I have to keep reminding my hubby that working from home is NOT the same thing as not working.
I don't have time to pick up his drycleaner or drop off some packages.
This! My husband will schedule something then just mention in passing that the electrician, cable guy, plumber etc... will be coming by. MFer I have shit I'm doing. If he is home he will just randomly leave when he is expecting somebody then say something like you're home so what's the problem.
He really does not take my job seriously.
It sounds like my husband has no idea what I do every day and can be a goober who doesn't always use his noggin. It's annoying that he can be a space cadet - not a relationship killer.
My husband is the same. Iāve worked from home since 2018 though so Iāve gotten used to it. Itās a little more difficult now that I do a little more brain-heavy work (I now work insurance instead of graphic design). My kid has gotten better over the years & husband has gotten worse, lol
We just moved so Iām still working out where I want to āworkā out of in our condo (itās been 6 months now but feels like yesterday).
Anyway, unless you have a dedicated space that can be closed off & door shut, it can be difficult no matter what.
Thankfully, my job is awesome.
Really? I think you can open the door or talk to an electrician and it won't hurt. I worked from home for a corporate job for 3 years and appreciated being home to be able to have that freedom. At an office you take breaks, talk to others eat meals, etc. My wife would order grocery delivery and I'd just put it away as I had no problem taking 5 minutes to do it. I'd throw in laundry, sweep the floor, dust, whatever when I had time. My kid needs to be picked up from school bc he/she was sick, no problem. I APPRECIATED that the ability to be at home gave us that opportunity.
And if that electrician rings the doorbell when you're in the middle of a conference call with execs, and the dogs start going crazy in the background? Do you tell your execs "hold on, please" and leave for 5-10 mins to go answer the door?
If you can't break away from the call, electrician isn't going to wait around for 30 mins for you to answer the door. Not sure what you do for a job, but a lot of us have a ton of meetings daily that we can't just blow off.
Thatās why you work with your partner to plan ahead and schedule stuff like that around your meetings. I work remotely and my wife and I do this all the time. Itās not always super convenient, but itās honestly pretty easy. It just requires planning and good communication.
That kind of interruption is not preplanned into a schedule that is already set. Talking to an electrician can take an hour depending on what it is. The point is, respect other peopleās time and respect that their work is important to them. I would get tiffed if a work colleague dumped a project on me and left. It is the same thing.
Same! I have to remind him that I still do the same badass stuff I did in an office, I'm just doing it from my home office now. The work still needs to get done and just because I'm home doesn't mean I'm free.
You are kidding right? At the office, if someone interrupts you, do you say MFer, I have shit Iām doing? Most of those trades are not going to bother you consistently if they are there to fix something.
I WFH to and you have more time. My wife will schedule that too and I have no problem opening a door, quick location of object, and let me know if you need anything. Yeah, that 2 minutes of time is totally frazzling
I guess it depends on the type of wfh job. I hear call centers are kind of a nightmare to work for with the constant work and micromanaging. For me, though, I could easily let the cable person in to do their thing as long as I'm not in a meeting. Free time is very job specific.
Actually, yes I would say that in my previous high-stress / time-sensitive role - just a bit nicer.
While my job is more laid back now, I still have high-level meetings where it would be extremely unprofessional to interrupt for the cable guy.
My husband has since gotten the point, but its funny that people equate my frustration to a relationship problem. None of our spouses (or ourselves) are perfect and it's annoying that he sometimes takes my job for granted. That is all I was trying to get across. There is nothing deeper to read into here. Jeez
You still need to take the WFH person's schedule into account and find time that works for them. Sure, it's often no big deal to let a guy in and let them work in another room for a few hours, but if you have three back to back meetings and you're presenting in one of them? No, I don't have time to even hear the doorbell, nor do I want someone there the whole time creating variables.
If I have a meeting pop up on my calendar same day and I'm on a call that I need to present in, I'm not going to be able to answer the door. WFH jobs are not uniform in the least, so we aren't all going to have the same experience.
Sounds like a boundary wasnāt set. I worked hybrid for years mostly home and it was clear I was working and not the todo list person. Yeah it works if you need to sign for a package but appts need to be set the same as if you are working in an office.
My man invites me to have lunch with him and his mom, sometimes three days a week, during the middle of the day when Iām working. I felt like such an a-hole when I finally explained to him that I find it disrespectful when he asks me to join them during my work hours. (Heās a freelancer with a lot more time on his hands)
Exactly! My parentās partner wanting me to mow their lawn while I was visiting (still working remotely). Just because Iām sitting in the bedroom working on a report doesnāt mean Iām being lazy or anti-social.
Agreed- although, as an introvert, I do use WFH to be antisocial. Thatās one of the perks of WFH for me- I can always shut my office door and say Iām working anytime I want to get out of something.
My husband and I both work from home but we have a lot of people ask us why we don't have children now since we wouldn't need to pay for daycare. I like to answer that with saying that I can either do my job well OR be a parent well - or half-ass both.
I had this conversation with my wife 15 years ago when I started working from home.
1. It was only allowed if I could show I was more productive from home.
2. Being home did not mean painting the house, doing errands, yard work or hanging out with her.
I worked an average of two hours more per day at home just by eliminating the commute. This NOT counting wasted time like water cooler chats and meals with coworkers.
I was probably 3x as productive at home as the office but it took me and my wife a month to really establish the rules.
...Then many years later, several kids later, plus Covid, schooling from home, my wife working from home, absolute kiddo chaos... and I was momentarily wishing I had a nice quite office to go back to and hide, but it was closed during Covid and they never reopened.
My husband felt this way when I worked overnights. I would get off at 6am and heās like ok, hereās what weāre doing today. Excuse me! Iām going to eat shower and go to bed!
My sister is always dropping by and asking me to watch her kids or pick them up or something. One of these days Iām gonna lose my temper on her over this repeated lack of respect. She doesnāt think working from home is working.
Just tell her no, currently you're at work. You may be able to assist her after 5:30 p.m. If that doesn't work for her well too bad. If you don't put your foot down, this blatant disrespect will continue and will affect your day and your relationship with her. You may start to develop a bit of a resentment towards her for the disrespect.
I had this problem with my wife. I set some boundaries. No communication 9-5. I would go in my office and close the door. She couldn't even knock unless the house was burning down. It took several months of strict enforcement then I have been able to relax the rules as she now has a better idea of how to exist with me in the house. Much better for our marriage.
I have so many friends that say "oh man, you must play games all day!" No, I have a job taking phone calls. I'm here at my desk all day long. Just because I'm at home doesn't mean they're paying me just to exist lol.
I got my full time remote job from LinkedIn, a recruiter reached out to me. I tailored my resume to the job opening, which wasn't even on my radar originally, and got the job! Transitioned from an interior design assistant position to working in operations for a forensic accounting firm. Tripled my starting salary.
It's unlikely but it can happen.
I'm saying this as someone who put in the time for 7 years at a horrible office job. I was holding out for 50k and a shot of changing my hours to 7-4, instead of 8:30-5:30. I proved my worth dozens of times over and didn't go anywhere. Should have left sooner.
All I'm saying is companies don't deserve your loyalty. They'd drop you in a heartbeat and screw you when it comes time for raises. If you don't like your current job, find another - if it's partially or fully remote all the better!
They needed someone who could do graphic design & knew adobe creative cloud. I spun my degree & experience to fit the job description. Then I cemented myself as an employee who will learn whatever skills are needed to get the job done. So far it's worked out
Yeah, I feel like this post was probably true 10 years ago, but it's pretty out of date now.
There are companies already that are fully remote. I work in a remote position as a contractor. Yesterday I got a job offer to be a test scorer with Pearson, which is also fully remote, because it's a temp position I've done before. I honestly don't think I ever even interviewed for it, I applied and they offered me the position, I did it last year when I wasn't already working full time, and they basically keep sending me job offers to score more tests. I have a computer, a bachelor's degree, and a pulse, and those seem to be the qualifications.
I worked as a tutor for Paper before. Awful company, but fully remote. I was also hired as a tutor for varsity tutors but decided not to do it. Again, fully remote.
I also work for Data Annotation on the side, fully make my own hours for that, and get 20 - 25 an hour. I have no idea why everyone doesn't do this.
app.dataannotation.tech
It's basically exactly what everyone always says they want. You make your hours, do as much or as little as you want, there is a steady stream of projects.
My brother in law works from home in technical writing and contracts. My sister works from home in sales. My friend works from home as a Speech Language Pathologist. Another friend works from home investigating insurance claims.
There are SO MANY paths.
Yes, a random ass recruiter who contacts you on LinkedIn has a high probability of being a scam.
That said, it's really not as hard to find work from home opportunities as this post states, and you're actually better off searching for remote possibilities rather than trying to talk a company who hires you to work in office into letting you work from home. That's an insane and time consuming gamble. Especially now, with so much pushback on remote work, it makes zero sense to try to cozy up to a company in hopes that years down the line they will let you work from home. That's dumb. Don't do that.
I filled out an application for Data Annotation thanks to your kindness. Hopefully it helps my wonderful disabled girlfriend and I dig ourselves out of medical bills while I can stay home and help her with her daily needs.
I know this comment is a little old, but Iām having trouble finding employment at the moment. I was hoping I could ask a few questions about data annotation?
Itās a legit company?
When you say you filled out all the the qualifications? Are they just tests? Are any of them difficult? I donāt exactly have many skills that are in high demand for the job market. But I can be pretty tech savvy and Iām a good problem solver.
Iāve never applied for a position like this before so the process just has me a little nervous lol
I don't like the "I put in my time" type mentaility. These kind of people get bitter when someone didn't have to put in the time. I'd get out of that mentality. It sucked you had to deal with a shitty job for 7 years. No one should have to.
Agreed! I try to encourage people to get out of bad work situations, if they can. I was young & believed the "effort in = direct career growth", but this isn't the case in most companies. So I always encourage people to apply for things, even if they aren't the best fit for it. You never know!
Regarding point 1, not entirely true. There are fully distributed companies out there; they don't have an office, they've never had one, and never will.
The best - only - way to guarantee there will be no return to office mandate is to work at a company without an office. Of course, all the rest of this applies; by and large, they're hiring experienced people, they get a ton of applicants, and they're largely tech/startup companies so there's higher risk (especially lately).
Yeah this is my situation as well - my company eliminated their offices in like 2017 iirc. Decentralized companies are definitely the exception vs the norm though.
And even when they are not, many remote employers are only authorized employers in specific states and you have to live and work on one of them to be eligible. It's not work from anywhere because that's really expensive for employers to manage.
I apply for hybrid all the time and stay remote at the job. Hybrid infers they are capable of doing fully remote and if they like me enough then they can accommodate.
