If you can and do work from home and enjoy your job..

[BrokenBrit]

Please tell me what you do!
The jobs of mine and my close family and friends are almost all jobs that cannot be readily be done from home.
These range from Doctors/ Retail workers/ journalist/ chef/ teaching assistant/ dog trainer/ lab technician etc etc, a range of fairly normal jobs.
A few are furloughed but most are back or have been working throughout covid.
I am intrigued as to what all the office worker type jobs are that can be done safely and effectively from home, and how one goes about getting such a job. Many of them have said they are dreaming of a more flexible work/ life balance. I can only really think about IT support jobs or freelance creative jobs like writers or artists that require natural talent. Any ideas?

[happypotamus]

DH works in IT for a university, and now works from home and will do for the foreseeable future. It was not previously thought to be possible to do the job from home because of all the meetings but it turns out to be completely possible to do it all online. He said there has not really been anything he couldn't do because he is at home rather than in the office.

[EBearhug]

Definitely think a mixture of the two is preferable except in extremis, as now.

I agree.

[poppet31]

I'm a tax adviser for a large accountancy firm. My company were always pretty flexible anyway and I've always worked from home one day a week. I have the technology to wfh permanently if I needed to but to be honest, I miss the office and will be glad to get back. I have some people management responsibilities and I find that really tough to do remotely.

[breadcakebiscuits]

People like @Lsquiggles would be my clients. It’s easy to maintain rapport via Zoom and calls with clients you know, but I know I’d find it impossible to approach new clients or even colleagues this way. How would I train people? I know a couple of companies within my industry are contemplating going totally WFH (including one that has already surrendered its lease on a landmark building) and I’m sceptical. Definitely think a mixture of the two is preferable except in extremis, as now.

[Beamur]

DH is Civil Service, environmental type job. Has been WFH mostly for years.
I'm in Local Authority, can do most of my job from home.
Friends of mine currently WFH - structural engineer, legal case scribe, charity fundraiser, tax specialist, recruitment consultant, office manager (now also managing remote staff) to name a few. Many of these would be office based but can be done at home.

[Willowkins]

I'm an administrator (post retirement job, used to be a civil servant). It covers everything from finance to health & safety so having a can-do attitude helps. During lockdown it also involved sending out welcome letters and guidance to local volunteers and statistics.

[trilbydoll]

Finance. But it's being at work that makes it interesting, seeing the numbers come to life as it were. At home it's just loads of numbers on a spreadsheet and I'm pretty bored. Can't wait for Sept to be able to go back in for a couple of days a week.

[mornington222]

An operations manager in an IT role.

[Lsquiggles]

Marketing

[RandomTree]

DH works for an insurance company. Everyone in the company is currently wfh and probably will be until Jan.

[Nitw1t]

CFO for a global consulting firm. Yeah the back-to-back video calls are a drag. I miss people grabbing me for 2 minutes too @DelurkingAJ !

I'll WFH for as long as I can though, replacing business trips with video calls might not add much in terms of being able to build rapport, but it sure is a bonus for the work-life balance!

All my finance team will likely WFH long term, if it's their preference.

[emsyj37]

Civil servant, working in tax compliance. I enjoy my job but a good part of that enjoyment comes from the social aspect of work which is very limited at the moment. We were already allowed to WAH part of the time pre Covid. I doubt my job will become fully home based once this is all over, but if it did I would quit in a heartbeat. I never want to WAH full time, its stifling being in the house and I miss humans.

[redeyetonowheregood]

University lecturer. I used to work at home one or two day a week, now we aren't going back until next year except to teach, then we have to leave the building immediately! All teaching has gone online now but we are going to be doing some small group tutorials in September.

[BurtsBeesKnees]

I'm an IT Service Delivery Manager. I'm not technical and more a relationship manager. I'm expected to visit customer sites once a month for meetings that take an hour or so, and I go into my biggest customer's site for 5 hrs a week. So I'd say I wfh about 80% in that time. I also arrange my customer visits in, and around my day, dc coming home from school etc. I earn a good wage, and could be in the 70/80k mark if I was prepared to work for another employer and be away from home more, but I'm not, I like that my job is mostly stress free and I'm left to do my job.

[BrokenBrit]

Interesting, thanks everyone, more variety than I had thought. I will be able to confidently suggest some roles for friends next time they complain about the nature of their work .

[Smarshian]

Recruitment consultant. Used to be in the office full time. Now can’t see myself returning for a while!

[Cruddles]

I work in operations for a well known British financial institution based in The City. WFH has been a huge success and the new normal will only be 25-30% in the office once this all calms down a bit.

My friends who WFH are accountants, HR, online security, media, admin, engineers etc

[sarahb083]

User Researcher. Previously worked in the office most days, but now working remotely indefinitely. I love it and there's lots of demand for User Researchers in tech companies/startups/etc so it's a good career to consider.

[EBearhug]

IT. I usually worked from home once a week anyway. There is sometimes a need to do physical win a daracentre, but as our office is on a different site, that doesn't make much difference if we need to travel there.

[CottonSock]

Environment specialist advising large construction projects. It's a career path that takes a long time to get established in, but is very enjoyable.

[dameofdilemma]

Lawyer. Can be done from home (no court work).

Friends who are also wfh include accountants, IT consultants, project managers, marketing managers, media sales, software developers etc.

There are lots and lots of jobs that can be done from home.

I consider myself very fortunate as we have had dd home from school since March so don’t know what we would have done.

[FinallyHere]

IT project manager, working from home is routine. Even when we were in the office, because meeting rooms were scarce, we mostly did meetings by teleconference, even when we were all sitting close to each other.

In practice, there would also be people dialling in from other sites, WFH is no different.

Beginning to talk about whether we could now move further out of London. Ideal for families.

[MirandaWest]

I am employed and work full time from home. Am an accountancy support tutor - along with other tutors we answer queries from students who are studying for accountancy exams.

[ApocalypseNowt]

Debt advisor- used to be in the office all the time, now wfh (for the foreseeable).

[flipperdoda]

Software development. I used to WFH about once a week but there was a lot of flexibility so if I had reasons it would make life easier it could be up to about three days.

As a PP above, my whole job can be done from home and I'm not expecting to be in until September and probably until 2021.