Do all MNs wfh or in an office?

[Jeannie88]

Just an observation, so many posts seem to be from Mums who wfh or 'have to go into an office'.

Any others out there who do the whole getting up early, depend on breakfast clubs/wraparound care? So, getting dressed, commuting to work, doing the job all day face to face with the public, travelling back, pick up DC and catch up on chores?

Just wondering if anyone else actually goes out out to work anymore. I guess some of us do and find the posts about choosing to slack and bewilderment of a hard day of online meetings a bit strange?

I've changed career after a very long time in education and oh boy, having to be present in teams meetings while having my washing on etc is sooooo much easier! Xx

I’m office based with the occasional work from home day here or there. I often find myself surprised at the amount of mums/dads doing nursery drop offs in their slacks, I seem to be the only one dressed for the office!
it’s a constant juggle and involves a lot of wine!

I work in secondary so yes, I'm out of the door around 7.30am and finish up around 4pm.
2 DC in secondary and 1 DC in year 5. I still drop him at breakfast club but that will be finishing soon as he starts walking to school by himself.

I did WFH for a while during the pandemic and yes, it was much easier as I could wear my joggers all day and just put on a respectable top!
If I could WFH again with a decent salary, I would.

Oooh what did you change to OP?

I'm beginning to think I need to leap from education to something home based as it seems so much easier but not sure what all these jobs are or how you break in!

I mainly work from home now, I drop my kids to school and pick them up two days a week. I worked frontline (but part-time) for a long time and all through the pandemic. And OMG working from home is sooo much easier. I cook dinner on my lunch, I save on childcare. My kids get to come home too. Honestly WFH is the answer for working parents.

Whilst I do see the benefits of wfh, I do think there’s a lot to be gained from getting up and out the house, social interaction, meetings and discussions, catch up over coffee.
personally I couldn’t work from home full time, I appreciate the extra few hours I gain to get on top of the housework, but I would not be able to handle the isolation

MNetters work in all sorts of places OP.

I swapped from a rigid, these are the set hours managers must be onsite logistics role to one that allows some WFH and I’ll never look back. The flexibility is insane in corporate and I have a much better work life balance because of it.

I work in a lab. I don’t work with the public, but I’ve also never worked from home (I was in the labs all through Covid).
Both kids in a juggled combination of wraparound care and grandparents.

Of course MNers work in all sorts of different jobs.
there are people on here who are cleaners, who are police officers, who are Nurses, who are teacher, who work in Nurseries. Etc., etc., etc.

Plus, if your dc are young, then you still need wraparound care even if you do wfh.

YABU

I'd go nuts wfh, I need to be around my colleagues. I've never worked from home, even during covid. I suppose I could in my current job, but prefer not to. My kids are grown so I don't need to be at home as much.

What exactly is your question? Did you really think that every single person on MN did the exact same kind of job?

I wfh in admin but as a new starter I don't think I'd be allowed to wfh as often as I do now. It's (and I suspect this is true for many people) a hangover from covid, the company know they'll lose people if they start asking us back into the office after expecting us to suddenly wfh whilst having kids at home and all that was going on. We didn't even have any equipment for home working back then, we were all just sent home one day. I had to buy a laptop to be able to work. They invested a lot of money in supporting flexible working for all staff but any new staff coming in would definitely be expected to make more of an effort to come in.

I work from home three or four days a week, and go into the office one or two days. As my actual job is exactly the same whether I’m at home or in an office, I don’t find one any less arduous than the other. A meeting on Teams requires my full attention in exactly the same way as a meeting in person. My commute isn’t especially long and the dress code at my office is casual.

I don’t have kids but if I did, I would need ‘wraparound’ childcare during my full working hours whether I was at home or not. I couldn’t just pop out for a school run at 3pm or keep an eye on a child while also doing my job. Neither could I get housework done during the working day - certainly not more than, eg, unloading the dishwasher during my lunch break, anyway.

Couldn't think of anything worse than WFH 😃

I used to work in the office 5 days a week. Walk the kids to breakfast club, catch a bus to work, same back and walk to get them from after school club. It was such a long day for all of us and I hated it. I did all the housework at 10 o'clock at night. I put in flexible working requests many times and always denied. It wasn't until the pandemic where we were forced to work from home, that work from home ever became an option for me. I now work somewhere else and got a fully remote contract which is like gold dust around here. I'm no longer pooling annual leave together with my husband to cover childcare. I feel very fortunate.

Forums will always be best frequented by people sat at computers all day

I’ve worked from home for 8 years since my DC were babies. I’m honestly sick of being at home all the time and would love to be back in a work place with colleagues but the convenience of wfh just wins every time, no commuting costs, no childcare issues. Once kids are teens I’ll quit wfh for sure.

I'm an NHS consultant so am in hospital at least 3 days a week. I am at least allowed to do my admin from home now. I do long clinical days so effectively work compressed hours, FT over 4 days a week.

On my clinical days, DH (who has a much more flexible job with a university) does all the school runs. I make the kids breakfast and then run out the door!

WFH for me (we own a business). Absolutely love it.

I work from home - around 25 hours a week over 3 days usually. (Self employed.) Sometimes in the dining room, sometimes in the garden if it's nice.

I also work in a lab so it doesn't lend itself to working from home.

I'm a specialist midwife, so although there is scope to WFH, I usually work in the hospital. My work can be quite full on so I quite like being able to keep it out of my home. I do the occasional day at home when I am doing online study days or am catching up on admin. Less than once a month.

Lots of teachers and TAs on Mumsnet.

They have to be in person

Is going to work in an office not going out to work?

Theres a bit more to it than sitting on zoom meetings I would imagine.

I was WFH but I was made redundant and couldn't find another WFH position. The competition was too high. Literally hundreds of applicants would apply within minutes of the role being posted.

I'm back in an office now and I quite enjoy it. I'm not sure I would like to WFH again. I suppose I would if I was in the same office, doing the same tasks every day but atm I am walking around site, meeting different people in a role which exposes me to hardware issues as well as the usual software issues I was used to dealing with, which I'm really enjoying. I've always loved taking things to bits and putting them back together.