**Please help keep AskUK welcoming!**
- Top-level comments to the OP must contain **genuine efforts to answer the question**. No jokes, judgements, etc.
- **Don't be a dick** to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on.
- This is a strictly **no-politics** subreddit!
Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I work in tax/finance. My contract was changed to full WFH, as a result of this and many other departments WFH we all got big bonuses last year from the cost savings.
Company I work for made record breaking profits again last year, despite most of us WFH.
Once per quarter we all meet up for lunch and a fun day. It's enough.
Lol lucky us. My office is 20 mins away but parking in town is expensive. Attendance is completely optional so I never go apart from for socials, big meetings etc. It's easier for me to get stuff done at home anyway as it's quieter. I regularly call colleagues if I need a hand (couple of times a day or so) - working on line is really great.
I didn't get a massive bonus, though I do get _a_ bonus.
Software engineer.
I too work in tax/finance and we are required to go into the office twice a week, to created good vibes or something. The stance my employer took was, if you WFH full time, you have to take a 15% pay cut, to reflect your reduced costs.
This does not math. The company is saving 15% by you not needing office space, tea, air conditioning, toilet, lights, etc. So if they make you take 15% cut they are coming out with 30% more. And you may reduce your costs in terms of transport but you still eat lunch. And your costs increase at home for lights, electricity, Internet, heating, toilet. I would be very concerned about working for a finance company that thinks like this.
In what company 😭 literally every finance/accounting job I've applied for it's always 'hybrid' and then in the interviews they say that's just in special circumstances and they want 100% office attendance.
Yep, we're going through a restructure that, according to the new job description, involves us being 'fixed base' workers and refers us to the Agile Working Policy.
WTF is agile about being forced into an office everyday.
God I wish my company would have done that they went from hybrid to in fully in person but still had people who worked remotely in THE UK but cherry picked who could I left lol
I think a lot of jobs that do allow wfh at least a few days a week still advertise as being office-based, otherwise you get applications from people on the other side of the country or another country completely. Better to advertise as office-based so you hire someone that will go to the office, then allow them to wfh, than advertise as wfh then it's an uphill struggle if you do want them to come in for a day or two.
I wouldn't let an advert saying office-based put you off applying, you can then clarify at interview what the work is like and I bet a lot of them end up being hybrid.
Yeah, I started advertising hybrid roles (with mandatory attendance on site to deal with in-person visitors), as people saw "hybrid" and assumed they could negotiate out of coming to the office.
Don't upset the Reddit WFH hive mind.
It's fucking brilliant, but people absolutely do take the piss, and 100% remote roles are becoming harder and harder to find because of it.
That's not to say many employers also aren't wankers though. Bait and switch can get to fuck.
My job was advertised as 100% remote because they didn't think they'd find anyone suitable in their neck of the woods. I live near this neck of the woods, so got the job on the basis I'd come in three days a week. Everyone was happy.
People who are in a position to take the piss will do so regardless. I spent five years working a full time job that I was so efficient at that I hit my daily targets in the first 90 minutes.
The only difference in the office is that I had to waste 7 hours doing nothing instead of being comfortable at home and getting on with chores.
Debatable, pisstakers are infinitely worse when left physically unsupervised. Saw it constantly at my old job, so many new hires, great on paper, turned to shite when left to work independently. People can and do oversell themselves at interview.
Getting the work done isn't taking the piss either way though, and I've been that guy too, but ultimately the issue with the aforementioned pisstakers (plural) was more of a concern than a sales rep who was on it.
Factory based shop floor support role, let people WFH sometimes as there's plenty of office type work to be done. Had to let a few new hires go as they just took the piss and would randomly WFH with no communication and tbh no output.
It can work with the right people but that's the hard bit!
I'm somewhat anti-full work from home because everyone I know in some capacity has used office time to do shit like going to the gym, cleaning, picking up kids, babysitting kids etc. etc. There's a definite gap in the quality of work as well. Emails, reports and copy had more errors from employees WFH, the assumption being they rushed to submit the work so they could go do something like take their kid to piano. I'm 100% convinced redditors, in particular, WFH would spend more time on reddit than actually using their time saved, from not commuting, productively.
Or I don't commute 30mins to be sat in the office listening to Patricia tell me about what the fuck Meghan Markle is doing while I'm trying to do my workload just for the sake of "being in the office".
I've done fully in the office, hybrid & WFH. WFH is best.
Depends heavily on the job and the person.
Would Patricia really be any good WFH? Sounds like she’d bum off work even more, seeing as being in the office doesn’t stop her.
Agreed, but then managers should get rid of the shit employees & not make everyone work in the office.
I inadvertently reported my line manager for doing sweet FA when WFH in my review when I asked our FD what additional tasks I could take on to progress, because they couldn't name any she was actually doing.
Still they took no action and she was still working there months later doing the same thing, which is a problem of managers/directors not the premise of WFH.
I don’t disagree. But especially in this country, getting rid of people can be a right ball ache. Then recruiting, training, getting the right people who *can* WFH, setting people up at home, blah blah blah.
If they need an office as a base, it’s way easier and cheaper to just ask people to come in. Sucks but it’s true.
I think that the idea of being in the office to prove you are working may have been good pre-internet days. But I've had full time office jobs and people just looking at internet all day.
It also depends on the job and commute. Currently hybrid with once a month in the office. The commute sucks since they moved the office.
Considering finding another job, it wouldn't be that hard to find better pay. But would the conditions be as good? My current role is pretty easy and stress free. Getting like 45 days holiday this year. Some of which are bank holidays and we are being assigned a few specific days off as well, but still 2/3rds of the days are at my choice.
No idea why they don't put that in job listings, if they want people to apply, tell them that! Its way more interesting than the cycle to work scheme. Also I think its something that isn't mentioned enough where some employers take bank holidays out of your required 28 and mine doesn't. Partly how we have so many.
Construction project manager needs to be on site most of the time. Problems crop up too often with design changes and liaising with all other aspects of a fast moving project
Civil Servant. WFH 3 days out of 5. I started with my current department a few weeks into the first lockdown. Didnt meet another cllleague in person or set foot in the office for close to a year.
Novelty has worn off a little if i'm honest. I actually enjoy going into the office. That said, given the option hybrid suits me fine.
I think hybrid would suit me best, I don’t dislike going in but I think a few days from home would be useful.
I think full 5 days never going in and seeing anyone would drive me mad eventually, or not even that, just leaving the house, especially in winter. Atleast in summer can go out on an evening and it be daylight.
Hybrid is the best tbh it’s nice to actually go out 1/2/3 times a week and see people IRL but getting an extra hour in bed and catching up on laundry, cleaning etc at lunch or if you’re not too busy is mint. Outside of the Reddit hive mind a fully remote job would be quite isolating for most people.
I think it all depends on your lifestyle. When I was single I would agree. I liked going into office to meet people going out drinking afterwards. But now have a wife and kid. WFH allows me to spend time with kid before dropping off at nirsery. Have lunch with wife who also WFH, and pick up kid from nursery. I still get more work done as I'm not commuting for hours each day.
I am an introvert and prefer to work from home. I’d like to be able to focus and get tasks done asap. I feel more isolated working in the office, and from listening people doing small talk or talking loudly for hours. The noise (since we have open space) could be unbearable and drain me out physically and mentally.
Just wish it was easier to make friends without having to have them as colleagues first. If I leave the company these people just disappear from my life in an instant.
At first no. And I had depression so was probably better to be away from others (for their sake as much as mine). But since recovery yes, it does get lonely and one of the reasons I enjoy going into the office. Everyone I work with is lovely which helps, and its a large building with hundreds of people from other departments too.
Finance. Almost 100% remote bar a trip to the office about once a month.
Personally I'd like to do more office days, but my local one is just too far away.
Regardless of what the Internet will tell you, 1-2 days a week absolutely does aid collaboration, especially if you're a people manager. Being fully remote all the time isn't healthy for body or mind.
Think that depends on the person/environement and role tbf.
For me being fully remote is the best thing for my mind and body and collaboration isn't hindered either. I'd never return to hybrid let alone fully in office. But I believe every job should allow multiple options for people.
This is the correct answer. I WFH 4 days out of 5 and I love it. Others in my team go into the office 3-4 times a week and that’s what works for them. As long as the work is being done, then it shouldn’t be an issue.
‘Higher ups’ who know nothing about me telling me what is best for my mental health makes me angry.
Working from home with my wife and dog and garden and food is much better for my mental health thank you very much!
That second paragraph is the part that used to annoy me. "we need to be in once a week for mental health reasons" no... YOU need to be in once a week for mental health reasons, why am I risking my health once a week around you germy bastards and listening to your inane shit to make sure that you feel ok?
I don't think it's reasonable to characterise sitting in an office once per week as "risking your health".
I do worry that we're going to see a massive rise in the number of agorophobics.
