[Closed] Work from home? If so what do you do?

Nerd.

Manage nerds with a bit of nerding myself if the need arises.

IT geek.

This, mostly;

I wfh a few days a week, IT stuff/project management/pre sales. It helps that I do a lot of my work with folk in the States/Australia so 90% of stuff is on virtual meetings anyway.

I'm starting next month - dipping a toe in with Friday mornings, it's more of a work / life balance thing as I'll have my daughter with me (8 months old) although she naps from 9-11 so I'll be free to work bar 20 mins for a feed / change and have to suffer BabyTV for a bit.

My plan is that if it works well to increase it to the full day Friday and see where we go from there, although I would still need Child Care as I can't work and be Dad full-time as I need to take appointments and I'm not prepared to plonk her in front of the TV all day.

Wait for it..... I work in IT too, but on the Sales, Marketing and 'Consultancy' side of things - in reality it doesn't really matter where I work - I'm 10 mins from the office at home, I work on a separate floor to most of my colleagues all the stuff I need for work is cloud based and my VOIP desktop phone will work anywhere as long as I can plug it into a router. Most of them wouldn't notice if I was as home or in my office.

90% of the battle is assuring whoever you work for that they don't need to 'keep an eye on you'

Home based nerd here with some travel. Location does normally come into it - Does where you live offer decent internet access as network aware applications (web and software)are becoming more bandwidth intensive? Also, if you do need to travel think how far away are you from the nearest airport/train station?

We have a guy who lives in the Outer Hebrides and it eats into his life when he does have to travel for work. flying on a Saturday as no flights on a Friday. Stuck in the city as flights cancelled due to weather.

Maybe best to research companies that are quite modern in their way of working and see if they have suitable home based jobs that match your skills. A complete career change might not give you the money you are looking for.

Slacademic!
Mix it up from home and work when I am not teaching or don't need the labs!

Maybe best to research companies that are quite modern in their way of working

any suggestions from peeps to give me a headstart?

I used to have a boss who was very pragmatic and took the view that as long as the work got done and we were contactable (email & phone) during work hours he didn't care where we were. He treated us like grown-ups. I used to WFH about one day a fortnight if I felt like it. It broke the week up nicely.

He was replaced by another boss who took the complete opposite approach - we MUST be in the office and we MUST ask his permission in advance for absolutely everything. Bizarrely, he was based in a different office to the rest of us so he never had any idea where we were or what we were doing anyway. He was a massive ****. I left.

So clearly the key is to have a decent boss.

Forum slave

Edit: not really, motion design and creative direction

An easy leap for you would be a risk management consultant, visiting clients, auditing processes Strategic risk, business resilience if you want to broaden it.

Bit of time on the road, but a bit of time at home writing up etc.

Depends if you want "home based" or "at home" not necessarily the same thing, I realise.

Does nerd = developer/programmer?

Sundayjumper - Member

I used to have a boss who was very pragmatic and took the view that as long as the work got done and we were contactable (email & phone) during work hours he didn't care where we were. He treated us like grown-ups. I used to WFH about one day a fortnight if I felt like it. It broke the week up nicely.

He was replaced by another boss who took the complete opposite approach - we MUST be in the office and we MUST ask his permission in advance for absolutely everything. Bizarrely, he was based in a different office to the rest of us so he never had any idea where we were or what we were doing anyway. He was a massive ****. I left.

So clearly the key is to have a decent boss.

Definitely this, my last boss was like the former & the new boss is like the latter, more people have left/been off long term sick in the last 6 months, than did during the previous 8 years & moral is so low no one really gives a t0ss about doing the job right, just bums on seats now.

Programmer/Nerd.

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plyphon - Member

Does nerd = developer/programmer?

Nope, figure of speech, I'm a support for 1000 servers I guess.

Technical Illustrator plus a bit of html/flash coding. I've been to maybe 3 face to face meeting in the last two years.

Basically I work from home and for myself so if someone offers to pay me to do something and i think I can make a decent job of it then I'll do it.

I'm civil service, and they are getting keener on people working from home. Hoping to get the chance later this year, subject to our poor IT being improved. Must have a dedicated broadband and phone line installed because what we do is SO secret. 🙄

MrsMC works in child protection for the local authority and can work from as and when it suits. She doesn't need the security in her role that I apparently do, strangely.

