Working From Home. Is it what it's cracked-up to be ?

Hello,

Does anyone here really enjoy working from home and if so what do you do ? 

It really hit home to me, whilst out having an early morning walk today by the river, that I would be much happier working from home. I have worked a physical job most of my life and have known a change was long overdue, for years actually. I've realised this is causing me more stress than what it's worth and I'm in the process of minimising as much stress as I can, even if it may involve a loss of income. 

I've looked around at some of the most common jobs people are doing from home but don't really interest me, like corporate companies, data-entry, sales and so on. They're just not my cup of tea. I'd much more prefer to be helpful or creative or contribute something positive in some way. I'm just wondering how to go about finding work I could do from home that could be interesting or maybe even meaningful ? 

Any insights would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.

  • I used to be a freelance translator. It was incredibly boring, I used to have to translate contracts, certificates, instruction manuals and such. I stopped because I didn't get regular work anymore, as companies have switched to using good old Google Translate to save money, lol. I'm studying art and design at college at the moment, I'd quite like to be a freelance artist or illustrator.

  • Really interesting ,the country needs more good teachers

  • Thats so interesting! I'll need to do more research to learn more Pray

  • Thanks for this, really cool of you. I have grabbed Audible and I'm giving it a go, when I get chance. But I guess I just need to up my committment and as he says, dont fret about remembering, just surround myself to more of the language.

    Always knew my French lineage to be there, but never committed myself to properly.

    Found it amazing that when the Normans invaded England they brought French language to the UK and for a time this country was bilingual! Amazing to think

  • Thank you, I'll look into that.

  • That's such a coincidence Michael I thought I was alone in this. Since being a child I've always felt connected to my distant French ancestry ...and drawn more to that country than to the British part of me. My French, I'm sorry to say, is still very poor through lack of exposure to it, but I would like to be fluent one day.

    What are your recommendations for learning successfully? I tend to hyperfocus and then burnout on subjects, so I find slow ongoing progression difficult to maintain generally, but then I remain very frustrated that I can't speak it well enough to talk confidently - think it's a part of being ADHD as well.

    PS: I work from home as a UI designer and am finding that now we don't have physical meetings to go to, the requirements are workflow have gone to 100% all the time. I'm working much longer hours and am being given continuously more work to do, generally I feel very stressed out now. I hadn't realised how the commute actually gave me a mental detachment from the work day. Now it's all here together and it's much tougher than I expected

  • Hey, Turtle!  I've worked from home since 2006, as I'm an agoraphobe and cannot drive.  It takes a lot of discipline, but works for me.  I do transcription, which is something you don't want to do, but it works for me.  You can try UpWork and Freelancer to find creative work. Writing is another option, but it's very difficult to break into.  Good luck!  

  • Hiya Turtle,

    That's an interesting one.  Whilst COVID has sent my medical phobias into overdrive to the point I've been terrified to leave the house, lockdown and working from home did not bother me one iota at first.  My hobbies are all at home and I always worked from home a couple of days a week anyway. 

    I've always found it easiest to have a couple of days in the office at the beginning of the week so I can have those meetings and get a handle on what I need to do.  Then have two or three days at home at the end of the week so the hyper focus can go into overdrive, whilst the world can get lost and leave me alone while I produce the goods.  It suits the job and produces the goods.

    Since the autumn, though, it's been tough.  It's the lack of fresh air, change of scenery and the fact that my body hasn't moved for so long...My boss seems to think we all need team 'coffee mornings' via MS Teams, to make sure our mental health isn't suffering from lack of social contact, bless him.  But, well, I'm always happy to hear from my colleagues when they need me, otherwise I'd rather just crack on.

    For a more creative field.... Good luck!  I've no suggestions but it's got to be do-able.  My lovely step-daughter is an illustrator and artist.  For the want of other employment she's been painting and selling online really well.

  • Frankly it can be done anywhere where there's a PC.

    That sounds like my ideal way of working, preferably with a lot of working hour flexibility and a good degree of independence. I'm not sure I'd want to work from home if it meant chained to the computer all day 9-5 though. I get it would work for those glad to be shot of the actual office. I've never experienced that so for me it would be just like taking an office job so I'm not sure what I'm looking for actually exists.

    Maybe I'd need to create something myself or go self-employed in some way. I wasn't brought-up with all this technology, working remotely and so on, so when I look at job listings of working from home online, it looks like a scary world I don't understand. I don't even know what half of the job titles mean and those I've looked up are about as appealing as chewing sandpaper. 

    I realise the job market is huge today with a million different job titles but from what I see, the majority of them would have me stuck at a computer all day, working for employers or to deadlines and basically doing an office job for the sake of it. It's hard to know where to start to find something more than that, as at this stage, I'm not looking to jump from one hamster wheel to another. It's pretty overwhelming and daunting as I feel like I'm starting from a blank sheet of paper so late on.

