AIBU to ask what your WFH jobs are

[dobbyssoc]

Wondering if people could tell me what jobs they do and in what industry that allowed WFH before covid hit? I have never come across one that will even entertain the idea but with DC I would really appreciate that flexibility but they don't seem to exist (not in the immediate future but in the coming years!)
AIBU to feel like they don't exist!

This. It is ABSOLUTELY a case of being careful what you wish for. I’ve worked for businesses with Polish finance service centres. The people in them are brilliant: precise, competent, excellent English, only one hour ahead of us and less than half the price of a UK employee (and, based on my experience, a lot less needy and bolshy). Anybody in an admin or junior management role rejoicing in the prospect of working from home forever needs to wake up and plan for being back in the office building relationships!

Absolutely right. And added to that, businesses simply won’t need so many admin staff. I work in a law firm, and it’s become apparent when working remotely that we simply don’t need as many secretaries as we have.

Aviation - aircraft maintenance. Was a bit shaky for a while there but they’ve shifted my guys to Amsterdam so I’m still needed. I’m the only admin support they have, and I earn pocket money so paying me off won’t make much difference 😂 the guys I support pay more tax a month than what I earn, but the work is invaluable, or so I’m told!

@Monkeynuts18 that's an interesting point. We have a ridiculous amount of admin staff that outnumber teams that we are in much more dire need of but "don't have the resource" but senior management are lazy and like someone else booking their trains for them. They were the hardest team to move remotely as most of their work centres around preparing the physical spaces, as much as I love the team it is antiquated and our resource would be much better spent improving digital delivery within the organisation.

I work for a pharmaceutical company and am managing to wfh 2-3 days a week. The other 2-3 days I have to go into the labs to do practical stuff. Pharma is so heavily regulated that there’s a tonne of paperwork with everything, and that can all be done at home. I’m actually finding it’s making me more efficient to have that segregation.

Lower grades than me are far more practical-based though and can’t wfh. But our SLT have encouraged anyone who possibly can wfh, either full-time or part-time, to do so for the foreseeable.

Benefits adviser.

In normal times, I meet clients out in the community or at local offices, but the work that we used to do face-to-face is done over the phone. My clients are all involved with other projects run by the same organisation, so they refer in and a lot of the work is done remotely anyway, so for that it makes no difference where I am physically!

The organisation is very relaxed about WFH, a lot of frontline work do all their admin from home. Almost everyone has a laptop or Chromebook and a work mobile, so there's no need for a big investment in tech.

Atm, we're even running training courses using Zoom. That's not ideal, as I have to work from the kitchen (DP also WFH) and it puts you off when he strolls into the kitchen while I'm explaining complex stuff.

I think most staff will spend more time WFH now they've got used to it, which is great. It means fewer people driving round the county, so it's greener, and saves them time.

Digital marketing

I'm a senior lecturer at a university. Before lockdown I worked at least two days at home ( more during holidays) but currently WFH full time.

Some analysis of WFH in Luxembourg
QUOTE
Will the sectors which have been obliged to telework continue to do so? Mellouet analyses: “Paradoxically, during the lockdown, employees in finance were among the most numerous to telework.” Yet, according to the Liser study, they were also the least likely to have their company's consent to do home office work. “This result can be explained by the strict data security rules that govern this sector.” Will the crisis have lifted the barriers for them? Mellouet was not ready to make any projections about teleworking in the aftermath of the crisis.
END QUOTE
delano.lu/d/detail/news/half-jobs-can-be-done-remotely/210815?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Friday%252019%2520June%25202020%2520Noon%2520Briefing&utm_source=Newsletter

I’m an IT Project Manager.

In our area of the company, we’ve always had a WFH culture, & I did 2 days a week at home pre-Covid.

There are other areas of the company though that really don’t agree with it. I’m hoping one good thing to find out if the enforced working at home will make such dinosaurs appreciate staff need flexibility & don’t have to be in the office.

