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Original poster

If you or your partner work from home

55 replies

isshoes · 13/09/2018 22:04

What do you do? I feel like a lot of posters on MN say that they or their partner work from home. I don’t know anyone who does, and am wondering what jobs facilitate home-working? Or is that you’re all self-employed?

OP posts:

HicDraconis · 14/09/2018 00:06

I work from home one day a week - audit, research, reading, writing policies / protocols / guidelines / rosters etc. I don't need to be at my desk to do that.

DH works from home running our business. He does the tax, accounts, invoices, letters etc.

popsanddolls · 14/09/2018 00:13

I'm watching this post avidly I want o work from home

PositivelyPERF · 14/09/2018 00:14

Run a pet sitting business. Have around 20 dogs at a time and irritating people still think I should be able to drop everything so they can drop by for a coffee.

Mrskeats · 14/09/2018 00:15

Online tutor. Exam marker and editor here.

popsanddolls · 14/09/2018 00:19

@mrskeats how did you get into that if you don't mind me asking

BradleyPooper · 14/09/2018 00:21

Executive director of a non profit. My assistant also works from home, we meet once a week and speak nearly daily and I meet with my board every 8 weeks. Works like a dream, I have kids at school and dogs at home, can work round their needs and catch up in the evening if I need to.

Choccywoccyhooha · 14/09/2018 00:26

I'm a freelance ccpywriter and my dh is a commerce consultant.
To be honest, I miss having colleagues, getting out of the house everyday, having proper lunch breaks, and all of that. Working from home suits me balancing the needs if three young chikdren, but it's not much fun to do it day-in day-out. My husband rents a desk in a communal office locally which would be great, but we can't afford two.

BackforGood · 14/09/2018 00:28

I don't want to say what I do specifically, but it is public sector, and they are trying to save money by not having enough desk / office space for all their staff. They quite like the idea of you doing some of your admin using your own heating, lighting, electricity......

Mrskeats · 14/09/2018 00:30

The tutoring? I’m a qualified English teacher and I work through an agency that works with schools in China. The students want to improve their English to come to schools here. We use a system like Skype to share screens, documents etc. There are loads of other companies doing it.
I also do regular tuition from home.

MyRelationshipIsWeird · 14/09/2018 00:33

I’m self employed.

DP has a job as a senior project manager with a company whose HQ is based abroad, so the people he works with aren’t in the office anyway. His job involves visiting customers in the UK and Europe so he may as well be based at home as anywhere else really. He will go into the office once or twice a week.

EBearhug · 14/09/2018 00:34

IT. I mostly go into the office for social contact though - I live alone, and too much working from home isn't good for my mental health, as it's too isolating. Video calls aren't the same. Also, occasionally I have to be on site at a datacentre, but when not dealing with physical hardware, pretty much everything can never done remotely these days. I support hardware that's physically all over the world - as along as I have a network connection, it doesn't make much difference whether I'm at my desk or at home (as likely to be bleary-eyed in bed as at a desk, if it's on -call.)

I do appreciate the flexibility, though. Well, I do when it's things like getting the car MOTed - I am not sure I appreciated tonight's server update so much, because that meant an extra 3 hours work.

The only IT jobs I have come across in recent years that don't allow it was very high-security - forensic investigators or government security, that sort of thing. And desktop support staff dealing with handing our new hardware like laptops.

EBearhug · 14/09/2018 00:35

Technically, my father worked from home - he was a farmer and we lived on the job.

Nonotmenori · 14/09/2018 00:36

I WFH 3 times a week. I'm in sales, but I'm often traveling up and down the country for customer meetings.

MistressDeeCee · 14/09/2018 01:06

Self-employed Creative, work in various fields under that banner. I have contracts, and do outreach workshops 2-3 times weekly averaging a 4 hour day each time.The rest of the time I do the related admin and organisation work from home.

I have other stuff I like doing so when it's possible I will do say 2 weeks of no workshops.

