How do I find another WFH role where I don't have to speak to anyone?

[jhftc]

Although my job at the moment is customer service based, it doesn't involve having to 'speak' to customers either verbally or in person as it's all done online.

I've been working from home, in the comfort of my own surroundings and it's been absolute bliss compared with every other job I've had. Previous to this I'd had a really tough couple of years, both personally and professionally so this has helped me immensely.

Unfortunately the dream is over - they're moving us all to a call-centre role instead, so I need to find another job.

The reason I applied for the role in the first place was the lack of direct customer contact. I can't work in the role they're offering, it's just not suitable for me and they're offering no alternatives.

I've been looking in all the usual places for around 8 weeks without any luck, my applications have been either ignored or rejected. Internal job applications are hopeless due to the number of other people from our department who will be applying, most of whom have more experience than I do.

I'm open to retraining, but would need to find free or funded courses due to our financial situation. I've looked at apprenticeships but can't afford the drop in pay.

I so badly want to keep working from home in the long term; I can't stand office politics and bickering anymore, I've just had enough of it all.

I'm not a confident person overall, I prefer to just kind of fade in to the background if I'm honest.

Is there anything I'm missing, that might be suitable?

Yes following too. I have the same overwhelm when around people and already WFH but not making enough and could really do with something new. Keep the ideas coming please

I agree - the civil service can be a bugger to get into but there can be quite a bit of flex (and moving around) once you're in. They also offer good L&D, if you'd be interested.

I think that parts of the Civil Service are enforcing 60% attendance currently. So be careful which departments you target.

I work fully remotely as an Executive Assistant for a charity. A great deal of EA roles now are either remote or definitely hybrid - and try glassdoor for jobs too.

I am left to crack on with my work and I take a fair amount of minutes but because all of the meetings are recorded I can just go back and do them in my own time rather than actually sitting in them. Absolute. Bliss. - and £40k which I’m happy with!

You're on to a winner there, @Bounty9 - that's my ideal job!

The entire live chat life cycle will soon be drive wholly by AI - with a human on a telephone as the second tier for anything more complex - so if you don't want to speak to anyone or go to an office/shared workspace I'd say your best option would be re-focusing on something else. I can't think of any jobs that require absolutely no live engagement with another person though, other than being self employed and working alone.

would you have any more details on this pls maybe a link to sign up or look at ?

They are AI jobs ... not real people jobs

Have you applied to Moneypenny? They are fab to work for.

QA roles might be suitable? Listening and marking phone calls?

No not all. Turns out that was the role the OP is currently doing......

Sorry haven't had a chance to reply individually at the moment but I am still here, and wanted to say thank you so much for all of the comments and suggestions. I'll be checking these in more detail as soon as I can.

Internal meetings and having to talk to colleagues I think I can cope with, providing the onus isn't on me to lead the meetings or anything. It just happens that we don't have much of it in the current role, which has been just lovely. I know it's very unusual though!

Sure! It's at https://www.dataannotation.tech/ . There are a couple of Reddit forums about working on it as well, if you want to get a sense of what it's like. Good luck if you choose to go for it - set aside a few hours and lots of coffee to get through the assessment though!

@jhftc hi OP just wondering if you managed to find anything suitable. Looking for something similar.

Wouldn't it be marvelous if chatgpt was a lie and it was just a woman frantically typing out responses.

I'd be interested in this. Do you have a link?

HRTWT but my DSIL does this job for JustEat. Chat windows only no phones x

Like this

https://codefirstgirls.com

😂😂😂

That is like wanting to cut off your hand because it is painful, instad to try to cure whatever ailment you may have.
If you can't deal with people, then you have to work on your social skills so you become more confident. What are you going to ? Spend the rest of your life secluded from society ? Becoming some sort of hermit ? You need to learn how to be comfortable around people.

I'd completely forgotten about this thread, I've just been taking a read back through and wanted to thank everyone for their suggestions.

I'm very happy to say I managed to find something with no customer contact at all, fully remote and quite flexible too. Aside from a daily team meeting I'm just left alone to work and so far it's worked out perfectly again.

@TheNewWaspI noticed your post and just wanted to explain, day to day you'd never know I felt like this as I'm very chatty and friendly so I don't actually have any concerns about my social skills in that sense. But after years and years of doing that at work too I just needed something different, I was exhausted.

When I say I want to fade into the background it's more to do with taking the lead. I don't want to lead meetings, manage a team or train people in their role. And I definitely, definitely don't want to do customer service phone work ever again.

Everyone's different, if workplaces accounted for that a bit more it might work in their favour. It certainly has in my case.

Amazing OP! Can I ask what role you found?

Congrats OP! Speaking to customers on the phone is my idea of hell so I’m glad you’ve managed to find an alternative.