Who's still working from home these days and what job do you do?

At a time when fuel prices are through the roof and we’re supposed to be becoming more climate-conscious, the concept of mandatory office attendance is indeed ridiculous.

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Nervous_Difficulty_6@reddit

Climate conscious I agree with, as we’re being told we need to be more conscious about global warming, yet companies force you to attend an office, where you could complete your work at home.

Fuel prices wise, I don’t really see it being an issue. Diesels gone high, sure. But an awful lot of people will have EVs through salary sacrifice now, and costs fuck all to charge them. Plus, a lot of people can expense the fuel.

For me, its efficiencies being impacted negatively when going into the office. People will arrive late because of traffic, or just leave late. People will leave early because they need to be home for ‘XYZ’ or to ‘beat the traffic’. There’s also more people to chat to within the office, so you’ll become distracted. For the average 8-9 hour office working day, I can guarantee half of it is lost due to inefficiencies.

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Buddy-Matt@reddit

Plus, a lot of people can expense the fuel.

Who's expensing fuel for their commute???

And fwiw, I see office chat as an essential part of any role. People aren't mindless machines to get the most efficient amount for work from, and mental downtime actually helps problem solving and enhances creative thinking.

And nothing wrong with having flexitime - providing g everyone sticks to core hours. Anyone getting in late and leaving early though need a quiet word, as that's taking the piss.

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grybountilIdie@reddit

Fuel wise, does heating and running hundreds of buildings instead of one make sense? It means the company pays for it so doesn't make sense financially in that respect, but it could definitely be argued that the overall impact is lower (assuming a proportion of people walk, use bicycles or public transport)

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Ch1pp@reddit

On the other hand you've got 8 months of the year where you don't use heating and conversely if you aren't expected to wear office gear then air conditioning isn't necessary. In our office we turn off the air con if there's no-one in the sunny rooms.

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grybountilIdie@reddit

Very good points, but not every country is 'hot' that much of the year. Many hot countries are also unbearable without Aircon, so the same consideration should be given for that when it comes to WFH.

In my industry it seems like the established staff still WFH but new joiners, particularly fresh grass are in every day.

The higher ups need people in the office to keep the property portfolio value up and they know the long serving staff can find jobs elsewhere, so they force the young grads in every day because they're all grateful to take any job currently.

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CoffeeIgnoramus@reddit

From my perspective (an opinion, not based on stats), this is much more complex than people seem to realise. I work in a few businesses and my partner is head of hiring in another. And I'm speaking as a person with nothing to gain either way. My self and my partner work hybrid, so I'm not bashing either side. Just explaining my own experience.

People are not factoring in is that there were loads of job vacancies and most became work from home just after the pandemic and stayed like that because it was popular and it was an employees market.

Now we are seeing a slowdown where the jobs are filled, companies are not hiring as much, which both means there are fewer jobs regardless, companies that advertised WFH just to attract people, will have reverted to office based. Also, as much as people hate this, office based work does have huge advantages for businesses and (some) employees. That's not to say there aren't huge advantages for WFH for both too, but they've now been flooded due to my previous points. So now working from the office is a more "important" role to fill.

So my experienced guess would be that it is reducing but not just because someone flicked a switch. There are lots of factors giving that impression.

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MrSam52@reddit

Most are hybrid with an increasing number of days in the office.

Was just thinking the same thing, a lot of people I know still work remotely, although I realise that's anecdotal.

A lot of job adverts I get in my email are remote/hybrid also.

UX (user experience) design consultant, mostly government/public sector projects. Minimal need to go to the office. I jump around projects fairly frequently, and being remote/WFH is a non-negotiable now.

TheKingOfSpite@reddit

IT Support, fully remote with no office

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Neither_Cloud236@reddit

I thought that was a real blood 🤦🏽‍♀️

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90sRiceWagon@reddit

Mainly WFH unless I need to go do something, events management and marketing.