Making websites and ****ing and shit like that

Another nerd here/. I've wfh for 4 years. My boss is in Detroit, my nearest colleague is now in Ottawa. I develop IT training courses - teaching people how to teach people to install our ridiculously complicated portfolio of software.

Since we were assimilated I've discovered I no longer have permission to wfh and am currently battling an automated request system which will grant me permission to continue, once I get approval from God, possibly his boss too.

I used to have a boss who was very pragmatic and took the view that as long as the work got done and we were contactable (email & phone) during work hours he didn't care where we were. He treated us like grown-ups. I used to WFH about one day a fortnight if I felt like it. It broke the week up nicely.

Did you work for me?

That's pretty much my stance. I'll do a day from home every other week and let my team do the same. We're all on MS Lync so you can see if anyone's been away from the computer for too long. 😉

Analysis/Project/Product Management in Financial services.

Being able to work from home is very nice but I wouldn't want to do it all the time, interaction with colleagues in person is required to maintain perspective and build productive relationships. IMO.

all on MS Lync so you can see if anyone's been away from the computer for too long.

I do 3 days a week from home, 2 days from the office.

As above, it's about understanding managers. I did 14 years working in London for the same people, so they knew me pretty well. Basically said "we're moving to Sheffield, if you want to carry on employing me, great. This is how it will work." They thought about it and went "yeah, OK." 3 years in now. It has it's (major) downsides (office time), but the upsides are equally major (cheeky midweek rides in the Peaks)

I'm a lighting designer for an event company. I basically do all the pre-production work at home, then go down for meetings and the on-site stuff. The key is good IT support, a willingness to be flexible and understanding that you're in a priviledged position, so don't take the piss.

Qualified Accountant that moved into SOX and then into Oracle.

Now work permanently from home for a company that offers Oracle support and purely work on Tax and Reg updates for clients.

Perfect job for myself as it means that no more travel (once a qtr into the office in Canary Wharf for the update) and able to fit the work in around the family and other things.

Boss is great, as long as we get the work done then it doesnt really matter when we do it. Most meeting are held either via Skype or a GOTO meeting.

Am looking to move to either Scotland or Wales soon though to enjoy the riding even more.

Retail display consultant, self employed. I go to London a couple of days a week when not wfh.
Previous job introduced me to wfh which was doing strategic procurement.
Personally wfh works well if you have a specific task or deadline and you have regular phone and email contact with others. I found it very isolating if I just had strategic stuff too do which required lots of self starting.

Did you work for me?

As someone has mentioned above, I got a transfer in my current role to the North to allow me to work from home 3 days and do one overnight in London. I think because they got bored of me asking and several other people in the dept worked that way

From a lifestyle point of view it was great but it was career limiting as I miss out on a lot of networking and the company does seem to have a culture of presenteeism in the head office.

I moved roles in a sideways move to a different division in an attempt to spend even less time in London and now work 2 or 3 days in Manchester and 2 or 3 at home.

I work in a commercial role developing and implementing new propositions for a large utility

European marketing manager, haven't had a desk for about 10 years.
Upsides - work from wherever I want to, including home
Downsides - Lots of travel, so there are periods when I don't get a lot of time to work from home...

Have a look at [url= http://www.flexibility.co.uk/ ]This website[/url] for some ideas on companies that are involved in 'smarter working' or working from home. The company I work for is on there as case study.

If you fancy setting up your own business, then [url= http://www.arise.com/ ]Arise[/url] are always looking for people to work in customer service

Chartered QS here and I get to work from home a fair bit.

It's not really a company policy but more on a team basis. Luckily I work in team that is pretty trusting. We work on the basis that some days will be long and you'll need to work late but equally if a meeting finishes early and you can get back early go for it.

Some days I find working from home brilliant and I get loads done...other days are not so good and I get distracted easily (this is more common now my other half is on maternity leave with the little dude). I'm not adverse to nicking an hour here and there for a ride in the week (paid back by working a bit later another day). The flexibility makes my life easier and I get to avoid the traffic into Nottingham on the days that I stay at home.