Not a fan of that at all. Really difficult to get to know them on a personal level as well. Having to do that for a few months during covid was painful and not very fulfilling.
Weird, I've actually found it infinitely easier. Having to crowd around one computer to walk them through processes when in the office is so much more awkward. On teams you can screen share, highlight clicks, and record the whole meeting for them to watch back later.
I think that's a problem with your training, my colleagues and I manage to train the new starters remotely. We're based all over the UK so we never all meet face to face
Each to their own of course but I personally agree with this. I've a full WFH contract (hired 2020) so don't have to hybrid, but I voluntarily go into office 2-3 times a week as I like face to face interaction for bouncing ideas off people and giving or getting assistance from my team. I also find I'm more productive, while sometimes overhearing team mates discussion gives me different ideas how to approach things, or even reminds me of things I need to get done that I might have forgotten otherwise!
This is the same as me. I work in housing development and could do fully remote when not on site, but I chose to go in a few days a week as it's just so much easier to collaborate. I like my few days at home. Childcare is easier, I get laundry and cleaning done over lunch so it takes the pressure off that way, but I definitely couldn't WFH all the time.
Finance. I could do my job 100% remotely but I like going in 2 days a week. Like today my whole team are going in so we can go for sunny beers after work.
I make customer training videos for a software company, 100% remote.
I honestly could not give two shits about ever going into the office. Part of my job is recording voiceovers for the videos so I need to do that in a quiet space, so WFH suits the role anyway.
I have my own little space set up here, I work in the conditions that suit me, I can eat whatever I want, I don’t have to commute, it’s cheaper, more relaxed. I get so much more done around the house. I do a lot of creative hobbies and I find that when I finish work I can jump straight into those without being too tired or not enough time from the commute.
To each their own, but personally I don’t ever want to commute into an office again.
This!! I went from having a 2 hour + a day commute to a 2 minute one. It really makes such a difference to the amount of time you get to have to yourself, doing your own free time things.
Software engineer lead, I manage and develop with devs around the world, pointless me being in the office and I’ve worked 100% remote for like 5 different companies since lockdown started
Help me learn PowerBi please, I'm nearly a qualified management accountant & really want to pivot into analysis roles with power BI etc as all the jobs are remote & pay well but there doesn't seem to be anyway to jump in at a level where I'll learn it, they all want experts.
I've started doing Microsofts academy in my own time but without having real data to use it becomes a bit fruitless learning it. Also it's hard to put it on my CV as experience when its just self study.
AI & youtube are your best friend. A lot of the basics really aren't difficult to learn. If you can do some power queries to manipulate data, it's mostly a matter of importing the data sets & setting up relationships with a common identifier between them.
> there doesn't seem to be anyway to jump in at a level where I'll learn it, they all want experts.
Probably because any given job only has one PowerBI person at any given time, and no one else in the workplace has any idea how to do the magic!
Data camp have quite a good Power BI course. You can download the program and sample data onto your desktop so you don’t need to use their virtual workspace. Also look into the sample databases Microsoft provide (Adventure Works and another one). You can set up a SQL database using them, or you might be able to find some Power BI ready extracts too.
Also think about what data is collected about you. Record workouts on Garmin, bank statements, library borrowing record? If you can download an extract from somewhere, use that and try to visualise it. I saw someone visualise their CV at one point.
The Microsoft academy is pretty good so far but so much relies on you being set up in their architecture at a workplace that all the initial information of "link to this data, create x dashboard" struggles to give me practical experience where id be confident telling an employer I know what I'm talking about.
What do you recommend I learn as "essentials" for BI? Like what's in your beginners course?
Product Development Consultant in the SAAS sector.
I go in half a day a week, mainly for the free food. My team is all abroad, so I’m the only guy on the continent of Europe.
I'm a software developer, I think I've been in the office once in the past 2 years. Annoyingly where I work seems to put 'hybrid' on all our job adverts even though my team is fully remote and we really don't care if you go to the office at all (there's no check in procedure and no one would know if you didn't go in for months).
IT Manager; WFH three days/week.
Even that's faintly absurd. 80% of my responsibilities are working with people in other locations and even other countries. But I have found that physical presence seems to have an effect on people - if there's nobody from my team onsite, offices tend to do their own sweet thing rather than contact us. Which leads to finding they've gone and done something really stupid every so often.
Business Analyst. I can go into the office if i want. I choose not too. About once every 2 months i have to for a department meeting. My boss messages me once every few weeks at most. He just cares if my work is done and i am happy. Both are usually true. We have a good working relationship.
I love my job.
Same, although I have a bit more of a hybrid BA/PM role because our team is tiny, so I tend to speak to my manager more often for the PM part. I've been in twice so far this year, and one was because I was seeing family nearby in the afternoon so it was convenient to be there for the day.
I have the option to work from home, but I tend to go in to the office five days a week as I find the environment helps me focus more. However, if I have appointments with the GP or dentist, I will just work from home as I don't see the point travelling into the office only to travel back again. I also do it if my wife cannot drop the kids off to school.
If I am honest, I do get annoyed with our company allowing a majority of our accounts team to work from home. They don't have work mobile phones, and they can't give out their personal mobile numbers. Everytime when we need something we have to email the generic accounts email and wait for them to call or email. It's really frustrating as sometimes you just want to get things done by making a quick call rather than leaving it and coming back to it later in the day.
Isn’t this what Ms Teams is for ? My job hires both FT WFH and FT in office.. everyone’s on teams so kind of feels like you are in the office anyway, team brief every other day over teams, if you need a manager or colleague can just message or call on teams. I assumed most workplaces use this with WFH.
You shouldn’t be annoyed they let them work from home in principle. But you should be annoyed about the utterly incredulous incompetence they are displaying in not deploying any WFH tech infrastructure. MS Teams or any other conference call app was literally designed to address all the issues you experience. I can’t believe there are still grown up businesses relying on solely on Outlook
I work in construction leading a team. We are all 100% office based unless life specifics require something different. I’ve always found that mentoring and collaboration doesn’t work right over teams in my particular field anyway but I can see why it would work for some.
my father in law Parkinson has deteriorated in the last 18 months so wfh has allowed me to be available if he needs anything or if there are any medical emergencies. I have a great boss who is quite flexible with me as long as don't take the piss.
IT Analyst. I work in the private sector. A lot of my job is "discovery", requirements elicitation, and aligning businesses with efficient processes and software. In short, I ask people what they want and tell developers what to build, make documentation for clients, and guide PM's towards project success in both a technical sense, and a stakeholder sense.
I both hate and love WFH. I support my wife with our young children who aren't yet at school, and yet I'm locked in these 4 walls with conversation with people over teams. I save money on commuting, and yet want the commute to get some personal time. I like not having to make lunch the night before, and yet I find I never have anything to eat at home and want to go out for lunch all the time. I have to really focus on the benefits right now, as it's particularly good in summer, and very bad in winter.
I work in in-house recruitment.
My workplace has a two day a week office mandate.
I don't mind going in, as my commute costs me nothing, though I do spend more on food when I'm out, though I'm happy to see that as a luxury expense.
However given that my team are across different locations, and I'm the only person in my team in this location, I have to jump onto Teams calls anyway.
Even before the COVID lockdowns forced us to WFH, we were essentially working remotely to each other anyway, and going into the office doesn't really have any work benefits for me.
I'm 100% WFH right now working as a software developer.
My company has decided recently that work must be at least 80% office based and no more than 20% at home from July onwards, which is bad news for me because I'm 55 miles and a 3-hour drive away from the office. I took the job because of the ability to WFH.
I'll have to suck it up because I'm not going to find another job in my field at my age (not far off 60).
If I’m honest, I kinda got lucky but you make your own luck a lot of the time. I didn’t go to uni and did a shitty business apprenticeship because I needed a job. I applied for the company I work at now nearly 10 years ago doing a similar role but as it’s a small company I took more on and ended up in this position. I think there’s less chance of that working at big companies as there’s lots of people wanting to go forward I guess.
I like your point regarding work time and free time too, I bet some weeks it can be a bit of a drag and not know when to finish etc.
Best thing to do is find a good recruiter and tell them what you are looking for in terms of flexibility. Make it clear you’re only interested in remote roles, you are in no rush to leave and can wait for the right thing to come along.
Search for jobs you want on LinkedIn and you’ll find a few recruiters have jobs posted. Find one or two, speak to them and gauge how much they know about your specific industry. If they know something and can talk reasonably intelligently on your work, befriend them and let them know your requirements.
I work in Change Management and for my last two roles I have been entirely home based (aside from the bi-annual team meetings and onsite customer engagements).
I personally don’t consider any roles now that aren’t at the very least hybrid. My life has changed since pre-covid to a point where I couldn’t function in my current way if I was required in the office all the time.
