High paying flexible jobs

Not the highest paying here (mid-40kish, a promotion would see me into the mid 50s but that’s as far as I’d like to go) but complete flexibility.

Full time WFH, I occasionally have to go to the office to complete work that can only been done there (it’s a pain, it’s a 3 hour train journey but as I’m contracted WFH, work pay and the journey is work time and I can chose when I go to suit myself).

In the words of my boss ‘As long as you’re online at some point during the normal work day so people can contact you, I don’t care when you work’. I work 4 days in 5 but, especially in winter, I take time out my day to go ride or deal with the farrier etc..

It’s very niche though (criminal justice related). I was a police officer before but got fed up of having no work/life balance.

This has to be my dream job that I never knew existed.
 
Identityincrisis said:
I don’t know how virtual offices haven’t taken off! I WFH full time but I’m in the virtual office all day along with my colleagues, it scares people at first but it is brilliant!! We work collaboratively, we have break out rooms where we can have separate meetings or quiet time, if we’re just working, we’re generally in the ‘main office’, we bring clients in to have meetings and take them into a break out room.

We meet in person every quarter but as we see each other every day it’s no different

It’s definitely the way forward
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Sorry if I am being dim... do you mean a virtual office as in you are all sat together online like a computer game?! Call me archaic but I've never heard of it!
 
Identityincrisis said:
I don’t know how virtual offices haven’t taken off! I WFH full time but I’m in the virtual office all day along with my colleagues, it scares people at first but it is brilliant!! We work collaboratively, we have break out rooms where we can have separate meetings or quiet time, if we’re just working, we’re generally in the ‘main office’, we bring clients in to have meetings and take them into a break out room.

We meet in person every quarter but as we see each other every day it’s no different

It’s definitely the way forward
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Whereas I think this is my idea of hell! I work from home and am alone apart from when I am in calls, which is about half the day. Total introvert and I always hated office life, especially the big open plan sort. I don't relax in that environment and am always borderline on edge, which isn't good for productivity or thinking. I do get a social fix at the yard, or meeting friends (neighbours) for dog walks, which stops me turning into a hermit.
 
HopOnTrot said:
I did waitressing as a teen too. I learned I should not have a public facing job.

Apparently when someone asks for “red sauce” you don’t respond with “Cranberry or tomato?”
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…and when someone says ‘waitress, there is a fly in my soup’, don’t start laughing! Yes I did, and they were Americans and were not amused.
 
I’ve been in the Civil Service for about 10 years now and always recommend it to others. I work from home (with the option to go to my local office but isn’t mandatory in my department, although the last department I was in I had to go in 3 days a week), and work flexible hours so can start/finish when I like. The pay is good too.
 
MarvelVillis said:
I’ve been in the Civil Service for about 10 years now and always recommend it to others. I work from home (with the option to go to my local office but isn’t mandatory in my department, although the last department I was in I had to go in 3 days a week), and work flexible hours so can start/finish when I like. The pay is good too.
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A friend of mine was a civil servant within DWP. She was at a level where she managed her own diary so could schedule in late morning or early afternoons here and there to meet the farrier or vet etc. She also recommended this to me, but I didn't like the part of the job where she was 'reapplying' for her job every year. It felt very unsafe to be in that situation. But she worked her whole working life in the same area so it obviously worked for her and she is now retired on a pretty decent pension.
 
AShetlandBitMeOnce said:
Sorry if I am being dim... do you mean a virtual office as in you are all sat together online like a computer game?! Call me archaic but I've never heard of it!
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So we all meet at 9am in the main office, we have our cameras on, it’s just on Zoom, we discuss anything that needs to be discussed then get on with our day. If you want quiet time you go into a meeting room, likewise if you’re in meetings with colleagues. We’re expected to stay online until we finish for the day but if you’re not feeling peopley you hide in a breakout room. As someone who is very affected by noise I thought it would be hell but it’s WAY better than being trapped in an office, i can escape the mindless chatter if i want
 