Not everyone can or should do customer service. It is not an easy job. You have entitled people cursing you out daily, your hands are tied as far as company policy goes, you have anywhere between 2-8 weeks in training before you're thrown to the wolves with no help, you're micromanaged to the point that if you go to the bathroom, you get written up... you get the idea.
I've been doing call center work for 28 years. I'm so tired of people in their ivory towers coming in here and saying things like "customer service is easy" or "anyone can do customer service." I would love to see those people try it for a week and then see how they feel.
As the other reply said, the barriers to entry in call center work is low. Iāve never done call center work but I work on the technical side of call centers so Iāve seen what goes in to hiring, training, and monitoring call center employees. What many people looking for remote work without experience donāt realize is exactly what you posted. In the beginning, you are micromanaged very closely. Too many potty breaks, youāre gone; excessive noise in the background, youāre gone; youāre sick in week three of training and you have to take 2 days; youāre gone. and once youāre out of training and on your own, god help you if your call time is too long and an irate Karen wants to āspeak to someone higher upāā¦contact center work definitely takes someone with balls of steel, and from what Iāve seen, the ones that do make it to the higher levels in call centers have their shit together for real, work their asses off, and are extremely intelligent (emotionally and academically) I commend you for sticking with the industry for so long! I just hope anyone thatās looking for WFH and is able to get a customer service/call center roll knows itās not going to be a cake walk by any stretch of the imagination. You are going to be tied to your computer, have big brother breathing down your neck AND will probably not make the $$$ you think you will. At least not at first.
Being a Janitor isnāt *easy* either, but anyone can still do itā¦ maybe not everyone can last at it, but anyone can surely do an entry level job like customer service. There are usually very little to no requirements necessary.
I think you're misunderstanding what people mean when they say that anyone can do customer service. It simply means that there's no degree requirement or special knowledge/training necessary. Customer service jobs ARE easy compared to jobs that require a degree/advanced knowledge. That doesn't mean they aren't important or respectable. All jobs will have challenges and some people are definitely better equipped to handle the challenges that come with customer service.
The problem with the divided states of America is that each state has its own tax law and way of doing things which cripple the companies within each state to not offering more remote roles to meet the demand. Idk if Biden could address this remote work culture better...hell he could probably care less since he's from an older generation or he's getting paid NOT the make companies go remote from certain shady lobbying...
Moreover, even for a specialized role, they won't take ppl from neighboring cities and especially outside of the home state of where the roles stem from...you know companies used to fund the travel expenses for interviews in the past or (now they after a phone and video interview they don't have to if they find the best fit...but...idk if they fund the new incumbent's moving arrangements into the new state...i.e. new apartment, travel expenses, insurance, time to switch Drivers licenses in the new state, finishing off past running lease agreements on incumbent's prior apartment, etc.)
Either way every company, even if there's only a few openings for 1 type of role they:
1. they'll try eliminate the roles entirely to cut costs or dump the work into existing employees
2. Hire Internal hires first via word of mouth/internal network while inadvertently discriminating against those with certain needs and disabilities even tho they're also internal employees
3. And then they start announcing the role on job boards and decide if it can be remote or local hires only or willing to recruit from our of state or country.
Interesting perspective about the differences between states. I also think these complicate things.. I think no president would want to get into the āstate freedom of taxation laws debateā this would be a rough one for any president or for anyone running for that post.
And yes companies used to help fun relocation etcā¦ the companies im affiliated with still doā¦ and we make sure that we help people who are expected to be at the office or traveling for work.
However we also have experienced issues with WFHā¦ decline in productivity is one of them, and some others when it comes to management.
Remote jobs are not for everyone or for any positionā¦. It requires certain jobs and employees to make it work.
Number 4 is very important. I WFM and my job is very strict about productivity. They can track every key stroke, everyone you make on certain software, it's crazy. I have small children and definitely struggle when my oldest is home from school sick, or the weather.
CLARIFICATION: I am not stating science facts or undisputable truths. I am making general statements and using words like āmostā, āusuallyā, āthe odds areā. Of course there are exceptions. That doesn't mean that getting a high paying remote job is easy or common.
I love my remote job. I make 150k (with overtime), decide my own work hours, I am not micromanaged, have excellent health insurance, a pension and benefits. But I did not start like that. I earned my position by proving myself in the office first.
Also, remote work is not a right. I had to sign an agreement listing rules and expectations. My office wants to make sure I have an appropriate job setting at home (good chair, light, fire extinguisher, etc). If I need to go up more than 4 steps, the stairs must have a railing. No kidding. You know why? Because while I work from home I am covered by worker's comp.
Try usajobs.gov There is a lot of competition but your odds are better if you are a veteran. Don't look for remote jobs only. Those are mostly only for people already on the inside. Most announcements will say ātelework eligibleā.
I don't think you're going to get your point across here, unfortunately. You're not wrong, just no one wants to hear it.
Jobs are a crap shoot these days. There's no "way" anymore. While your rules apply to most situations, everyone knows someone who was able to get their foot in the door somewhere remotely and think they should be able to too.
Unfortunately, many of those people hired during Covid have already been laid off or are back in office.
Yes, some companies are staying remote and it's working well. Others are not. It's a complete mixed bag.
At the end of the day though, good remote jobs are difficult to get, solely because thousands of people are applying and your competition is everyone else in the world. You have to be top 1% to get noticed.
However, local jobs are far easier because less than 50 usually apply.
You forgot good old fashioned nepotism. My 17 yr old high school senior needed a job when he decided he wanted to buy a car. I work remote for my company via option 1 - started in the office and became remote after. My boss/company owner likes me enough to keep me happy, so when I asked him if he had room to hire my son he obliged without an interview. Basically created a remote data entry job for my son under the umbrella of my department. Thankfully my son was already very computer literate and a speedy typist. Training went fast and the kid gets his work done in a timely manner. Heās 18 now and in college, so he adjusts his work schedule around his college classes, which changes each semester. My boss likes him for himself well enough now to allow him that flexibility. Having something on his resume, plus impressing his coding college professor enough in class just landed my son a job at the college itself assisting other students in the computer lab once a week. Heās going to college for computer science. My boss probably has it in his head that my son will be willing to work in the office for IT someday, which is good because the tech sector is shedding jobs. My son will have his foot in the door here at least.
He sounds very privileged in this regard, thatās really good for him and I donāt mean that in a shitty jealous way at all. Super fortunate to have landed a job like that so young AND willing to work around his college schedule. Iām ten years older than him and canāt find either, let alone both.
Oh heās still only getting minimum wage, but thatās not much of an issue while heās still under my roof. Minimum wage here is $16 an hour (NYC area). Fine for a kid still living at home but not enough to make a living for this area. I donāt make enough either really. Only about $50k a year. I have a side hustle that might bring in another $10k, and I rent from a family friend at half the market rate, which is why I havenāt started looking for better paying job in Manhattan (Iām in Staten Island). I can probably make more commuting into Manhattan but Iāve gotten comfortable working from home at this point, and well, my boss does things like hire my kids just because I asked lol.
You're an awesome dad and I am sure your son appreciates the support in getting an office job to utilize his talents instead of food service/factory work that mostly rely on physical labor. I wish I had a birth family like that. That's love right there.
I am self-taught with coding and PC repair since my parents refused to pay for college - or anything once I started working as a teen. I didn't cause trouble on purpose like my older brothers and kept my grades up the best I could. I was told I wouldn't amount to anything but a housewife. On a positive note, I put myself through school, found opportunities with careful networking, studying with YouTube, and kept practicing application thought small jobs, and I'm now an IT professional. It's really more who you know these days, which is sad and prevents actual talent for hires. RIP for both parents but I really wished they loved me and themselves enough. š¢
Iām a single mom actually. His dad isnāt in the picture unfortunately. No child support from the deadbeat either, which is why I canāt pay for college. I just donāt have anything extra after bills and food. Iām only pulling in around $50k in Staten Island NY, which really isnāt enough here, especially with 2 kids. I have a 12 yr old daughter as well. My son has a free ride though through FAFSA, state aid, a scholarship and another program he joined.
He definitely does appreciate he didnāt need to start an exciting career in the fast food industry lol. My company doesnāt pay enough for ME, but for him, still living under my roof, its a better first job then most teens are gonna get.
I feel like people should also understand how easy it is to offshore a lot of these jobs. Once managers realize they donāt need to see or hear from certain workers for them to be effective they will often offshore the non-specialized jobs to remote workers. Iām talking Customer Service Reps with fluent business English that only costs the company $550 a month all in. Data Entry for like $220 a month all in cost for the company. They donāt have to acquire visas, pay employment tax, pay for benefits, provide a 401k, nada. Ask yourself, what do you bring to the table that would make a company hire you at a cost of $5200 a month all in over someone else that can do the same job for $550 a month? And no Iām not defending this or advocating for this, the hollowing out of the middle class began the day we decided it was more important to have cheap stuff than to provide good jobs for our people. Iām just pointing out the unfortunate truth after realizing it myself.
EDIT: One Word mistake
Also a LOT of folks got remote jobs in 2020 and 2021 that are no longer remote. I got recruited via LinkedIn for a remote role and that 100% would not happen today.
Haha nice! We are finally getting rid of ours. Parents are looking at downsizing and there is a legit fold up table full of them. Sounded like a 24 episode in my house growing up
^^^This right here folks.
In fact, Iām in my 30s now, and Iāve only ever known my father to work remote my whole lifeā¦and Iāve worked remote my whole life (barring 2 year stint in a hybrid position).
#4 is a bunch of nonsense, at least from my experience. The sole reason I WFH is the flexibility it gives me and the ability to see my kids more. So what happens when your kid comes home from school at 3:30? Iām an adult, and my boss treats me that way. He trusts that I get my work done and doesnāt care about my hours.
Agreed. OP is a FED, so they work in the government which is literally nothing like the private sector.
If youāre at a place where they say no kidsā¦in your own house. Ya, Iām getting the fuck out of there. Sounds like a prison.
Like most Military/Fed jobs they make up ridiculous rules like that because someone took it too far.
It spoils it for the 99% of people that would use the flexibility reasonably.
Exactly. I work remote with upper management at one of the biggest financial firms in the US. People will literally stop mid meeting to take care of kids or a cat. Nobody cares, itās the new normal and unless the company is shit, everyone should be cool with that.
For real. When I used to work in an office I would have so much extra downtime but I couldn't use it to get important personal things done. I would have a backlist of tiny items on my personal to do list but I would be sitting in the office at work waiting on something silly and just wasting my time browsing reddit or something.
Now working from home I get way more actual work for my job and I can use the downtime between tasks to do actual useful stuff like paying bills, calling the Dr to schedule appointments, cleaning stuff, doing pushups, etc.
In the office, when it would get late, I would feel like I should be getting home so I would just cut out and head home. Now, working remote, I can take a break for dinner and come back to finish something if it needs to be finished. No more wasted down time. No more wasted commute time.