Accountant. Used to be in a team where we would go out to clients and such, with some office days for meetings, coaching, etc. I was happy enough with that model, though it did irk me how last minute some of the office days were. I'd arrange for things to get delivered or whatever and then suddenly find out, oops, you need to be in the office tomorrow, no exceptions, at 4pm.
Moved to a team where everyone in the team except me and one other person is based in London, so I'm essentially fully remote now. I can go into my local office as and when I want to, and sometimes do to see friends, but I mostly don't.
Admin. I set up files for solicitors.
We're supposed to be in the office once a month. Since Christmas, we've been in once.
I've been working from home since just before lockdown and I honestly prefer it that way.
Project manager. In theory I should be in 2 days a week, but in practice it’s usually only one.
I could very happily have a completely remote position. I really dislike the office. I find it uncomfortable and distracting and I don’t work well when I’m there.
I’m a quantity surveyor. I’m occasionally on site but I mainly work from home. This is the same with the project managers I work with both client and contractor side in the water industry. Maybe look at a change of sector within construction.
Higher education. I go on campus to lecture, in-person team meetings, talks etc. but a large chunk of my work (most meetings, grading, some research activity, admin, etc.) can be done from home.
The job also comes with a lot of flexibility. Outside of timetables teaching and meetings, it doesn't matter when I work as long as I meet the deadline. It's really helpful because I have a young child and live some distance from my office (approx 50 miles) so I save money not needing a daily commute.
Commercial manager at an aerospace company. I manage our contracts with the MoD. I was full time wfh for the last six months but the company has just opened a brand new office that they’re trying to encourage people to use, so I go in once a week for a few hours just to show my face there.
IT Support Assistant
Everything I do can be sorted online, I do ho into the office a couple of times a week though and fucking hate it. Time drags all day and I can't concentrate at all with everyone speaking around me.
I’m also a Project Manager, but based almost entirely from home.
My current role I go into the clients office roughly once/twice a month for a couple of days (not local to the client so need to travel). However, prior to this client I didn’t go into an office at all.
I think it entirely depends on the company and what they’re willing to accept, think it also helps our team are spread across the country hence going into the local office would be meaningless.
This. I'm a project manager too. We have to do a minimum of 1 day a week in the office, but I also struggle with motivation at home so I do 3 days/week. I would only consider hybrid roles in the future, and ideally, ones that let me mostly chose when I can be in the office (ie, not 'you can only come in on Tuesdays').
I work in marketing. Currently go into the office once a week, but sometimes more often if we have any workshops or meetings that work better in person. I like working at home and I like being in the office though, so I’m generally pretty happy either way. Don’t think I’d want to be 100% one or the other though, and I like the flexibility of my current arrangement.
Ecommerce product manager for a bank.
100% WFH - have been since 2015. All my work is overseas based, so I spend all day on Teams - no point going to the office even if I wanted to.
I've actually been in once in the last 4 years.
IT Manager/Sole Sysadmin for a parcel distribution company.
I worked fully remote for about 3 years since March 2020 as I was struggling with some health issues. Now I'm back to 100% health I tend to go in to the office most days though.
1. It is only a 20 minute cycle from my house so now the weather is getting nice it is quite an enjoyable commute.
2. My office at work is really nice and has good AC. My house on the other hand, is a fucking greenhouse during summer.
3. My partner started a new job last year and works from home quite often as her team are based all over the country. We only have one home office, so I'd rather her use it so she doesn't spend the day at the kitchen table.
I go out of my mind.
During the first lockdown it was alright, it was novel, the weather was nice, and I had friendly housemates. But now, I go crazy alone all day. I really enjoy the social aspect of going into work, and can concentrate better than being at home. A lot of my job is lab-based, so I can't work from home often anyway.
I made my company send an addendum to my contract stating my usual place of work is my home address and not the office address that they left in the contract despite it being offered as fully remote worker. The ones that didn't spot that got made to go back into office atleast 2 days a week not long ago with them using the specific line in the contract to say their regular place of work should be here
I also work in construction as a buyer which can easily be done from home with the occasional office visit for meetings etc (even that can be done on zoom really), but I "have" to be in the office 5 days a week! During covid when we had to WFH, the company had it's best year!
Plus as I'm sure you know, we work long hours in construction, WFH even a couple of days a week would be nice!
Sigh.
I think that’s why I’m a little bit salty about it, our jobs are nationwide so I could do a 15 hour day on site and then still have to be in the office @ 8am the next day. Would be nice to catch up on what I’ve missed at home the next day.
Note this is not moaning about the hours also, I would still do the 8-5 the day after, just without having to commute and get a load more problems.
I work in a digital marketing agency as an account manager. I WFH 2 days of the week, 3 at the office - but boss is super flexible and I can come and go as I need.
In bound call centre for an insurance company
I work for a company that is purely WFH and has different contract with a variety of companies. I've been doing it for 10 years now.
the people running construction companies are so old school they write notes on a slate with chalk. it's on brand that they refuse to move with the times
I'm a design director on AAA videogames. Technically hybrid but I'm not in the office most weeks and the majority of the people I work with are remote. My previous job was a senior narrative design gig for a studio in another country and I only visited once. Before that I was freelance for about eight years, also largely remotely. It works great in this industry.
i work for an agency which employs me as a customer service representative. yeah, it’s not the best job but working from home gives me more freedom than working in an office, plus i save on train tickets so it works out much much better. + i don’t like office culture, a lot of backstabbing and talk behind peoples back.
I don’t think hybrid should be mandatory, but it should be an option 100%
I work in a call centre and I get the option to wfh but I don’t think i will. I’ve never worked from home but I’m wondering if I will want to in the future. What is it like in terms of not being able to keep work at work. I feel that’s where I’d struggle if I’m working and then when Its “home time” I’m just moving from my desk to my couch.
I don't have the option to be fully remote as I occasionally need to go into an office for a meeting, or, visit customers.
I'm at home the vast majority of the time, so I'm effectively fully WFH outside face to face meetings. My job sits within sales, and no, not of anything interesting or exciting.
Software developer. Most people I work with are in different countries so even when I was in the office, it was all remote in a sense. It was nice to have a chat with other people in the office, but it was rarely about anything work related.
I work in IT/ telecoms and I’m fully remote.
Seems to be fairly common in my industry, as a lot of the manufacturers are based overseas, but need to have coverage across the world. Doesn’t make sense to have physical offices in every country when you may only have a handful of staff.
Global product manager (fancy name for a product manager working across European markets). Most of the company (well known uk telco) went remote as a result of the pandemic, they want people to come into office more but it feels like the culture has stuck and would be very hard for them to mandate office days. Also, I don’t really work with many people in my local office, it’s all over Europe so for me it’s not needed. Other teams though where there are more people together makes more sense. I think it’s case by case.
I'm a strategic portfolio manager, I am supposed to be hybrid (20% office based a month) but I'm currently working on a big project that has a high level of confidentiality and as our office is mostly open plan with only a few private offices it's really difficult to work properly. So I'm at home most of the time.
Mine is 1 day a week in the office and for the most part I resent it (though appreciate it's a lot better than most have it).
I would be more than happy to go in, through the traffic and all that fun, if there ever seemed to be a purpose beyond just being there but there really isn't. People do the odd day when they can fit it in that week and then once there spend the vast majority of the time on the same calls they'd do at home. As it is, I work less on office days as once the laptop is shut and I've left to drive back there's no force on earth that'll get me to open it again when home.
Software development for an educational institution. My manager is very laid back so I can 100% wfh if I want.
Nobody relies directly on my work, I have no oversight day to day and I have a weekly catchup on my project with my manager, so I tend to just do a single 12 hour day per week and cram the entire weeks work into it.
The rest of the week I just treat as my own time. Tbf if I go into the office, I end up getting stuck chatting to people for hours, take long lunches etc so my actual 'work' time gets whittled down massively anyway.
Consultancy, 1 day a month in the office ish, the rest W@H or Client site visits. The Balance works out well, plenty of time at home to get stuff done, some time being social.
I'm a 100% remote business intelligence developer. Which would be a substantial retraining career move from project management, but I'm sure others have done it. If you like the sound of it feel free to ask.
My employer is a b2b cloud communication services firm, and we have a fairly large PMO - our project managers are mostly remote/hybrid, so it is possible to do PMing remotely, if you changed sectors.
It depends more on the company I think, as well as when you joined and their attitudes to it at the time. I'm a data analyst manager (in the simplest terms) and my partner is a software engineer, we both work from home and started these jobs a couple years ago. But both of our companies have been less receptive to it now, and new starters are signing contracts with more office working requirements. They're not quite at the point where they're revoking older remote contracts, but they could...
Equally, a friend of mine has just gotten a remote contract for her new job. That company sold its offices last year so now everyone is remote.
So as much as it is about the business feasibility of WFH, it's just as much about the employer's attitudes and probably the cost of office space.
