If you are able to work from home

[Beansprout30]

Can I ask what you do for a living? I’m school admin and I’m able to do most of my job from a laptop but I can’t get my head around how many jobs can be done from home?!

Civil servant, worked from home one day a week anyway - I have a degree but it's not required for the role I'm doing. Before that I was a translator and technically could've worked from home all the time (as many translators do) but manager wasn't keen on it. DH is an engineer and although he did the odd site visit pre-COVID he mainly does design work which can all be done from home.

Project/transformation manager in prof services industry. It's all about digitisation and never more so than now

University admissions. Our applications are all online, and we can hold virtual applicant events/chat rooms from home.

amusedbush my DH is in University admissions but not talking to any applicants in any way. He's not sure the Universities will be face to face teaching by September and is very concerned about international student uptake

@OnTheMoors

We’re still on email as normal and applicants can contact us through the messaging portal and during our monthly virtual fairs.

We don’t have a definite start date yet. They are looking at an October start, or putting everything online for the first semester and then opening in January. We’ve had so many international applicants defer their applications to 2021, the financial impact of this is going to be unimaginable

@PersonaNonGarter can’t you use docusign?

We have wet-ink requirements in protocols. I am also a notary so I have to co-ordinate hard copies for that. But it isn’t the end of the world that I would imagined it three months ago. People are also being very flexible about hard copies in general and pragmatism seems to be winning.

University research Scientist almost entirely desktop/computer based. I have a PhD in a different topic but wandered into this area.

My Homeworking challenges:

ugly house needs repairs I don't want to share in videos, "office" is a spare bedroom full of kid things, needs repainting
No hardware or software support
slow network, VPN needs re-login after 5 minutes without use (limited licenses)
distractions of home
printing would be difficult
meetings in general are awkward, we make them work, but meh, so hard to communicate
I just did 3.5 weeks of work for free in April but am refusing to volunteer any more, must only do what I'm paid for
I had to bring my entire desktop home + monitors, only my desktop can open some specific files I have

I am super busy and 'in demand' right now, but My contract is insecure, due to the economic meltdown. The university finances are in free fall, plus shutdown means I am owed money from accounts now closed, not sure I'll ever get paid back. I have a couple back up plans to do other jobs that all involve being allowed OUT of the home (!!) :)

ps: because room is small, I don't actually have room for my chair & to have a decent view out the window, so I am sitting badly, breaking all the ergonomic rules (yes I prioritised having a decent view).

I'm a Chief Operating Officer for an international company.
I could work from home very easily, but I don't because I prefer to go into the office where I can concentrate. I sent all our staff home already 7 weeks ago so I am not risking anyone by being there. PA comes in a couple of mornings a week.

Solicitor. No reason why my work could not be done from home before this whole crisis except that the partners running my firm are dinosaurs who do not believe in remote working.

but I can’t get my head around how many jobs can be done from home?!

Can you REALLY not get your head around how many office based jobs are able to work from home? you said yourself you were given a laptop so why wouldn't you expect others to have the same? I've always had a laptop and most people I know working a corporate/office based job is the same. There is so much technology available that it's quite easy to work from home for a lot of people. I'm not trying to be rude but I am genuinely shocked that you can't understand how other people can work from home and seem to think you are on of the few...

To answer your question, I'm a project manager so very easy to do my job from home.

I actually think the OP is right to be surprised. So many of us are being forced to commute to the office 5 days a week and so many employers are against remote working that you would think it’s essential for most people to get on a busy train every day to get to an enormously expensive office building.

This crisis has proven how wrong the old dinosaurs running things really are.

foodandwine the way of working will be permanently changed due to CV. Bums on seats proves nothing now

I’m a work-based learning tutor. Always used to be based from home, with visits to students, years ago before the job became more about admin than education. Students need the face to face contact, but otherwise the job is certainly doable without going into the office - just needs the management to give the admin back to administrators. Having said that, prior to all this we were expecting to be facing redundancy this summer due to courses being cut by the government and lack of demand for the alternatives.

Thanks for all the replies, interesting range of jobs.@GreytExpectations I’m not the best at wording things, I totally understand how someone can work at home in an office job, I was interested in the different types of jobs people do. When I think of different industries I imagine the majority as being factories, shops, leisure etc where wfm is not an option. Sorry rubbish at explaining but thanks for everyone who replied and hope you are all keeping safe

I think our perceptions of the range of roles may be distorted because the ones (other than our own) that we're most aware of are generally not people working from home - 'public facing' .

When I think of different industries I imagine the majority as being factories, shops, leisure etc where wfm is not an option

Lots of people who work in factories, retail, leisure industry plus NHS and other medical services etc are still office based some or all of the time. They might have to do some 'shop floor' work but still have an office and will currently be working at home some or all of the time. These places all have health and safety teams, finance, business continuity and emergency planning, environment, engineering and design, product development, media and PR, sales plus probably others, all office based to a degree so possible to do at home.

I visit a very wide range of businesses in my role and, while some people are more hands on, plenty of others have a more desk based role. I do know some clients have currently closed their premises, while others are busier than ever, but those who are still operating will be working at home while they can, but might be going to their workplace occasionally, but only when they need to be there in person, but they can do office work and participate in meetings remotely.

Risk Manager currently working for a civil service/public sector organisation.

I usually work from home 3 or 4 days a week anyway but at the moment 100% of our workforce (so c600 people from admin, to finance, legal, contracts, projects, directors etc etc) are all working from home!!

I suspect they may take this opportunity to save money and downsize our office spaces........ which isn't a bad thing!! More permanent WFH and less environmental impact of commuting.

I work for local government, previously there was a presenteeism (sp?) culture, we were limited in the number of days we could wfh (1 day per week) and had to show our faces in the office. Hopefully it’ll completely change now, and that’ll mean they can sell off expensive office space.

Freelance translator, I’ve been working at home for years. Bloody love it, it’s another superflexible job.

I work as a SEN teaching assistant but am also a Usborne book organiser which i do from home as and when i like as its really flexible