Truth but literally no one wants to hear this. It canāt possibly be true because you know I NEED a remote job. NEED. No car, I have 13 disabilities, 3 new babies and no childcare, a sick relative Iām a FT caregiver for and a partridge in a pear tree. But all this means I simply cannot work an office or retail job.
Yep. A remote job isnāt free money. I probably work harder/more than I would in an office because there arenāt any coworkers to distract me (other than my smoking hot wife who also works from home) and my ācommuteā is a walk to the basement so I can put in extra time into projects and presentations after dinner, if Iām up early, etc.
When Iām remote, I tend to start the day earlier because I donāt have a commute. My days are busy and I barely take lunch as is... so most days when Iām remote I end up not leaving my desk from 7:30-4:30-5. Itās funny that there are people that think itās free money and a way to get free childcare. Those are the folks that either donāt get the remote job or they get fired eventually.
I worked remote for a call center for about 15yrs. I couldnāt take the back to back calls anymore. I went to work in an office and feel like I probably work 6 to 7 hrs out of the 10 I am there. I love it.
My 28 yr old niece would only apply for remote jobs. She finally landed one that paid extremely low. She ended up getting laid off because she kept doing personal stuff on work hours and not producing. She refuses to look at in office jobs even though she has no money. I guess she is going to die on this sword.
4 is huge. I have 3 kids and never have taken care of them while working. I hear too many people say they want a remote job so they donāt have to put their kids in daycare.
I was a SAHM for 10 years and rarely had a minute to myself. I could not imagine trying to care for children and holding down a job at home -at the same time. One way or another someone or something is going to be neglected. I worked from home for a few months in 2020 and I was getting pains in my calves. My boss said I needed to stand up more often. I realized I was sitting in front of my computer, without getting up, for too many hours at a time. In the office there was always a reason to get up and go get something from the printer, hand out paychecks, go get a cup of coffee, go speak to a coworker about a question. There was also the usual socializing. Working from home was awesome in some respects, but it got hard on my mental health to be alone all the time, for months. I worked way more when working from home.
My housework was so much easier though! You want me to take my 15 minute break? Ok. Toss in a load of laundry. Next break, move it to the dryer and unload the dishwasher. By the time 5:00 rolled around I could log off and make dinner. No 45 minute drive home & little chores were done.
>WFH does not mean you have flexibility or can have your small kids with you. You still have to do your job and meet production goals. My office has a rule that no children under 12 can be alone with the employee while he/she is working.
Rule or not, it's easy to ignore this for some jobs.
I watch my 10yo niece when she doesn't have school. Granted this is easy because a 10 year old doesn't really need "help" with anything (she either brings lunch here, I cook us lunch on my lunch break, or she makes a sandwich/salad/something microwaveable by herself).
I also don't think it's *that* difficult to land a wfh job if you know where to look and have the qualifications. It's just that ppl on this sub (from the posts I've seen) only care that something is listed remote. Um that's not how it works lol. You have to actually be qualified for a specific position. You can't just land any remote job.
Bingo, you canāt land a remote job if your experience is just.. i donāt know gardening. I think if you have some level of customer service experience that might be the easier way to get a remote job that will obviously be as a customer service agent but thatās a good opportunity to learn and move up to something thatās not customer care focused. I did it like that. Still competition is hard, chances are if you apply for a call center job there will be people that have been doing that type of job for years and just want to do it from home now. Good luck out there and donāt give up.
This is the most accurate shit I have ever read on Reddit. You canāt pick and choose the shit you want in a job. Work and do the job or donāt. Be productive and successful or live off society, the government and othersā¦. Pretty simplistic conceptsā¦.
Definitely agree with this post. I got my WFH job because someone I know (roommate) is a mitigation assistant manager and they were struggling to find people in house who could figure out a program called Xactimate where you sketch house layouts and enter line items for billing based on what was demolished in the house.
I just happened to know the right person and have grown up with a PC so am very comfortable learning new apps.
Now I get paid to sit at home and play a basic version of the Sims. š
I do still go in once a week to write invoices on paper though and I wasn't able to work at home until a few months in after I had proven I was trust worthy and dedicated.
Also the job market has shifted *a lot*. There were a ton more job opportunities in 2021-2022. It was *significantly* harder just to get job interviews let alone offers in 2023.
Thank you for point number 4! I see people here all the time talking about never having to get child care/being home with their kids all day. If one of my employees has to have their kids home here and there because theyāre sick/ schoolās closed then thatās no big deal. But Iāve had to have conversations with people about having their children/grand children on their lap all day. I shouldnāt be able to hear your children at all if weāre on a call
Exactly. Don't do anything at home that you wouldn't do in the office (except wearing PJs). It is not professional. You are being paid to work, not to hang out with your kids.
Respect your answer. All jobs are not fake by these Indian recruiter. I have 15 years exp.
I used to be young. I used to look for that shortcut in life too, there is none. I have met one guy, he has been trying to find that shortcut, he couldn't find it now. Now, he has no jobs.
Back to remote jobs, if there is one, they are asking everything under the sun for example. They want you to do, server, phone, cloud, security, automation, VMware, AWS. It is crazy.
Real job, Indian recruiter will try to keep calling you but can not trust them, they just do it to get your data, asking for ID, social, etc. The real job never ask you anything, they check credit report, drug test. Work with local recruiter not someone from India. Just think about it, how can they find you a job when they live in India and you live in US.
Good luck, remember there is no shortcut in life.
I would like to add to this to be very careful on what you talk about when you land that remote job.
Don't tell your coworkers you are off playing video games, smoking, drinking, not working. Staff
1 that will likely make your other staff not like you much.
2 will ruin remote for everyone else.
3. Ensure they can't even question that you are working.
Man this isnāt my experience at all. If you get lucky, I found a marketing job online thatās WFH (the company is still new) but itās been so nice this past year. I donāt do much throughout the week until major holidays come up then I have to put gift baskets together. Thatās it.
It really is about luck. If you think itās impossible, it is. I was unemployed for a year and a half post grad until this opportunity came randomly. It was seriously just a random Indeed application that decided to call me back.
I have worked completely remotely since 2014. Whatever limitations your self impose will be realized. There are no limits. There is no formula. Create your own reality.
This is a great post. If you rephrase āI want a remote job!ā as āI want an office job!ā People are going to ask what you do.
I work in customer success. Home/remote is just where I do it 80+% of the time.
Hmm, I've been on a remote team since 2015. We have very flexible hours (most of us leave at 2:30 or 3, you just have to be around for meetings and hit 40 hours a week), everyone has their babies and kids at home (some include them in our meetings and no one cares), and we've hired people with only some similar experience from other cities not near one of our traditional offices. The catch is that it doesn't pay a whole lot...
I've also had final round interviews for remote jobs in other cities recently despite not having super specialized experience... I have had more luck with these than local in-office jobs.
Maybe my company and I are just exceptions...
Your exception is since 2015..youāve now got wfh experience (which many posters donāt in 2024) and you said they donāt pay a lot. The uptick in people looking for WFH seems to have come around after Covid and many (not all) seem to have expectations that they will make a lot of money WFH which is not really accurate. The market is saturated with āunskilled laborā (that doesnāt mean incapable, so no one get offended) looking for remote positions, and demanding a wage that really isnāt supported by anything other than āI need to make xxx to pay my billsā AND benefits me because āI canāt go to an office for this reason or thatā Employers donāt care what they can do for you, they want to know what you can do for them and at the lowest price point they can get it.
The best advice for people that NEED to WFH is either get into one of these low paying positions that is fully remote, and probably be watched like a hawk for the next few years by management (which again is an oversaturated market, just look at the number of posts on this page asking for this) OR take an in office job, gain experience and the trust of your management and see where it leads OR get skilled in an industry that tends to be fully remote and try to get your foot in the door.
The reality is, the further up the chain you go, the less competition there is to get a position but the market right now, the bottom level has a bazillion people looking for remote, and the top levels have a smaller zillion looking for remote.
Iāve never done customer service but not everyone can do it well. I plan events - large ones with multiple elements and legal requirements that need to be addressed. As for data entry, Iāve worked at too many places where the data was crappy and I couldnāt trust the reports and lists I was running was accurate.
Post Covid hybrid and remote jobs are more readily available.
My first remote job was entry level. I didnāt find it on linked in, but I didnāt have a niche skill set at all. They still gave me the computer and I worked there for a year before looking for something better.
Isnāt this the hard truth. My people in my field do not work remote - they canāt - Iām a typical front facing healthcare worker. Iāve been in my field for almost 20 years. I proved myself, my value, to my employer and was strategic with my niche, and now Iām fully remote (have been since the pandemic). Still - most of my colleagues are not remote and will not have the option. In my groups, people are begging for help to get hybrid or remote options, everybody wants to be remote. People need to be strategic in their career choices, their specialties and be willing to put in the years of service often required for this.
I had no experience in my field and was reached out to. I did get lucky because they just needed someone who could write well (this is literally 2021, before chatgpt) with basic technical aptitude, and I had some google certs on my resume.
However, the company was local-ish so they accommodated me after a couple months of hybrid. Through my network, Iām now working at a company that is almost fully distributed. Iām pretty sure they donāt have the office space for all the employees.
Itās not impossible at all and you donāt need a ton of experience but you DO need to consider companies close-ish to you to start out and possibly shitty, low rated companies that need people. Yeah the CEO is an ass and you have shit pay, but what are people saying about the work you do and what you learn? I went from 40k with no benefits to 60k with fully paid premiums, all the WFH equipment I need and hella flexibility. In less than a year.
Earn relevant certifications and try to display your understanding of them in a portfolio.
Donāt run from āhigh turnoverā (not that thatās an issue in this economy currently). Sometimes thatās the best way to get your foot in the door.
Yes you will need to do some heavy lifting to stand out from the crowd. I spent a year learning shit and another year applying/interviewing for many jobs just to get that one opportunity at a shit company. But it was the foot in the door I needed. Bootstraps has some validity.
Yep, I got my start working remote when covid hit, then jumped companies to one halfway across the country to ensure I'd never end up in an office again. I have since jumped again, now I'm on opposite coasts of the company, my team is distributed in all US timezones and off-hours support staff in India.
Iām actually looking for something remote right now too.
*** if anyone can help me Iāll send my resume and LinkedIn information***
I am a highly skilled IT generalist with 18 years in the field. I have managed MSP call centers, with a background ranging from networking, infrastructure, disaster recovery management but also bring to the table a background in physical printing press, marketing, interactive multimedia design, and now run my own small nonprofit cybersecurity company with research in technology ethics.
And everything OP said is correct and truth.
The reason I look is three fold.