Identityincrisis said:
So we all meet at 9am in the main office, we have our cameras on, it’s just on Zoom, we discuss anything that needs to be discussed then get on with our day. If you want quiet time you go into a meeting room, likewise if you’re in meetings with colleagues. We’re expected to stay online until we finish for the day but if you’re not feeling peopley you hide in a breakout room. As someone who is very affected by noise I thought it would be hell but it’s WAY better than being trapped in an office, i can escape the mindless chatter if i want
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So it's basically an all day Teams call with your whole office?
I understand that it will work for some and not for others, and I'm glad you enjoy it, but my god that sounds like hell on earth for me 😂
 
dorsetladette said:
A friend of mine was a civil servant within DWP. She was at a level where she managed her own diary so could schedule in late morning or early afternoons here and there to meet the farrier or vet etc. She also recommended this to me, but I didn't like the part of the job where she was 'reapplying' for her job every year. It felt very unsafe to be in that situation. But she worked her whole working life in the same area so it obviously worked for her and she is now retired on a pretty decent pension.
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Yeah, the constantly renewing doesn't happen everywhere. As I said in my original post, the CS varies so much between departments. The attitude, flexibility and professionalism in my current dept is a world away to what it was like in my previous dept for example.

Identityincrisis said:
So we all meet at 9am in the main office, we have our cameras on, it’s just on Zoom, we discuss anything that needs to be discussed then get on with our day. If you want quiet time you go into a meeting room, likewise if you’re in meetings with colleagues. We’re expected to stay online until we finish for the day but if you’re not feeling peopley you hide in a breakout room. As someone who is very affected by noise I thought it would be hell but it’s WAY better than being trapped in an office, i can escape the mindless chatter if i want
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This seems like overkill? What's wrong with just logging on, setting your status to whatever it needs to be, and if you need something either IM that person or schedule a call? Feels like a hidden way of forcing ensuring people are present online 9-5...
 
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teapot said:
What's wrong with just logging on, setting your status to whatever it needs to be, and if you need something either IM that person or schedule a call? Feels like a hidden way of forcing ensuring people are present online 9-5...
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This is what we do. I WFH 4 out of 5 days - Gmail and Slack quickly work out if you're not really there, and we have regular team meetings for general catch ups, project meetings, client meetings, the occasional social chit chat or quiz....all via Zoom. It works really well for me but you do have to be very engaged to get the best out of it - I do quite a lot of ad hoc five minute video calls with colleagues to make up for the fact that I can't wander over to their desk or go for a coffee to talk over an issue that's arisen. People who are not up for that do start to become a bit disconnected, which isn't great.

Sorry, this is slightly tangential to the OP's post but I do think it's relevant! As others have said, WFH can be great, but not for everyone, all the time.
 
teapot said:
Yeah, the constantly renewing doesn't happen everywhere. As I said in my original post, the CS varies so much between departments. The attitude, flexibility and professionalism in my current dept is a world away to what it was like in my previous dept for example.



This seems like overkill? What's wrong with just logging on, setting your status to whatever it needs to be, and if you need something either IM that person or schedule a call? Feels like a hidden way of forcing ensuring people are present online 9-5...
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It is the least micro managed i have ever been in a role. We do it so if you have a question you can just chat as you would in an offIce rather than using some kind of messenger app. Many companies say wfh stops collaboration which is not true in our case as we’re essentially in an office but with the advantages of wfh. Everyone is horrified at the thought of it at first, myself included but it really is the best of both worlds
 
LillyTheCat said:
What do people see as ‘high’ pay? Just ballpark as it seems to vary wildly
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I imagine expectations would vary by industry, role, age, region. What is high pay to someone working a city job in London would probably look very different to someone working a science job in Cambridge, to a farming job in Cumbria.
 
LillyTheCat said:
What do people see as ‘high’ pay? Just ballpark as it seems to vary wildly
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This is a very relevant question 😆 It occurred to me after reading a couple of other responses that I am not "highly" paid! But as I have enough money for the horses, enough to live and save a bit (plus a good work/life balance) I've never looked for more.

Having thought about it a bit (and bearing in mind that I'm in the North of England) I would say that 38 to 44K is "adequately" paid for a professional job requiring two degrees and ten years of experience. "Well paid" might be 45 to 60K (or something like that) and "highly paid" above that. I have fairly modest ambitions though, I'm well aware that far higher salaries are available! And of course it's very dependent on location and industry.

