If you Work from home, what do you do?

[rainbowrainfall]

My maternity leave is coming to an end, I have 1 more week and then I'm going back and doing a phased return, 2 days for a start and working up to full time by the end of the year.

I work in children's mental health but I've worked up to leadership level now so less hands on, more paperwork and meetings and I don't love it anymore. I don't want to work full time in such a demanding and life consuming role. I cannot walk away at 5pm and go home, if there are incidents, safeguarding etc I have to stay and sort it. Sometimes I'm distracted at home if there is a particular safeguarding issue on my mind.

I'd love to be able to work from home, so I can have a better work/home life balance but everything I see is call centre type work and I'd get bored! I need to be challenged and pushed.

If you WFH, what do you do? Do you enjoy it?

Freelance charity governance and HR support.

I work in financial services, did 2 days at home pre-COVID. I’ll be back in the office eventually, but likely to be 3-4 days at home as my office has unassigned seating and works on basis of their being more people than seats and post-COVID max capacity will need to be lower. DH and I are going to try to arrange it so that one of us is WFH everyday, as it does make life easier.

I like the mix of office and home days - office days I made a point of making time for coffee/lunch with work buddies/managers/etc and speaking to people in person. WFH days I worked on things I need to concentrate on with no interruptions, did the school run, exercise and did bits round the house in micro breaks/lunchtime. No commute meant I could get the children home earlier, do homework and make a nicer dinner. I’m a sociable introvert, and I enjoyed these at home days to recharge.

At the moment it can be difficult to switch off, but I’d say that’s more because I’ve been trying to homeschool so working later/through lunch to catch up and the monotony of lockdown and long term WFH. I messed up on something a few weeks ago and I got really stressed about it and couldn’t switch off, if it had happened when I was in the office I would have left it at work to a greater extent.

Also, it’s definitely not a substitute for proper childcare. My older DC can mostly entertain himself after school now, but he’s spending a lot of it bored/vegetating on YouTube. The younger one definitely needs the interaction and stimulation that two parents on Zoom calls can’t provide.

It's really interesting to hear everyone perspectives.
I wouldn't intend to WFH so I don't need childcare, my children almost 1 and 2 so no chance of WFH with them. But I'd like to be close to pick them up from school etc and have the flexibility to do that.

I have actually seen a remote working job I'm interested in, similar to what I do now but in a completely different industry. I think lots of companies, particularly big ones will be hiring mental health teams soon as there is such a huge drive on it.

I might take the leap, what do I have to lose!!

Operations manager for a therapy service. All staff in the company wfh in before covid entered our worlds.

WFH for a year now, finance (more of an administrative role now I'm PT)

DH & I both WFH for 15+ years, each combined with international travel. Thankfully could work in separate rooms! Great situation, provided that our schedules didn't change unexpectedly & leave childcare gaps. Corporate roles. Taught young DC a lot about life, too - I think they're more self reliant than otherwise, we appreciate being together when we can be, and they are really keen on travel too. We know we were fortunate.

Hope my comment about childcare came across the right way, I used to have many people say “oh you WFH that must save you a fortune on nursery fees!” It was useful when they are were sick or there was the occasional child gap in the Before Times.

I'm a social prescriber. Might well be something you could consider. Lots of variety, easy to work from home as you're either making phone calls or visiting clients (when it's allowed). I'd think with your background you'd do very well.

I'm a marketing consultant - have owned my own business for 4 years. Sometimes they want me in the office but not every day. I work on contracts that run several months. I like it this way

Project workforce manager.

I’d go into the office 1-2 times pw pre Covid. My company have now said that they will support any working pattern in the future, so my team will all be working from home indefinitely.

I will definitely be working from home 5 days pw, and it’s a big factor in keeping me at the company.

Accounts/Finance Manager - the company I work for has realised that everyone’s job can be done WFH on a permanent basis and have just put the office premises up on the market.

If given the choice I would probably like to work in an office for 1/2 days a week - I collaborate quite heavily with the office manager and we just find it easier in the office. At present we’re not sure if we’ll be renting a small office in a serviced building somewhere to facilitate this.

I work in the NHS, in a communications role which is very desk-bound. We normally work in the office but for the past 12 months have been doing the majority from home. Looks like that's going to continue as well. It certainly is workable to do my job more or less completely from home.

I am not a fan as I move so much less and I think I get less done - other things distract me where at work I would just get on. Also it's a lot easier to ask questions, catch people with queries and generally finish things off in the office.

Also I eat a lot more when wfh. That's about me tho rather than the role!

Positive things have been that I have been on hand to support my DD who isn't well, and also things like putting the washing out and getting it in when it rains. Also I tend to turn off the laptop at 5 ish when at home, whereas at work we seem to keep going longer, don't know why that is.

Obv no commute tho my commute is a 10 min drive or 15 min cycle so not too bad at all. But this way I will admit I have more time to exercise and do chores before I start work which is a positive.

Agree with @chewedclickypen about the lack of camaraderie and comms within the office. It's a pain.

Headset while ironing on a call is genius tho @cookiedoughsweetiepie!

I wfh as I have my own architectural practice it gives me flexibility but I end up doing more hours because it's my own business and I have to do everything. For example I had my vaccine this week and felt lousy the day after so spent some of it in bed - no problem but I've been working today to catch up. There is no such thing as a real sick day or holiday it's just kicking it all to another day.
There are upsides to wfh - flexibility, lack of commute, and because I'm my own boss and fairly successful I can choose what I work on
But also it can be lonely - I've been doing it for years now and I really enjoy client / contractor meetings etc and play an active part in my local professional association because it's isolating otherwise.
It can also be distracting to be at home, the phone rings, people knock on the door, the washing is just sitting there etc
I'm in the middle of building my own office outside so I can actually walk out of the door and leave some of those distractions behind.
It can be mega annoying when the broadband / electricity goes down and in my village that can be fairly often.
The own business route to wfh also brings lots of costs - insurance, professional fees , licences, CPD etc
Not sure if that's helpful at all.

Pre school children’s entertainer

Call centre manager

Don't really get the hate about them, the role scope (and pay) is huge. It's a business type that encourages upward promotion. My role is varied, challenging, flexible and very well paid.

Maybe you could be a MH nurse IN a CC, as there are some challenges with remote workers and many are hiring this type of role to support their staff.