To not want to WFH?

[Tea79]

I WFH as a freelance ESL teacher. I have been doing it for 8 years and take home around £5000 per month. This may sound like a lot, but it took a very long time to build up and I feel like I am working 24/7.

I want to get a "normal" job out of the house and actually interact with people in real life. My DH is hesitant because it'll be a huge pay cut. To be honest, I am hesitant too. But, I'm just so miserable being stuck at home every single day.

Also, because I've been freelance/ self-employed for so long, I'm not sure if anyone will actually want to employ me!

Has anyone been in a similar situation before? AIBU to want to leave something that pays so well?

I used to teach ESL and understand the difficulties - particularly if you're teaching different time zones.

Is the £5000 take home after tax? Because yes the money is an important factor but actually if you find an employer with a good pension scheme and employee benefits (private medical, health cash plans, sick pay, annual leave, bonuses, etc) you may actually not be too worse off.

Also I work full time but have a 2nd job that I work part time and fit around doing the odd hours early morning and a few hours at the weekend and I find it much easier from a wellbeing point of view knowing that I don't have to do the 2nd job to still be bringing home money each month

Have you done a budget to see how much you can afford to cut? Presumably you will be cutting disposable income, though there may be options to cut other outgoings like TV subscriptions or something. That will give you ideas about what lines to draw for income need and want, and when you've got some good ideas of figures, that can help with options - some things will be ruled out because you won't earn enough with fewer hours.

If you do most of it online, it's easy to adapt to classes as suggested above - and you can sell it as having more practice with speaking. I would expect to pay less for a class than 1:1, but you get more people do can get more per hour.

Nah sounds utterly mental

once you are out in the world for 2 months with Tupperware and a leaky water bottle rattling around in your bag, you’ll miss the extra 2 grand in your pocket

cut back slightly on work to give you more of a balance, build in an exercise schedule and a hobby you like

If you enjoy your job, other than the working alone part, perhaps look at ways to meet people more at other times. So co-working spaces to do your paperwork and planning, I appreciate doing the actual classes you can't do in a co-working space. Also look at what local networking and women in business type events are running locally, our town has quite a lot of groups/networking events running for self-employed/business owners/women, so business breakfasts and lunches to get out and meet people. If making the leap to a fulltime out of home job is too much or not viable financially, I know friends who work from home who have dropped a day or 2 of the home working job and taken a job elsewhere for a couple of days a week to get to meet people, often on less money and nothing like their other jobs but to get them out of the house and interacting with people.

I tried WFH and absolutely hated it.

I love having that separation from work and home and I also love my colleagues.

But there’s no way I’d give up a £5k a month job.

Are you a qualified teacher?
Are your current hours flexible?

You could look into doing cover work 1 day a week but tbh I’d focus more on getting hobbies outside of work and interacting with people that way.

You are probably overvaluing your self employment if to earn that £5000 a month you are working double the hours of a teacher in a school earning £2,500 a month but getting paid holidays, a decent pension, and other benefits like maternity pay and PPA time.

Can you get a normal education job eg in a school, and top up with extra tutoring time?

I teach EFL at a uni and that's a really good income! £45,000 full time and took me years to get that job.

I think a lot of my colleagues would love to swap places with you! I am currently wfh a couple of days a week on a writing project but generally we teach at the uni every day, so lots of contact with students and colleagues. It is a really nice working environment though.

Just cut your hours and use your free time doing something that you love that gets you out of the house. Seems crazy to give up the well-paying business that you've worked really hard for, pays you well and allows you to WFH. I think you'd regret it if you gave it all up for a lower paying FT job.

Hi OP, I don’t have much to add other than YANBU, I am in the same position right now! I am looking to go back to a “proper” job for things like interaction, weekends/evenings/bank holidays/actual annual leave and things like sick pay/mat leave etc. of course not having to do tax returns will be an added bonus 😂 I don’t have much advice as I’m in a pickle myself, but wanted to say you’re not alone or unreasonable! Good luck!

Rent a small office in a shared office space - then you will have communal areas where you can meet people, but have your own private space for calls

Definitely YANBU. I'm in a similar situation after working from home for 14 years. Not quite the same money, but it's well paid. I'm constantly conflicted about what to do, but I am sticking out a bit longer for my children. I'm so bored with my job and wfh!

Can you drop to 4 days and have a day doing something you'd like outside the house. Volunteering, art group, college course, walking group?? Seems daft to lose money and still work full time if you could drop to fewer days.

I work from home and have to manage it very carefully. I go to the gym most lunchtimes. I often cycle before I start work. Otherwise I would go mad

I understand you being fed up re WFH. I had to do it in lockdown and apart from the lack of discipline hassles and commute I hated it. I live alone. I would consider reducing ur hours and using the extra time to do something u want to do that involves socialising with others. Good luck OP

Could you look at part time employment with others & WFH self employed the other days? That way you get human contact but don’t lose all of your clients and income?

Firstly, can I say congratulations for making such a huge amount of money from online teaching. I work as a one to one English tutor - face to face and online and can barely make ends meet - hence supply teaching at the moment. Many Secondary schools have children with ESL who get extra support - it could be worth contacting directly. Also, you could try ringing around different teaching agencies as they get all kinds of requests. Finally, would you mind telling me what qualifications you need for ESL teaching - genuinely interested! I'm qualified as a secondary English teacher.

Would it be possible to wind down your teaching activities to half of what you’re doing now, and take a part time job doing something more sociable? That way it gets you out the house a bit but you won’t have such a large drop in earnings? Just an idea. I imagine delivering workplace training would be great match for your skill set and can be quite sociable.

Also, I’m quite interested in doing a TEFL course to move into this line of work, is there any particular course you could recommend or anything you’d recommend for picking up freelance work? Thanks in advance for any info 🙏

Could you take a short sabbatical for a break? I honestly think you would regret changing to face to face teaching for less money. I work in ESL face to face, full-time. Whilst I love my job and have good holidays, I am exhausted on a weekly basis. The commute alone makes me wish I could find a similar job wfh, but as you said it would take a long time to build that up. I earn 30k and that’s good for my area. I wouldn’t want to take a pay cut just to work in an office with others. Teaching is so busy I barely get to speak to my colleagues anyway!

Just ask yourself if you really want to carry on like this till you retire. Can you afford the lower wage( sacrificing money to get your life balance back). I ask because I was a self employed retailer. I worked 7 days a week. Earned decent money and had 10 days off a year. I did that for the best part of 20 years. Last Xmas I'd just had enough. Burnt myself out to be honest. I now work in the healthcare sector so it was a complete change of job for me. I now work no weekends or bank holidays. I do full-time hours over 4 days so I do get an extra day off in the week. I am however 10k worse off a year. I have a life now though. So my advice would be, see if there is any jobs you like the look of. Apply. If you get nowhere so what you've not lost anything. If you do get offered a job have the conversation with your hubby again then.

There are shared offices for people like you or start ups where you can interact with people in real life, even if you pay out of your own pocket, it will be worth it, as it’s better than pay cut

Best option! Socialise, commute only as far as you're willing. Keep the $$