Working from Home

Sealine

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I WFH as a Systems Analyst for an IT company. I started working from home two days a week by choice about 20 years ago. Further to various buy-outs and office closures I now work from home all 5 days. I have a home office in a spare bedroom and my working hours are 9-5.30 Monday to Friday. I do have some flexibility but these hours suit me. I have a horse on DIY livery and I ride etc in the morning and I'm at my desk eating breakfast at 9am in my yard clothes. A friend does my evening horse chores in return for me turning out for her in the morning so I don't go back to the yard. I walk my dog in my lunch break.

Motivation isn't a problem for me. I'm very busy with tight deadlines to meet so I can't disappear or watch daytime TV. Finishing at 5.30pm is often difficult as I am so busy but I never switch my lap top on at weekends.

All my team WFH and are based all over the UK. We have a monthly team meeting in our London office which I find really useful and important. The business restructured earlier this year and teams have changed and when you are remote you have to work extra hard at building relationships with people. It can be difficult for new starters joining a remote team if the need help to get up and running with a new role. It can also be difficult to get recognition for what you do as you aren't visible enough. Therefore WFH full time may not be ideal early in a career if the role is new to you or you want to climb the career ladder. I'm in my 50's so career development isn't something that concerns me :)

I earn a good salary with excellent benefits and although my job is high pressure when all things are considered I'm happy. I was threatened with redundancy earlier this year and the thought of having to go back to working in an office 5 days a week and possibly a daily commute into London horrifies me.
 

Tarragon

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My OH and I both work in IT, which is a profession that lends itself well to working from home. He works from home very happily. I tried it, but found I couldn't concentrate on work (always other things I wanted to do instead!) and I missed the buzz of an office and the interaction with other people.
 

AdorableAlice

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i run a County wide local government service from a shed in the garden. Probably spend 3 full days in there plus 2 on district visiting premises. It is a very comfortable all mod cons shed with extensive wifi and IT kit.

I love it, I can leave the yard and be in work in 8 minutes. If I commute to the main office it is an hour each way at peak time. Main office is open plan and so noisy with a call centre. I am anti social and can't be bothered with listening to women chatting about TV soaps etc. Then again they are not interested in hearing me talking about my wonderful horse !

I find the work discipline very easy because I am out of the house so I do 'go' to work, even though it is only down the garden.
 

freckles22uk

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25 January 2002
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I work from home (horse hair jewellery and keepsakes) I’ve found having my own studio to work in helps. No temptation to stick the tv on. I get up, walk the dogs and then “go to work” I do have to go out at 2pm to either walk the dogs again or if it’s my turn to do the horses, go to the field. My partner has a garage next to the house so I’m sometimes called to “garage sit” or take a car for an mot. But I’m quite disciplined and crack on with work. And often work from 9 -7. I do break for lunch and do a little housework when needed. But I like working from home and being my own boss.
 

Green Bean

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I have worked from home for three years, from the time we got a husky puppy. I had an hour and a half commute both ways on the M25 and it was killing me. I used to eat my lunch at my desk. So sitting around 11 hours a day. I now have a Malamute as well and take both out for a walk in the countryside at lunch for 45 mins. Much healthier for me. Then when I can I go to the stables to ride or cuddle after work. I work in the dining room as the tv is too much of a distraction. I would say I am more productive and can work late when required as I don’t have the commute. I trade off the fuel costs with the internet and power charges. Agree on Internet speed, I used to try and work with downloads of 3mb! Since superfast came to the village, it has been amazing. I am an environment coordinator so my various environment topic leads are all over the UK so Skype for Business is a definite requirement and is as good as being in the same room
 

milliepops

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Oh totally agree on the internet if you are working remotely from a team. I had to tether on my phone for months at one house while waiting for a phone line to be installed. Painful. I had fibre to the property for a while which was amazing, just "standard" superfast now which is fine.
 
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