Just being nosy ... do you work from home and what do you do?

[Jesswebster01]

I work in an office quite a good job but hear of so many people working from home and i would love to do this my work would never let me work from home. I also only do basic admin really not bad pay but would love to do something more but would still like to work from home. So was curious to know if any of you work from home and if so what do you do?

Yes.

Work for a tech Company, negotiate contracts.

WFH it is super handy, I lie on the couch for most of the day, listen to a lot of podcasts whilst working.

Mooch around with my dog, bring him for walks. No commuting. Can put on washes and get groceries during lunch hour. Can get a lot of life admin done during work hours.

The negatives are:
It's isolating.

You spend so much time in your own home, you don't have as many organic interactions with randommers, you don't meet people for lunch.

You need to motivate yourself to do something at lunch time, it's very easy to just continue mooching around at home and not get out.

You don't really need to dress up all that much.

Other than the above, it's brilliant!!

I'm an in house lawyer, so I also negotiate contracts.

I work from home a lot. Everyone in my team is now officially allowed to work from home two days a week, but in practice if your manager is relaxed about it, which mine is, you can pretty much do what you want. That said, I am senior, I have been in my role working for the same line manager for over five years, and a regularly worked from home even before lockdown as I worked with several teams based in North America so I often had days which would start at around midday and continue into the evening, with everything being done over Teams, so there wasn't much point going into the office.

I'm a buyer for a construction company.

I go into the office for about half a day once a month. I should go to site more than I currently do.

I love it.

If I were to ever get a new job, I'd need to same arrangement. I've no interest in being office-based ever again.

I work from home two days a week (it was full time WFH during locakdowns).

I work in regulatory policy. I prefer this balance. A couple of days quiet at home to get my head down is great, but I also need to be in the office as my job involves a lot of collaboration and meetings. I got very burnt out in the pandemic as we were runnigng too many Teams meetings to try and replicate the collaboration and ideas sharing we need to do out job - it was awful.

I also get a bit lonely at home.

I work in tech sales. Work from home 4 days per week. In reality there’s no reason for me to go into the office but it’s a team wide rule basically aimed at more junior members of the team. I’m way more productive at home plus don’t have 4 hours of travel added onto my working day!

It's more about finding a company that do it. If your work is office based stuff then u don't need to be in an office so u cld still do an admin job at home. I'm an Accountant. Our whole office work from home we only have to go in once a week. Some areas go in less and some ppl like to go in a lot more often. At the moment I'm solely wfh though.

I love it and I wld never go back to being office based. It would need to be at least 2/3 at home before I'd consider a role now.

Today I've done the dishes before starting and stuck the dishwasher on. Took the kids to school/nursery. Then started work. I've put a wash on and hung it out. I've taken my break to pick my daughter up from school and she's at home with me the last few hours. She usually colours in, does her homework, goes on her tablet or plays in the garden. Usually a combination of these!

No commute costs and I get 2hrs commute time back, amazing! Also no temptation to go round the shops at lunch time and buy stuff or spend a fortune on lunch.

I work about 50% from home, my employer is a university. I like the mix of both.

I write young adult/teen sci fi and supernatural fiction books. I also proof read and copy write as a side gig.

I WFH full time, standard 9-6 hours. I'm a copywriter for a large broker, most of the company works remotely. I work much better without the office noise (plus I am a bit of a chatterbox so easily distracted/distract other people) I go in maybe once every other week or so to catch up with colleagues. We use an app called Deskbird so everyone knows who will be in when.

I love WFH, it gives me so much more flexibility as a single parent. I definitely am a bit scruffier than I used to be but it works for our family beautifully. My kids are 11 and nearly 7, so it's very possible to work with them being home after school.

Also in IT (Service Management) and have WFH for about 6 years now.

As others have said, it's mostly great but I have a dedicated office space and a daily routine that still means I 'got to work' and then shut up my office at the end of the day. I just preferto work that way. On the odd occasion I might decamp down to the living room and work with the telly on. But that is rare.

I love having the commute/getting ready time back. I walk 2 hours a day instead and love getting outdoors.

I miss the buzz of an office sometimes (I think 1 day a week in an office would be ideal) and sometimes miss the rituals of getting ready in the morning. I now have so much old makeup and jewellery that I never really wear much any more.

However, the pros far outweigh the cons for me. I would really resist a full time office based role again.

I'm an HR Director (heading up a small department) in a hospitality organisation. I work 2-3 days from home each week, more often 2 than 3, but that's because of the nature of my org: most of my colleagues absolutely can't work from home of course. Lots of people in HR work from home, some are even completely remote. I couldn't do that, but that's personal preference (and I plan for my next job to be 3-4 days per week from home!), HR definitely lends itself to remote/ hybrid work. Of my team (an associate and two administrators) two only work from home 1 day per week, the other only comes into the office two days. That's partly because her role is more administrative but also because that's what they all prefer.

Insurance broker. Supposed to be in office 2 days a week but rarely works out. Tend to only go in if meeting clients/underwriters.

Most of corperate insurance now seems to be hybrid.

I moan on my days in, and commute costs a fortune, but I prefer it to 100% wfh as it was in lockdown as it was very isolating.

We have a business that employs a few people, I run the office admin side.

Not my qualification, am a marketing manager/teacher by trade but unlike.being part of the business and being flexible.

I like being at home more, but do miss the bustle of being out in a workplace with other people.

Contact centre, WFH full time

Work in insurance, WFH 97% of the time

It's friggin great 😃

Solicitor - WFH 3 days a week - office 2 days a week. Love WFH, as my commute time means I can be productive at home instead.

Conveyancing solicitor. I work PT. Could WFH whenever and just come in occasionally but I prefer being in the office.

Finance Manager. I absolutely love wfh, the work life balance is 10x better.

I'm home for deliveries and workmen. I can get groceries delivered, saves another hour or two outside of work. I can stay on top of the laundry and cleaning in my breaks which frees up the weekends. I can work in the garden when it's sunny and I'm able to do the school run and get back to my desk in 15 min. I can eat a freshly made salad for lunch that doesn't cost the earth or was made 4hours earlier.

Workwise the quiet allows me to get absorbed into the spreadsheets. Thanks to emails and WhatsApp I'm in touch with my colleagues within seconds rather than hoping they're at their desk. I don't think I could go back to the office.

Higher Education senior manager-we are hybrid working, roughly 2 days a week in the office.

Plenty of admin jobs in HE sector @Jesswebster01 so worth a look. Excellent pension too.

Marketing

Data protection manager. WFH almost all the time now. I don't really miss anything about the office at all. It was hot or cold, smelly, noisy and I had nowhere to go that was private when handling sensitive personal data. Also my commute was getting on for 2 hours each way. I hate trains now. Even when I do go into the office I can go at offpeak, it's like all the barriers to flexible working have been swept away. I even have better relationships with my colleagues because I can reach out to anyone across the country using videoconferencing which I couldn't before lockdown as we didn't have it. I sleep better and my work quality is better because I can think in perfect quiet or have a radio on depending on my mood. My productivity has gone right up. Long may this continue.

HR Data analytics. Full-time wfh. Head office is 4 hours away. I travel in once a fortnight they pay for my travel and overnight stay expenses each time.

Senior director in regulatory affairs for big pharma company. I have to go to office 2 days a week although was wfh full time during pandemic. It was good being at home when DH was here but now he’s back in office too, does get lonely.

HR Ops, fully remote, my office isn't in the UK, so I go once a quarter or so

Public sector, PA to one of our senior people. We do hybrid, I go into the office twice per week. Perfect arrangement