Do you work from home?… What do you do?!

[Gwdihooooo]

I hope you don’t mind me asking.. I’m sure is been done to death too, but I can’t find much in the search.

I’m thinking of a career change, currently a teacher and is proving difficult to give up due to the holidays!

But I wondered if I worked from home I’d potentially have more flexibility - obvs depending on the job, and not be too bothered about the holidays!

So what do you do if you work from home? And how full on is it? Do you have flexibility during you working day to say take the dog for a walk?

I'm a self employed, freelance virtual assistant providing biz and admin support to other businesses.

I work the equivalent of 20/25 hrs per week but split across Mon to Fri. But being self employed, I can work less days/finish earlier/start later to fit around errands/dog walks/ appointments etc as long as I make sure I still hit client deadlines.

So generally flexible but some weeks are very hectic/ full on where I need to work in the evening and weekends to make up time.

I work for a charity in a policy role. I work 4 days a week with generally 3 days at home and one day in the office/out at meetings. My days are flexible but very busy - some days incredibly so and I don't have time to have a wee, let alone anything else. Other days I'm able to fit in a bit of exercise, I generally do this while listening to a webinar or something. I have observed that more people are moving back to more days in the office now. Whereas it used to be 1-2 days for lots of people I know in different roles, it's now 3-4 days.

Project management

Some busy weeks, some less busy, can use time for CPD etc. tend to make our own schedules so can book meetings at time's convenient to us. I like two full on days of meetings and three quieter days for actions, some people have busy afternoons for meetings each day and quiet mornings.

We have a protected hour over lunch where everyone is on do not disturb and no meetings can be scheduled so can walk my dog and have lunch then. Also work flexibly so can start anytime between 7-10 and finish anytime between 3-6, dependent on when we have booked our own meetings in. Core hours for team meetings are 10-3. It's perfect tbh.

Name changed for this.
So what do you do if you work from home?
Project/Programme Manager for a Government agency.
And how full on is it?
Busy but not stupid. Core hours are 8.30 to 4.30, work outside these hours is rare. I've had much more 'full on' jobs in the past.
Do you have flexibility during you working day to say take the dog for a walk?
I plan my own time - so yes, lots of flexibility, although endless Teams meetings can get in the way.

Not everyone in my workplace is a full time WFH person. I was recruited as a home worker and only go into the office about once a month. Most staff are expected in 2-3 days a week.

Work in civil service, WFH 60% or less.

Incredibly flexible, can work any time between 6am and 10pm mon-weds and until 8pm Thurs-Fri. I often take a 2h lunch break to sort the house and take my nursery child from school to daycare.

I’m a business analyst, it’s very full on, I start at 8 and finish around 5 most days! On calls most of the day, I bought some wireless headphones- which means I can put washing on while I’m on calls!

I do roughly 1 day in the office but have to be flexible with this some weeks could be 2 and not knowing what days I could be in. So have kept on the dog walker on, before my daughter started secondary I also used the breakfast clubs and Afterschool clubs.

The recent Easter holidays tough as I had a lot of deliverables and my 13 year old was very bored!!

There is flexibility but to a point - I worry that we may loose the WFH soon. Contracts are still office based.

I used to be a teacher too Op. I've just started with the Civil Service, mainly because of the flexible working patterns they offer. 60% at home and term time only.

One thing worth bearing in mind OP is that a lot of people who work successfully from home have put in the hours and years in the office already to get to that position of trust, knowing their colleagues and knowing exactly what needs to be done in the job. Unless you career change to something very brainless and menial it would be very hard to start from scratch working at home.

I won't say my role as it's not relevant to your decision since it's not one that you could career change to. However I will say that my organisation generally are relaxed about people taking time away from desk of 20 mins or so as long as they have their phone with them and don't take the piss. In the same way, if I am in the office I don't have to tell anyone where I'm going when I leave my desk.

Fully agree with this. I can only do my job effectively from home because I've worked in the IT and Business Change environment for over 30 years and proved myself reliable during that time.

I’m a civil servant working most of the time from home. I need to work 30 hours over four days a week. Often have back to back meetings particularly over lunch but if I was harsher with my diary I could definitely block out a proper lunch break for a dog walk (which wouldn’t come out of my 30 hours but I’d log out for it).

the work is not as hard as my last career, or as pressurised.

I work in housing for the local council and I'm at home 4 days in office 1 (the option is there to go ok more days if you're prefer) :) x

I work from home as a translator and telephone interpreter.

I WFH full time. I do a technical / commercial role in the transport industry. It’s normal office hours, I start work around 08:30. I take a proper lunch break every day.

If you are serious about leaving teaching for working FT in the private sector, OP, you & your family will need to deal with the reality of working 47 weeks per year instead of 39. It’s a massive difference. Flexible working is common these days for office roles, but in my industry I have never heard of anyone working term-time only, because our services operate 364 days a year.

Web editing, from home full time.

It’s steadily busy, there is always something to do but not usually madly rushed deadlines.