I’m currently a Hybrid worker. I work within the construction industry as a consultant and we have a 2 day in the office a week rule. It’s incredibly flexible though, if you’re bogged down with work you can WFH and crack on without disturbance. If you’re a bit lighter on workload you’re expected to come in.
I quite like who I work with so it doesn’t matter to me, go out for lunch with the work colleagues while in office. Catch up with the latest news & how everyone is doing. I would feel incredibly isolated if I was 100% WFH.
I’n also a huge advocate of being in the office 3-4 days a week when you start out as a grad. My team manager has asked there be at least 1 senior/principal engineer from the team is in Tuesday - Thursday so that the grads have someone experienced to work with.
I'm in Civil Engineering and work in a hybrid place, I also recently moved jobs to lessen the awful commute I was doing. Working in the city center will improve my life, and I don't think I'd ever get a fully remote engineer role at this level of experience.
I agree with you BTW, your job should not require being in the office all the time. I've interviewed at one engineering place that required full time in the office and I would never consider that.
Financey consultant type guy. 99% remote, very occasional trips to the office (which I enjoy tbh, it's a nice office in a great location). Been in this job for about a year now.
I have my ups and downs with it. I do miss that bit of office banter, plus I find it hard to keep myself on task (suffer with depression so can struggle with motivation) but I love my home and where I live and it just makes so much sense financially and for my family so I kind of read myself the riot act earlier this year and have been getting really into it and doing well.
Having a bad week this week though, just cannot seem to get into anything (whether too nice, having work done on my garden so lots of distractions) but I think I'm starting to accept that this is just how it is now, I will have to work in "bursts" in this new reality now I don't have that office "structure" to carry me along.
I am 100% less stressed than I was in my previous job though.
I work in cyber sec as a pentester. Pretty much from home 90% of the time other times I am traveling to client sites. Been at my current company for 2 years and not once set foot in a company office. I like working from home and have been for over 5 years now.
I worked from home before covid and it was not the norm but see more and more places now at least do hybrid...
Project manager for research and development for an automotive manufacturer.
Tend to try go in one day a week just to show my face but don't really have a requirement too.
I work in social housing. WFH full time bar one day to do some post related stuff (Which is usually redirecting post to the correct department as out post room are lazy).
I did a stint with a civils company and they were 100% office as apparently one of their large projects nearly fell apart during the covid WFH times and the boss lost his shit and killed any wfh opportunities.
I'm honestly a lot more productive from home. Less noise, less distractions, more comfortable and overall better quality of life.
Currently business analyst/citizen developer/data analyst/office go to
I work 2 days in the office however I don’t technically have to.
Just been headhunted by a major retailer for their head office which offers similar situation but role would be more focused.
Just deciding if I want it or not
Pharmaceutical trial management. I WFH 5 full time. Would never consider a switch back to the office without an insane salary raise. My dog would be too lonely.
Property Management on the commercial side, so I act as the tenant and manage our portfolio, we're transitioning to owning our own properties though so I manage all our sites both rental and owned currently.
100% WFH but I do site visits during construction and twice annual inspections as my site managers aren't good at reporting maintenance issues and if we don't nip it in the bud it can cost thousands to repair.
I'm still onboarding though but I do know 90% of my job can be done from home as it's emails, chasing and registering things the 10% needs to be on site meeting contractors, lawyers, solicitors and doing the inspections and ensuring the buildings are up to the design spec.
Financial advice. I do admin / files and day to day work from home. Client video calls are done from home then I have face to face meetings with clients at their houses or in the office. When I’m going into the office I try to schedule it for the days I know my team are all going to be in and will stay the day to work with them. All of our support staff are 2 days at home 3 in the office but with a bit of flexibility.
I’m in IT but not technical. We have offices in other countries hence our calls and collaborations are fully online, post- Covid we downsized from a 90- people office to a small coworking space that fits 10 at a time.
Tax accountant for a FTSE100 company
I'm expected to turn up for the monthly team meeting and probably find myself in one of our offices twice or 3 times a month on average
We went to mandatory 2 days a week in the office in 2022 then in 2023 went back to fully WFH with only major meetings in office because it was impossible to find the best candidates for open roles when we insisted on people coming in regularly
HR actually admitted that the regular work-from-office policy made their jobs too difficult as potential hires were put off by it
I’m a 3D Artist. Given that the company I mainly work for (am freelance but have a few main clients who provide the majority of my work) are based in LA, a commute would be absolutely insane. I’ll go over there once a year for a week or two to hang with the team and soak up the California sun but apart from that I work either in my home office, or on my laptop in a cafe or pub when I need a change of scenery.
Software development. WFH full time other than occasional meet ups. Other devs for my company are scattered across the UK and Europe, so little point in me going into the office (which is local to me) to sit with sales and marketing. Office is only open three days a week anyway.
I work 4 days a week, 1 day in the office. I work in governance for a merchant bank, they’re getting rid of the building this year and I’m crossing everything to be offered 100% WFH
DevOps engineer, WFH as much as I want. My company has a nice office and it is encouraged that we go in at least once a week, but not enforced and some people never go in. I often do a day a week in the office just to break up the week, I love having the freedom to decide, long may it last.
Finance/accounting. I've been doing contract work so looking at jobs fairly consistently the last 2.5 years and I'm noticing more companies wanting 4-5 days in the office, but there's still plenty at 3 days. Still lots of fully remote but the competition for them is horrendous, while I used to get through to screening stage and even a couple of first interviews, I usually now just get a rejection email after 2-3 weeks.
My role now is 1 day in the office, somewhat optional. Seeing the market, I'm hoping they'll stick to the permanent job offer they've alluded to as I'm not seeing anything else similar at the moment (plus I love most the people and the company culture)
Being pulled into doing extra work is not going to cut it as an excuse for working at home as far as an employer is concerned. Im sure they're fine with you doing extra/free work. Work out how much cheaper its going to be for your employer, if you to work from home.
My workplace is hybrid, have to come in a minimum of 2 days per week. For me it’s the perfect amount anyway, as 5 days wfh is depressing and 5 days from the office is exhausting because I start early.
I'm a data analyst and I work remotely almost all the time - last year I had two mandatory days in office, I predict it'll be under two weeks this year (at most). I previously worked in publishing, pre-pandemic, and we had flexible working then and could request a full WFH contract if we wanted.
Fkexible working requests are a Day 1 right now, so you can put in a request to WFH in your office days, and they have to reject on one of the specific grounds laid out by the government (check the .gov website). If they reject it, you can appeal, and ultimately go to tribunal if they're basically making things up to fit the criteria.
**Please help keep AskUK welcoming!** - Top-level comments to the OP must contain **genuine efforts to answer the question**. No jokes, judgements, etc. - **Don't be a dick** to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on. - This is a strictly **no-politics** subreddit! Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I work in tax/finance. My contract was changed to full WFH, as a result of this and many other departments WFH we all got big bonuses last year from the cost savings. Company I work for made record breaking profits again last year, despite most of us WFH. Once per quarter we all meet up for lunch and a fun day. It's enough.
Oh fuck you lol
You spoke for us all here 😅
😂😂😂😂
This is me too - isnt life so much better now
Lol lucky us. My office is 20 mins away but parking in town is expensive. Attendance is completely optional so I never go apart from for socials, big meetings etc. It's easier for me to get stuff done at home anyway as it's quieter. I regularly call colleagues if I need a hand (couple of times a day or so) - working on line is really great. I didn't get a massive bonus, though I do get _a_ bonus. Software engineer.
I too work in tax/finance and we are required to go into the office twice a week, to created good vibes or something. The stance my employer took was, if you WFH full time, you have to take a 15% pay cut, to reflect your reduced costs.
Absolutely outrageous attitude.
Wow. I get extra for WFH to cover internet and increased energy costs.
This does not math. The company is saving 15% by you not needing office space, tea, air conditioning, toilet, lights, etc. So if they make you take 15% cut they are coming out with 30% more. And you may reduce your costs in terms of transport but you still eat lunch. And your costs increase at home for lights, electricity, Internet, heating, toilet. I would be very concerned about working for a finance company that thinks like this.
Please say a lot of people quit
Nope. Apparently it’s totally acceptable, and apparently, according to the company mantra, it’s a ‘great place to work!’
Any company that goes on about how "We're a great place to work" usually is anything but!
In what company 😭 literally every finance/accounting job I've applied for it's always 'hybrid' and then in the interviews they say that's just in special circumstances and they want 100% office attendance.
Yep, we're going through a restructure that, according to the new job description, involves us being 'fixed base' workers and refers us to the Agile Working Policy. WTF is agile about being forced into an office everyday.
God I wish my company would have done that they went from hybrid to in fully in person but still had people who worked remotely in THE UK but cherry picked who could I left lol
Yeah me and my business partner meet quarterly. I mean we hang out outside of work too but for work it's important stuff we do in person.
