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Is working from home realistic?

CasualCasual Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle Flap Flap Flap Registered User regular
Hey I'm looking for input from anyone who has ever spent any amount of time working from home. I've worked a few crummy admin jobs in my life and it seems to me 90% of it could be done from home with an internet connection. I've looked around at jobs from home and pretty much all of what I'm seeing so far looks scamtastic. I'm not realistically expecting to earn £2k a month working from home (would be nice though :rotate:), what I am wondering if opportunities exist which pay enough to live on?

So share your experiences with me please H/A!

Posts

  • CelestialBadgerCelestialBadger Registered User regular
    Usually real work-from-home jobs start in the office and when they trust you to work without oversight, they let you take some or all days as "work from home."

  • bowenbowen How you doin'? Registered User regular
    If you do work from home, make sure you have a set area (with door hopefully) set aside for it. And make sure people know, that when the door is closed, that you're working and not to be disturbed unless there's an emergency.

    not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
  • CasualCasual Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle Flap Flap Flap Registered User regular
    Yeah I'm not talking about getting a regular office job and transitioning to home work.

    For example I know a guy who earns cash on the side doing audio typing, they send him a file he types it out. The pay is pretty shit though, I'm wondering if there are non scammy, non below minimum wage in practice arrangements where simple admin work is farmed out?

  • EncEnc A Fool with Compassion Pronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
    The only startup work-from-home jobs I know about are with companies like Amazon where you are working their call center support. Pay is crap and usually your hours are miserable, but you can have TV going on mute in the background which is sorta nice.

    That or being self employed or eventually getting trusted to work at home by a brick and mortar position.

  • WordLustWordLust Fort Wayne, INRegistered User regular
    edited June 2016
    I have a job that CAN be done completely from home since my entire job pertains to the internet. (If the internet is down at our office, it's time to play solitaire.)

    But even so, my employer does not allow working from home. You have to come into the office and put in your hours at your desk. The rationale is that if everyone in the office works from home, then no one sees each other or talks to each other. They don't interact except through email, and then only if they need something from each other. Even though all of the work could technically be done on a laptop at home, it is better for the team, better for communication, and therefore more productive in the larger scheme of things, if everyone comes into the same physical space.

    I have a feeling a lot of other companies will have that same rationale.

    I do have a friend who sometimes works for corporations but also sometimes works months at a time from home. She is a highly educated and highly experienced UX wizard, though, who can work as an independent contractor and be compensated pretty well for it.

    TLDR: I think if you are a specialist working contracts it is a perfectly normal and non-scummy way to live. But a lot of things that are advertised as "work from home" are weird human trials (we'll pay you $10 to drink this monkey semen and tell us how you feel) or getting paid to take 10,000 marketing surveys a day for a penny each. Both of which are scummy and not an ideal way to live.

    Curious to hear others' perspective, though. I might be missing out on something!

    WordLust on
  • EncEnc A Fool with Compassion Pronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
    Another part of it is security. Even with secure VPN services there is no way to know who is on the other end of that console when you are entering in payroll. Maybe its you, maybe its your spouse covering while you are out on the town. Maybe its a roommate doing your job for you while they take down socials for identity theft. Who knows?

    While I see a lot of stuff going work-from-home over the next twenty years, It's not actually a thing you should be hunting for in the job process rather than a perk or downside within the field you are looking for. Looking to "work from home" is like telling an employer you are looking to be "antisocial and outside your office culture but take money anyway."

  • IrukaIruka Registered User, Moderator mod
    I work from home in SaaS, its not crazy uncommon, from similar listings I've seen. Most of the work is focused in support/social media. Avoiding scams and bad hours is more about vetting the company before hand, I wouldn't take a job from a company I've never heard of/has a crappy web presence. Anything you do needs to have a well defined contract. Many places will at least want you to be visiting distance, but remote work is possible in many situations right now, I'd just be careful jumping from something extremely stable to try it.

    If you have no Dev skills, above average writing and communication skills are going to be a good asset. Remember that in this case, your cover letters and resume are very much so a test, so take them seriously. But there's no reason not to look and shop around for these types of jobs if you have an interest, just be heavily prepared to ask a lot of questions and to say no to odd, or wishy washy offers.

    For me its a good way to support secondary endeavors, and in general I would say its a better job for people who already have decent work habits at home. If you have a lot of trouble focusing, it maybe difficult to transition.

  • worksintheoryworksintheory Registered User regular
    Judging by your OP, you are not in the US, but I can tell you my wife currently makes decent wages and benefits answering phone calls for a US airline. The work is mostly booking reservations and occasionally getting yelled at by people who don't like change fees and cancelled flights. She absolutely loves not commuting and being able to wear pajamas all day. They provide all the equipment and we provide an internet connection, a phone line and a quiet work space.

