If you WFH, can I ask what you do?

[Picklemeyellow]

I often see people mention on MN they wfh.

I have a burning desire to WFH due to some health issues. These wouldn’t affect my ability to wfh but with these issues I am struggling in my current job.

In the past I have worked in office based environments (worked in NHS admin for 15 years). However, in recent years I have been running my own PA/home help business, so would need to brush up on my office skills. I am looking to sign up for a course or two.

It is something I am seriously thinking of changing over to as my current situation causes me a lot of stress because of these health issues (daily digestive issues which are unpredictable) but how difficult is it to actually secure a wfh job? I am reading recently that many people are going back to the office or switching over to some kind of hybrid working? Are most companies trying to phase out wfh?

I am prepared to train for something completely different if I could wfh, just have no idea exactly what though?

Do you work 100% from home? If it is not a professional role, what do you do?

I wfh full time as a software developer, but that’s only because I convinced them during Covid times to change my contract. Most of my colleagues have to go to the office twice a week (and new hires more often).

I work for a local council in Repairs. We take calls reporting issues to houses or council properties including schools.

We are hybrid - I work 6 days per month in office and the rest at home.

You can find similar roles by searching under contact centre/call centre.

Another working for local Council (environmental health)
Hybrid, so some days in office but I can pick and choose which days.

I work for a University in a professional role, I only go onto campus for e.g. occasional in person training sessions (so far that's been approx. once per year).

I work for a university, I’m officially based there but it’s very flexible and I have team mates who rarely come in. I do come in regularly but my choice as I like it

I work for a well known sports team in their accounts team. I enter invoices, pay suppliers, invoice customers, reconcile the bank, look after utilities accounts and any other ad-hoc work the finance manager asks me to do.
It's okay, and I'm at home twice a week in the office twice a week.

I'm an academic (researcher and lecturer). I don't wfh 100%, but I only go into the office maybe once a month. I think if you have health issues, wfh or not, what you need is good support from occupational health. I also have GI issues and my occupational health office is aware (it technically counts as a 'disability' though I don't personally identify as disabled). It means they need to give me support and make accommodation where necessary, as this impacts me whether I'm wfh or in the office. I think doing something where you can be self-employed can give you a lot of freedom and flexibility, but without the security obviously provided by an employer. I would look to see what roles are available that would suit your skillset, and then look to find one that is wfh or hybrid or apply with the aim of negotiating wfh.

I do corporate relocations and can very easily do my job wfh. I do 4 days at home and 1 day in the office. Our company will happily recruit someone on a completely remote contract for the right candidate.
Computer is all set up to receive and make calls without me needing to use my mobile, and there's no need to print things these days. Everything's digital and done by email.

I work in payroll, wfh 100% of the time. I can count on one hand the number of times I've been in to the office since covid! Crazy to think we all went in 5 days a week before, now we realise it had absolutely no benefit whatsoever.

I’ve worked 100% from home since before covid (most of our industry has been home-based for the past 15 years). I’m a clinical trials project manager.

Local council. My old job was 100% WFH (very rural area), new job in another council is 1-2 days a week in the office.

Data Analyst working for a charity. I visit the office twice a year.

I work in University professional services and have a fully remote contract. If you have NHS admin experience, it's likely you'd be able to find a uni admin job. They might want you on site more in the first six months of the role, but most people I work with are at home the majority of the time.

Engineering. I can do my job from home because I’m experienced. I don’t think you could easily train to do it without working alongside other engineers.

I work for a university too an can do the full role from home. There are some meetings that I attend on campus but they are few and far between. Other times I go on campus is if I've arranged to meet a friend for lunch, it's easier to do that if I go into the office because the campus is based in the city centre.

I'm a 1st line NOC engineer. Our second-line team are also remote workers. A lot of IT jobs are remote now.

To get into network engineering you'd need to look at doing something like CCNA or Microsoft MTA Network Fundamentals (CCNA is the better one but MTA can be done in a few days. CCNA will take 3-6 months).

You can also start off working on just a regular service desk and use that to gain experience while working towards certifications.

I work in local government. I get the impression. Public sector has embraced continuing wfh more than private sector.

In my industry (utilities), hybrid is the norm for office based work. Some teams a fixed 3day in office rule (usually those interacting with teams in the field). It's more flexible for the rest of us. I work in commercial and we have no rule, but the flip side is if there's a project in Aberdeen, it's expected that I will travel there as required. And Manchester, London etc.

People in the office think we wfh 95%, but it more like 70% with external travel.

We would only employ admin staff hybrid as far as I'm aware. Even if you had a local agreement to always wfh, the company wouldn't be prepared to put that in a contract.

Thank you everyone.
I will start looking at the government sites.
Had no idea so many uni jobs were wfh, I live 5 miles from a large university and hadn’t given it a thought, will look on their website too.

I may be able to tolerate hybrid if the majority was on a wfh basis, I could take medication for those days (as I do now) and keep my fingers crossed!

mindutopia I would love the support of a good OH department because the last few years self employed have been difficult but I’d be concerned about disclosing my issues at interview incase they would assume my issues would affect my work, which to date they haven’t (I just suffer in silence lol).

Local Authority. I have worked here for decades from an admin worker opening post in housing benefits, assessing claims, to fraud officer, to fraud manager then to a very senior role in
Housing Management (which I got more through sheer luck than anything else).
I doubt I’ll move on as my degree is obsolete and I’m in my mid forties. The only promotion available to me now is Strategic Management and I would never get that anyway and wouldn’t want it. Currently I’m meetings pretty much all day on teams, but can turn my camera off. It’s very boring. Hence MN.

I work for a tech company and although my contract states I should be in the office 2 days a week this isn't enforced or expected and there are some staff who are classified as home workers. Check out tech companies because there are multiple roles outside of the obvious software development stuff.