To ask where all these ‘WFH’ jobs are?

[Cowparsleyheaven]

So many people saying their company doesn’t want them back in, they’ll either be WFH fully or a hybrid of the 2.

I should pre-face this by saying I’m looking for an administrative role and I get that often you don’t get the ‘privilege’ of WFH until you’re a bit more senior, but there seems to be a lot of talk on MN of people being told they’ll be working from home, at least partially from now on.

I have 2 interviews in the next 2 days, both for administrative roles, both offer no flexible working and it’s fully office based, 8.30-5 etc. I’ve searched and searched and honestly, in my area there really doesn’t seem to be THAT many roles advertised that offer remote working. There are lots of administrative roles advertised, but only 2 in the last couple of weeks have listed remote working.

I would love to WFH, at least some of the week but these roles seem to be like gold dust.

Obviously if I’m lucky enough to be offered either of these roles I’m interviewing for, I’ll have to just take what I can get but one is an hour and 10 minute drive each way every day, in my first interview they said the majority of their staff have a long drive in (it’s fairly rural) and that for the last year they’ve all worked remotely, but going forward, it’s everyone back in the office full time again. This just sent alarm bells ringing in my ears a bit tbh as if it’s not a customer facing role, I can’t see why you wouldn’t offer your staff some sort of flexible working, knowing that they have a long commute each day. I’m wondering how rigid they’ll be in general.

I guess what I’m asking is, AIBU? Is it just that administrative roles are rarely based remotely?

I'm not admin but there are roles within my org that are. I'm civil service and I haven't been in the office for 14 months.

If your only looking in your area your unlikely to find a wfh position. Wfh means you can work anywhere. You have have to be local. Broaden your search to the whole of the UK.

Don't have*

My organisation is one of those who are taking on across the country for wfh positions.

Civil service here too. Haven’t been to the office since lockdown began as can do everything remotely. Will be popping into the office next week as I need to do something I can’t do from home. Powers that be have made it clear that we can decide where we work from now on, when things are back to normal I will still go into the office, maybe a day or do a week, but only if I need to and it’s my choice.

Agree with not just looking in your area. Search UK wide. I wfh in Scotland for a London based company. I used to be admin but have moved on from that now.

Try local government. Most county councils have most of their staff wfh. Our department has about 70 people and we have all wfh throughout the pandemic regardless of grade/role. Many of us hope to work more from home than in the office as restrictions become lifted. When posts are advertised they are not advertised as wfh but that is what we are doing.

People I know who are currently WFH:
IT support
IT system developer
NHS admin staff
Someone who works in HR for a global organisation
Someone who works as a PA to the director of a company
Call centre worker
Payroll administrator for County Council

Pretty much everyone who would have been based in a "normal" office before covid, is now WFH.

What part of the country are you in OP?

I think there's a massive gap between what employers are telling their employees is going to happen and what they're actually willing to advertise and put in the contracts of new employees. My employer says no return before September and then loads of flexibility but HR wouldn't let my boss advertise my maternity cover as open to fully remote 'due to the precedent and since the new policy isn't yet finalised'.

I saw a thread like this before and people kept recommending employers that they personally know are currently fully WFH but a) that doesn't help you doing a job search without that insider knowledge and b) you can't take on a job that you could only do remotely (e.g. that isn't commutable) on the grounds that they're currently WFH and you hope it'll last - well, you can but it'd be very foolish!

Mumsnet is always different to real world, in my opinion. A lot of business are now retracting their promises about WFH and majority of people are either going back to the offices or resigning if they are unhappy going back (4 people in my company did, including myself) even for roles that were 100% doable from home (i.e. phone & laptop work) I imagine there is s*itloads of competition out there for home based admin jobs.... it tough !

@ChocOrange1

People I know who are currently WFH: IT support IT system developer NHS admin staff Someone who works in HR for a global organisation Someone who works as a PA to the director of a company Call centre worker Payroll administrator for County Council

Pretty much everyone who would have been based in a "normal" office before covid, is now WFH.

But OP isn't looking for a job that is remote right now, is she, she wants one that will be going forward?

Check out Monzo bank or home working opportunities 🙂

I'm just giving suggestions of the sort of thing she could look for.

I don't know anyone who's company have started expecting them back in the office, from those people I listed.

My employer advertises positions as fully office based but in reality all teams are moving to hybrid work. But it will be dependent on the team's business needs and up to the department managers to figure out how to work it in practice. You could ask at the interview what they're planning.

Thanks all, I haven’t considered searching nationwide tbh as I just assumed companies would only really be recruiting locally? But perhaps I should cast the net wider!

I know lots of people don’t like WFH, but I would personally really enjoy it I think. I don’t like office politics, leaving early, getting back late and having to spend your weekends doing life admin/ cleaning etc when you could be doing that in your normal commuting times.

I’ve ran my own business for the past 7 years so have obviously worked entirely independently and responsibly. I’ve always been a hard worker, never had anything but praise for my work ethic and actual work, but all of the companies I’ve worked for previously were fairly rigid too and that was one of the reasons I went SE, I just got fed up of little work / life balance, especially in the winter.

I work for a LA and WFH with days in the office when I need to be, which is usually once every couple of weeks or so. I don't know anyone who's fully back in their office, most are a mix of office and home, with a couple solely WFH

*My employer advertises positions as fully office based but in reality all teams are moving to hybrid work. But it will be dependent on the team's business needs and up to the department managers to figure out how to work it in practice. You could ask at the interview what they're planning.

If they're advertising the jobs as fully office based then that's also what they'll write into the contracts, so that any flexibility beyond that is entirely at the discretion of the company and perhaps individual line managers. Doesn't that give you any pause?

My organisation is recruiting and we're all WFH full time now as the office is being closed to cut costs.
We had a huge amount of applicants for the roles even though they weren't widely advertised.

Local authority admin staff in my area are all WFH now

I work for PwC and am 100% remote right now, going back in 40% of the time (so 2 days a week) from July. This is company wide. I don't know where you are but there are loads of regional offices.

I work in an admin role and haven't set foot in the office since March 2020.

The organisation I work for has no intention of people returning to the office full time, ever.

If you use linkedin to search for jobs you can search uk wide and filter by remote jobs

Civil servant here, one of our team has just moved to the other side of the country in the hope that WFH is permanent. Many CS admin jobs are hybrid.

I’m at a large professional services firm, we are doing remote working going forward although there will be times when we are expected to be in the office (expected to be no more than 2 days per week). There are similar issues expectations of admin staff, and from what I understand a lot of other professional service firms will be doing similar.