Flexible remote admin work

[newusernametopic]

I am in employment (earning £90k) in a role that I can more than easily fit into very few hours a day. I know it sounds crazy, but with mortgage, school fees and extra curriculars (nothing fancy - just music really!), we basically break even every month. I realised I spend a huge percentage of my time at work doing life admin, etc. - basically I can get my work done well and v quickly. I think with an extra £1000 a month we would much more comfortable, and yet I have found myself a very nice space here that I don't want to move out of (people leave me alone, I get my work done, and I can still pick up my children from school, do the food shop during the day, etc.) so I am not in a rush to get a new job.

Crazy as it sounds, I LOVE admin - is there a remote part-time admin job I could take on for a couple of hours a day (basically equiv of one day per week)? Any leads would be very much appreciated.

(Before anyone remarks, I know I am in a v fortunate position, don't need anyone to tell me to pull my kids out of current school, choose a smaller house, etc. We don't live fancy lives, we have banged up old cars, shop in Aldi and holiday in the UK. Just a number of circumstances that have come together meaning we're very fortunate, but I would like to maximise my earning power right now.)

Thing is though OP despite my sense of disbelief to some extent at how you fit everything in, you'll see in my post that there is some really sage advice.

You might not be chasing 'big bucks' but you need to really understand that 'easy' and flexible £90k jobs are generally hard to come by. Usually employers want their pound of flesh at this level. Don't understate how hard that first £90k is for many people to earn, or how difficult it may be for you to replicate if you were to be dismissed for not giving your full time and attention to your role during your normal working time.

The extra £12k or so that you seek is probably just not that easy to earn by doing 'admin' unless a) you're doing it when you should be working in your other job or b) you're found something quite highly skilled like medical translation, and turning it around overnight for a global customer... not much flexibility there and a world of tight deadlines. You'll also be paying 40% tax or more on that portion of your income. Given your commitments, posters are being realistic about your chances of success.

You perhaps also missed my advice about being an independent consultant, where you can indeed move away from time-based earning. But I think you're ignoring this because you know how difficult to earn the first £90k of that would be.

If you can be this cavalier about things I'd suspect your personal income isn't critical to your household income overall and that you can literally afford to have a relaxed attitude to the risks and costs that myself and other posters have pointed out.

I still think you're daft though and in your case I'd be having therapy to understand but I felt the need to fill every spare second of every day with income earning.

try litter picking. it;s a great way to clean up your local environment, great exercise, your neighbours will love you, and hopefully you'll encourage others to do likewise

Hi OP you can easily earn £30 an hour as a VA in my world, and £15 an hour as an associate VA.

To set up as a SE VA you’d need to do your own promotion and get your own clients and manage the whole relationship etc so a lot more difficult that being an associate where someone else is doing that part.

Happy to point you in the right direction to start, there’s a lot of crap out there but I know some genuinely good people who will help you. I don’t get referrals or anyone piles on.

I also know plenty of career coaches. You can also get paid to write CVs, LinkedIn profiles and help with applications.

@TweedCoat You're absolutely right that I should not underestimate the effort of getting £90k from a new job - which is exactly why I'm not looking for a new job. I'm fully aware that I wouldn't have the time or energy to get £90k's worth of work through a freelance/new career - I don't want to start all over here. So I'm really not ignoring your point about consultancy. I totally know how difficult to earn the first £90k would be and that's why, given that I know how much extra time I have right now, I just want to fill that gap with a bit more work.

You're also absolutely right about the tax thing. Need to have a think about that.

I think you're probably right about my relaxed attitude - which you call 'cavalier' (might be fair? Only time will tell!) and I would probably just call having a high risk appetite. I have definitely always gone through my academic and professional life trying to squeeze out the most for the least effort. Happily it has always worked for me. Right now I'm absolutely prioritising my own family so if I were get a slightly less than 100% appraisal at work (though actually that hasn't happened), but it means I can spend more time with my kids, then I would choose those cards. I know some people don't have that risk appetite - they would be worried about losing their job. I don't have that concern.