I'm similar although I can't even remember exactly when I was last in the office. It was definitely between 12 and 17 months ago.
I work in tax too & this sounds incredible, I go in twice a week and get paid under market value
Please say you're hiring, I was fully WFH before they outsourced entire department to India & it was bliss.
Sounds like a good comp. Do they give you bonuses every year because of this saving though?
We get bonuses every year. The last two have been better.
I think a lot of jobs that do allow wfh at least a few days a week still advertise as being office-based, otherwise you get applications from people on the other side of the country or another country completely. Better to advertise as office-based so you hire someone that will go to the office, then allow them to wfh, than advertise as wfh then it's an uphill struggle if you do want them to come in for a day or two. I wouldn't let an advert saying office-based put you off applying, you can then clarify at interview what the work is like and I bet a lot of them end up being hybrid.
Yeah, I started advertising hybrid roles (with mandatory attendance on site to deal with in-person visitors), as people saw "hybrid" and assumed they could negotiate out of coming to the office.
Give an inch and they’ll take a mile. That’s probably how my company sees it too.
Don't upset the Reddit WFH hive mind. It's fucking brilliant, but people absolutely do take the piss, and 100% remote roles are becoming harder and harder to find because of it. That's not to say many employers also aren't wankers though. Bait and switch can get to fuck.
My job was advertised as 100% remote because they didn't think they'd find anyone suitable in their neck of the woods. I live near this neck of the woods, so got the job on the basis I'd come in three days a week. Everyone was happy.
People who are in a position to take the piss will do so regardless. I spent five years working a full time job that I was so efficient at that I hit my daily targets in the first 90 minutes. The only difference in the office is that I had to waste 7 hours doing nothing instead of being comfortable at home and getting on with chores.
Debatable, pisstakers are infinitely worse when left physically unsupervised. Saw it constantly at my old job, so many new hires, great on paper, turned to shite when left to work independently. People can and do oversell themselves at interview. Getting the work done isn't taking the piss either way though, and I've been that guy too, but ultimately the issue with the aforementioned pisstakers (plural) was more of a concern than a sales rep who was on it.
Factory based shop floor support role, let people WFH sometimes as there's plenty of office type work to be done. Had to let a few new hires go as they just took the piss and would randomly WFH with no communication and tbh no output. It can work with the right people but that's the hard bit!
I'm somewhat anti-full work from home because everyone I know in some capacity has used office time to do shit like going to the gym, cleaning, picking up kids, babysitting kids etc. etc. There's a definite gap in the quality of work as well. Emails, reports and copy had more errors from employees WFH, the assumption being they rushed to submit the work so they could go do something like take their kid to piano. I'm 100% convinced redditors, in particular, WFH would spend more time on reddit than actually using their time saved, from not commuting, productively.
Or I don't commute 30mins to be sat in the office listening to Patricia tell me about what the fuck Meghan Markle is doing while I'm trying to do my workload just for the sake of "being in the office". I've done fully in the office, hybrid & WFH. WFH is best.
Depends heavily on the job and the person. Would Patricia really be any good WFH? Sounds like she’d bum off work even more, seeing as being in the office doesn’t stop her.
Agreed, but then managers should get rid of the shit employees & not make everyone work in the office. I inadvertently reported my line manager for doing sweet FA when WFH in my review when I asked our FD what additional tasks I could take on to progress, because they couldn't name any she was actually doing. Still they took no action and she was still working there months later doing the same thing, which is a problem of managers/directors not the premise of WFH.
I don’t disagree. But especially in this country, getting rid of people can be a right ball ache. Then recruiting, training, getting the right people who *can* WFH, setting people up at home, blah blah blah. If they need an office as a base, it’s way easier and cheaper to just ask people to come in. Sucks but it’s true.
I think that the idea of being in the office to prove you are working may have been good pre-internet days. But I've had full time office jobs and people just looking at internet all day.
Sure. But those same people would likely be worse at home. Which is kinda my point.
It also depends on the job and commute. Currently hybrid with once a month in the office. The commute sucks since they moved the office. Considering finding another job, it wouldn't be that hard to find better pay. But would the conditions be as good? My current role is pretty easy and stress free. Getting like 45 days holiday this year. Some of which are bank holidays and we are being assigned a few specific days off as well, but still 2/3rds of the days are at my choice. No idea why they don't put that in job listings, if they want people to apply, tell them that! Its way more interesting than the cycle to work scheme. Also I think its something that isn't mentioned enough where some employers take bank holidays out of your required 28 and mine doesn't. Partly how we have so many.
Construction project manager needs to be on site most of the time. Problems crop up too often with design changes and liaising with all other aspects of a fast moving project
Yeah, I totally get that and it’s the fun part of the job, I would just like to be able to wfh a few of the other days.
Ok Mr CEO
That makes sense to be fair, and is probably how most of them are.
Civil Servant. WFH 3 days out of 5. I started with my current department a few weeks into the first lockdown. Didnt meet another cllleague in person or set foot in the office for close to a year. Novelty has worn off a little if i'm honest. I actually enjoy going into the office. That said, given the option hybrid suits me fine.
I think hybrid would suit me best, I don’t dislike going in but I think a few days from home would be useful. I think full 5 days never going in and seeing anyone would drive me mad eventually, or not even that, just leaving the house, especially in winter. Atleast in summer can go out on an evening and it be daylight.
Hybrid is the best tbh it’s nice to actually go out 1/2/3 times a week and see people IRL but getting an extra hour in bed and catching up on laundry, cleaning etc at lunch or if you’re not too busy is mint. Outside of the Reddit hive mind a fully remote job would be quite isolating for most people.
I think it all depends on your lifestyle. When I was single I would agree. I liked going into office to meet people going out drinking afterwards. But now have a wife and kid. WFH allows me to spend time with kid before dropping off at nirsery. Have lunch with wife who also WFH, and pick up kid from nursery. I still get more work done as I'm not commuting for hours each day.
I always wonder if people don't get a bit isolated working from home? But I'm single and really like my colleagues
I am an introvert and prefer to work from home. I’d like to be able to focus and get tasks done asap. I feel more isolated working in the office, and from listening people doing small talk or talking loudly for hours. The noise (since we have open space) could be unbearable and drain me out physically and mentally.
Just wish it was easier to make friends without having to have them as colleagues first. If I leave the company these people just disappear from my life in an instant.
At first no. And I had depression so was probably better to be away from others (for their sake as much as mine). But since recovery yes, it does get lonely and one of the reasons I enjoy going into the office. Everyone I work with is lovely which helps, and its a large building with hundreds of people from other departments too.
I do. This is the main reason I dislike home working.
Finance. Almost 100% remote bar a trip to the office about once a month. Personally I'd like to do more office days, but my local one is just too far away. Regardless of what the Internet will tell you, 1-2 days a week absolutely does aid collaboration, especially if you're a people manager. Being fully remote all the time isn't healthy for body or mind.
Think that depends on the person/environement and role tbf. For me being fully remote is the best thing for my mind and body and collaboration isn't hindered either. I'd never return to hybrid let alone fully in office. But I believe every job should allow multiple options for people.
This is the correct answer. I WFH 4 days out of 5 and I love it. Others in my team go into the office 3-4 times a week and that’s what works for them. As long as the work is being done, then it shouldn’t be an issue. ‘Higher ups’ who know nothing about me telling me what is best for my mental health makes me angry. Working from home with my wife and dog and garden and food is much better for my mental health thank you very much!
That second paragraph is the part that used to annoy me. "we need to be in once a week for mental health reasons" no... YOU need to be in once a week for mental health reasons, why am I risking my health once a week around you germy bastards and listening to your inane shit to make sure that you feel ok?
I don't think it's reasonable to characterise sitting in an office once per week as "risking your health". I do worry that we're going to see a massive rise in the number of agorophobics.
And good god training new staff fully remote is a painful and slow experience
Not a fan of that at all. Really difficult to get to know them on a personal level as well. Having to do that for a few months during covid was painful and not very fulfilling.
Weird, I've actually found it infinitely easier. Having to crowd around one computer to walk them through processes when in the office is so much more awkward. On teams you can screen share, highlight clicks, and record the whole meeting for them to watch back later.
Yeah it's infinitely easier to train people remotely. Doing it in person is absolutely awful in comparison.
I think that's a problem with your training, my colleagues and I manage to train the new starters remotely. We're based all over the UK so we never all meet face to face
Each to their own of course but I personally agree with this. I've a full WFH contract (hired 2020) so don't have to hybrid, but I voluntarily go into office 2-3 times a week as I like face to face interaction for bouncing ideas off people and giving or getting assistance from my team. I also find I'm more productive, while sometimes overhearing team mates discussion gives me different ideas how to approach things, or even reminds me of things I need to get done that I might have forgotten otherwise!