  • taliosfalcontaliosfalcon Registered User regular
    I work for a web hosting/development company as a sysadmin, all staff, including office admin can work from home whenever they want, we do all our meetings via video instead of in person for this reason, also no time entry/time tracking, woo! And i got a significant pay raise from my last "be in the office every day all day" job. So the companies do exist, they're just not as common.

    steam xbox - adeptpenguin
  • zepherinzepherin Russian warship, go fuck yourself Registered User regular
    I used to do property inspections. half of the job was work from home. It was self paced on contract work, it wasn't very hard though. Pretty much anyone with a cell phone, car and computer could do it.

  • KarrmerKarrmer Registered User regular
    Judging by your OP, you are not in the US, but I can tell you my wife currently makes decent wages and benefits answering phone calls for a US airline. The work is mostly booking reservations and occasionally getting yelled at by people who don't like change fees and cancelled flights. She absolutely loves not commuting and being able to wear pajamas all day. They provide all the equipment and we provide an internet connection, a phone line and a quiet work space.

    I work for a major US airline founded in a very cold state if you feel me and do the same thing. Flight benefits are neat, pay is decent enough, just sit at home watching Twitch or sporting events or whatever while working. It's nice waking up 6 minutes before your shift instead of hours before.

  • SatanIsMyMotorSatanIsMyMotor Fuck Warren Ellis Registered User regular
    Agree w/ @Iruka above. I too work for a SaaS company and have complete freedom to work from home. That said, I think it's slightly less common for devs and more common for sales and general biz dev roles. My company actually promotes working from home for a lot of people as a means to offset some of their carbon footprint.

  • ShadowfireShadowfire Vermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered User regular
    I spend three of my five working days working from home, remoting into computers and clearing malware from them. The other two I'm in clients' homes to do installs and repairs. There are a lot of people in the company that work online only.

    The jobs are out there, but it's tough to find them along all the scams.

    WiiU: Windrunner ; Guild Wars 2: Shadowfire.3940 ; PSN: Bradcopter
  • EclecticGrooveEclecticGroove Registered User regular
    Casual wrote: »
    Yeah I'm not talking about getting a regular office job and transitioning to home work.

    For example I know a guy who earns cash on the side doing audio typing, they send him a file he types it out. The pay is pretty shit though, I'm wondering if there are non scammy, non below minimum wage in practice arrangements where simple admin work is farmed out?

    I've worked from home for the majority of the last 5 years.
    I started out in an office however.

    As for working remote right out of the gate? It does happen, but unless it's a pretty low paying job, chances are that it's going to require a great deal of experience in the field. You need to have value that makes the risk of having you not be in the office worth it.

    In terms of actually working from home. You need to be able to focus. If you're constantly distracted when you need to be doing work, it's not going to work very well.

  • Mr KhanMr Khan Not Everyone WAHHHRegistered User regular
    Casual wrote: »
    Yeah I'm not talking about getting a regular office job and transitioning to home work.

    For example I know a guy who earns cash on the side doing audio typing, they send him a file he types it out. The pay is pretty shit though, I'm wondering if there are non scammy, non below minimum wage in practice arrangements where simple admin work is farmed out?

    Freelancing in some skilled or creative field is one way to do this, but this too tends to come after 15-20 years on the job where you've got the skillset to back that up. Like if you spent 15 years successfully writing grants in an office for a nonprofit, you could shove off, set a base rate per grant, and go, or if you're a good IT consultant, graphic artist, etc. It all requires good pre-built cred or being willing to live on nothing for a while as it gets going, though.

  • NightDragonNightDragon 6th Grade Username Registered User regular
    Mr Khan wrote: »
    Casual wrote: »
    Yeah I'm not talking about getting a regular office job and transitioning to home work.

    For example I know a guy who earns cash on the side doing audio typing, they send him a file he types it out. The pay is pretty shit though, I'm wondering if there are non scammy, non below minimum wage in practice arrangements where simple admin work is farmed out?

    Freelancing in some skilled or creative field is one way to do this, but this too tends to come after 15-20 years on the job where you've got the skillset to back that up. Like if you spent 15 years successfully writing grants in an office for a nonprofit, you could shove off, set a base rate per grant, and go, or if you're a good IT consultant, graphic artist, etc. It all requires good pre-built cred or being willing to live on nothing for a while as it gets going, though.

    Tons of creatives freelance with WELL under 15-20 years of experience. That is an insanely inflated number. You need to have the skills absolutely, but beyond that you could start freelancing with zero "experience", if your portfolio of work is good and demonstrates the level of competency a job requires. I have done it full-time, making a comfortable wage, and I know a number of others who have done it as well.

    Not sure if the OP has any creative skills they can rely on here, but if so it is indeed a possibility. Freelancing can be a whole separate thread though. :P Self-employment taxes can really kick you in the butt if you're not prepared for them.

  • CasualCasual Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle Flap Flap Flap Registered User regular
    Just to clarify this thread wasn't so much about suggesting fields where remote work is possible more about finding out if it is possible to make at least minimum wage doing ad hoc admin work from companies that farm it out and hopefully to hear from people who have tried it. Having looked around myself I'm seeing the answer is various flavours of "no" and "it's a scam".

    So that being the case @Ceres can close this down. Thanks anyway peeps.

This discussion has been closed.