IT Consultant and Video Animations here.
I work from home 50% of the week and hotdesk in a shared office the other 50%.
Find the combination works well - otherwise working from home can drive you slightly nuts.

I do 3 days a week from home, 2 days from the office.

I'm hoping to do this sometime this year. Looking to move from Glasgow down to the tweed valley. Cheeky lunch hour blasts 8)

Oh really?
HKEY_USERS\%usersid%\Software\Microsoft\Communicator]"IdleThreshold"=dword=%some value that allows you to pop down the shops%

Or use the Lync mobile client and be able to respond to things if someone does need something (occasional stalling needed till I'm back at my desk).

IT nerd here. Our company helps other companies deploy and use Lync so we're quite good at the WFH thing. How much I actually get to do it depends a lot on the customer and commitments - I couldn't (and wouldn't want to) do it full time.

I've just set up my own graphic design and marketing business 'INDUSTRY COTTAGE', base at home in my wee hoose 12 miles outside edinburgh. its been my plan for quite a few years.

early days and in truth, still adjusting to it but it beats slowly getting ground away in an position id had for 11 years that was frankly doing my tits in. plus no more 3 hours of sitting on a bus everyday.

of course it remains to be seen if the obvious mid week biking opportunities and other advantages out-weight the uncertainly / veggie feast / famine nature of a start up.

I've been self-employed for 9 years now.
Design of all kinds.
User interfaces, products, websites, identities, etc.

Some of my clients have remained the same for all 9 years:
http://pixelmagic.com/

Rare telephone meetings and very very rare face-to-face meetings.
Email does just fine 🙂

I could do with more money, but the thought of going back to work for an agency doesn't tempt me. It would probably have to be my own business.

Quite happy for the moment, but I'm sure there will come a day when nobody wants to go to a 60yo freelancer 🙁

IT PM - Been working from home for years now, but that's about to change (new job).
I actually think it has done me some harm mentally. Lone working with massive workloads and pressure isn't good for me personally, I prefer to get out and speak to actual real life faces.
I can visit office once a week currently, but frequently it's prevented due to cost, similarly meeting clients.

On reflection it has had its good and bad sides, time will tell if I miss it, but very much looking forward to a change.
I would go back to it, if I worked for myself.

Manage nerds with a bit of nerding myself if the need arises.

+1

Work from home 1 or 2 days a week. Here today, listening to Planet Rock, making endless cups of tea and throwing logs onto the stove now and then. Its good...

Live in Lancashire. Work in a team based in London. When not in London, then am either in one of the NW offices or at home. I try to make sure Fridays are WFH day.

Employer is very sensible about this sort of thing, but am senior enough to be trusted.

EDIT: it does depend partly on personality and role. If you're an introvert and work best alone, it will be good. Often the role one is on suits certain personality types - I'm an extrovert, so need to think out loud and work best with others. My role works well with that.

Don't assume there aren't the same or similar FS sector roles in the North. Concentrations will be around Leeds and Chester.

...listening to Planet Rock...

Business Development. One third time home-working; One third out with clients; One third in office with managers and delivery team.

Interesting stuff. I could work from home but generally don't. I just don't really like being stuck at home all day, and my commute isn't particularly onerous.

Also I have some colleagues who work from home a lot, and IME it doesn't make for a great team. Other channels of communication are no replacement for somebody being physically a few feet away.

Shit. Nerd here too. (I just read that Lync registry key, with interest. Hence the swearword).

I prefer Geek to nerd. Setting the idle timeout is fine till someone actually tries to talk to you.. mobile client ftw.

So clearly the key is to have a decent boss.

x1000. As long as I get those boxes ticked, he isn't concerned about how or where I tick'em. Work from home Tuesdays so I can cover school pickup, work solidly 9-3:15, then do a couple of hours later in the evening. More or less a one man band in my role (architecture, innovation) so as long as I show my face for a reasonable part of the week it's all good.

EDIT: it does depend partly on personality and role. If you're an introvert and work best alone, it will be good. Often the role one is on suits certain personality types - I'm an extrovert, so need to think out loud and work best with others. My role works well with that.