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Ethel-The-Aardvark@reddit

Technical Author for a multinational software firm.

Well, at least I was until I retired two weeks ago, but before that I'd WFH for six years (I was office-based in my previous role and was sent to WFH during Covid, but then got a new job that came with a full remote contract). My whole (ex)team have remote working contracts, in fact most of the company do. Their small UK offices in Warrington and London could only ever accommodate a very small proportion of employees.

My husband is a very senior software architect for a different firm and has been fully remote for over 10 years. His company previously rented a big office building but got rid of it because it simply wasn't cost-effective. I think they've retained a small office in London, he goes in very occasionally for meetings.

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djjudas21@reddit

I do, as an IT infrastructure consultant. Occasional on-site meetings depending on individual customers, but the vast majority at home.

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FairBlueberry9319@reddit

Software Engineer

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You_moron04@reddit

Public sector local government. Purely because due to budget cuts the council’s had to downsize so much on their offices our last buildings can’t fit the workforce in anymore, so we rotate.

They are trying to get us back to the office, but people just don’t give one and to be fair I don’t blame them. The councillors themselves take the fucking piss

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Zealousideal-Habit82@reddit

Resource analyst. 9 more working days to go then made Redundant on May 2nd. Early retirement for me at 52, dismantled my work desk on Saturday, just laptop on the dining table now if any one needs me, already done what I need to do for the day, going to nip to M&S now. Offshoring and ai have come for me.

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Lo_jak@reddit

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Bridge/Civil engineer.

Google Workspace SME, lucky enough to be working long term for a firm in Dublin who all work remotely. They fly me over quarterly for a team day and dinner.

I'm a contractor and so many remote jobs have become 2 or more days in the office because "it's a requirement". There's no logical reason, the number of times I've been in the office and still meeting via Teams just proves it. Suppliers, team mates, colleagues in other offices, are all remote or not in on the same days we are. makes no sense but I suppose it makes the person who pays the rent every month feel better.

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Subject_Ad1286@reddit

Product Manager, WFH 2-3 days a week. Prefer being in the office but it’s handy to be at home some of the time.

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Longjumping-Tune-454@reddit

How did you get into it?

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Subject_Ad1286@reddit

All B2B: event marketing > product marketing > sales/relationship management > product marketing + business operations > product management.

Basically, getting a range of different experiences within a small number of different businesses in adjacent sectors.

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PilotXiu@reddit

I work for the council. There's a half hearted requirement to go in once a fortnight but it's barely enforced. WFH is the one perk of an otherwise unbearable job, I literally have the workload of what, just 5 years ago, would have been assigned to 2.5 people. WFH is great, but it does mean I end up working way beyond my contracted hours.

Public sector job here. My whole service has been 90% WFH since 2020, and everything has worked absolutely fine with no issues, but we now have a new head of service who wants to implement a full return to work, despite not having the office space and ignoring all reasonable adjustments, that it is policy to have where needed, and ignoring all employees who only applied for their jobs because it was advertised as hybrid.

It's definitely a busy job, keeps you on your toes!

No worries! Each Talking Therapies service runs slightly differently depending on the area. I've not come across a talking therapy service that hires a life coach however, you might be interested in PWP work. You have to study at postgraduate level (PGCert in Primary Mental Health Care) and it's an intense course as it's condensed into one year whilst you work full time hours at the same time. If you're interested though, I'd definitely look into it. I imagine you would get onto it pretty easily with your experience!

Happy to answer any other questions if you have any ☺️

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JamsHammockFyoom@reddit

I work for one of the BT Group social media teams, although we’re not exclusively home based.

Looking to leave and accepted the fact I’ll end up losing WFH, tbh. I’ll miss it!

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thegiantpeach@reddit

Publisher, 1 official day in the office, but this isn't strictly monitored or enforced, and people tend to stay at home anyway. Many of my colleagues relocated to other parts of the country during the COVID-19 pandemic, so although we have an office in London, people don't tend to visit it often. Although I believe my company is still an outlier, our main competitor has their staff in the office 3-4 times a week.

