To think there are no real, enjoyable ‘work from home’ jobs?

[AnneTwackie]

I’d like to reduce my hours and do something different working from home. Everything I see looks like a scam.
Tell me your happy/horror stories.

@Pashola i offer ebook collections, including all the ones on my site, for a reasonable price. Also donations and ad revenue. Mostly donations and sales.

I'm a Operations Director.

My brief in the company is so wide that even though we're titchy, people always want a piece of me.

I work from home one day a week because it's the only way to focus, and tbh, I could do with more, but the CEO and I are wary of striking a balance with staff perception of it - even though I get more and better work done at home!

I'm self employed (community magazines) and have worked from home since the kids were small. I love it!

I honestly can’t understand why, in this day and age WFH for general office admin type jobs isn’t pretty much par for the course.

All of my previous roles could easily have been done from home, instead of having to commute into the office and sit with often irritating people from 9-5 with no flexibility.

It’s bad for the environment and I bet the majority of people, if offered home working a couple of days a week would jump at the chance!

I know businesses probably worry about piss takers etc but surely if you’re messing around and not getting your work done, it’ll be apparent within the first couple of months and then you either get the privilege taken away from you or dismissed?

I went self employed years ago and although I don’t work from home, I’m my own boss and have a high level of autonomy. Because of that, I could never (unless I was absolutely desperate) go back to a non-flexible, 9-5 office job. I would really struggle with in some ways, being treated like a child.

@willothewispa
How long have you been doing that & are you able to make a living out of it? It was something I wanted to do years ago, but didn’t. My niece is starting up her own business now, hoping to make a living out of it.

I wfh as a freelance writer. People outsource their blog posts and web content to me. I started out working for copy mills where you can find writing jobs for very poor pay. Although I don't recommend this, it did help build up my confidence and I then found some regular clients who pay well. My intention was to be a work from home mum with a baby but turns out that's easier said than done! Once my little boy is in childcare though and I can work close to full time hours, I anticipate I'll be earning about the same as my old teaching salary based on my average hourly earnings.

WFH is the best option for me at the moment but I miss having colleagues and find I end up getting involved in domestic stuff or being asked to 'just look after the baby for a few minutes while I do xyz' by my husband when I'm in the middle of working which drives me bananas.

I honestly can’t understand why, in this day and age WFH for general office admin type jobs isn’t pretty much par for the course.

I think a lot of it has to do with GDPR and protecting data. A doctor's receptionist could in theory log into the system at home and have calls re-routed to them there. But there would be huge concerns about people accessing medical records remotely. Same in financial services. It's a problem with ANY data, even names and addresses. Often companies don't want the hassle of working out how to comply with legislation and allow people to work at home, so just don't bother.

Have any MN copywriters done this course?:

www.inst.org/copy/become.htm

I have my own business working from home as a head hunter. Most of my work is on phone calls and emails, and I only venture into town once a week for meetings.
It’s perfect and I earn around £100k

There's one wfh job that hasn't been mentioned, and you can care for your own small children while doing it... childminding. The pay is rubbish compared to some of the pp's salaries though but I'd say it's a lot more enjoyable than an office based wfh job.

Not if you can barely deal with your own young kids let alone someone else’s

Tiger I’m similar solicitor working alone much more lucrative than scrabbling about in a regional firm.

I work from home - I am a project manager for a software company. The job was not advertised as at home but most of us work from home. Some colleagues go into the office but I rarely do (refuse to). We manage our own diaries and workload really and my boss says I can do what I like as long as I get the work done. I am judged on the performance of my projects so in reality it doesn't matter where I work from, either at home or in the office. These days with modern technology people know where you are, we use MS Teams and you can see there if you have been idle (mouse or keyboard not moving) after a certain length of time. I am generally busy most days and don't ever take advantage but it does help not travelling 60 miles to my office (120 mile round trip) and it means I don't have to pay out for doggie day care or a dog walker daily.

I am a criminal investigator, much of which is IT based and therefore doable from home...

That sounds interesting @Fivetillmidnight. What does it entail and how do you get into it?

I WFH in the healthcare sector on a self employed basis. I earn £50K p/a for 3.5 day week. I love being able to take the kids to school and pick them up, no commute and the flexibility. Its been a gorgeous day here today so took the dogs for a long walk and started work later!

@chocolateteapot20 wow, crazy that the pay hasn't gone up all that much in nearly 20 years. I would think £1 per minute sounds very reasonable considering it's only just over double what I got nearly £20 years ago, but yet the minimum wage has gone up rather a lot more - I used to get £3.65 per hour to work in a pub not long before I did that work. I can imagine that the software isn't great with multiple voices. The main work I used to do was transcribing patient focus groups so medical stuff again, but with lots of different elderly voices. I can see why it needs human input!

There's plenty of remote working jobs for people with relevant experience. But I think very little that's entry-level. Newbies need more training and supervision, and I reckon companies don't really trust the workers at the bottom of the pile enough as it were.

IT for me. I'm mostly office based, but I can WFH if I want. I couldn't go fully WFH because physical stuff does need doing sometimes.

Offers to "work from home" with no experience or qualification requirements are virtually always scams.

Some industries are amenable to freelancing, but income is very uncertain. Like a PP mentioned, experience and connections really help.

I have the freedom to work from home and my boss encourages it. she is fully based at home, I have resisted this. She is based in Wales, I’m near Heathrow, but we both have national roles.

When i initially moved into my current role, I negotiated to work from home one day a week. My next boss supported me working flexibly following the death of my mum (who had helped with childcare), this is now a formal arrangement. But, it has to fit the role

I think a lot of it has to do with GDPR and protecting data. A doctor's receptionist could in theory log into the system at home and have calls re-routed to them there. But there would be huge concerns about people accessing medical records remotely. Same in financial services. It's a problem with ANY data, even names and addresses. Often companies don't want the hassle of working out how to comply with legislation and allow people to work at home, so just don't bother.

One of my biggest clients is an insurance company that has to keep extensive medical records, and they encourage staff to work from home. They use a VPN to access the systems they need, and all access is tracked.

I first worked there more than a decade ago and back then it wasn't an issue either.

I have a home based role, its very interesting, well paid. I have to go out and about as part of my role which is great for adding variety and actually getting to see people .

I work from home in the charity sector. Love it.

I am a senior project manager in pharmaceutical consulting. I work full time from home and have done for 10 years. My job is the same as it would be in the office. It pays close to 6 figures and I really enjoy it. You need some pretty focussed technical subject matter expertise and I am a global expert in my scientific field.

There are normal jobs that aren’t specifically home based (like mine). These may work better for you.

I work from home some days each week, and I've also just switched my hours so I work 10 days' hours in 9 days. It's great - I have a non-working day every other Wednesday.

I have one of these. I think the trick is having skills which can transfer go self employment or being well respected and trusted in your role which can be done from anywhere.

@bestoption I started out doing it as a hobby and had various forums I posted my work on locally, one thing led to another and I did some photos for charities free of charge on condition I was credited. I then got asked to do a wedding which I did for free on condition I could publish the photos online and use for publicity, that led to more and word of mouth recommendations.