working from home with a friend 

Working from home with a friend has a number of benefits including: 

Increased productivity for you and your friend 

We touched on this earlier on but working remotely with a friend can actually increase your productivity when working from home if done right. 

This is likely because both of you don’t want to be seen as unproductive by the other or management so will naturally find yourselves working harder than you would do so by yourself. 

Better communication amongst both of you 

Having someone who you trust working next to you gives you a soundboard to bounce ideas off before you communicate with your colleagues. 

This means you can get across your points more effectively without them being misunderstood due to poor communication. 

Improved wellbeing 

Poor wellbeing and high levels of stress are both massive things us remote workers have to deal with working from home. 

One of the easiest ways to counteract this and improve your wellbeing is by inviting over a friend to share your thoughts with and get some human interaction with. 

Less of a feeling of isolation 

The sound of silence can definitely be deafening if you work remotely and live by yourself. 

Let’s be honest soon as it hits 5pm a lot of us don’t feel like going anywhere so why not invite a long friend neere the end of the day to ensure you go out. 

Makes the most of your flexible working arrangement 

Finally a lot of us have the ability to work remotely but don’t take advantage of this flexible working arrangement.

I mean how many of you actually do your laundry during work hours or move your work hours to suit you? Very few i’m sure!

Inviting your friend around can work wonders on you actually making the most of your work scheme.

Drawbacks of working from home with a friend

Now sadly working from home also has a few disadvantages aswell that you need to know before you consider to invite a friend along: 

You might not get anything done 

So while you might be more productive when you work from home with a friend if you are unfamiliar with how each other works or have little experience then you might find you get very little work done. 

It can ruin your work life balance 

Not having a clear break between your work life and home life is already tough enough with us remote workers, inviting your friend over might further amplify this and have you working to the late hours of the morning to complete what it is you want to do. 

It might cost you money 

If your friend has a big laptop or uses a lot of power to do their job you might find yourself paying for inviting them around. 

Things like heating, lighting data and power all need to be considered before you think about inviting a friend. 

What’s worse is if you invite a friend round who does not work for your company they might not cover the expenses as they would do yours. 

It might cost you your job

If your job handles secure information and they find out that you’ve been working from home with a  friend they may warn you or even worse, fire you for breach of contract.

It’s always important to discuss this with your HR manager or team lead before you start inviting friends round. 

Alternatives to working from home with a friend 

So if you have read the above and think that it is best you avoid working with a friend what are some alternatives you can do to still get some face time in with your friends as you work from home? 

Set up a lunch hangout 

One of the best ways to get some time in with your friends on your work day would be to set up a lunchtime hangout. 

This could be either via a video call or in person as you have a working lunch. This way you don’t have to worry about eating into each other’s day but also get the social interaction you crave. 

Start once per week and go from there. 

Use a shared workspace 

So if you want to work from home with a  friend but your office isn’t big enough then look no further then using a shared work space. 

These are becoming more and more popular, with more and more jobs moving remotely. People are craving social interactions so feel free to have a look at your local shared workspace and schedule in some time there. 

Work from home with your colleagues 

Whilst working from home with your friends might be out of the question depending on the type of work that you do, why not invite around your colleagues. 

It’s likely if you’re working remotely they are too, so why not build up some solid relationships with them and help your social interactions with them. 

Start a new hobby with your friend 

Finally starting a new hobby with a friend can be another great option that doesn’t have to involve working together. 

It’s natural to feel a little bit isolated when working from home, especially if living by yourself so why not take your time to tick something off your bucket list and get good at it with a buddy. 

Who should you not invite to work from home with? 

You should avoid inviting any friend who works for a competitor company to your home to work remotely as this may affect your relationship with your employer. It is also worth avoiding inviting over your manager to your home to work remotely from as it could change their perception of you. 

5 to-dos when you work with your friends from home

• Do set an individual work schedule for you to stick with 
• Do ensure you take your breaks to catch up with your friend
•  Do work from a different room for important meetings or calls 
• Do dress professionally so you are in the mindset to work 
• Do let your manager know that you will be inviting a friend round 

5 don’ts when working with your friends from home 

• Do Not share sensitive work data with your friend 
• Don’t invite around more friends than you can handle 
• Don’t Interrupt your friend when they work from your home
•  Don’t procrastinate or gossip in the same room 
• Don’t let them come over every day

Finally a lot of people reading my blog want to know what products I recommend for a home office/remote working. You can find out my recommendations here and learn how I make money whilst working remotely on the side here.