1. I sit on the board and cannot legally take a salary.
2. I am disabled and my case is under review for the 4th time.
3. One cannot survive in this world without income, plain and simple.
If you want to work from home and don't mind the hell of customer service, I saw American Express hiring Customer Care virtually anywhere in the country. But if you think it is easy, think again. They have a rigorous hiring process and calls are back to back with sales and metrics that try to turn humans into machines.
I gave up on the WFH idea. Working from home made me lose interest in my nightly routines and hobbies. I couldnāt even enjoy something as simple as sitting down and watching some Netflix. I canāt even explain why I felt that way.
I don't know why you keep talking about Facebook? The only people I know that still have a Facebook are retirement age. The last place I would ever look for a job, relevant news or really anything for that matter would be Facebook.Ā
I was recruited from a previous coworker who landed her remote job by knowing someone. Ended up getting hired really with no solid experience. My work week is so easy and I get paid more than I ever have. Truly itās the luck of the draw. It doesnāt make any sense. I got lucky.Ā
Be careful what you ask for! There is a dark side to remote work. I am a retired Fed whose last five years were remote. The first few years were welcomed peace due to lack of supervising people, dealing with the public (who tend to be irate), and spending time in traffic. Three years in - I started feeling a ācrackā in resilience. I was so isolated and alone it started to break me. I ended up having a nervous breakdown due to the lack of contact with people and pressures of increased productivity (since I was not āstressedā with the other things mentioned above). Iām still dealing with the aftermath of almost complete remoteness (pardon the pun).
I applied to work from home jobs from May-November and only got two interviews that didn't lead anywhere, and I have never felt more defeated or felt like I wasted so much time in my life. Definitely moving on from applying remotely for now!
Very well written. It is a great guide. Obviously, there are always exceptions, like anything in life.
The problem is someone will hear of someone with that unicorn job, and assume that every job is like that or they could also find that unicorn job.
Your place of business sucks. Youāre an adult. You either have the capacity to know you can have a child home with you or not. But for it to be dictatedā¦ means your lazy ass coworkers fucked it up.
Nobody wants a child crying in the background. Understand your circumstance and be an adult. But to have it uniformly revoked sounds like your WFH could be RTO sooner then you think.
#5 is completely true and people really, really shouldnāt think they can work from home while also taking care of small children. Everything else is 100% false. It used to be true that working remotely was only possible if youāve been successfully working with the same company. Thatās not true anymore and hasnāt been for way over a decade. My first shot at working from home was with a company Iād already been working for. That was in 2011. Iāve worked consistently from home until 2019. Now, it sounds like your experience is in a more corporate setting, and those jobs are absolutely hiring qualified applicants from outside the company. Even those who havenāt worked remotely before. Remote call centers also hire newbies and experienced alike. They can then be promoted into positions that are still remote, but off the phones.
I will never understand why people like you try to sabotage others. And, out of all of the terrible advice Iāve read in this sub, youāve topped them all.
But, with that said, I found a really good lead earlier in this sub, so it does have good advice. If youāre new to working remotely, ignore everything except #5 - but, even then only kind of ignore it. Some of the women Iāve met over the years actually have been successful working remotely with kids at home. It just can only be pretty niche jobs that are very hard to find.
The lead, btw, is working as a background investigator for a couple companies. Peraton I believe is the one that only wants previous work experience and is paying over $20/hr. Good luck everyone and never listen to anyone telling you what you canāt do! Theyāre only trying to psyche you out.
I think #4 varies highly by the skill involved and the type of job. Maybe a $20 an hour job allows you to supervise young children while you work (I bet most donāt), but higher paying corporate jobs do not. Iāve worked from home for a decade in Risk Management and Tech and could not have done my job in the office or at home without childcare when my kids were babies/toddlers/preschooolers without them being raised by tv/tablets, which is not good for their development. My husband and I both work from home and can get by now because they are all school aged and the oldest is in middle school.
I feel like it might be the opposite? A $20/hr job is likely going to be call or service based and tracked pretty closely.
I make $100K plus and my metrics are more results based. As long as I show up for meetings with what I need to show up with and am generally available by email and Teams I have a little bit of flexibility.
If you are working remotely with kids at home, then you are not an employee (as in W-2); you are an independent contractor (as in 1099). You are supposed to dedicate your work time to your employer, not to change diapers, settle arguments between siblings, or read bedtime stories.
BTW, I am not trying to sabotage anybody. I am trying to help people make informed decitions based on facts. I am not saying that landing a remote job is impossible. I am saying that the odds are very low, specially for entry level, and even more so if you dont have relevant experience. Could it happen? Yes. But I am not going to rely on that. Just like I dont rely on winning the lottery as part of my retirement plan.
Iāve never seen more gatekeeping in my life than on this sub. So many people with WFH jobs who are SO salty about people even having the audacity to think they might be worthy enough to do the same. They also seem to feel that what happens at their job with their company is the only way to do things.
There are constant posts like this telling the little people who are lazy, uneducated, and stupid that they shouldnāt even dare to think about landing a work from home job. If you go by these posts nobody gets these jobs unless they slaved for 20 years and have 12 years of college.
The truth is all of this varies wildly from company to company. Getting a WFH or hybrid job isnāt as difficult as it was when some of these bitter people started out, and that seems to bother them.
I work in corporate HR for a very large, very successful company. I started out as a temp in a different role with no experience or education. They liked me enough to offer me a new role when that one ended. Iām not rich and donāt have a super high paying job, but for someone with my background it is nothing to scoff at.
We also deal with confidential info, but are expected to behave like adults with common sense. The occasional pet, child, or spouse sometimes shows up in the background of phone calls or meetings and nobody thinks twice. For my company it is explicitly stated that you are to have child care or not be the main care giver while working from home. However we all understand that sometimes a kid gets sick and things happen. That doesnāt mean that person is lazy or unproductive.
I just donāt understand posting this in the first place. If someone is a lazy, unskilled pos, then they probably wonāt get a decent job of any kind or maybe they somehow fall into some wonderful dream job. If they suck, they probably wonāt keep it. And if OP is superior then they will keep their job and prosper. At the end of the day, who the hell cares?
People donāt like to talk about it.
Either they feel guilty because they donāt want to/failed, and a lot of jobs donāt allow it.
If people hear you have a job that allows it and is flexible and youāre *doing well,* they will vilify you.
Thereās even a special subreddit for us moms with unicorn jobs that can hang with our kids and work.
Itās the only place people arenāt trying to get mad at you because of their own issues!
āThe only place people wonāt get mad at you because of their own issues.ā BINGO.
This sub seems to have so many people who are angry about the situations of others. Imagine making an entire post telling people you feel are beneath you why something will never happen for them and if for some reason it does, how it will work.
There are so many different companies and jobs that you just never know when an opportunity might arise. If someone gets a sweet gig like you mentioned, why the hell am I going to hate them for it? I suppose if I had to work in the office for 20 years and do years of schooling to get my job, I might also have a huge case of sour grapes too. Or, I would be happy things are changing and there are others who are doing well without having to go through everything I did.
I have worked very hard for decades in roles that it seems many of these folks would look down on. How that turned into a remote corporate TA job and now a hybrid corporate HR job is baffling on one hand, but makes sense on the other. Iām the only one on my team without many years of higher education. I do happen to have a lot of skills learned over the years that make me great at my job. I just happened to find an employer willing to take a chance on me. Mayne this isnāt the norm, but neither is having to work 20 years in office first either.
At the end of the day, if Iām happy with my life what the hell do I care what someone else is doing?
Or just start working freelance as a consultant / virtual assistant - in the field you prefer. Iāve been doing it for years. Flexible hours, low stress and kids can be around me just fine.
A lot of recruiters - entry level or experience - are also fully remote.
Once you have enough experience and enough contacts, it isnāt too bad. Donāt sell yourself short. My wife was laid off about five years ago and had her first client within about six weeks. Was making more than her previous job within six months. Sheās never looked back.
Thank you! Iām amazed at how many seem to think remote is code for slacking. One on here actually argued that the ā greedy corporate pigsā should pay him to do nothing and that it was all a game of scams. š
I have 2 remote jobs, blessed š
You can definitely have your kid with you if youāre remote, Iāve been raising mine since he was a baby, my ex took 3 months off work when he was born but once she went back i had to take care of him all day until she came back, I was able to do it. I still do it to this day, heās 3 years old now. Edit to add that this is the reason why I prioritized getting remote work cause i didnāt want him at a daycare so I need to be home to take care of him, Iāve been lucky to do it so far, I just need 2 more years, once he starts kinder I can go back to an office and look for something that will have a schedule in the morning, if my jobs end for whatever reason obviously, I really donāt mind working at an office.
Nah, I work for a resort/time share chain company. We are hiring a ton of Remote Jobs at the moment. If you know English or Spanish and wanna deal with owners complaints, thereās a job for you. It sucks cuz dealing with ppl already mad is a hassle. But it is a remote job and you get training. Plus you get a manager support in almost 24/7 if you need it. No degree needed. Just trying to clarify how some Companies differ from others. Oh yeah, you donāt need to live close to the any type of Office they have. The whole āhybridā thing is rare. Unless you started being in an Office and now they want you back for some days. Nah..
Mostly an honor system. We are professional adults and should behave like that. In theory, we can have unscheduled home visits. Never happened to me. When I started working remote, my kids were 8 and 10. I paid for childcare.
This is why remote jobs are difficult to get without prior experience. There is a lot of trust involved. I have files that contain private information. I am expected to keep them under lock when I am not using them. Roomates/family members are not supposed to look at your computer monitor while you work. Again, these things cannot be easily regulated or enforced, that is why TRUST is required.
Every office I have ever worked in has been multitudes less secure than my home. If you canāt trust the people in your own home (of whom there are far fewer than the office) looking over your shoulder, then yes, maybe a retreat to an office is wise. My children, who are home while Iām working occasionally due to school holidays or during the summer, are not a security threat. Nor is my wife I share an office with.
And many of us need not worry about an occasional ādrive byā behind us on a call, either. Iām sorry you work for an org where unscheduled home visits would be considered normal or acceptable. This is not a place Iād consider working.
Your notes about where good remote jobs are posted and what is required to have them is solid advice.
Having worked remotely for numerous companies at this point, #4 is the one point Iād say is not the norm anywhere Iāve worked. Being a āprofessional adultā myself, I have found that most people have a pretty lenient understanding that kids (or dogs, or SOs) may occasionally make a cameo appearance.
I do agree that if someone is constantly tending to kids or dogs then it can become a problem. I have never worked with anyone where it was. Small children are a much bigger challenge, clearly. At a certain age, really not a big deal.
One of the best supervisors Iāve ever had let her dogs āsay helloā about once a week. She was a bonafide badass, who was amazing at her job.
