...to think people do not take home-based jobs seriously?

[TheGoodPlaceEndingSucks]

After fixed-term contract to fixed-term contract I FINALLY got a permanent academic contract. That stuff is like gold dust.

Job is 3 to 3.5h away from where we live at the moment (good train connection) but involves a significant amount of online teaching, which is why they offered me to work from home two days a week, which is fantastic. I mean, overall it is not ideal but the pros outweigh the cons quite a bit.

My families reaction went from genuine excitement to 'oh, just one of those home office things then, nothing proper'. From what I have heard, I am not the only one who is witnessed people saying something like this. Why is that?!

YABU = People take (most?) home office jobs seriously
YANBU = People do not take home office jobs seriously

Kind of agree with you. I WFH 5 days a week and have done for the last 7 years. I've been in this industry for 16 and been working in this particular sector for 10 years. I have had a number of comments from extended family members saying: "You're so lucky you work from home, get me a job!" And actually a few weeks ago, one of the same extended family members actually texted me to specifically ask me again. They work in a completely different industry. And there I am sat trying to explain you have to start from the bottom. I find it quite insulting, considering I have worked my way up to get where I am.

Some people just don't take it seriously and think you do nothing all day. I had to also try and explain you need to have a strict routing when WFH and have a home office set up. There are some people who do not enjoy WFH.

Just ignore their comments and reactions, at the end of the day, you have worked hard to get where you are and it sounds like your company are looking after you and your work/home balance. Best of luck for your new job.

*routine (not routing).

I think that people judge the more you WFH, if you work full time and have an office element they will 'allow' it but if you're FT WFH then it's lumped in with MLM and other scams.

I've just had a thread dealing with this exact issue and I feel your pain. You need a strict routine and self discipline to make it work and it's not easy.

I think that people judge the more you WFH, if you work full time and have an office element they will 'allow' it but if you're FT WFH then it's lumped in with MLM and other scams.

Yes, or SAHMs saying they run their own business which turns out to be sticking beads on photo frames, or rolling wine glasses in glitter to sell on Facebook.

Nothing wrong with that of course, but they're really just making a couple of quid (if that) now and again out of their hobbies.

I have managed to turn around opinions on home working in my organisation. I requested it first, then when I got some power, got the policy changed.

Once I could permit my employees to wfh, and they found out how useful it could be to them, they lost any ground to complain! 😂

Plus I won a big contract for the company using extra wfh time, which they'd given me side eye about taking.

It's my most effective day of the week.

YANBU!

I WFH 95% of the time as a software consultant. I have friends and family in Australia who insist on calling me in the evening their time as it's during the day for me. When I remind them I'm 'on the clock' I get comments like, "aren't you working from home today?"

I still have meetings and deadlines like everyone else! Some days I'm on the phone/video-conference for 6+ hours a day. I can hardly go AWOL when I feel like it...

Rant over

I find it the opposite. My friends or family will ring me if they are free and when I say I'm working from home that day they say "oh I won't keep you I'll call you later" but really I'd welcome them to pop in for an hour for a tea or a natter. I can change the times I work as long as I get what I need done/do my full hours so an extra long lunch break is fine to do.

I’ve worked from home for (most) of the past 20 years (as has my husband). Despite working 8:30am-6pm, then almost every evening after dinner, it’s always us that’s the first port of call for family emergencies, picking up elderly relatives prescriptions/hospital visits/neighbours parcels/pick up xxx as their car’s in the garage etc.

And, when I was volunteering (now stopped due to a change of role at work) it would be, “Oh, I haven’t prepared X for the meeting/event/pack holiday/camp, and I can’t do it, I have to work.” (Which, of course I’d do at night, just so as not to let the girls down).

We.Are.Working.

I read something on a contractor site years ago along the lines of if you work from home, you spend more hours working than if you’re in an office; I think there is the temptation to just ‘pop & finish something in the home office’ or ‘Had an idea! Must go & do it!’.

Most standard office jobs (or developer jobs like ours) can be done from home. For the environmentalists among you - think of the CO2 savings with less cars on the road twice a day! Or, for the frugal - how much fuel you’d save! Or even the lazy (like me) - PJ party on the bottom, smart business on the top (for Skype calls to the team).

Yes, I can sling the doggos around the block at lunchtime. But WFH needs to be taken seriously as a viable employment option.

ps I’ve never stuck glitter (or Scrabble pieces) onto a canvas or plastic tumbler to sell for a fiver amongst the chester draws and nappy cakes ads. Even though I WFH.

Apologies. Bit of a rant there. It does drive me hatstand, though.

I work from home two days and everyone including my husband think I am on days off when I am home. It drives me mad.

My last employer decided that if they couldn’t see you you were not working. Actually though I was paid for 21 hours I would never do less than 40, usually 50, and for a few weeks was doing 70hrs. When they insisted we all move to the office or take redundancy, I got out. Funnily enough they discovered there was no way to deal with the work load if people stuck to office hours!

It is also irritating if you WFH but occasionally have meetings outside. No one seems to be able to handle you not being in when they arrive unexpectedly!

Yanbu, it does help a bit ime if you have a home office and other people stop being dicks about it.

I WFH all the time. I'm self employed too. It took a long time to get it through to my DM and DSister that I was actually working. They only realised it when they stayed for a few days without enough warning for me to change a few things around so I told them that I'd be working. They then saw that I actually shut myself in the office and worked. I didn't do it purposely to make a point or be rude but it worked.