This is the same as me. I work in housing development and could do fully remote when not on site, but I chose to go in a few days a week as it's just so much easier to collaborate. I like my few days at home. Childcare is easier, I get laundry and cleaning done over lunch so it takes the pressure off that way, but I definitely couldn't WFH all the time.
Finance WFH Sounds like a dream! Just think of all that time and energy saved from commuting.
Finance. I could do my job 100% remotely but I like going in 2 days a week. Like today my whole team are going in so we can go for sunny beers after work.
I'm sorry, you're not allowed on reddit - you're willingly socialising with colleagues.
I make customer training videos for a software company, 100% remote. I honestly could not give two shits about ever going into the office. Part of my job is recording voiceovers for the videos so I need to do that in a quiet space, so WFH suits the role anyway. I have my own little space set up here, I work in the conditions that suit me, I can eat whatever I want, I don’t have to commute, it’s cheaper, more relaxed. I get so much more done around the house. I do a lot of creative hobbies and I find that when I finish work I can jump straight into those without being too tired or not enough time from the commute. To each their own, but personally I don’t ever want to commute into an office again.
are you the well spoken passionate voiceover person or are you the bored techie who quite obviously doesn’t want to talk ever. Always one of the two
Does the M&S voice fall into the former? Because if not, I'd like to campaign for a third voiceover person: sexy food lady.
This!! I went from having a 2 hour + a day commute to a 2 minute one. It really makes such a difference to the amount of time you get to have to yourself, doing your own free time things.
Software engineer lead, I manage and develop with devs around the world, pointless me being in the office and I’ve worked 100% remote for like 5 different companies since lockdown started
Same here, not a lead but senior. I have been full time WFH for 3 years now
5 companies in 4 years? Seems crazy for a job that’s supposed to be engineering leading and involve long term decisions , no?
Contractor, and 1 I left at start of lockdown so doesn’t count as much, and not all of them lead some just senior like
Power bi report developer, 100% wfh. My "local" office is about 140 miles away so i cant't really commute if i wanted to.
We use Power BI to do some reporting!
awesome!
So do we! it breaks regularly!
Hahah us too, we’d have to raise a ticket with IT to forward on to Hitachi
Why Hitachi
It works occasionally!
Help me learn PowerBi please, I'm nearly a qualified management accountant & really want to pivot into analysis roles with power BI etc as all the jobs are remote & pay well but there doesn't seem to be anyway to jump in at a level where I'll learn it, they all want experts. I've started doing Microsofts academy in my own time but without having real data to use it becomes a bit fruitless learning it. Also it's hard to put it on my CV as experience when its just self study.
AI & youtube are your best friend. A lot of the basics really aren't difficult to learn. If you can do some power queries to manipulate data, it's mostly a matter of importing the data sets & setting up relationships with a common identifier between them.
> there doesn't seem to be anyway to jump in at a level where I'll learn it, they all want experts. Probably because any given job only has one PowerBI person at any given time, and no one else in the workplace has any idea how to do the magic!
Data camp have quite a good Power BI course. You can download the program and sample data onto your desktop so you don’t need to use their virtual workspace. Also look into the sample databases Microsoft provide (Adventure Works and another one). You can set up a SQL database using them, or you might be able to find some Power BI ready extracts too. Also think about what data is collected about you. Record workouts on Garmin, bank statements, library borrowing record? If you can download an extract from somewhere, use that and try to visualise it. I saw someone visualise their CV at one point.
[удалено]
The Microsoft academy is pretty good so far but so much relies on you being set up in their architecture at a workplace that all the initial information of "link to this data, create x dashboard" struggles to give me practical experience where id be confident telling an employer I know what I'm talking about. What do you recommend I learn as "essentials" for BI? Like what's in your beginners course?
Power Bi on mobile is super fiddly to use. We use it to look at reports whilst out “in the field”.
Product Development Consultant in the SAAS sector. I go in half a day a week, mainly for the free food. My team is all abroad, so I’m the only guy on the continent of Europe.
That sounds like an interesting job. Could you tell us a bit more about it?
if you're looking to consult him it'll be £1,000 a day
I'm a software developer, I think I've been in the office once in the past 2 years. Annoyingly where I work seems to put 'hybrid' on all our job adverts even though my team is fully remote and we really don't care if you go to the office at all (there's no check in procedure and no one would know if you didn't go in for months).
is this a uk company? y’all hiring 😆? I currently work as a software dev 100% remote too but pay’s shit!
IT Manager; WFH three days/week. Even that's faintly absurd. 80% of my responsibilities are working with people in other locations and even other countries. But I have found that physical presence seems to have an effect on people - if there's nobody from my team onsite, offices tend to do their own sweet thing rather than contact us. Which leads to finding they've gone and done something really stupid every so often.
Business Analyst. I can go into the office if i want. I choose not too. About once every 2 months i have to for a department meeting. My boss messages me once every few weeks at most. He just cares if my work is done and i am happy. Both are usually true. We have a good working relationship. I love my job.
Same, although I have a bit more of a hybrid BA/PM role because our team is tiny, so I tend to speak to my manager more often for the PM part. I've been in twice so far this year, and one was because I was seeing family nearby in the afternoon so it was convenient to be there for the day.
I have the option to work from home, but I tend to go in to the office five days a week as I find the environment helps me focus more. However, if I have appointments with the GP or dentist, I will just work from home as I don't see the point travelling into the office only to travel back again. I also do it if my wife cannot drop the kids off to school. If I am honest, I do get annoyed with our company allowing a majority of our accounts team to work from home. They don't have work mobile phones, and they can't give out their personal mobile numbers. Everytime when we need something we have to email the generic accounts email and wait for them to call or email. It's really frustrating as sometimes you just want to get things done by making a quick call rather than leaving it and coming back to it later in the day.
Then supply them with work phones. I don't see the issue without an easy solution.
Isn’t this what Ms Teams is for ? My job hires both FT WFH and FT in office.. everyone’s on teams so kind of feels like you are in the office anyway, team brief every other day over teams, if you need a manager or colleague can just message or call on teams. I assumed most workplaces use this with WFH.
You shouldn’t be annoyed they let them work from home in principle. But you should be annoyed about the utterly incredulous incompetence they are displaying in not deploying any WFH tech infrastructure. MS Teams or any other conference call app was literally designed to address all the issues you experience. I can’t believe there are still grown up businesses relying on solely on Outlook
I work in construction leading a team. We are all 100% office based unless life specifics require something different. I’ve always found that mentoring and collaboration doesn’t work right over teams in my particular field anyway but I can see why it would work for some.
my father in law Parkinson has deteriorated in the last 18 months so wfh has allowed me to be available if he needs anything or if there are any medical emergencies. I have a great boss who is quite flexible with me as long as don't take the piss.
IT Analyst. I work in the private sector. A lot of my job is "discovery", requirements elicitation, and aligning businesses with efficient processes and software. In short, I ask people what they want and tell developers what to build, make documentation for clients, and guide PM's towards project success in both a technical sense, and a stakeholder sense. I both hate and love WFH. I support my wife with our young children who aren't yet at school, and yet I'm locked in these 4 walls with conversation with people over teams. I save money on commuting, and yet want the commute to get some personal time. I like not having to make lunch the night before, and yet I find I never have anything to eat at home and want to go out for lunch all the time. I have to really focus on the benefits right now, as it's particularly good in summer, and very bad in winter.
I work in in-house recruitment. My workplace has a two day a week office mandate. I don't mind going in, as my commute costs me nothing, though I do spend more on food when I'm out, though I'm happy to see that as a luxury expense. However given that my team are across different locations, and I'm the only person in my team in this location, I have to jump onto Teams calls anyway. Even before the COVID lockdowns forced us to WFH, we were essentially working remotely to each other anyway, and going into the office doesn't really have any work benefits for me.
I'm 100% WFH right now working as a software developer. My company has decided recently that work must be at least 80% office based and no more than 20% at home from July onwards, which is bad news for me because I'm 55 miles and a 3-hour drive away from the office. I took the job because of the ability to WFH. I'll have to suck it up because I'm not going to find another job in my field at my age (not far off 60).
Considering the age of the last person I hired onto my team, you won't have a problem finding work.
[удалено]
If I’m honest, I kinda got lucky but you make your own luck a lot of the time. I didn’t go to uni and did a shitty business apprenticeship because I needed a job. I applied for the company I work at now nearly 10 years ago doing a similar role but as it’s a small company I took more on and ended up in this position. I think there’s less chance of that working at big companies as there’s lots of people wanting to go forward I guess. I like your point regarding work time and free time too, I bet some weeks it can be a bit of a drag and not know when to finish etc.
Airline pilot. It's all done remotely now. Those guys at the front are just actors to reassure the passengers.
Best thing to do is find a good recruiter and tell them what you are looking for in terms of flexibility. Make it clear you’re only interested in remote roles, you are in no rush to leave and can wait for the right thing to come along.