The company is spread all over the country, with teams in India too. It really makes no difference where you are.

We’ve been told we are unlikely to return to the office until next year.

I can see I probably won’t want to go back!

I'm a Communications Manager in a university. Across the organisation it was pretty common for people to WFH at least one day per week pre-covid, and there's been a lot of work on encouraging flexible working over the past couple of years, so we've generally all coped quite well. While some bits of campus are reopening, it's likely that I'll be WFH well into September or beyond. I should probably invest in a better chair!

I work in a specialist capacity in an arm’s length Public body - so broadly Civil Service terms. Several specialist roles in the organisation are fully home-based, so on ‘office’ days I am at my desk at home, then I spend regular time at my associated office for meetings, and time out and about undertaking site visits.

The organisation is very open to home working and it makes sense for people to be based in the patches they cover, and it saves a great deal of time in travel, and money in office accommodation costs.

HOWEVER - anyone with children has to have full-time childcare before they can be confirmed in a home working post. All the people on here who’ve been finding out how hard it is to manage with children at home while trying to work will understand why this is.

So if you’re thinking of a home-based post to provide better work-life balance, in terms of getting your regular commute time right down to zero, then crack on. Civil service jobs or those in similar bodies will also have good leave allowances and depending on the role, some flexibility on hours.

But don’t think of it as a way to avoid childcare. Meetings will still be scheduled for school run times, and your office days and site visits might not be timed for your convenience.

It’s worth finding out how all of this works in organisations which interest you before making lots of applications.

I work in a call centre doing customer services. I’ve worked from home for years, part time and I can work around school times. I often split my shift so I work when the kids are in school and I work in the evenings when they go to bed.
They’re pretty flexible and I’ve worked for the company for a long time. My husband works for the same company in a non customer facing roll. He's worked from home occasionally pre covid when we’ve been stuck for childcare or if one of them is poorly, but he’s now full time WFH and hopes to be for some time.
People look down on call centre jobs, but I work for a brilliant company and our customers are lovely. I can’t remember the last time I had an arsey call.
A friend of mine does homeworking for Monzo bank doing webchat. He works late shifts and it works well for him.

Civil service and granted a lot of flexibility pre covid. Official guidance is wfh one day a week, post covid this is going to be increased in my department to two.

Sales Manager, so all admin work done at home but I go to visit my customers regularly too. But post COVID, how much they'll be wanting to see of me physically in the future, I'm not sure. Much of my role might switch to a more virtual one, so will have to wait and see.

Civil servant in policy area. I mostly work in the office generally, but there is some scope, depending on individual managers and specific workloads at periods in time, to WFH ad hoc.

At present, I am drafting legislation WFH, but its not so different from the last time I was drafting legislation as the drafter was based in another country at the time and we couldn't meet in person.

I think, going forward, there is going to be more scope for us to WFH part time at least, but probably not on a FT basis.

I did both pre covid and am wfh now.

I'm a story reader and musician, so I usually perform in schools, theatres, music festivals, etc.
At home I compose, write stories and scripts, apply for funding, practise, research story content, network, and business management.
Always something to do.

I previously did b2b journalism, almost exclusively from home for ca. 8 years. Now I’m a debt adviser, pre-lockdown I did 2 days a week from home, now full time as we’re currently only giving telephone and email advice.

HR

Local govt transport planner. Lots of report writing and vid development. WFH once a week before covid. WFH for foreseeable now.

*bid development...

careers adviser

pre covid, we were the only department not allowed to WFH and the department that had the most females.

I look forward to the arguments that will inevitably occur around WFH going forward. They'll find it harder to refuse us now!

None of our directors have kids under 16 or those that do are all men. Completely out of touch.

Supply chain for a pharmaceutical compnay . Can do 95 per cent of my work at home . Am hoping when normality returns they will allow 3 days a week at home as it has been proven that it can work