I do get the odd people asking my DH at his work if I can babysit their kids for days off school. He makes it clear that I'm working, but they still see WFH as having the ability to look after kids. He puts them straight for me.

People are starting to come around but it's not easy and not fast enough.

Worked from home for a decade. Slashed my earnings to go ‘back’ to work as DH just couldn’t get it, eg why stopping at 3 to do the school run wasn’t viable business practice when he could pick DD up easily, or that no, I hadn’t thought about dinner yet.

I get some wfh allowance, but it’s a special case with my employers - who absolutely should be thinking about carbon emissions and productivity for wfh (I could do my job in 2 days at home with no distractions from the rest of the office).

I genuinely don’t know what to do for the best now. I miss my life before.

DH works from home one day a week. I work from home full time barring the odd day.

I get a bit humphy that somehow he never has time to take the dog out before work or at lunchtime, but assumes I have.

I think the only people who judge it are people who think it is an mlm 'work for yourself' 'boss babe' type thing. 90% legit work from home jobs are like gold dust in my experience and people just don't believe they exist.

I find it odd people would question your set up, most office workers i know work at least a day a week at home.

I don’t experience this at all actually. I am self employed from home but my outputs are very publicly visible so people I know get what I do.
Presumably you’re working for a named university? So I don’t know why anyone would think it’s not a “real” job??
My BIL has a big fancy six figure job he does mainly from home with some international travel.

Well I do make my day fit sensibly around my life needs when I'm at home. Whyever not?

I have a trainer I see mid morning, I do long lunches and run errands, I put laundry on during my tea breaks.

I also do the exact hours I would in the office with fantastic productivity, and with better ideas, greater accuracy. I pointed out to our CEO that every single one of my biggest successes (pulling significant financial weight in the company) happened in my wfh time.

It's just win win that I spend some of the day sorting out my life as well.

Well I do make my day fit sensibly around my life needs when I'm at home. Whyever not?
That is what I usually do to (wfh part-time at the moment - I haven't got a crafty bone in my body, in case anyone was wondering). Why would I pay a dog walker if I can use some fresh air at lunch time anyway? DC are at DH's work nursery and he does the drop-off and pick-up. Anything else gets done when it suits me

Presumably you’re working for a named university? So I don’t know why anyone would think it’s not a “real” job??
I am beginning to think it might also be a first generation thing - nobody in my family ever attended uni, I guess to them it may sound a little less trustworthy. Yes, reputable university.

I wfh as well. Not a 'proper' job, I won't say what it is as many mners don't get it and it will derail the thread (not MLM or crafty bollocks).

Anyhow, people just don't understand that I actually work. That I am not sat watching tv or surfing the internet or pottering around doing housework. I don't have space for a home office either so am sat at the kitchen table. Also get 'can you pick up nephew from school, he's ill and I am at work, can you take dmum to hospital appt, I'm at work, can you grab x, y,z for me cos I am at work'.

And my absolute all time favourite from my lovely but seriously struggling to understand wfh dsis 'can you mind my 4 month old baby for a couple of hours, am booked in at beauticians at 10am and my dh isn't feeling well enough to look after him. Baby will mainly sleep anyway'.

It's getting easier though. Is my 3rd year this year and finally people are understanding that when I am working I am actually working. Except the dog. Who assumes as I am just sat there anyway I may as well keep letting her out, letting her in, refreshing her water bowl, taking her for a walk. And the Guinea pigs who wheek when I let the dog out, for veg and treats.

I work nights op and the amount of times I have been asked to babysit others kids the day after a 12 hour night shift or take someone to a hospital appointment etc. Quite often I will be due to do another 12 hour shift that night as well.

I also have people sending parcels to my house or ringing me for a chat or to meet them for lunch. It seems you don’t need any sleep at all if you work night shifts or just need a few hour kip at the most

I had a thread recently on the Work board about being a remote worker and feeling excluded from the rest of my team, and the first couple of responses assumed I was WFH - they talked about "having my cake and eating it" and how the rest of my team were probably pissed off that they had to go into the office while I "stayed at home". I don't even WFH generally, maybe once in a blue moon if I have to. But there's a nasty assumption that you're just loafing about doing nothing and it's a cushy option. To me, it's tougher than coming into the office because you have to be both disciplined and self-sufficient.

I do one WFH day a week and I hate it. I only do it so I can drop DS off at nursery and collect one day a week. I'm incredibly unproductive and struggle with getting distracted. I don't have a home office, just the dining room. I have to work extra hard on the other days to compensate for my shit day!
I just don't have the self discipline and focus that many others seem to have.
Although if friends or family (or my employer for that matter) ask me, I always tell them how great it is as I don't want to add to the myth that WFH ppl do nowt all day!

I wfh at least one day a week and have done for more than a decade. It is by far my most productive day, demonstrably so. Despite this, I still get occasional comments about "oh, I forgot you don't work that day"

I'm self-employed and work at home as a freelance writer. I've been doing this sort of work for about 12 years and have no intention of getting "a proper job" any time soon. DH takes me seriously. The kids know that the only reason we're off to Disney this summer is because I had a good year and earned twice what I usually do.

My parents don't get it. They both worked in the NHS and have been retired for years, don't understand the internet let alone concepts like SEO and really have no concept of what I do at all. And more annoyingly, they're not interested enough to find out. Friends vary from "ooooh you're so lucky I'd love to be at home all day watching telly" to a bit more switched on.

Yes it's nice to have flexibility. But I do have to - you know - do some actual WORK too.