I think if you have a particular skill or talent, self-employment/employment from home is possible. I don't include MLM in that

Eg a friend of mine has always been into the gym, and shelled out last year to do an exercise to music course. She now does ok teaching exercise for elders. Like most of us she built up networks and joined appropriate groups and made links first.

So she utilised her 'fitness' as it were

Original poster

isshoes · 14/09/2018 07:11

I work for a university (non-academic), and we are only allowed to work from home on an ad hoc basis, with agreement from our line manager. The general rule is that you are expected to be present on campus. I find it frustrating because I can be a lot more productive at home (particularly as I drive an hour each way). I’ve recently applied for another p/t role that involves reviewing self-assessment documents, and that would be a home working role, but only for a few hours a month. I’d like to be able to work pretty much exclusively from home if possible.

OP posts:

beingsunny · 14/09/2018 07:12

I'm head of creative services for. Large finance company I do 1-2 days from home

user453678953 · 14/09/2018 07:19

My husband works from home full time, he's a financial advisor.

bumblingbovine49 · 14/09/2018 07:20

I work from home one day a week. My job involves a lot of data analysis and report writing . I need a laptop and an extra screen so easy to work from home really

I work in the office more as although I analyse data, the context for that analysis is only possible by talking to the relevant people. Anyway I don't like working alone too much. I am one of those rare (on MN anyway) extrovert types . I find if I work alone too much without regular interaction with colleagues my ideas and enthusiasm for work dry up a bit

BrieAndChilli · 14/09/2018 07:30

I’ve worked from home twice - both as a proper employee.
First was as a customer service advisor fixing broadband faults for a provider (well known) and the second was part time in finance for a travel company. The company was based in the Channel Islands and also had a couple of office in the uk, one of which was in the city near me but it’s a hellosh commute so I only went in on odd days - training, big meetings or prosecco days!!

greendale17 · 14/09/2018 07:30

My friends work in the following industries- all have the option to work from home a few days a week-

High street bank
Engineering
Local council
International finance company
Housing association
Publisher

AvocadosBeforeMortgages · 14/09/2018 07:53

I work for a large national organisation. I often have to go out and visit the branches I look after (think area manager type role, though it's not) and on those days when I'm not visiting a branch, I WFH. It's 2-3 days per week of WFH. Trade off is a lot of long distance driving and some overnight trips.

itstheyearzero · 14/09/2018 07:58

I'm in IT, working for a large global company. My team is spread out all over the world so working from home isn't an issue. Plus I save on commuting time.

PolkerrisBeach · 14/09/2018 08:04

Freelance writing.

DH is a senior manager in a large organisation and does a lot of meetings online or over the phone so has the flexibility to work from home on occasion.

carrie74 · 14/09/2018 08:21

I'm an accountant within a large company, and WFH once a week (agreed at interview). My job is very social though, so I find it's really important to make sure I'm seeing everyone when I'm in the office, and I keep in constant contact when WFH too, to remind people that I AM working (sometimes people will put things off until I'm back in the office, or they don't want to 'disturb' me, and actually, I'd rather just get stuff done!).

DH works very flexibly - the majority of his time is in meetings and on calls with clients, reviewing documents etc, a lot of which he can do from home (or wherever - the company he works for has several offices across the country, and he works regularly in 4 of them). It does mean he's basically always available to clients - we've not had a holiday for years where he's not had a few calls while away.

MinaPaws · 14/09/2018 08:29

OP, it's not all positives.

On good days I LOVE that I can work at midnight and then spend the day time walking in the woods or going to yoga, that I can stuff a washload in while waiting for a business phone call to connect, or take my marking out into the sunny garden.

But on bad days I feel stir crazy - not leaving the house for days on end, speaking to no one except DH, coming to MN for chat because there's no office banter. I also miss the ordinary stimulation of going to work. Commuting is a pain - I hated it because the tarins were always delayed or cancelled, but I loved seeing what people wear, people-watching on the tube, just the whole big bright world.

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