I get an hour’s lunchbreak which I always take to clear my head and rest my eyes. If I had a dog I could walk them then 😊

I work for one particular company and worked in the office for a few years first.

Customer relations. I answer customer complaints and answer chat live queries. £33k a year. It can be busy, especially if something kicks off in the industry but on the whole, I focus on my work and get my head down in the morning, and deal with all the emails assigned to me. Once that is done I just do chat but they can be 1 every 30 minutes, and we self assign as they come in and there are half a dozen people doing the same thing. I go into the office about once a week. I love it as I am home for deliveries etc, to load the washing machine, hang washing out. I don’t take a lunch just take a few periods of 10-15 minutes to clean the loo, chop some veg for supper etc.

Once I have done all the mails, it is just a case of waiting for people to come through on chat, twitter etc. It’s not busy at the moment so I normally switch on The Chase or another programme as I wind down for a 6pm finish. I start at 10am, so generally don’t need an alarm and wake up naturally. DH also works at home (8-4) I love working from home. For many years I did the journey to the office and 90 minutes on a bus to central london is not fun. So glad I only have to do it once a week now!

What do you do if you work from home?

Self employed chemical engineer working on modifications to pharmaceutical facilities. Do calculations and create/review technical drawings and specifications etc. Some meetings via Teams and some quiet time creating/reviewing documents.

How full on is it?
Sometimes very full on due to Project deadlines. Other weeks less. Between 24 and 40h a week. Sometimes several months off between projects.

Do you have flexibility during you working day to say take the dog for a walk?
Yes

home based, for a charity, only need to be 'in person' maybe 4-5 times a year.

I normally work 9-5, but I don't have to. I can take breaks whenever I don't have a meeting and log in later to catch up on emails. Sometimes I log in earlier or stay on later if I have something important to finish.

This is time I would normally have spent commuting so it makes no difference to me. It may seem less money but when you consider what I'm saving in time / fuel / parking etc not travelling to an office, it balances out.

I'm also much more productive as I have less distractions. There's no office politics. I can have the radio on in the background with MY preferred songs. I can even have netflix playing on an Ipad on a day I have no meetings (and yes I still get work done, usually my admin). I can come off a call and swear loudly to myself about what a stupid a colleague is and no one ever knows. I can roll out of bed and be 'in the office' 10 minutes later after a quick shower and dress. I can give DD a lift to school if needs be. I can walk my dog. I bloody love it.

you could try online tutoring OP, my DD has some tutors, they charge £45ph, assuming you are secondary teacher as they are in more demand due to exams.

I am a licensed breeder, and train working dogs for jobs such as customs, bomb search, money search, drugs, field work, pet therapy, that kind of thing. My working day starts at 7am and finishes around 11pm. I work with the dogs/pups and handle all admin etc. I also home educated(d) all of my children and am a carer for my disabled husband and my parents. I work every day of the year and haven't had a holiday in 12+ years. It's not on the go for the entire day to the point of having no time for anything else and yes there is time to walk the dog(s). I had to find something that brought an income and still enabled me to do everything else that I have to do.
It's not for everyone and in some circles I'm considered the lowest of the low, but that's life.

I childmind (have done this for many years)and also am a newly approved foster carer. We have a highly complex 3 year old who is just amazing and brings in a very good income. I've always wanted to foster but the pay is also a huge concern too.

Law and yes to flexibility to some extent.

I'm a Welfare Rights Officer. I'm 'supposed' to go to the office one day a week, but don't. I'm employed by the local council.

Whilst work is exceedingly full on - funding cuts mean we are understaffed. My work is very flexible. As long as I put the work in, management aren't too fussed about when I do my hours. I'm full time. I'll often start at 5am work till 7.30. Enjoy breakfast with the family. Work half hour, then school run (20 mins away from my desk). I might go out for a bike ride in the day. I'll work until 6ish. I tend to do a few hours on a weekend.

It works for me, but I make it work for me. I wouldn't cope with working full time from an office now. I love the flexibility I have now. It's really helped work/ life balance.

@Yuja out of interest... how did you get into your line of work? Thank you.

Civil service, I work hard but I get lunch hours too like any job. I am part time so I finish early to pick kids from school 3 days a week but also wfh means I sometimes get asked to log on in the evening or extra early. I don’t mind because I get the hours I want.

I work from home permanently, never see anyone and do not have an office to go to. I have 2 jobs, one is very well paid and the other is contracted medical proofreading which is also well paid but more flexible. As long as I do the 'batch' of work I am allocated for that day it can be done at any time that day, I can also ask for more (as I am contracted for the second job it's paid per line) or less as the case may be.

I can have plenty of time in the day to do stuff but occasionally it means working until midnight if I have had that day 'off'.

I am self employed- I make and sell craft items.
I do have to make sure I ship stuff by deadlines, but otherwise my time is my own.
I can go for a walk go shopping anytime I like. It is full on, but also my hobby, so when I am not working I am exploring new ideas, working on dfferent projects.