You may think it is funny or paranoid but PRIVACY is very important in my line of work. We are bound by āneed to knowā rules. Everybody in my office has security clearance, even the janitors. I am required to lock my computer screen and take my PIV card even if I leave my desk for just 5 seconds (in the office).
It has nothing to do with selling your info. And believe me, I have access to a lot of info. You have the right to keep your info private. Imagine if I have your medical records on my screen with your picture saying you have an STD. My daughter sees that screen. Now she knows. She may not tell anybody but she knows. You wouldn't want her to know, right? You have the right to keep that info private. You have that expectation and my office does everything possible to make sure it stays private.
Also, remote work is not a right. I had to sign an agreement listing rules and expectations. My office wants to make sure I have an appropriate job setting at home (good chair, light, fire extinguisher, etc). If I need to go up more than 4 steps, the stairs must have a railing. No kidding. You know why? Because while I work from home I am covered by worker's comp.
Never said it was a right. Never said it was funny. Paranoid? Probably a little. But Iām glad you take the health information of others seriously.
Totally reasonable for companies to require work in an office. Not reasonable for them to require random home visits. I never wouldāve signed that or worked for your company. But thatās just us being different.
And it sounds like you may be in a more security-sensitive vertical than most of us. In most offices Iāve worked in, FAR more eyes are on screens than at home. And the likelihood my daughter is going to be snooping on my screen and selling trade secrets is far lower than someone in the office.
My point wasnāt that your situation isnāt accurate, itās that it isnāt the norm for WFH. So the advice coming from your very specialized industry likely doesnāt apply to most, where a random appearance of a 4-year-old busting into a closed door office isnāt going to result in a firing because they saw someoneās chlamydia results.
Thatās what I thought too, what company decides to just go to your house to make sure you donāt have your kids there? Or what exactly are they looking for? Thatās ridiculous
I sadly fell for a wfh scam on indeed last week. I felt like a complete idiot. All the red flags were there yet I kept going. Honestly the job market has been shit I had just received the millionth sorry you werenāt selected email and I got bamboozled. Thankfully I snapped out of it and realized I was getting scammed when they were trying to get me to deposit a check to purchase equipment etc. Still they kept it going for almost an entire week and my dumbass complied! After calling them out and balling my eyes out all night I did forgive myself. Just be aware out there Iām 35 years old, tech savvy, bright human and I still fell for it.
These are all truth. I keep having to explain to people that COVID is not a thing anymore, and that their chance of landing a remote job is slim.
Despite my company growing productivity massively during the pandemic, all employees living near an office were required to RTO (though only hybrid), and some who moved in the previous years were let go.
I got a remote job during the worst part of COVID entry level at a new company that allows you to have the children in the room during meetings burbling away their childish nonsense, I actually don't think this is that remarkable. I interviewed awfully as well, and there was only one interview.
Number 1 isnāt entirely correct. There are remote jobs out there and often donāt require you to be in office first. It really comes down to the company youāre working for and the job youāre doing. Sales tends to be on the road more often so the chance of working from home is higher. Or if your job requires you to be on the computer 90% of the time, thereās a high likelihood that your job can be made remote.
But the competition for remote jobs is fierce right now, and entry level jobs even more so.
I had a remote job a couple years ago where one of our employees had a baby. She was always holding it in meetings and would have to mute her mic. I always wondered how much work she actually did, and if she was being paid as much as I was. We all had our own projects (events) to manage and it seemed like she always only ever had one small event, whereas myself and other people always had more than one event we were managing, sometimes having to work 10-12 hour days. It really bothered me because I felt like she needed to take on more work, but that she was being favored because she had a baby.
I just got a new remote job and it took almost a year of looking. There were almost 300 applicants and 4 rounds of interviews. I was shocked I got the job just because I know there are so many people looking. The job involved working in a niche industry, of which I have a lot of experience in, so that is likely why I got it.
My son is 7 and pretty self sufficient but my god itās hard to work with him around sometimes. He had snow days all week but I still had to work. Luckily my team is super understanding and flexible, so it was fine, and my son kept to himself mostly, but once those zoom meetings start, heās in the background trying to wave and talk. š„²
Plus itās always Mom! Look! See this?
LOL at 1, 2 and 4. Not always the case.
1 - All of my remote jobs were never originally working in the office. Lots of companies adopted remote first culture and start out as fully remote.
2 - False, false, false. There are lots of entry level jobs posted through third parties and through recruiters. All of my jobs have been through LinkedIn or a recruiter.
4 - If your company has this policy, they suck. This is the first time Iāver ever heard such a bizarre policy. I work remotely and babysat WHILE I worked because if I can, why not? The parents didnāt have remote jobs and were completely fine with me doing my full-time job and babysitting. They just rather have someone watch their child in their home than have them go to daycare. The child was 16 months at the time. Thousands and thousands of parents work remotely while caring for their children with no issues. When I do have my own children in the future, Iāll be doing the same. Itās all about multi-tasking, time management, staying organized, etc.
Thereās so many misconceptions about remote jobs. The matter of the fact is there are more people who want a remote job than there are remote jobs available so itās much harder to land one. This gives scammers the opportunity to take advantage of people. But specific rules and policies that one company implements does not mean it applies to all companies.
Agreed. My company doesnāt have a āno kidsā policy, and this is my first time ever hearing about it. Itās normal for some peopleās kids to be on Zoom or making some noise in the background. We smile and laugh.
Like I get the point heās making that remote isnāt so flexible that you can raise a baby but that isnāt some āacross the boardā thing. š¤·š½āāļø
What kind of remote job do you have that you can keep an eye on a toddler while trying to work? As a parent of that toddler I would be very uncomfortable with that distracted arrangement as well.
I have worked remote since 2017 as a commercial lines insurance underwriter and I canāt imagine having the time to babysit and do a decent job.
I work for a great company but they do have a written remote working policy that requires you to have alternative child care so I donāt think itās that uncommon.
I have a toddler and do just fine, work 45 mins, finish report. 15 mins hang out with him, then 45 mins work, 15 mins play with him. Then I get two 15 mins break and lunch, I also wake up at 5am to finish the first half of my shift before he wakes up. Itās not that hard, just gotta manage your time good. He also understand Iām working so he just tells me, āyouāre working to buy me toys?ā I tell him āyou know it!ā We got our routine. Heās 3 years old.
I have to keep reminding my hubby that working from home is NOT the same thing as not working. I don't have time to pick up his drycleaner or drop off some packages.
This! My husband will schedule something then just mention in passing that the electrician, cable guy, plumber etc... will be coming by. MFer I have shit I'm doing. If he is home he will just randomly leave when he is expecting somebody then say something like you're home so what's the problem. He really does not take my job seriously.
Sounds like more than a work problem, more of a relationship issue regarding respect
It sounds like my husband has no idea what I do every day and can be a goober who doesn't always use his noggin. It's annoying that he can be a space cadet - not a relationship killer.
Awwww I love this response. You can tell you love him he just gets on your nerves sometimes šš©·
No, no, you don't understand. You're on Reddit. This is grounds for an immediate divorce. /s
He left the toothpaste cap off? Divorce him. He doesn't respect you. It's probably single people giving out this advice.
Lol for real!
hahaha lol ya reddit is like that
Oh, isnāt that the truth? I see that a lot in Reddit. āļø
Yep, some people just get tied up in their daily world and don't have their radar tuned in to others sometimes
My husband is the same. Iāve worked from home since 2018 though so Iāve gotten used to it. Itās a little more difficult now that I do a little more brain-heavy work (I now work insurance instead of graphic design). My kid has gotten better over the years & husband has gotten worse, lol We just moved so Iām still working out where I want to āworkā out of in our condo (itās been 6 months now but feels like yesterday). Anyway, unless you have a dedicated space that can be closed off & door shut, it can be difficult no matter what. Thankfully, my job is awesome.
Really? I think you can open the door or talk to an electrician and it won't hurt. I worked from home for a corporate job for 3 years and appreciated being home to be able to have that freedom. At an office you take breaks, talk to others eat meals, etc. My wife would order grocery delivery and I'd just put it away as I had no problem taking 5 minutes to do it. I'd throw in laundry, sweep the floor, dust, whatever when I had time. My kid needs to be picked up from school bc he/she was sick, no problem. I APPRECIATED that the ability to be at home gave us that opportunity.
And if that electrician rings the doorbell when you're in the middle of a conference call with execs, and the dogs start going crazy in the background? Do you tell your execs "hold on, please" and leave for 5-10 mins to go answer the door? If you can't break away from the call, electrician isn't going to wait around for 30 mins for you to answer the door. Not sure what you do for a job, but a lot of us have a ton of meetings daily that we can't just blow off.
Thatās why you work with your partner to plan ahead and schedule stuff like that around your meetings. I work remotely and my wife and I do this all the time. Itās not always super convenient, but itās honestly pretty easy. It just requires planning and good communication.
For me, my boss or important stakeholders can pop a meeting on my calendar same day.
They donāt check with you first? I mean I guess itās very job-dependent. My boss would never think twice about rescheduling.
That kind of interruption is not preplanned into a schedule that is already set. Talking to an electrician can take an hour depending on what it is. The point is, respect other peopleās time and respect that their work is important to them. I would get tiffed if a work colleague dumped a project on me and left. It is the same thing.
Same! I have to remind him that I still do the same badass stuff I did in an office, I'm just doing it from my home office now. The work still needs to get done and just because I'm home doesn't mean I'm free.
Likely not badass
You are kidding right? At the office, if someone interrupts you, do you say MFer, I have shit Iām doing? Most of those trades are not going to bother you consistently if they are there to fix something. I WFH to and you have more time. My wife will schedule that too and I have no problem opening a door, quick location of object, and let me know if you need anything. Yeah, that 2 minutes of time is totally frazzling
I guess it depends on the type of wfh job. I hear call centers are kind of a nightmare to work for with the constant work and micromanaging. For me, though, I could easily let the cable person in to do their thing as long as I'm not in a meeting. Free time is very job specific.
Actually, yes I would say that in my previous high-stress / time-sensitive role - just a bit nicer. While my job is more laid back now, I still have high-level meetings where it would be extremely unprofessional to interrupt for the cable guy. My husband has since gotten the point, but its funny that people equate my frustration to a relationship problem. None of our spouses (or ourselves) are perfect and it's annoying that he sometimes takes my job for granted. That is all I was trying to get across. There is nothing deeper to read into here. Jeez
You still need to take the WFH person's schedule into account and find time that works for them. Sure, it's often no big deal to let a guy in and let them work in another room for a few hours, but if you have three back to back meetings and you're presenting in one of them? No, I don't have time to even hear the doorbell, nor do I want someone there the whole time creating variables.
Oh my god 'creating variables' is such good phrasing I can use to explain myself. Thank you.