I would be genuinely interested to see what others think.
 
Here in the southwest I have similar experience to widgeon, a job with salary around the 30k mark is attractive.

When I was in London grad entry salaries were nearer 40, an average salary 50k give or take and decent paid at least above 80k. Well paid over 100k . This was 6-7 years ago. Men got paid more than women but companies were good at hiding it as talking about your wage to others was a sackable offense, and pay reviews easily establish that no job is the same so couldn't possibly compare wages...
 
What’s high pay is going to vary by region. If you need to be an easy commute to London (where a lot of the best paid jobs are) it would be easy to spend £2k a month on each horse assuming you wanted to compete and used full livery with training etc or paid for help with horses at home. That could eat into even a 6 figure salary.
 
I consider my husband's industry to be high paying. His firm is in corporate/ finance / m&a consulting etc. He's is in tech consulting himself but within that sphere, and although he is not a partner, he earns well for his level and has a good career trajectory.

Partner pay is over £700k per annum in the firm he is in. Thats not a salary amount, but it's still pay and it's substantial (to me) but possibly those in investment banking might not see it as such!
 
Minimum wage is now £26k so I think high pay probably has to be 2x that at least.

Earning enough disposable income to spend on an expensive hobby (ours!), have a nice holiday a year, have savings so if the car breaks you can fix it without stressing etc. is probably the ideal for most.
That does vary by region, if you picked up our smallholding and moved it from the Bradford postcode it's in to a York post code - the mortgage would probably double! and that is within Yorkshire

If you moved it to a Buckinghamshire post code I'd be scared to think!!

I suspect for most the cost of their house is the biggest expense and that varies wildly
 
HopOnTrot said:
I have one!
Married a man who owns a company, I do a bit of admin, finance and scheduling. Very flexible hours but never really any time off. But I work from home and can do as I please as long as it gets done.

Obviously relies heavily on marrying a good businessman 😂
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Does he happen to have a single brother...?
 
Also in tech here, although not in a technical role. If you can specialise in a particular area (Salesforce, AI, cyber are probably the current big ones, or finance would be a less technical specialisation as an example) that helps.

I work for a charity so don't get paid industry standard but do have ridiculously flexible working and have the best and nicest colleagues in the world, it is completely different to other companies I've worked for previously (from start ups to big corporates)
 
Traks said:
No help really but not NHS anything! It’s the most inflexible job ever!
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elliejhb said:
I'm NHS and my role is actually quite flexible. I only attend the office twice a month, can flex my hours to suit each day to a certain extent, so will sometimes have a longer lunch or start later to get a ride in the morning. I receive 33 days annual leave and can purchase an additional 10 days, never had an issue with any of my requests for leave.

I am no longer patient facing so I can be more flexible than other colleagues but I am currently at risk of redundancy (organisation has to reduce workforce by 40%).
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I’m NHS (medical) and kind of agree with both of these. I don’t work flexi time or anything so useful, but I’m fortunate that my department has a policy of offering compressed hours, which means that in the winter I’m guaranteed three days a week when I can ride in the daytime.

The flip side of this is that however hard I try, it’s virtually impossible to leave on time, so it’s hard to plan riding in the evenings. And if there’s an emergency, I can’t just drop everything and leave anyway. Plus it’s difficult combining being on call with riding, as there’s virtually no mobile signal at my yard, so weekend days on call mean no riding. I’ve started taking a day of annual leave after an on call so I can spend time with my horse.

However, it does pay enough to let me afford to keep my horse on full livery, and I’m very glad of that. I do wish I had a bit more flexibility though.
 
I'm pretty much just Real Living Wage, however I have a very flexible employer, so I take long lunch & ride then, I do chores in the morning. I have a "2nd" job in that I work on call for my main employer out of hours. That's quite well paid & lifts my salary substantially.
 
I’m a self employed dog groomer who works from home in my converted garage. I work my job around the horses and it pays well, though it’s physically a much harder job than people realise.
I can earn as much or as little as I like really. Due to my health issues, I have to limit my number of dogs so I tend to just earn what I need to survive and a bit extra, but I could earn more if I wanted.
I generally work 10-3.30pm.
 
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