  • What did you do working from home and is that what you'd prefer in the future ?

  • I always said I'd never work from home given the option because I needed the commute to "switch off" from work. After around a year of doing it I can't imagine ever going back into the office.

    I do data crunching and report writing (it's various outputs of management information and ad-hoc question answering which keeps it interesting) Frankly it can be done anywhere where there's a PC. Even though I was based in an office my actual team was scattered all over the country, so a lot of our work was done virtually anyway. With working from home I've found I don't have the background chatter behind me (I frequently wore headphones in the office to block other people out when I was working on something), I'm not experiencing the sheer discomfort of physically being around folk and doing small talk (it's amazing how much of that I don't miss) and I now have the ability to take time away from work exactly when I need it. Even if it's just 5 mins to annoy the cat, make a brew or just stand outside in the garden to get air. My away time from everyone is exactly that. 

    The other big difference is not having to manage the travel when I'm stressed. I've been finding things horribly difficult over the last few weeks because of an irreversible work-fudge I had to deal with. My saving grace was being able to switch everything off and crash straight onto the bed at the end of the day. The last time I had work issues and had to manage the daily commute - when I factored in the frustration of cancelled connections, noisy stations and navigating the town center with various people constantly approaching to try and get me to sign up for stuff - I felt constantly exhausted and was almost on the brink of psychological collapse. 

    I've no desire to return to the office anytime soon. I'm kind of adjusted with it now so I'd be resistant with going back in and would get my psychologist to weigh in to recommend to my managers I stay put. 

  • I used to work from home, now I study from home. It can be difficult to motivate yourself working from home... I would recommend, if you can, having a separate office to your bedroom, and getting changed as if you're going to work!

  • I mainly teach from home, although a handful come to me for private lessons: teaching English as a foreign language. 

    So, no lore commuting, best of all, Jo lore commuting at the crack of dawn, though currently it can mean so have very little time to go out to shop for necessities, or to go very far. 

    So things have narrowed a great deal since the pandemic started. 

  • I'm doing a python programming course from Cisco.  It's supposed to be 70 hours long.  But I've put in a lot more hours and I'm only about 80% of the way through.

    Because it's free, it's all online with no tutor support or contact with other students.

    In the past I enjoyed the physical college environment.  I may be very unsociable, but it helps seeing others doing similar activities and a bit of social interaction.  Also it gets me out of the house and I get some fresh air.

    I'm also serious about the canteen/restaurant comment.  I am a useless cook and many of these places have subsidised food.

    Most of my previous college courses had low dropout rates.  On my first degree, I estimate only 20% left in the first term.

  • I had a couple of attempts at College part-time in a classroom setting 

    Ability wasn't an issue. I just couldn't hack doing a fairly demanding full-time job at the same time. I mean, they say some of these courses are part-time but my most recent one had two subjects and it was a real struggle alongside full-time work.

    Around 97% of the students were only working part-time or unemployed but what amazed me was 2/3rds dropped out well before the end of the first term and according to the tutors, this was normal. I guess they don't care once they've got your money. The plus was a small class size. 

    I'd probably prefer the classroom but I doubt I would go back now and I wouldn't dream of doing it alongside full-time work, and as you say, running other areas of your life. Was it  IT you're studying ?

  • During this lockdown I've been doing a lot of online studying at home.  After a lot of soul searching, I prefer to do it in a proper college environment with other students.

    At home, motivation is a problem, there's no one about to ask questions when I get stuck.  I need face to face contact and regular interaction with people doing the same things.

    At home, I have to do my own cooking and washing up.  I prefer a canteen/restaurant.

  • May I ask what your area is ?

  • Yes I guess it's hard to strike a balance in some lines of work but I'm becoming more convinced prioritising what works for me to function better is number one. Otherwise, life can become robotic and can feel like you're living on autopilot which just doesn't work and isn't worth it long-term.

  • I see this from a slightly different aspect. My wife works from home were I am retired and at home. She’s a information officer, deals with statistics, and on the fence whether it’s better at home or work. 

    Being at work is better for thinking about work and putting personal stuff to the back of her mind. Being at home is better for seeing us. I can help by making tea and lunch. She’s saved a lot by not going out for lunch or buying a treat on a bad day. There’s no hour commute and she can vent work problems on me. Rather than simmer all day. She’s allowed headphones at work for music, so there is no difference there.

    She also uses Microsoft teams and online applications to communicate with other colleagues all over the country.  They seem a good team. She also shuts down the laptop screen to hide. Her phone is also connected through her lap top so she doesn’t miss a call.

    All in all I think she’s better of working from home, but this has put another two hundred pounds on our electricity bill. I have to remind myself not to bug her to often.

  • yeh just costs so much to get anybody to do anything theses days. I'm in wales and it is all second homes round here, so the builders aren't interested unless they can get 150k and over  for a job .

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