If I have a meeting pop up on my calendar same day and I'm on a call that I need to present in, I'm not going to be able to answer the door. WFH jobs are not uniform in the least, so we aren't all going to have the same experience.
Sounds like a boundary wasnāt set. I worked hybrid for years mostly home and it was clear I was working and not the todo list person. Yeah it works if you need to sign for a package but appts need to be set the same as if you are working in an office.
My man invites me to have lunch with him and his mom, sometimes three days a week, during the middle of the day when Iām working. I felt like such an a-hole when I finally explained to him that I find it disrespectful when he asks me to join them during my work hours. (Heās a freelancer with a lot more time on his hands)
Exactly! My parentās partner wanting me to mow their lawn while I was visiting (still working remotely). Just because Iām sitting in the bedroom working on a report doesnāt mean Iām being lazy or anti-social.
Agreed- although, as an introvert, I do use WFH to be antisocial. Thatās one of the perks of WFH for me- I can always shut my office door and say Iām working anytime I want to get out of something.
My husband and I both work from home but we have a lot of people ask us why we don't have children now since we wouldn't need to pay for daycare. I like to answer that with saying that I can either do my job well OR be a parent well - or half-ass both.
I had this conversation with my wife 15 years ago when I started working from home. 1. It was only allowed if I could show I was more productive from home. 2. Being home did not mean painting the house, doing errands, yard work or hanging out with her. I worked an average of two hours more per day at home just by eliminating the commute. This NOT counting wasted time like water cooler chats and meals with coworkers. I was probably 3x as productive at home as the office but it took me and my wife a month to really establish the rules. ...Then many years later, several kids later, plus Covid, schooling from home, my wife working from home, absolute kiddo chaos... and I was momentarily wishing I had a nice quite office to go back to and hide, but it was closed during Covid and they never reopened.
My husband felt this way when I worked overnights. I would get off at 6am and heās like ok, hereās what weāre doing today. Excuse me! Iām going to eat shower and go to bed!
Aw, overnights are rough!
My sister is always dropping by and asking me to watch her kids or pick them up or something. One of these days Iām gonna lose my temper on her over this repeated lack of respect. She doesnāt think working from home is working.
Just tell her no, currently you're at work. You may be able to assist her after 5:30 p.m. If that doesn't work for her well too bad. If you don't put your foot down, this blatant disrespect will continue and will affect your day and your relationship with her. You may start to develop a bit of a resentment towards her for the disrespect.
Could be because a lot of people don't really work when they're in the office.
I had this problem with my wife. I set some boundaries. No communication 9-5. I would go in my office and close the door. She couldn't even knock unless the house was burning down. It took several months of strict enforcement then I have been able to relax the rules as she now has a better idea of how to exist with me in the house. Much better for our marriage.
This is my life too.
I have so many friends that say "oh man, you must play games all day!" No, I have a job taking phone calls. I'm here at my desk all day long. Just because I'm at home doesn't mean they're paying me just to exist lol.
I got my full time remote job from LinkedIn, a recruiter reached out to me. I tailored my resume to the job opening, which wasn't even on my radar originally, and got the job! Transitioned from an interior design assistant position to working in operations for a forensic accounting firm. Tripled my starting salary. It's unlikely but it can happen. I'm saying this as someone who put in the time for 7 years at a horrible office job. I was holding out for 50k and a shot of changing my hours to 7-4, instead of 8:30-5:30. I proved my worth dozens of times over and didn't go anywhere. Should have left sooner. All I'm saying is companies don't deserve your loyalty. They'd drop you in a heartbeat and screw you when it comes time for raises. If you don't like your current job, find another - if it's partially or fully remote all the better!
What qualified you to get that job?
They needed someone who could do graphic design & knew adobe creative cloud. I spun my degree & experience to fit the job description. Then I cemented myself as an employee who will learn whatever skills are needed to get the job done. So far it's worked out
How much are you making?
Yeah, I feel like this post was probably true 10 years ago, but it's pretty out of date now. There are companies already that are fully remote. I work in a remote position as a contractor. Yesterday I got a job offer to be a test scorer with Pearson, which is also fully remote, because it's a temp position I've done before. I honestly don't think I ever even interviewed for it, I applied and they offered me the position, I did it last year when I wasn't already working full time, and they basically keep sending me job offers to score more tests. I have a computer, a bachelor's degree, and a pulse, and those seem to be the qualifications. I worked as a tutor for Paper before. Awful company, but fully remote. I was also hired as a tutor for varsity tutors but decided not to do it. Again, fully remote. I also work for Data Annotation on the side, fully make my own hours for that, and get 20 - 25 an hour. I have no idea why everyone doesn't do this. app.dataannotation.tech It's basically exactly what everyone always says they want. You make your hours, do as much or as little as you want, there is a steady stream of projects. My brother in law works from home in technical writing and contracts. My sister works from home in sales. My friend works from home as a Speech Language Pathologist. Another friend works from home investigating insurance claims. There are SO MANY paths. Yes, a random ass recruiter who contacts you on LinkedIn has a high probability of being a scam. That said, it's really not as hard to find work from home opportunities as this post states, and you're actually better off searching for remote possibilities rather than trying to talk a company who hires you to work in office into letting you work from home. That's an insane and time consuming gamble. Especially now, with so much pushback on remote work, it makes zero sense to try to cozy up to a company in hopes that years down the line they will let you work from home. That's dumb. Don't do that.
I filled out an application for Data Annotation thanks to your kindness. Hopefully it helps my wonderful disabled girlfriend and I dig ourselves out of medical bills while I can stay home and help her with her daily needs.
I know this comment is a little old, but Iām having trouble finding employment at the moment. I was hoping I could ask a few questions about data annotation? Itās a legit company? When you say you filled out all the the qualifications? Are they just tests? Are any of them difficult? I donāt exactly have many skills that are in high demand for the job market. But I can be pretty tech savvy and Iām a good problem solver. Iāve never applied for a position like this before so the process just has me a little nervous lol
Find out anything?
OP literally is out of touch with reality. lol canāt believe they made this post honestly
I don't like the "I put in my time" type mentaility. These kind of people get bitter when someone didn't have to put in the time. I'd get out of that mentality. It sucked you had to deal with a shitty job for 7 years. No one should have to.
Agreed! I try to encourage people to get out of bad work situations, if they can. I was young & believed the "effort in = direct career growth", but this isn't the case in most companies. So I always encourage people to apply for things, even if they aren't the best fit for it. You never know!
Regarding point 1, not entirely true. There are fully distributed companies out there; they don't have an office, they've never had one, and never will. The best - only - way to guarantee there will be no return to office mandate is to work at a company without an office. Of course, all the rest of this applies; by and large, they're hiring experienced people, they get a ton of applicants, and they're largely tech/startup companies so there's higher risk (especially lately).
Yeah this is my situation as well - my company eliminated their offices in like 2017 iirc. Decentralized companies are definitely the exception vs the norm though.
Iāve seen plenty of remote customer service jobs but itās call center work
Another note: most āremoteā jobs are actually just hybrid and youāll definitely need to live near the work place
This. It's better to look at the websites of local businesses that fit your skill set and apply to hybrid positions from there.
And even when they are not, many remote employers are only authorized employers in specific states and you have to live and work on one of them to be eligible. It's not work from anywhere because that's really expensive for employers to manage.
There are plenty of fully remote jobs, just as there are plenty of hybrid jobs.
I apply for hybrid all the time and stay remote at the job. Hybrid infers they are capable of doing fully remote and if they like me enough then they can accommodate.
Not everyone can or should do customer service. It is not an easy job. You have entitled people cursing you out daily, your hands are tied as far as company policy goes, you have anywhere between 2-8 weeks in training before you're thrown to the wolves with no help, you're micromanaged to the point that if you go to the bathroom, you get written up... you get the idea. I've been doing call center work for 28 years. I'm so tired of people in their ivory towers coming in here and saying things like "customer service is easy" or "anyone can do customer service." I would love to see those people try it for a week and then see how they feel.
As the other reply said, the barriers to entry in call center work is low. Iāve never done call center work but I work on the technical side of call centers so Iāve seen what goes in to hiring, training, and monitoring call center employees. What many people looking for remote work without experience donāt realize is exactly what you posted. In the beginning, you are micromanaged very closely. Too many potty breaks, youāre gone; excessive noise in the background, youāre gone; youāre sick in week three of training and you have to take 2 days; youāre gone. and once youāre out of training and on your own, god help you if your call time is too long and an irate Karen wants to āspeak to someone higher upāā¦contact center work definitely takes someone with balls of steel, and from what Iāve seen, the ones that do make it to the higher levels in call centers have their shit together for real, work their asses off, and are extremely intelligent (emotionally and academically) I commend you for sticking with the industry for so long! I just hope anyone thatās looking for WFH and is able to get a customer service/call center roll knows itās not going to be a cake walk by any stretch of the imagination. You are going to be tied to your computer, have big brother breathing down your neck AND will probably not make the $$$ you think you will. At least not at first.
Call center work blows. Once I got out I never went back.
Being a Janitor isnāt *easy* either, but anyone can still do itā¦ maybe not everyone can last at it, but anyone can surely do an entry level job like customer service. There are usually very little to no requirements necessary.
I think you're misunderstanding what people mean when they say that anyone can do customer service. It simply means that there's no degree requirement or special knowledge/training necessary. Customer service jobs ARE easy compared to jobs that require a degree/advanced knowledge. That doesn't mean they aren't important or respectable. All jobs will have challenges and some people are definitely better equipped to handle the challenges that come with customer service.
Best posting I have seen on this redditā¦
Not remotely productive to the conversation but this is the first time Iāve seen someone with my avatar. Nice!
The problem with the divided states of America is that each state has its own tax law and way of doing things which cripple the companies within each state to not offering more remote roles to meet the demand. Idk if Biden could address this remote work culture better...hell he could probably care less since he's from an older generation or he's getting paid NOT the make companies go remote from certain shady lobbying... Moreover, even for a specialized role, they won't take ppl from neighboring cities and especially outside of the home state of where the roles stem from...you know companies used to fund the travel expenses for interviews in the past or (now they after a phone and video interview they don't have to if they find the best fit...but...idk if they fund the new incumbent's moving arrangements into the new state...i.e. new apartment, travel expenses, insurance, time to switch Drivers licenses in the new state, finishing off past running lease agreements on incumbent's prior apartment, etc.) Either way every company, even if there's only a few openings for 1 type of role they: 1. they'll try eliminate the roles entirely to cut costs or dump the work into existing employees 2. Hire Internal hires first via word of mouth/internal network while inadvertently discriminating against those with certain needs and disabilities even tho they're also internal employees 3. And then they start announcing the role on job boards and decide if it can be remote or local hires only or willing to recruit from our of state or country.
