Puppy Advice – play pen vs crate?

We have an 11 week old puppy that we have had for around a week and a half – he is the best boy (but we have struggled big time with the puppy blues). He now sleeps through the night in his crate and sleeps for 1.5/2 hour stretches throughout the day. I had to leave for an hour yesterday and he didn’t make a sounds – I am writing this as I’m working from the next room.

I am WFH for the whole of January with the plan to do half days with a dog walker in Feb 2 days a week (i.e 1.5hours in crate, walk, 1.5 hours) and build up to office days two days a week in March (3 hours, walk, 3 hours).

We spoke to a dog trainer and she recommend we get a play pen as well as a crate for the 3 hour stretches. the issue is he hates the Pen and refuses to settle. If we put him in his crate asleep to doesn’t whine and if he’s awake he whines for a minute max then settles but in the pen even if he’s sleepy he freaks out. we’ve tried kongs and lick matts but they seem to make him hyper. when we leave the room for the toilet if he’s loose in the living room he doesn’t cry but if he’s in his pen he freaks out.

Does anyone have any playpen advice? or think we should just ditch the pen?