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"?

My organisation's HR reckon that they can do all of their work from home, but everyone else would disagree!

TV post-production. I wfh permanently now. I have specialist software and can access the network servers and network programs. It’s quite a solitary job anyway. The occasional meeting or call or messaging is done via Teams.

Work in Finance

In house lawyer for an it company with offices in several countries. I am hybrid rather than full time WFH but the rest of my team are fully remote.

Digital marketing. Our team all go into the office together a couple of days a week but pretty much everything can be done from home.

Marketing. We are suppose to be hybrid, but honestly, everyone on my team is wfh 90% of time.

I can't see myself ever going back to the office full time.

I work in an in-house legal team for a global company. As I work with colleagues all over the world, I have never and will never work with the majority in person. My manager is based in another country. Most of the systems and software we use are accessed online. I can do my job at home and did so for most of 2020. We have hybrid working now and have to do a minimum number of days in the office every week.

Anything where you're mainly at a computer.
Also, I was 100% able to do my job from home during the pandemic when everyone else was at home, but now we're back there are certain office tasks that may need to be done to support colleagues who are in the office eg

• welcoming visitors
• printing things
• opening physical post
• dealing with office supplies and equipment

So not all office tasks are fully remote-able. But many office workers don't do any of the tasks listed above.

When you say no one worked from home even at the height of the pandemic - did you really have all 100 employees in every day? Or did you shut down? If you shut down I guess maybe you skipped the stage that a lot of companies went through of rapidly adapting processes and systems for remote access?

What a strange question. There's so many things you can do from home. There's obvious jobs you can't (mechanic, nurse, lollipop man/lady) but most office based jobs, easy.

I work in finance, collecting and reviewing documents that kind of thing. Lots of admin around my job is done from home, lots of sales roles, service roles, some managerial and most senior management.

We're a large company but have worked from home in small and medium businesses too. Just needs competent management.

I cannot wfh and never have,

but DH is in marketing and they all WFH. They ditched their office (in a very nice area!!) to save on rent and costs which meant that someone’s job was saved (as redundancy was the other option as they couldn’t afford both!!)

👀

Insurance loss adjuster

Solicitor. All meetings with clients are via phone. I have full access to our office VPN.

Even the court hearings are via an online platform.

I'm an accountant in a faculty in a large Russell Group University. Most of our admin staff are now permanent hybrid workers. I'm in the office 1 day a week home for 2 days (work part time). I only go in the office though if other members of my team are going to be in, no point otherwise, I'd just be sitting on my own speaking to people on teams.

To work from home you ideally need some way that everyone can log onto a company server with all the document files. E.g. ours is a Google drive. Therefore everyone knows where it's all filed, we can even work on the same document at the same time. Plus slack/email for messages and getting people's attention. And zoom to talk.

No "physical" product here, various online events, occasional in person events then we travel for those.

retired now, but i worked from home for 20 odd years in a marketing role in a blue chip company. I was in the comms industry. I wouldnt have stayed with them if i couldnt have worked from home as it allowed me to earn an above wage for my location

I'm a lecturer. I teach in person, but could do the rest of my job from home. Some of my colleagues do only come in when they're teaching.

Lots of office-based roles can be done from home, e.g. finance, programming, data entry, many admin roles, HR, marketing, call centre work.

Self employed lawyer. I have exclusively worked from home for over 5 years.

Conveyancing (just an assistant). I work longer hours but I don't mind, as much as I moan I do actually enjoy my job 👍🏼

Lots of replies, thank you. We've considered the accounts department working from home but there are only three of them and so much of their work involves paperwork that arrives in the office each day. Many of our customers still pay by cash / cheque / credit card etc. and most of our suppliers sent paper invoices.

Features writer/ journalist. I go and interview people in real life, and I go and see the things I'm writing about (art/ theatre/ interiors) but I don't need to be in an office.

Civil Servant, in a strategy based and technical role so there is literally nothing I do in the office that I can’t do at home.

I get more done at home, but I do go in the office 40% of my time now (as per most other people across this area / teams) as it’s helpful to get information that I need that I might not think to do at home (ie seeing people in the office gives me ideas etc)

I’m happy with this balance, for me and for my work.

Scientist working for a UK university.

My research is data analysis only, so can all be done from a computer and doesn't matter where from. Collegues that are doing primary data collection or lab work obviously have to go in. I'm going to start organising a trial soon, but it's based abroad, so again no specific reason for me to go in.

But for me, the only reason I'd go to my office is for social interaction. It's a bit crap as pre-pandemic we had a really lively department, now no-one is motivated to go in because it's so quiet.

Work for the NHS in an OD / central system role. Most of the work is with multiple organisations and therefore better suited to virtual calls. I’m on site once a month for workshops / events.

Other than those perhaps physically making the product you sell, I'd guess that actually all the job functions could be done from home. Sales? HR? Legal? IT?