Good point that. I'm probably biased opposite, so being alone at home and focussed (apart from STW natch) works for me.

I'm a stay at home geek.

OP, get a sales job covering an area patch. I did. I work from home now, no more balls of a commute, no office politics (expect for when I argue with myself). I did a nice 45 min run this morning as i've got a lot more free time on my hands. Im out the office though 3/4 days a week visiting clients.

I'm not clever enough to be a geek.

I'm the 'our man in Scotland' for the company I work for. Head office is near Melton so makes sense to work from home. It's a technical sales position so I'm out of the home office 3/5 of the week.

Works for me - just have to make sure the patch performs and the boss leaves me to get on with it.

I don't work from home but my mate does.

He seems to pop up on Strava quite regularly - a run or quick blat on the bike around 10AM.

Quite often his Mrs will check him in on Facebook at lunchtime at whatever eating establishment they are at.

Nice work if you can get it.

I work from home, and just bagged a new job working from home too.

Don't think I'll ever work in an office again, given the choice!

I have gone 5 days straight working from [i]no less than 10[/i] different coffee shops. One in the morning, one in the afternoon. And I cycled to them - bonus!

What do I do? IT 'stuff' #DevOps (AWS platform)

EDIT: Interestingly, my new employers are all 100% WFH. We don't have [i]an office[/i] per se.

I bring Nerds/Ops/Strategic Change into Workstreams then Programme Manage the underlying Projects until successful conclusion (Finance/Banking/Investments) in EMEA.
So I get to COnfCall/VidConf/TeleCon and actually meet folks. So 1/3rd of my time (I could push it to 1/2 but choose not to) can be WFH, for example this week I'm WFH and had 4 VidConf's and a couple of calls already today, this is typical.
It's pressured WFH, you don't get to see the sub meetings and adhoc meetings that go on in a work environment and because I'm a control freak I find this very hard to not be involved with (that's why I choose to only WFH 1/3rd of the time) It's also why I have a place Town, so I can be in the office most of the time.

Up points, well yes I get to ride more and if I get it all in place I get to ride from Home in Hampshire, get it wrong and I'm riding around That London (which isn't inspiring anymore)
Down points, you can get left out of chat, chat that can have influence on the Projects. You don't build up much of a relationship with the Strategic Team, PMO's are notorious for charging stuff all over the place when not guided (which so pisses me off) I miss the office structure, the noise and to some extent the banter. I like interacting with other Project Managers and Heads of... and WFH doesn't give you that option.

I let PM"s that I control WFH, so too BA's, I get CLevel calls from their home but most of them head into the office and that's where I prefer to be.

Copywriter.
I drink a lot of cups of tea.
I fettle with my bikes to break things up a bit.

Computer programmer. WFH 4 days a week, 30 mile each way commute when i am in the office.
Career stagnation is less of a problem for me than not having a job would.

We work from home making bike parts, one-offs and projecty bits. It's a financial struggle sometimes but the lack of commute (apart from the walk/cycle to the post office most days) more than makes up for the relative tightening of the purse strings. There's more to life than working 5 days a week to line somebody else's pockets!

edited to add- it'd kill me to have to go back to working/commuting again after four years of scratching along.

Headhunter/recruiter --do a lot of work globally, so working at home helps accommodate time differences worldwide.
Have worked at home for the past 11 years and can't imagine going back to an office setting. Does take a little discipline, but also allows a quick MTB ride as there is a trail that begins 300 yards from the front door.

I walk the dog 3 times a day, and often ride during my lunch break.

What's not to like?

😀

OP if you can't get finance risk management work in the north (Manchester/Leeds) you must have 2 heads. Huge huge shortage of good people and loads of roles including new challenger banks etc. All the big 4 are desperately trying to get people, then you have all the financial services corporates. It's a big sector and very active. Better hours and commutes than London too!

Electrical engineer, work from home 3 days a week. 6 music is my station of choice. I love working from home these days but my office is in the cellar so can't wait for the kids to leave home so I can bag the loft room.

Artist

They all get shot up and through away 🙁 ... But it's an excuse to paint more 🙂

http://black2colour.com/arrows/

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Old job Quantity Surveyor