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Traditional_Earth149@reddit

Mechanical estimator, does involve some travel to site and office but mostly at home. (For clarity work for my self but prior to that I was in the same position)

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iamthabeska@reddit

Network Project Manager, WFH. Customer site visits every so often.

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bluemoonrune@reddit

I write and edit financial/macroeconomic research. Full-time wfh (largely because my company is based elsewhere).

lilymui@reddit

Aerospace software developer. My company is based in the US. Once a week I’m meeting up with a colleague in WeWork but this is voluntary. Just to get out of the house really.

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J0intAccount@reddit

Been WFH my entire career, even before COVID.

Supernewt@reddit

Finance role. 100% WFH but I do occasionally travel into the office for meetings, once a month or so depending.

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yearsofpractice@reddit

IT project manager for a corporate multinational. I have full freedom to WFH or in the office. It’s an unfashionable opinion but I prefer to work from the office more than home, but I’m fortunate that my commute is an easy 20 minute bus ride into a city centre.

It’s worth saying that I prefer the office as it gives me work/real life separation.

Also - based on my 30 years of corporate experience, I’ve seen no difference in people’s efficiency based on their work location - home or office. Frankly, when I’ve had direct reports, the freedom to work where they want has increased their willingness to go above and beyond. It’s almost as if you trust adults, they’ll act like adults… who’d have thunk it?!

So yeah. That’s me.

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Longjumping-Tune-454@reddit

What domain?

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prodjex@reddit

I work in digital marketing for a charity and work at the office only 1 day per month. Since Covid, we’ve greatly reduced our office space, so we don’t have enough desks for everyone.

As a parent, I truly appreciate the current setup (I live about 20 miles from the office) because it makes the school run super easy and relaxed. I have a 1 hour work gap from 3-4, which allows me to change and go for a run to the school for pickup at 3:15, then when I get home at 4, I don’t have to worry about the sweat and smell and can get on with work from 4-6pm.

JenksbritMKII@reddit

I work for a Danish marketing agency. Most clients are Nordic, everyone at my small company are Danish based except 3 of us - me in the UK, one in France, one in Germany. They pay me as a contractor but I have a salary (Danish wage which is much higher than UK companies), Danish annual leave (32 days) and British bank holidays. I met the founders when they worked for a Danish company with a UK office and they asked me to join them when they started their own agency.

It's a pretty cushy gig and I make significantly more than I would for the same role at a UK company. Not without it's cons as I hate working agency side and client management. I much prefer in house roles but it's too good work life balance with my kids and family life.

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Roofless_@reddit

IT Network infrastructure, 2 days WFH, 3 days in the office.

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taintedbow@reddit

Marketing and communications.

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psychgirl97@reddit

Data Analyst at a university - I go into the office roughly once every 8 weeks for a 1hr meeting

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ForestCl0uds@reddit

I work in marketing and communications. I work from home - the team is spread right across the UK and there's not much point going in, aside from for our big team meetings which rotate locations.

I work in advertising.

I'm one of the few people who is allowed to work from home because I've been here forever and I've got myself into a position of 'if I leave, nobody else knows how to do X, Y, Z'.

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gunbo3000@reddit

Sales for a SaaS/elearning business. Fully remote company. Talking to the owners the other day theres definitely a feel that if we were to start over again we would have a centralised office, but we're so distributed now it wouldnt be possible without having to rehire for most of our team

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Altruistic_Cress_700@reddit

Consultant for a small lender on a project. They are two hours drive away. One day in the office every three weeks.

The rest of the team is also mostly remote.

What I would say is that productivity is higher in the office. I think the sweet spot is 2-3 days in and 2-3 days at home (per week).

Certain conversations only usually happen face to face.