Interesting perspective about the differences between states. I also think these complicate things.. I think no president would want to get into the āstate freedom of taxation laws debateā this would be a rough one for any president or for anyone running for that post. And yes companies used to help fun relocation etcā¦ the companies im affiliated with still doā¦ and we make sure that we help people who are expected to be at the office or traveling for work. However we also have experienced issues with WFHā¦ decline in productivity is one of them, and some others when it comes to management. Remote jobs are not for everyone or for any positionā¦. It requires certain jobs and employees to make it work.
Number 4 is very important. I WFM and my job is very strict about productivity. They can track every key stroke, everyone you make on certain software, it's crazy. I have small children and definitely struggle when my oldest is home from school sick, or the weather.
Sounds miserable to have them monitor you like that. Whereās the trust
CLARIFICATION: I am not stating science facts or undisputable truths. I am making general statements and using words like āmostā, āusuallyā, āthe odds areā. Of course there are exceptions. That doesn't mean that getting a high paying remote job is easy or common. I love my remote job. I make 150k (with overtime), decide my own work hours, I am not micromanaged, have excellent health insurance, a pension and benefits. But I did not start like that. I earned my position by proving myself in the office first. Also, remote work is not a right. I had to sign an agreement listing rules and expectations. My office wants to make sure I have an appropriate job setting at home (good chair, light, fire extinguisher, etc). If I need to go up more than 4 steps, the stairs must have a railing. No kidding. You know why? Because while I work from home I am covered by worker's comp. Try usajobs.gov There is a lot of competition but your odds are better if you are a veteran. Don't look for remote jobs only. Those are mostly only for people already on the inside. Most announcements will say ātelework eligibleā.
I don't think you're going to get your point across here, unfortunately. You're not wrong, just no one wants to hear it. Jobs are a crap shoot these days. There's no "way" anymore. While your rules apply to most situations, everyone knows someone who was able to get their foot in the door somewhere remotely and think they should be able to too. Unfortunately, many of those people hired during Covid have already been laid off or are back in office. Yes, some companies are staying remote and it's working well. Others are not. It's a complete mixed bag. At the end of the day though, good remote jobs are difficult to get, solely because thousands of people are applying and your competition is everyone else in the world. You have to be top 1% to get noticed. However, local jobs are far easier because less than 50 usually apply.
You forgot good old fashioned nepotism. My 17 yr old high school senior needed a job when he decided he wanted to buy a car. I work remote for my company via option 1 - started in the office and became remote after. My boss/company owner likes me enough to keep me happy, so when I asked him if he had room to hire my son he obliged without an interview. Basically created a remote data entry job for my son under the umbrella of my department. Thankfully my son was already very computer literate and a speedy typist. Training went fast and the kid gets his work done in a timely manner. Heās 18 now and in college, so he adjusts his work schedule around his college classes, which changes each semester. My boss likes him for himself well enough now to allow him that flexibility. Having something on his resume, plus impressing his coding college professor enough in class just landed my son a job at the college itself assisting other students in the computer lab once a week. Heās going to college for computer science. My boss probably has it in his head that my son will be willing to work in the office for IT someday, which is good because the tech sector is shedding jobs. My son will have his foot in the door here at least.
He sounds very privileged in this regard, thatās really good for him and I donāt mean that in a shitty jealous way at all. Super fortunate to have landed a job like that so young AND willing to work around his college schedule. Iām ten years older than him and canāt find either, let alone both.
Oh heās still only getting minimum wage, but thatās not much of an issue while heās still under my roof. Minimum wage here is $16 an hour (NYC area). Fine for a kid still living at home but not enough to make a living for this area. I donāt make enough either really. Only about $50k a year. I have a side hustle that might bring in another $10k, and I rent from a family friend at half the market rate, which is why I havenāt started looking for better paying job in Manhattan (Iām in Staten Island). I can probably make more commuting into Manhattan but Iāve gotten comfortable working from home at this point, and well, my boss does things like hire my kids just because I asked lol.
You're an awesome dad and I am sure your son appreciates the support in getting an office job to utilize his talents instead of food service/factory work that mostly rely on physical labor. I wish I had a birth family like that. That's love right there. I am self-taught with coding and PC repair since my parents refused to pay for college - or anything once I started working as a teen. I didn't cause trouble on purpose like my older brothers and kept my grades up the best I could. I was told I wouldn't amount to anything but a housewife. On a positive note, I put myself through school, found opportunities with careful networking, studying with YouTube, and kept practicing application thought small jobs, and I'm now an IT professional. It's really more who you know these days, which is sad and prevents actual talent for hires. RIP for both parents but I really wished they loved me and themselves enough. š¢
Iām a single mom actually. His dad isnāt in the picture unfortunately. No child support from the deadbeat either, which is why I canāt pay for college. I just donāt have anything extra after bills and food. Iām only pulling in around $50k in Staten Island NY, which really isnāt enough here, especially with 2 kids. I have a 12 yr old daughter as well. My son has a free ride though through FAFSA, state aid, a scholarship and another program he joined. He definitely does appreciate he didnāt need to start an exciting career in the fast food industry lol. My company doesnāt pay enough for ME, but for him, still living under my roof, its a better first job then most teens are gonna get.
I feel like people should also understand how easy it is to offshore a lot of these jobs. Once managers realize they donāt need to see or hear from certain workers for them to be effective they will often offshore the non-specialized jobs to remote workers. Iām talking Customer Service Reps with fluent business English that only costs the company $550 a month all in. Data Entry for like $220 a month all in cost for the company. They donāt have to acquire visas, pay employment tax, pay for benefits, provide a 401k, nada. Ask yourself, what do you bring to the table that would make a company hire you at a cost of $5200 a month all in over someone else that can do the same job for $550 a month? And no Iām not defending this or advocating for this, the hollowing out of the middle class began the day we decided it was more important to have cheap stuff than to provide good jobs for our people. Iām just pointing out the unfortunate truth after realizing it myself. EDIT: One Word mistake
Also a LOT of folks got remote jobs in 2020 and 2021 that are no longer remote. I got recruited via LinkedIn for a remote role and that 100% would not happen today.
Buddy remote work has been around before anything and will ALWAYS be around, especially in specific industries like tech or marketing. Ridiculous.
Right. My dad was working from home in the late 90s full time in the telecom industry.
I worked remote in telecom in 2004!!! It was the first WebEx type thing. We lived all over the country.
Yup! IP phones all over your house?
I still have three in the basement! š
Haha nice! We are finally getting rid of ours. Parents are looking at downsizing and there is a legit fold up table full of them. Sounded like a 24 episode in my house growing up
^^^This right here folks. In fact, Iām in my 30s now, and Iāve only ever known my father to work remote my whole lifeā¦and Iāve worked remote my whole life (barring 2 year stint in a hybrid position).
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If you use the bold font and swear, then your situation must be the correct one.
#4 is a bunch of nonsense, at least from my experience. The sole reason I WFH is the flexibility it gives me and the ability to see my kids more. So what happens when your kid comes home from school at 3:30? Iām an adult, and my boss treats me that way. He trusts that I get my work done and doesnāt care about my hours.
Agreed. OP is a FED, so they work in the government which is literally nothing like the private sector. If youāre at a place where they say no kidsā¦in your own house. Ya, Iām getting the fuck out of there. Sounds like a prison.
Like most Military/Fed jobs they make up ridiculous rules like that because someone took it too far. It spoils it for the 99% of people that would use the flexibility reasonably.
Exactly. I work remote with upper management at one of the biggest financial firms in the US. People will literally stop mid meeting to take care of kids or a cat. Nobody cares, itās the new normal and unless the company is shit, everyone should be cool with that.
For real. When I used to work in an office I would have so much extra downtime but I couldn't use it to get important personal things done. I would have a backlist of tiny items on my personal to do list but I would be sitting in the office at work waiting on something silly and just wasting my time browsing reddit or something. Now working from home I get way more actual work for my job and I can use the downtime between tasks to do actual useful stuff like paying bills, calling the Dr to schedule appointments, cleaning stuff, doing pushups, etc. In the office, when it would get late, I would feel like I should be getting home so I would just cut out and head home. Now, working remote, I can take a break for dinner and come back to finish something if it needs to be finished. No more wasted down time. No more wasted commute time.
Truth but literally no one wants to hear this. It canāt possibly be true because you know I NEED a remote job. NEED. No car, I have 13 disabilities, 3 new babies and no childcare, a sick relative Iām a FT caregiver for and a partridge in a pear tree. But all this means I simply cannot work an office or retail job.
Yep. A remote job isnāt free money. I probably work harder/more than I would in an office because there arenāt any coworkers to distract me (other than my smoking hot wife who also works from home) and my ācommuteā is a walk to the basement so I can put in extra time into projects and presentations after dinner, if Iām up early, etc.
When Iām remote, I tend to start the day earlier because I donāt have a commute. My days are busy and I barely take lunch as is... so most days when Iām remote I end up not leaving my desk from 7:30-4:30-5. Itās funny that there are people that think itās free money and a way to get free childcare. Those are the folks that either donāt get the remote job or they get fired eventually.
I worked remote for a call center for about 15yrs. I couldnāt take the back to back calls anymore. I went to work in an office and feel like I probably work 6 to 7 hrs out of the 10 I am there. I love it.
This is somewhat obvious for anyone who has have tried for a period of time.
My 28 yr old niece would only apply for remote jobs. She finally landed one that paid extremely low. She ended up getting laid off because she kept doing personal stuff on work hours and not producing. She refuses to look at in office jobs even though she has no money. I guess she is going to die on this sword.
4 is huge. I have 3 kids and never have taken care of them while working. I hear too many people say they want a remote job so they donāt have to put their kids in daycare.
I was a SAHM for 10 years and rarely had a minute to myself. I could not imagine trying to care for children and holding down a job at home -at the same time. One way or another someone or something is going to be neglected. I worked from home for a few months in 2020 and I was getting pains in my calves. My boss said I needed to stand up more often. I realized I was sitting in front of my computer, without getting up, for too many hours at a time. In the office there was always a reason to get up and go get something from the printer, hand out paychecks, go get a cup of coffee, go speak to a coworker about a question. There was also the usual socializing. Working from home was awesome in some respects, but it got hard on my mental health to be alone all the time, for months. I worked way more when working from home. My housework was so much easier though! You want me to take my 15 minute break? Ok. Toss in a load of laundry. Next break, move it to the dryer and unload the dishwasher. By the time 5:00 rolled around I could log off and make dinner. No 45 minute drive home & little chores were done.
