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Ember Desk

About

A small publication about a very ordinary desk

Ember Desk is an independent publication about working from home in the UK. It is written by its editors, and it is not connected to any employer, union, government body or furniture seller.

A lot of people ended up working from a spare room or a kitchen table without anyone sitting down to explain how to do it well. The official guidance exists, but it is scattered across HSE, Acas, GOV.UK and the NHS, and it is written for employers as often as employees. We try to put it in one place, in plain English, and say which bits are the law and which are simply our opinion.

How we check things

Every rule or figure in a note comes from a page we have opened and linked to, usually from HSE, Acas, GOV.UK or the NHS. Each note lists its sources and when they were last checked. Rules change, and sometimes official pages disagree with themselves. When that happens we say so. Where we are offering our own view, as with the sample working day in our note on breaks, we say that too.

If you spot a mistake, tell us and we will look at it.

What this site is not

We are not lawyers, tax advisers or clinicians, and nothing here is personal advice. For a dispute at work, try the Acas helpline or a union representative. For your health, speak to a GP or see the NHS guidance on stress. If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 999.

Guest posts

We accept pieces from outside writers as well as writing our own, and these may include links to the writer's site or business. Our guidelines for contributors set out what we accept and what has to be disclosed.

Image credits

The diagrams and logo are our own. Photographs come from Wikimedia Commons under the licences below.