I'd definitely tell my kids to be mostly in the office early in their career. Or you'll get limited progression.

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Icy-Contest-7702@reddit

Productivity is only higher in the office when you are hybrid in my experience. If you are in every day it recalibrates

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Nerderis@reddit

Cannot agree more. We used to be 100% office based, then COVID hit, 2+ WFH, been told they have noticed increased productivity, etc, no need to come back, then we have been bought out by another big world wide player in the sector and all changed, contracts rewritten and we had to come back to 100% office based. I have automated most of my tasks (as it was excel sheets), with reports generated by their software, and then I was really struggling to look busy at the office. All of my past team members left because we had to come back, and pretty much all of them still works from home with other companies but myself and another colleague, as he works for BAE systems, so no way to be remote for his role and myself - I went to be a courier as it pays more than double what I was getting in the "office" job without realising that other jobs can pay more and keep you fit at the same time

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Altruistic_Cress_700@reddit

I agree if you are more experienced. But for juniors where the rate of change is so fast, they need to be in most of the time (in my view).

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huntinwabbits@reddit

I had a scary thought recently that it would be entirely possible these days for a young person beginning work to get a remote job right off the bat and continue working for years without ever going to an office.

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south_by_southsea@reddit

I'd definitely tell my kids to be mostly in the office early in their career. Or you'll get limited progression.

Gazeless_Stare@reddit

Fully remote employee of a large UK-based publisher. They have become very stingy with WFH in the past few years but luckily I joined during the pandemic when they were handing out remote employment contracts like candy. They keep trying to get me to switch to an office-based contract requiring 3 days a week in an office that’s 2.5h away from where I lived, despite my performance being consistently rated excellent. And I keep standing my ground and refusing because there really is no logical reason why they’re asking this.

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kitty4196@reddit

I work for a local authority, my job is entirely laptop based, not customer facing.

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Ok_Dependent9976@reddit

I do IT support from home, with very occasional site visits. Been that way since before coving though

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BobBobBobBobBobDave@reddit

I work in marketing for a big corporate company, in a team covering Europe and Middle East.

Remote consultant working for big pharma.

Swiss pay but live in the UK, so get taxed to the absolute fuck.

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Medical secretary and wfh two days per week.

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firthy@reddit

2 days (though, irritatingly Tuesday and Friday - not Monday). Creative department ad agency.

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palmspringsreset@reddit

Creative Producer and Video Editor. Currently I’m freelance and WFH the last few jobs I’ve had.

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SWTransGirl@reddit

I’m a health and safety trainer, so I have some admin days at home where I try to build the business.

Otherwise I’m on the road delivering courses.

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xmilkbonex@reddit

Software Engineer. Entering my 6th year working from home. The closest office is over 200 miles away so no opportunity of visiting regularly. I go maybe twice a year for big meetups such as financial year end and Christmas party.

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arfski@reddit

I'm in IT and my entire department pretty much WFH. Organisation sold most of it's office space and swapped to being a work delivered rather than bums on seats place during covid, and stayed the same after.

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WhichWitchisThis@reddit

I'm a native English copywriter, I work from home because I work for myself, remotely, for clients around the world :)

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Nineteen_AT5@reddit

I'm a QS and work from home 2 days a week, 3 days in the office. I could probably work at home full time but actually like going into the office to catch up and see people.

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msac84@reddit

CSM

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Row_Echelon_Form@reddit

Tax consultant. I work in a very niche tax and I work for a firm based in Essex but I’m based up north. I visit the office once every 3 months for a general catch up or if I’m visiting clients in the area.

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autumnlight01@reddit

CRM application consultant. Basically an in-house functional consultant/configurator for Dynamics365/Power platform.

Still working from home, 100% remote. Nearest office is 3 hours drive away.

Graphic designer. Currently fully remote (other than 6 all staff days a year). My previous role was 2 days in the office.

