Genuine question for those still working from home

[HeritageQuay]

I'm a manager in a company that employs about 100 employees across several locations in the south of England. We are in an industry that stayed open throughout Covid but apart from that we think we are a fairly normal business, i.e. we sell things, and then we deliver those things to our customers.

However, we have always been puzzled by the concept of people being able to "work from home". We think that our employees perform a full range of business functions and but none us have ever been able to work from home, even at the height of the pandemic, because our jobs mean that we have to be in the workplace.

So my question to those currently working from home is "what do you do" and "what industry are you in"?

Data analyst. Pre covid we were spread around the country in different offices doing our jobs over teams/skype. WFH makes absolutely no difference.

However, some of our staff still have to go onto sites to do physical things e.g. if you are selling stuff they I assume someone has to receive the stuff, organise it, send it out etc. We have people who do things like that too, so not all our staff are wfh.

IT manufacturer. I'm in sales. Over 100 in the company.

Only the folks in the warehouse and production need to be in the office.

Literally everyone else can WFH.

Hybrid working here, tax consultant- no difference between wfh and in the office, nice to chat with people in office get more done at home

Sales for a tech start up. Every single person in our company works from home, lots of them not even in the U.K.

Lawyer (in house)

Accountant. Have full access to all the systems from home & talking to people all over the globe anyway so doesnt matter a jot where I'm based. A spreadsheet is the same whether the screen is in the office or at home.

Finance, data architect or what ever wanky title they’ve given us this week

Accountancy. Had luckily gone pretty much paperless before lockdown. Hybrid working now, some people in the office all the time, some never going in and some a bit of both. Some office space now sublet, so will never be able to accommodate all employees in the office at one time. Many meetings, internal and with clients, being done on Teams (saved £000s on mileage claims)

I work for a software company. Even before covid, a lot of/most of our work took place online and on Zoom meetings because we're spread out all over the world. Everything about my job takes place on my laptop, so it's easy to work from home.

Service delivery manager for an IT managed service provider

Tech.

Information security, risk and compliance.

Lots of teams meetings with people in the company all over the world. Writing and communicating company policies, managing accreditations, supporting bid/sales teams with client requirements, auditing compliance to policies, consulting on new technology/products/suppliers to make sure info security/quality/environmental sustainability/digital accessibility standards are being embedded/enforced.

Tax adviser - I like the office for seeing people and clients but the actual work I just need a laptop

because our jobs mean that we have to be in the workplace.

Really? Not even your finance team? Does none of the job of anyone in your company consist of

• calls/video conferences
• anything whatsoever on a computer

I suspect you have an old fashioned view of the sort of tasks that require physical presence in the workplace.

Seriously? You can't imagine in 2022 what job would be able to be performed WFH?

Basically anyone who uses a computer

the actual work I just need a laptop

^

Uh huh

You’re a manager and you don’t know what jobs can be done from home? OK….

Data engineering/science/analytics. Full, secure access to all systems.

IT support of a kind, not going to say more as would be outing.

I find it hard to believe that there is not at least part of each week that support staff could not work from home.

Another accountant. I reckon I go into the office maaaaybe once every week or two now on average. It's good for me to get out the house.

If you employ 100 people presumably you have at least one accountant and likely one person who does HR? I would assume both their jobs could probably be done from home. I know a lot of accountants and I don't know any who aren't now working from home at least most of the time - I'd say most a hybrid primarily just because it's nicer to get back to seeing people rather than necessity.

Our accounts department had someone go in once a week during COVID to scan the post but I think that was it.

I work for an insurance company. The 'product' is a policy - so nothing physical to be delivered. We work from home 2 days per week, in the office 3 days per week. We did this even before Covid. I can see the number of days working from home increasing at some point.

All i need is a laptop so i can easily wfh. I can't imagine your finance team or HR team 'need' to be on site all the time for example

Research. I sit at a computer all day. Where that computer is located is irrelevant. My job requires quiet and focus so even in an office I have a private office with the door shut most of the time .

I switched to wfh over 10 years ago.

My next role needs to be WFH at least 90% of the time. Commuting is really satan's favourite sauce.

"I suspect you have an old fashioned view of the sort of tasks that require physical presence in the workplace."

Well yes indeed, I was wondering that too, hence the question!