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Jeff Chandler

A Look Inside the Offices of 16 People Who Work With WordPress on a Daily Basis

In a remote worker environment, people have the choice to work from home or wherever it’s convenient. Syed Waseem Abbas published a guest post on Torquemag, that looks at the offices of 16 people who work with WordPress on a daily basis.

Some of the offices are classy while others are small. Many of the people featured in the post use one or more Apple products. If you’re curious as to what my setup looks like, here you go.

My Home Office
My Home Office

Most of the work I do is on a Windows 7 Professional 64bit desktop PC with two 23-inch monitors. When I work remotely, I use a fully loaded 15-inch MacBook Pro with retina display from 2013. As a devoted Windows user, I feel like I’m part of a dying breed, especially within the WordPress ecosystem.

For WordPress Weekly, I use a Samson CO1U USB powered condenser microphone connected to a Rode PSA1 swivel mount with a boom arm.

I predominantly work in a sitting position which is why I’m in the market for a standing desk where the height can be easily adjusted. I’m also looking for a new office chair where the arm rests don’t disintegrate within the first year of use.

If you have any suggestions, let me know in the comments. Also, if you need inspiration to create the perfect office environment, check out Office Today. Office Today features remote offices and locations from across the world used by Automattic employees.

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22 responses to “A Look Inside the Offices of 16 People Who Work With WordPress on a Daily Basis”

  2. Nice space.. I like the Herman Miller Aeron. I’ve been using these chairs for years and they hold up well. A little on the expensive side but if you are going to sit for a living why scrimp.

    On another note a good pod cast subject might be based on a survey of what people prefer for their development environment. From MAMP to vagrant to what text editor or ide people prefer. I suspect that Apple is the dominant operating ecosystem but I think it would be interesting to explore the development stack of some of the key players on the dev team as well as some of the key consulting stars.

    Love the pod cast…. BTW is that a bong next to the thermometer?

  3. I work with WordPress daily, in the mountains of NC. I fluctuate between the kitchen table, and my downstairs office which is a table that can be lowered or raised to sitting or standing position. I typically work in a standing position, and have for the last several years. As far as gear, I work solely on a 13″ Retina MBP, and I occasionally hook up to a 27″ Apple Display if I need to see how a site is behaving on a larger resolution.

    I used to work using (3) 24″ monitors, but have since trained myself to be completely dependent on just my MBP, and over the years have learned that “less is more.” I’ve found that the more screens, the less productive you actually are, since those other screens hold useless apps like Tweetdeck, Facebook, movies with cats, etc.

    My local is MAMP Pro + Tower. At my job we utilize Composer for dependencies. I’m a big fan of using hotkeys for app switching, and will work in full screen mode for the majority of the day.

    • No way man! I have to have at least two monitors. When I write posts on the MBP only, it sucks and I’m far less productive. I’m more focused but always switching tabs and screens.

        • I do most of that from the WordPress mobile app. I like having a screen to dedicate a second browser window to. It just makes things easier for me. I’d like some of your mountain scenery though.

          • You’re not alone in this multiscreen madness!
            I usually work with two 23 inches at home but in the office I recently got a 27″ display to pair a 24″ I already have and I must admit that those extra inches are a really nice thing to have.

            I do a lot of graphics for printing, some 3d modelling and also lots of WP in the latest years so many times my screens are like [Firebug]+[browser] or [Photoshop]+[Browser] or [Indesign/Bridge]+[Illustrator/Photoshop] or [Solidworks]+[Keyshot], I can’t imagine doing all that in just 13″, really.
            Now that I’m also doing some serious social media marketing I begin to consider adding a third one just for hootsuite. I would like to invest in a nice big 55″ 4k display just for that. (I just need to find the money ;-))

            I use also win7pro in my main machine (i7 + 16gigs ram + a couple of ssd’s) as well as a couple of IMacs in the office and honestly I don’t really feel all that difference with my workflow (or efficiency) with WordPress or the adobe suite.

            Who knows if in the end I finish with a setup like this: http://goo.gl/dQR0la

    • It depends on how you use those screens, me being able to see the comp next to the actual site, full screen and all, allows me to work much faster than switching between tabs. There are just too many benefits for me having multiple screens, I feel cramped only having one screen.

  4. I was a big Windows user for a long time. It was the Retina iMac that got me hooked on the Mac.WordPress is platform independent (thank God) so that really makes no diff. WP folks definitely lean towards Mac, but still, makes no diff. I never got a virus. Well, once, before it was even a thing. Never again!

    I totally understand the 2 or more monitors. It is WAY better. Has to be tried to be believed.

    I got the Miller Aeron chair for my 50th birthday. I am now 63. Both of us still going strong. They came to service it once, for free, as it had a 12 year guarantee. They are SERIOUS about their chairs. You will never go wrong with them.

  5. I would suggest if you go standup, make sure to buy a really good one as going up and down and supporting big monitors requires a strong desk. Plus you’ll want to lean on it a bit occasionally (as I’m doing now to lighten the weight on your knees). The last thing you want is for your standup desk to come crashing down or to get stuck in the middle!

    In Europe, I bought an Ergon mechanism and added an Ikea hardwood top 160 cm x 75 cm. By buying the top separately and locally shipping is much easier.

  6. Hi Jeff
    “Some of the offices are classy while others are small.”

    Are they mutually exclusive?

    I might have to consider that standing desk, I sit down most of the day.

  7. I like beech, a lot! So my office was made with ikea gerton table and finnvard trest(with a shelf).

    I’m working on a pc too(Win 7 pro) and have two 24″ monitors which increased my productivity by 40% when compared with the one monitor I used to have.

    I am thinking to extend the table and add one more monitor. that would be my 2016 upgrade.

    My chair is ikea once more, called Markus. It was included in Gear Patrol top 10 Best Office Chairs Review

  9. I noticed that you have the Samson microphone pointed to the front. Not sure if you’re recording in this way but it’s meant to be used upright (.pdf) (see page 6 of the manual).

    I just listened to the latest episode of the podcast and it sounds like you’ll have a huge improvement in sound quality by switching it to the upright position.

  10. As a .net developer, I use Windows all the time, and I am at the point that 3 monitors are not enough. Sometimes I have to use several versions of Visual Studio, MS SQL Server, different web browsers, and so on, so only one monitor is going to kill me.

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