Astronaut_Level@reddit

Non-frontline charity work

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Natf47@reddit (OP)

Interesting. What do you do for them if you don't mind me asking?

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Web Application Developer, been there 3 years, they're based in Birmingham and they've been a remote first team since covid, they didn't renew their old office when the lease came around a couple of years ago because no one was using it, if I had to commute there I'd have never worked there as I live in cheshire, even without rush hour traffic on the M6 its an hour to Birmingham!

My previous job was also mostly remote after covid, though technically described as hybrid, we had 1 day in every 2 weeks for sprint review, but there was expectation you could get in for other meetings if you needed too.

Don't think I could go back to a non remote job to be honest, especially after becoming a dad a couple of years ago.

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Informal-Intern-8672@reddit

Call centre, though now I've moved on from call handling and do analysis work.

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jaminbob@reddit

Same sector. We don't have an office at all. Only meet up on site visits, conferences and a once a year get together.

No overheads means lower rates and a higher % in pay.

My company is employee owned all around the world so we don't have shareholders pushing us back into vacant office spaces.

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avdarwin@reddit

Most weeks I do 2-3 days in the office and wfh the rest of the time. During busier times it can be 5 days. Corporate tax manager in the City. I much prefer wfh and I get far more done when I do.

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BrewtallyCozy@reddit

Product Support Specialist. Just a team of two both of us work from home, office is in Manchester neither of us local to the office. Been working there for almost 2 years. Went to the office last year, and it was empty only people there were high ups, sales, and some operational staff.

Gauntlets28@reddit

Hybrid, usually three days at home, but unfortunately we've got a new person in the department, so we're now doing three days in the office for the next couple of months until they're settled in apparently.

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ChipHazard1@reddit

WFH full time, Commissioning engineer (software)

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Omega489@reddit

I work with data in nature and conservation.

BillyJoeDubuluw@reddit

OH is a director for a large local authority as well as being on a number of boards and a university guest lecturer.

He is primarily WFH but is technically hybrid and, obviously, some elements of the job simply need to happen face to face… and the majority of roles are technically hybrid… There aren’t many contracts that explicitly clarify remote working, even if the shift patterns very nearly amount to it and it’s a high paying position.

What I will say is that among our social circle we have seen some friends from office backgrounds literally take pay cuts to officially secure fully remote working, so there does appear to be an emerging trend of some workers being happy to take home less pay for an increased autonomy in terms of their work life balance.

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ajsexton@reddit

Software dev, been WFH since COVID, literally been into an office 3 times since then. Have never physically met a single person I work with now after changing jobs about 3.5 years ago

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I work for my small cloud consultancy company. We can’t afford an office.

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TheDawiWhisperer@reddit

Sysadmin, but I'm at risk of redundancy so I'm pretty checked out and don't do a lot atm

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Ok_Data1512@reddit

Me. I work as an unemployed bum*.

Marketing Manager in the renewable energy industry.

We have a policy of "two days not at home" (so things like conferences or customer meetings count towards that).

I'm an insurance auditor. I work 4 slightly longer days and get 3 days off

Its pretty rad

They closed most of our physical offices so we're nearly all home workers

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LuckyNV@reddit

Hybrid 2-3 days home, accountant/auditor

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Real-Box-7144@reddit

Pensions!

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mikeossy80@reddit

Key Account Manager Work remote from wherever I please tbh.

WFH 5 days per week. Been in the office once in 5 months (just for compliance). Software Engineer Head and technology advisor.

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Overall-Error4057@reddit

payroll specialist,, wfh 3 days, unless its end of month, then every day that week from home

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Alive_Forever_9541@reddit

Manage a global tech team from my kitchen!

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Practical_Scar4374@reddit

Developer, WFH office closed down pre-covid. Contracted 8 hours a day probably do 10, split between when the business need is there and personal life. I may do an hour in the morning, 2 hours off etc. As long as my work is done my line manager is chill af.

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