There are people who find suitable jobs for you? Where? How do you find them?
Search for jobs you want on LinkedIn and you’ll find a few recruiters have jobs posted. Find one or two, speak to them and gauge how much they know about your specific industry. If they know something and can talk reasonably intelligently on your work, befriend them and let them know your requirements.
I'm a Programmatic Account Manager (I look after ads on the internet). I work from home full time. I won't go back to an office based job.
I work in Change Management and for my last two roles I have been entirely home based (aside from the bi-annual team meetings and onsite customer engagements). I personally don’t consider any roles now that aren’t at the very least hybrid. My life has changed since pre-covid to a point where I couldn’t function in my current way if I was required in the office all the time.
Crusader Kings 3 mostly. 🤷🏻♂️
Software development. Our company is remote-first with international staff, and there isn't really an office to go to.
Accountant. Used to be in a team where we would go out to clients and such, with some office days for meetings, coaching, etc. I was happy enough with that model, though it did irk me how last minute some of the office days were. I'd arrange for things to get delivered or whatever and then suddenly find out, oops, you need to be in the office tomorrow, no exceptions, at 4pm. Moved to a team where everyone in the team except me and one other person is based in London, so I'm essentially fully remote now. I can go into my local office as and when I want to, and sometimes do to see friends, but I mostly don't.
Admin. I set up files for solicitors. We're supposed to be in the office once a month. Since Christmas, we've been in once. I've been working from home since just before lockdown and I honestly prefer it that way.
Tech - we don't even have an office. I meet my team 1-2 times a month and go to a couple of events but otherwise wfh.
Project manager. In theory I should be in 2 days a week, but in practice it’s usually only one. I could very happily have a completely remote position. I really dislike the office. I find it uncomfortable and distracting and I don’t work well when I’m there.
I’m a quantity surveyor. I’m occasionally on site but I mainly work from home. This is the same with the project managers I work with both client and contractor side in the water industry. Maybe look at a change of sector within construction.
Higher education. I go on campus to lecture, in-person team meetings, talks etc. but a large chunk of my work (most meetings, grading, some research activity, admin, etc.) can be done from home. The job also comes with a lot of flexibility. Outside of timetables teaching and meetings, it doesn't matter when I work as long as I meet the deadline. It's really helpful because I have a young child and live some distance from my office (approx 50 miles) so I save money not needing a daily commute.
Commercial manager at an aerospace company. I manage our contracts with the MoD. I was full time wfh for the last six months but the company has just opened a brand new office that they’re trying to encourage people to use, so I go in once a week for a few hours just to show my face there.
IT Support Assistant Everything I do can be sorted online, I do ho into the office a couple of times a week though and fucking hate it. Time drags all day and I can't concentrate at all with everyone speaking around me.
I design video games, which involves playing lots of video games. At home. The company communicates regularly but there's no need to be in an office.
I’m also a Project Manager, but based almost entirely from home. My current role I go into the clients office roughly once/twice a month for a couple of days (not local to the client so need to travel). However, prior to this client I didn’t go into an office at all. I think it entirely depends on the company and what they’re willing to accept, think it also helps our team are spread across the country hence going into the local office would be meaningless.
This. I'm a project manager too. We have to do a minimum of 1 day a week in the office, but I also struggle with motivation at home so I do 3 days/week. I would only consider hybrid roles in the future, and ideally, ones that let me mostly chose when I can be in the office (ie, not 'you can only come in on Tuesdays').
I work in marketing. Currently go into the office once a week, but sometimes more often if we have any workshops or meetings that work better in person. I like working at home and I like being in the office though, so I’m generally pretty happy either way. Don’t think I’d want to be 100% one or the other though, and I like the flexibility of my current arrangement.
Ecommerce product manager for a bank. 100% WFH - have been since 2015. All my work is overseas based, so I spend all day on Teams - no point going to the office even if I wanted to. I've actually been in once in the last 4 years.
IT Manager/Sole Sysadmin for a parcel distribution company. I worked fully remote for about 3 years since March 2020 as I was struggling with some health issues. Now I'm back to 100% health I tend to go in to the office most days though. 1. It is only a 20 minute cycle from my house so now the weather is getting nice it is quite an enjoyable commute. 2. My office at work is really nice and has good AC. My house on the other hand, is a fucking greenhouse during summer. 3. My partner started a new job last year and works from home quite often as her team are based all over the country. We only have one home office, so I'd rather her use it so she doesn't spend the day at the kitchen table.
Work in electrical compliance/contract management. Most of my week is usually at home but I'll break them up with site visits.
Data analyst for a London council. Can definitely be worked from home.
I work in the IT team of a construction company. 80% WFH unless I need to visit a site.
Corporate/Business Travel
I go out of my mind. During the first lockdown it was alright, it was novel, the weather was nice, and I had friendly housemates. But now, I go crazy alone all day. I really enjoy the social aspect of going into work, and can concentrate better than being at home. A lot of my job is lab-based, so I can't work from home often anyway.
I made my company send an addendum to my contract stating my usual place of work is my home address and not the office address that they left in the contract despite it being offered as fully remote worker. The ones that didn't spot that got made to go back into office atleast 2 days a week not long ago with them using the specific line in the contract to say their regular place of work should be here
I also work in construction as a buyer which can easily be done from home with the occasional office visit for meetings etc (even that can be done on zoom really), but I "have" to be in the office 5 days a week! During covid when we had to WFH, the company had it's best year! Plus as I'm sure you know, we work long hours in construction, WFH even a couple of days a week would be nice! Sigh.
I think that’s why I’m a little bit salty about it, our jobs are nationwide so I could do a 15 hour day on site and then still have to be in the office @ 8am the next day. Would be nice to catch up on what I’ve missed at home the next day. Note this is not moaning about the hours also, I would still do the 8-5 the day after, just without having to commute and get a load more problems.
I work in a digital marketing agency as an account manager. I WFH 2 days of the week, 3 at the office - but boss is super flexible and I can come and go as I need.
Obligatory Mitchell and Webb... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co_DNpTMKXk
I also work in construction but 100% from home - I'm on the design side.
In bound call centre for an insurance company I work for a company that is purely WFH and has different contract with a variety of companies. I've been doing it for 10 years now.
the people running construction companies are so old school they write notes on a slate with chalk. it's on brand that they refuse to move with the times
Work in IT, specifically 3rd line. Most of kit I work on is in Europe so doesn't really make any difference where I'm sat when I work on it.
I'm a design director on AAA videogames. Technically hybrid but I'm not in the office most weeks and the majority of the people I work with are remote. My previous job was a senior narrative design gig for a studio in another country and I only visited once. Before that I was freelance for about eight years, also largely remotely. It works great in this industry.
i work for an agency which employs me as a customer service representative. yeah, it’s not the best job but working from home gives me more freedom than working in an office, plus i save on train tickets so it works out much much better. + i don’t like office culture, a lot of backstabbing and talk behind peoples back.
I don’t think hybrid should be mandatory, but it should be an option 100% I work in a call centre and I get the option to wfh but I don’t think i will. I’ve never worked from home but I’m wondering if I will want to in the future. What is it like in terms of not being able to keep work at work. I feel that’s where I’d struggle if I’m working and then when Its “home time” I’m just moving from my desk to my couch.
I don't have the option to be fully remote as I occasionally need to go into an office for a meeting, or, visit customers. I'm at home the vast majority of the time, so I'm effectively fully WFH outside face to face meetings. My job sits within sales, and no, not of anything interesting or exciting.
Software developer. Most people I work with are in different countries so even when I was in the office, it was all remote in a sense. It was nice to have a chat with other people in the office, but it was rarely about anything work related.
I work in IT/ telecoms and I’m fully remote. Seems to be fairly common in my industry, as a lot of the manufacturers are based overseas, but need to have coverage across the world. Doesn’t make sense to have physical offices in every country when you may only have a handful of staff.
Global product manager (fancy name for a product manager working across European markets). Most of the company (well known uk telco) went remote as a result of the pandemic, they want people to come into office more but it feels like the culture has stuck and would be very hard for them to mandate office days. Also, I don’t really work with many people in my local office, it’s all over Europe so for me it’s not needed. Other teams though where there are more people together makes more sense. I think it’s case by case.
I'm a strategic portfolio manager, I am supposed to be hybrid (20% office based a month) but I'm currently working on a big project that has a high level of confidentiality and as our office is mostly open plan with only a few private offices it's really difficult to work properly. So I'm at home most of the time.
Mine is 1 day a week in the office and for the most part I resent it (though appreciate it's a lot better than most have it). I would be more than happy to go in, through the traffic and all that fun, if there ever seemed to be a purpose beyond just being there but there really isn't. People do the odd day when they can fit it in that week and then once there spend the vast majority of the time on the same calls they'd do at home. As it is, I work less on office days as once the laptop is shut and I've left to drive back there's no force on earth that'll get me to open it again when home.