I'm also realising that you're probably also absolutely right about your needing therapy in my position. I can't speak for you. I can say that I don't have a 'need' to fill the time - it really is because what we consider our base costs to be are only just covered by our monthly combined income and I would like to have a little bit more of a buffer - wouldn't everyone? I know we're all different. In fact I personally think that everyone should have a bit of talking therapy - if not permenantly then at least at different times in our lives - and that it should be more like going to the gym. That doesn't mean that I am in more need of therapy than others, it just means I think we could all benefit from it, and that would equally be the case for you if you found yourself doing what I do right now because clearly that wouldn't be a comfortable MO for you. I'm sure there are plenty of reasons why I could benefit from therapy, but I don't think it's because I would rather do volunteering or earn a bit more money for my family.

So I see all your sage advice, mixed in with a degree of slight judginess, and am very grateful! This thread has been a revelation.

I would be really interested in this if you were able to send me some examples of good career coaches!

OP you already said you don’t want work to intrude on your family’s evenings, so I presume that family time is covered. That's lovely and must be important with four kids in private school who all have extra-curriculars to be done and dusted by 6pm each night so you still get the evening. Just to be clear, are you also doing your "lots of" volunteering (reading in school, mentoring young mums in tricky circumstances, prison visits), amateur dramatics, and playing in an orchestra on work time? So we're looking for something that can fit into your 9 to 5 consultancy job along with the volunteering, amateur dramatics, and playing in the orchestra? But not consultancy though. Got you.

Most volunteering during the day yes - wouldn't work in the evening. Am dram in the evening (usually with husband towards the end of the rehearsal period when he helps backstage and often with two older children too when they've been successful in getting roles) and orchestra one evening (though I'm not playing in the next concert as I have a play coming up and couldn't do both).

My big tip for any of you with multiple children wanting to do lots of music - online lessons. They didn't start that way (my very little ones needed in person anyway), but it's been a gamechanger for us and means I do less ferrying around at least for music. Older ones now don't even need me in the lessons all the time, and most of the teachers use google classroom to send notes so we can supervise practice.

So yes you're right, I'm just looking for a couple of hours of extra work that could be fitted in during the day - for example right now I'm at work, have finished the decks I need to finish for my next meetings and am messaging you here. Wouldn't it be better if I were making money to cover ballet associates lessons or whatever?

A question to you though (if I may) - how much time, if you're really honest, do you spend either watching television or on social media? Or on tonnes of whatsapp groups. Because I sure see a lot of people (like me right now! - though in my defence I really am trying to find ways to boost income) on mumsnet or doomescrolling. It seems to me people spend hours browsing news websites, or on facebook, or watching streaming services in the evening, or whatsapping. That's extra time I have because I genuinely am not interested in that stuff. We all relax in different ways don't we. I would say though, in the last couple of years I haven't read as much as I used to - that's a New Year's Resolution of mine which I'm not doing very well at right now (but it's SO interesting that nobody suggests doing that - they just say 'why aren't you watching Netflix and getting therapy!)

Honestly OP.

Check your employment contract.

I will be very surprised if it doesn't mention that you should devote all of your time and attention to the activities of your employer during your paid working time.

If your employer decides they don't want you on board any more (for any reason or none) and gets wind that you have been doing additional paid work during your working time with them, your P45 will be on its way to you quicker than you can say gross misconduct and dismissal without notice.

Yes perhaps I am a bit judgy because unless you are employed by a family member who may turn a blind eye to this sort of thing, or are actually genuinely self employed in which case you can do whatever the hell you like as long as you come up with the results, you are royally taking the piss with your current employer and any colleagues that you may have, and risking the income and stability that you have in place right now.

And I don't care whether you watch Netflix, play the organ, do crochet or play Uno on repeat BTW. You simply sound grabby, entitled, and completely unrealistic.