Can you work from home but also choose the hours you work day to day?

[Hairymcclarytoes]

Before i start looking for the job I have in my head, I want to check it actually exists.
I'm after a work from home job that is flexible with when the work is done, e.g as long as I put in 7 hours that day, could be the morning or evening.
Children are teens so it's not a childcare thing, but it'll nice to have the flexibility if needed to drop of/pick up from clubs etc...

Yes I do and have done since long before Covid. Work in a senior role in the third sector.

Flexible working hours with give and take - I have some evening/weekend meetings so use TOIL for time off to work round DC or to add to my (generous) annual leave allowance.

Investment banking/loans here. No, I have 9-5 core hours.

The main reason is, I need other people, we can't work totally independent as all our data input, payments is 4-eye-principal and we also have very strict cut-of times for certain jobs.

There are bits I can do on my own and I have started at 7.30am as I had to finish work early but that is an excemption and has to be agreed in advance.

Yes, I work for a US based global company so there are always people I need to be meeting with in all timezones which means working flexibly is actually better for my bosses than if I insisted on core U.K. hours.

The place I work has close links to Computer based testing/online assessments, have you looked at companies like Pearson Vue, Prometric, Examity, Trinity College London, British Council, Reed in Partnership....

They have people on staff who write exam content, design assessments to awarding body standards, create practice/preparation material, remote proctor exams.

With all remote roles there will be occasional requirements to attend face to face meetings so you'll need to factor that in.

I did that in my last job. It was a basic admin job, filing, creating manifests, labelling, sending emails. My current job is customer service so I wfh but have to be available 9-5.

Broadly, yes, in every job I've had for the last 10 years, although most had "core hours" everyone had to be there for. This was usually 10-2, with the remaining hours flexible over the week or month.

However, this was also with the caveat that the work was done, so if there was an important meeting that needed to be done at 4pm, then it was expected that you were available. However, that rule only applied until 5pm.

This in a variety of private engineering companies

Well ours is nominally 9-5.30 but with the exception of a handful of meetings per week nobody really cares when you do it. We wfh most but not all of the time.

most of us have school runs and/or older children to juggle. A lot of trust goes on. Not that many under 40. “Advantages of a mature workforce” they keep saying.

I’m in consulting

Me too. Education charity (teacher training). I work 0.8 but a huge number of people work full time but compressed hours with every other Friday off. But you can largely start and finish whenever... meetings tend to be in middle of working day 10-3 ish

I'm a teacher who now does exactly this, it's been life changing. The shorter holidays haven't registered because the rest is so much easier. I work for a charity.

Also civil service. We don’t have core hours, just need to complete work some time between 7am-7pm. As it’s flexitime you can also do for example 12 hours one day, 4 hours the next. I just manage my own time normally around meetings. I do one day a week in the office.

Civil service and yes I do that, I own my diary and we don't appear to have core hours (if we do we don't implement them) that said I have a lot of meetings, so there is a limit to how much I can reasonably work outside of traditional hours to ensure I can meet with people when they're working.

It'll depend how strictly the organisation implements their working hours/flexi policy, generally find it helps the more senior you are. Will need to avoid public facing roles.

I work for the council in admin. Fully flexible - can WFH 99% of the time (FTF meeting every few months), so long as the work gets done you can choose when you do your hours - you can start early / late, do short days and longer days, swap your day off if you’re part time etc. I’m also ex-education

I’m a developer. As long as the code gets delivered I’m free to work my own hours from wherever I want.

I worked in IT, server support, and within reason, I could work the hours I wanted. We often had people start esrly/leave early or start late/leave late to avoid traffic, and had quite a few people either entirely home-based, or hybrid, even before covid came and made that more ususl.

I had to be there for meetings, but "there" usually meant in front of a screen, as we were international and people weren't based in the same countries, let alone same office. It did mean occasionally there were calls at Asia hours (usually early) or USA (might be late) but that wasn't in all roles. There were also times you had to do overnight or weekend work, and 24h on-call on a rota, but not all departments had that. There could be less flexibility at times like month end, again, depending on role.

As a teacher, I'd assume you have some pretty good transferrable skills, especially around child safety/safeguarding and supporting young people. Have you looked at the charity sector? Many jobs are hybrid and or remote and offer flexible working (depending on the role of course).

I work my hours flexibly to suit me, with the exception of when we have meetings/training or if I need to work around someone I am supporting. So I'd say my role is fully flexible around a good 80% of the time.

In my work from home role we have core hours of 10-12 and 2-4. Outside of that we can work pretty much whenever.

I work for an engineering consultancy, they are hot on work / life balance. Two days in office, core hours are 10-3 and as long as the work gets done it doesn't matter when it's done around that. Nature of the job though is that some times I'll do a ten hour day, sometimes a five hour day.

You need to focus on recruiters in the field you want to work in. I wouldn't think to use Indeed. I got my last role from a recruiter who contacted me on LinkedIn.

Wow, I feel so positive after all these replies. It's great knowing those jobs are out there. I didnt think about about core times for meetings, so that's good that it's in my head now and not a surprise later.

Where did you guys find all these wonderful jobs. Ive only had to look on eteach before so it a minefield out there for me at the moment.

Honestly time and reputation are a factor, I built a reputation in the company I work for, everyone knows I get the job done and they don't need to track or chase me.

Also you need to look for a job that doesn't need a physical presence. Teaching is obviously classroom based so home working isn't going to be an option unless there's another world disaster.

Technology based roles are a good option, global companies are more likely to have a hybrid or home based model to allow for working across numerous timezones/jurisdictions.

Honestly time and reputation are a factor, I built a reputation in the company I work for, everyone knows I get the job done and they don't need to track or chase me

Agree with this. Greater flexibility often comes with time served.

Teaching is obviously classroom based so home working isn't going to be an option unless there's another world disaster.

Not always. Lots of tutoring and remote adult classes these days are online. It can be hard to get in person IT training these days, which is rubbish in some ways, but also means courses with no local trainers may be accessible. There are also related jobs, like creating online course content.

If you think things are obviously one way, you're likely to miss opportunities.

hey just wanted to pop you a message to say that it 100% is possible, i now work for a company all home based, i have a 7 year old who is at school and a 2 year old who stays at home all day with me, the job i have is so flexible and it provides our house with an additional income. if you would like some help with this just drop me a message, ill be more than happy to help :)

I work in a technical role and need to be available during core hours when meetings are etc but other than that, I’m free to do pretty much as I please.

Thats with many years experience though. I think a closer eye would be kept on newbies.

@Singleandproud @Slothlikemum @followingthebreath can you tell me more about what you do now? I have been teaching for 15 years and am not sure how much longer I can go on for!

I work in a charity who do ITT and school leadership programmed. The trainee facing support/ITT roles are less flexible but the place is full of WFH roles in curriculum design, school relationship management, network and community roles... loads of ex teachers.

@WhatHaveIDone21 check out https://www.charityjob.co.uk/jobs?workplace=remote some of the jobs there might give you an idea of the type of skills/roles where your skills would be transferable - happy to be DM’d I work in the charity sector