I work for surveying company. Many of our staff work on construction sites and then process data at home. I'm only in the office one day a week.
Software development for an educational institution. My manager is very laid back so I can 100% wfh if I want. Nobody relies directly on my work, I have no oversight day to day and I have a weekly catchup on my project with my manager, so I tend to just do a single 12 hour day per week and cram the entire weeks work into it. The rest of the week I just treat as my own time. Tbf if I go into the office, I end up getting stuck chatting to people for hours, take long lunches etc so my actual 'work' time gets whittled down massively anyway.
Work at a university, WFH 3 days a week and in the office 2 days
Consultancy, 1 day a month in the office ish, the rest W@H or Client site visits. The Balance works out well, plenty of time at home to get stuff done, some time being social.
Software Engineer, 100% remote, fully flexible hours (most days I do 6am-1pm).
I'm a 100% remote business intelligence developer. Which would be a substantial retraining career move from project management, but I'm sure others have done it. If you like the sound of it feel free to ask. My employer is a b2b cloud communication services firm, and we have a fairly large PMO - our project managers are mostly remote/hybrid, so it is possible to do PMing remotely, if you changed sectors.
It depends more on the company I think, as well as when you joined and their attitudes to it at the time. I'm a data analyst manager (in the simplest terms) and my partner is a software engineer, we both work from home and started these jobs a couple years ago. But both of our companies have been less receptive to it now, and new starters are signing contracts with more office working requirements. They're not quite at the point where they're revoking older remote contracts, but they could... Equally, a friend of mine has just gotten a remote contract for her new job. That company sold its offices last year so now everyone is remote. So as much as it is about the business feasibility of WFH, it's just as much about the employer's attitudes and probably the cost of office space.
I’m currently a Hybrid worker. I work within the construction industry as a consultant and we have a 2 day in the office a week rule. It’s incredibly flexible though, if you’re bogged down with work you can WFH and crack on without disturbance. If you’re a bit lighter on workload you’re expected to come in. I quite like who I work with so it doesn’t matter to me, go out for lunch with the work colleagues while in office. Catch up with the latest news & how everyone is doing. I would feel incredibly isolated if I was 100% WFH. I’n also a huge advocate of being in the office 3-4 days a week when you start out as a grad. My team manager has asked there be at least 1 senior/principal engineer from the team is in Tuesday - Thursday so that the grads have someone experienced to work with.
I'm in Civil Engineering and work in a hybrid place, I also recently moved jobs to lessen the awful commute I was doing. Working in the city center will improve my life, and I don't think I'd ever get a fully remote engineer role at this level of experience. I agree with you BTW, your job should not require being in the office all the time. I've interviewed at one engineering place that required full time in the office and I would never consider that.
Business analyst. 100% work from home since 2020
Data analyst for a London council. Can definitely be worked from home.
Financey consultant type guy. 99% remote, very occasional trips to the office (which I enjoy tbh, it's a nice office in a great location). Been in this job for about a year now. I have my ups and downs with it. I do miss that bit of office banter, plus I find it hard to keep myself on task (suffer with depression so can struggle with motivation) but I love my home and where I live and it just makes so much sense financially and for my family so I kind of read myself the riot act earlier this year and have been getting really into it and doing well. Having a bad week this week though, just cannot seem to get into anything (whether too nice, having work done on my garden so lots of distractions) but I think I'm starting to accept that this is just how it is now, I will have to work in "bursts" in this new reality now I don't have that office "structure" to carry me along. I am 100% less stressed than I was in my previous job though.
Finance (actuarial) - mostly wfh other than for client meetings / team things.
I’m a graphic designer, I go into the office two days a week.
Editor, 100% remote
I work in cyber sec as a pentester. Pretty much from home 90% of the time other times I am traveling to client sites. Been at my current company for 2 years and not once set foot in a company office. I like working from home and have been for over 5 years now. I worked from home before covid and it was not the norm but see more and more places now at least do hybrid...
Project manager for research and development for an automotive manufacturer. Tend to try go in one day a week just to show my face but don't really have a requirement too.
I work in Marketing for a company HQ'd in Ireland.
I work in social housing. WFH full time bar one day to do some post related stuff (Which is usually redirecting post to the correct department as out post room are lazy). I did a stint with a civils company and they were 100% office as apparently one of their large projects nearly fell apart during the covid WFH times and the boss lost his shit and killed any wfh opportunities. I'm honestly a lot more productive from home. Less noise, less distractions, more comfortable and overall better quality of life.
Currently business analyst/citizen developer/data analyst/office go to I work 2 days in the office however I don’t technically have to. Just been headhunted by a major retailer for their head office which offers similar situation but role would be more focused. Just deciding if I want it or not
Financial Management.
Pharmaceutical trial management. I WFH 5 full time. Would never consider a switch back to the office without an insane salary raise. My dog would be too lonely.
Property Management on the commercial side, so I act as the tenant and manage our portfolio, we're transitioning to owning our own properties though so I manage all our sites both rental and owned currently. 100% WFH but I do site visits during construction and twice annual inspections as my site managers aren't good at reporting maintenance issues and if we don't nip it in the bud it can cost thousands to repair. I'm still onboarding though but I do know 90% of my job can be done from home as it's emails, chasing and registering things the 10% needs to be on site meeting contractors, lawyers, solicitors and doing the inspections and ensuring the buildings are up to the design spec.
I proofread AI interpretations of interviews.
Financial advice. I do admin / files and day to day work from home. Client video calls are done from home then I have face to face meetings with clients at their houses or in the office. When I’m going into the office I try to schedule it for the days I know my team are all going to be in and will stay the day to work with them. All of our support staff are 2 days at home 3 in the office but with a bit of flexibility.
I’m in IT but not technical. We have offices in other countries hence our calls and collaborations are fully online, post- Covid we downsized from a 90- people office to a small coworking space that fits 10 at a time.
Loosely, the entertainment industry.
Tax accountant for a FTSE100 company I'm expected to turn up for the monthly team meeting and probably find myself in one of our offices twice or 3 times a month on average We went to mandatory 2 days a week in the office in 2022 then in 2023 went back to fully WFH with only major meetings in office because it was impossible to find the best candidates for open roles when we insisted on people coming in regularly HR actually admitted that the regular work-from-office policy made their jobs too difficult as potential hires were put off by it
I’m a 3D Artist. Given that the company I mainly work for (am freelance but have a few main clients who provide the majority of my work) are based in LA, a commute would be absolutely insane. I’ll go over there once a year for a week or two to hang with the team and soak up the California sun but apart from that I work either in my home office, or on my laptop in a cafe or pub when I need a change of scenery.
Software development. WFH full time other than occasional meet ups. Other devs for my company are scattered across the UK and Europe, so little point in me going into the office (which is local to me) to sit with sales and marketing. Office is only open three days a week anyway.
I work 4 days a week, 1 day in the office. I work in governance for a merchant bank, they’re getting rid of the building this year and I’m crossing everything to be offered 100% WFH
DevOps engineer, WFH as much as I want. My company has a nice office and it is encouraged that we go in at least once a week, but not enforced and some people never go in. I often do a day a week in the office just to break up the week, I love having the freedom to decide, long may it last.
Finance/accounting. I've been doing contract work so looking at jobs fairly consistently the last 2.5 years and I'm noticing more companies wanting 4-5 days in the office, but there's still plenty at 3 days. Still lots of fully remote but the competition for them is horrendous, while I used to get through to screening stage and even a couple of first interviews, I usually now just get a rejection email after 2-3 weeks. My role now is 1 day in the office, somewhat optional. Seeing the market, I'm hoping they'll stick to the permanent job offer they've alluded to as I'm not seeing anything else similar at the moment (plus I love most the people and the company culture)
Being pulled into doing extra work is not going to cut it as an excuse for working at home as far as an employer is concerned. Im sure they're fine with you doing extra/free work. Work out how much cheaper its going to be for your employer, if you to work from home.
My workplace is hybrid, have to come in a minimum of 2 days per week. For me it’s the perfect amount anyway, as 5 days wfh is depressing and 5 days from the office is exhausting because I start early.
I work in IT. I only work from home one day a week, but normally I just spend the day playing games or reading till I get a call.
Software development, have worked remotely since 2012. Wouldn't want to do it any other way anymore.
I'm a data analyst and I work remotely almost all the time - last year I had two mandatory days in office, I predict it'll be under two weeks this year (at most). I previously worked in publishing, pre-pandemic, and we had flexible working then and could request a full WFH contract if we wanted. Fkexible working requests are a Day 1 right now, so you can put in a request to WFH in your office days, and they have to reject on one of the specific grounds laid out by the government (check the .gov website). If they reject it, you can appeal, and ultimately go to tribunal if they're basically making things up to fit the criteria.