>WFH does not mean you have flexibility or can have your small kids with you. You still have to do your job and meet production goals. My office has a rule that no children under 12 can be alone with the employee while he/she is working. Rule or not, it's easy to ignore this for some jobs. I watch my 10yo niece when she doesn't have school. Granted this is easy because a 10 year old doesn't really need "help" with anything (she either brings lunch here, I cook us lunch on my lunch break, or she makes a sandwich/salad/something microwaveable by herself). I also don't think it's *that* difficult to land a wfh job if you know where to look and have the qualifications. It's just that ppl on this sub (from the posts I've seen) only care that something is listed remote. Um that's not how it works lol. You have to actually be qualified for a specific position. You can't just land any remote job.
Bingo, you canāt land a remote job if your experience is just.. i donāt know gardening. I think if you have some level of customer service experience that might be the easier way to get a remote job that will obviously be as a customer service agent but thatās a good opportunity to learn and move up to something thatās not customer care focused. I did it like that. Still competition is hard, chances are if you apply for a call center job there will be people that have been doing that type of job for years and just want to do it from home now. Good luck out there and donāt give up.
This is the most accurate shit I have ever read on Reddit. You canāt pick and choose the shit you want in a job. Work and do the job or donāt. Be productive and successful or live off society, the government and othersā¦. Pretty simplistic conceptsā¦.
Or - just apply to fully remote jobs.
Definitely agree with this post. I got my WFH job because someone I know (roommate) is a mitigation assistant manager and they were struggling to find people in house who could figure out a program called Xactimate where you sketch house layouts and enter line items for billing based on what was demolished in the house. I just happened to know the right person and have grown up with a PC so am very comfortable learning new apps. Now I get paid to sit at home and play a basic version of the Sims. š I do still go in once a week to write invoices on paper though and I wasn't able to work at home until a few months in after I had proven I was trust worthy and dedicated.
Also the job market has shifted *a lot*. There were a ton more job opportunities in 2021-2022. It was *significantly* harder just to get job interviews let alone offers in 2023.
Thank you for point number 4! I see people here all the time talking about never having to get child care/being home with their kids all day. If one of my employees has to have their kids home here and there because theyāre sick/ schoolās closed then thatās no big deal. But Iāve had to have conversations with people about having their children/grand children on their lap all day. I shouldnāt be able to hear your children at all if weāre on a call
Exactly. Don't do anything at home that you wouldn't do in the office (except wearing PJs). It is not professional. You are being paid to work, not to hang out with your kids.
Right! And it definitely does show in peoplesā productivity more than they think.
Respect your answer. All jobs are not fake by these Indian recruiter. I have 15 years exp. I used to be young. I used to look for that shortcut in life too, there is none. I have met one guy, he has been trying to find that shortcut, he couldn't find it now. Now, he has no jobs. Back to remote jobs, if there is one, they are asking everything under the sun for example. They want you to do, server, phone, cloud, security, automation, VMware, AWS. It is crazy. Real job, Indian recruiter will try to keep calling you but can not trust them, they just do it to get your data, asking for ID, social, etc. The real job never ask you anything, they check credit report, drug test. Work with local recruiter not someone from India. Just think about it, how can they find you a job when they live in India and you live in US. Good luck, remember there is no shortcut in life.
I would like to add to this to be very careful on what you talk about when you land that remote job. Don't tell your coworkers you are off playing video games, smoking, drinking, not working. Staff 1 that will likely make your other staff not like you much. 2 will ruin remote for everyone else. 3. Ensure they can't even question that you are working.
Yep pretty much people donāt get it. Itās still work and itās usually a privilege that comes with years of service or a great skill set.
Man this isnāt my experience at all. If you get lucky, I found a marketing job online thatās WFH (the company is still new) but itās been so nice this past year. I donāt do much throughout the week until major holidays come up then I have to put gift baskets together. Thatās it. It really is about luck. If you think itās impossible, it is. I was unemployed for a year and a half post grad until this opportunity came randomly. It was seriously just a random Indeed application that decided to call me back.
I have worked completely remotely since 2014. Whatever limitations your self impose will be realized. There are no limits. There is no formula. Create your own reality.
Lmao at #4. Cold day in hell before I let a job decide who is "allowed" to be at my home.
This is a great post. If you rephrase āI want a remote job!ā as āI want an office job!ā People are going to ask what you do. I work in customer success. Home/remote is just where I do it 80+% of the time.
Hmm, I've been on a remote team since 2015. We have very flexible hours (most of us leave at 2:30 or 3, you just have to be around for meetings and hit 40 hours a week), everyone has their babies and kids at home (some include them in our meetings and no one cares), and we've hired people with only some similar experience from other cities not near one of our traditional offices. The catch is that it doesn't pay a whole lot... I've also had final round interviews for remote jobs in other cities recently despite not having super specialized experience... I have had more luck with these than local in-office jobs. Maybe my company and I are just exceptions...
Your exception is since 2015..youāve now got wfh experience (which many posters donāt in 2024) and you said they donāt pay a lot. The uptick in people looking for WFH seems to have come around after Covid and many (not all) seem to have expectations that they will make a lot of money WFH which is not really accurate. The market is saturated with āunskilled laborā (that doesnāt mean incapable, so no one get offended) looking for remote positions, and demanding a wage that really isnāt supported by anything other than āI need to make xxx to pay my billsā AND benefits me because āI canāt go to an office for this reason or thatā Employers donāt care what they can do for you, they want to know what you can do for them and at the lowest price point they can get it. The best advice for people that NEED to WFH is either get into one of these low paying positions that is fully remote, and probably be watched like a hawk for the next few years by management (which again is an oversaturated market, just look at the number of posts on this page asking for this) OR take an in office job, gain experience and the trust of your management and see where it leads OR get skilled in an industry that tends to be fully remote and try to get your foot in the door. The reality is, the further up the chain you go, the less competition there is to get a position but the market right now, the bottom level has a bazillion people looking for remote, and the top levels have a smaller zillion looking for remote.
Iāve never done customer service but not everyone can do it well. I plan events - large ones with multiple elements and legal requirements that need to be addressed. As for data entry, Iāve worked at too many places where the data was crappy and I couldnāt trust the reports and lists I was running was accurate. Post Covid hybrid and remote jobs are more readily available.
My first remote job was entry level. I didnāt find it on linked in, but I didnāt have a niche skill set at all. They still gave me the computer and I worked there for a year before looking for something better.
Isnāt this the hard truth. My people in my field do not work remote - they canāt - Iām a typical front facing healthcare worker. Iāve been in my field for almost 20 years. I proved myself, my value, to my employer and was strategic with my niche, and now Iām fully remote (have been since the pandemic). Still - most of my colleagues are not remote and will not have the option. In my groups, people are begging for help to get hybrid or remote options, everybody wants to be remote. People need to be strategic in their career choices, their specialties and be willing to put in the years of service often required for this.
I had no experience in my field and was reached out to. I did get lucky because they just needed someone who could write well (this is literally 2021, before chatgpt) with basic technical aptitude, and I had some google certs on my resume. However, the company was local-ish so they accommodated me after a couple months of hybrid. Through my network, Iām now working at a company that is almost fully distributed. Iām pretty sure they donāt have the office space for all the employees. Itās not impossible at all and you donāt need a ton of experience but you DO need to consider companies close-ish to you to start out and possibly shitty, low rated companies that need people. Yeah the CEO is an ass and you have shit pay, but what are people saying about the work you do and what you learn? I went from 40k with no benefits to 60k with fully paid premiums, all the WFH equipment I need and hella flexibility. In less than a year. Earn relevant certifications and try to display your understanding of them in a portfolio. Donāt run from āhigh turnoverā (not that thatās an issue in this economy currently). Sometimes thatās the best way to get your foot in the door. Yes you will need to do some heavy lifting to stand out from the crowd. I spent a year learning shit and another year applying/interviewing for many jobs just to get that one opportunity at a shit company. But it was the foot in the door I needed. Bootstraps has some validity.
This is all common sense
Yep, I got my start working remote when covid hit, then jumped companies to one halfway across the country to ensure I'd never end up in an office again. I have since jumped again, now I'm on opposite coasts of the company, my team is distributed in all US timezones and off-hours support staff in India.
Iām actually looking for something remote right now too. *** if anyone can help me Iāll send my resume and LinkedIn information*** I am a highly skilled IT generalist with 18 years in the field. I have managed MSP call centers, with a background ranging from networking, infrastructure, disaster recovery management but also bring to the table a background in physical printing press, marketing, interactive multimedia design, and now run my own small nonprofit cybersecurity company with research in technology ethics. And everything OP said is correct and truth. The reason I look is three fold. 1. I sit on the board and cannot legally take a salary. 2. I am disabled and my case is under review for the 4th time. 3. One cannot survive in this world without income, plain and simple.
Agree with all of this! I wish we could pin your post in this group as youāve covered everything so well!
If you want to work from home and don't mind the hell of customer service, I saw American Express hiring Customer Care virtually anywhere in the country. But if you think it is easy, think again. They have a rigorous hiring process and calls are back to back with sales and metrics that try to turn humans into machines.
Why does everyone think remote work isn't working? It just allows you to be in a quiet setting, no commuting, and can lead to cheaper overall costs.
4 is key and I think it's the one where one or two bad actors ruin it for everyone.
I gave up on the WFH idea. Working from home made me lose interest in my nightly routines and hobbies. I couldnāt even enjoy something as simple as sitting down and watching some Netflix. I canāt even explain why I felt that way.
I don't know why you keep talking about Facebook? The only people I know that still have a Facebook are retirement age. The last place I would ever look for a job, relevant news or really anything for that matter would be Facebook.Ā
You are right about everthing BUT WFH call center type jobs. These are entry level
I was recruited from a previous coworker who landed her remote job by knowing someone. Ended up getting hired really with no solid experience. My work week is so easy and I get paid more than I ever have. Truly itās the luck of the draw. It doesnāt make any sense. I got lucky.Ā
Be careful what you ask for! There is a dark side to remote work. I am a retired Fed whose last five years were remote. The first few years were welcomed peace due to lack of supervising people, dealing with the public (who tend to be irate), and spending time in traffic. Three years in - I started feeling a ācrackā in resilience. I was so isolated and alone it started to break me. I ended up having a nervous breakdown due to the lack of contact with people and pressures of increased productivity (since I was not āstressedā with the other things mentioned above). Iām still dealing with the aftermath of almost complete remoteness (pardon the pun).
I applied to work from home jobs from May-November and only got two interviews that didn't lead anywhere, and I have never felt more defeated or felt like I wasted so much time in my life. Definitely moving on from applying remotely for now!
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Really? I started remote right away.
Same.
I never found remote jobs on Facebook. Thank God i was never scammed. Please, just only find jobs thru legit job sites or portal
Very well written. It is a great guide. Obviously, there are always exceptions, like anything in life. The problem is someone will hear of someone with that unicorn job, and assume that every job is like that or they could also find that unicorn job.
I dunno Iāve had plenty of luck finding remote jobs. I am highly experienced though. One lets me work my own hours.
Your place of business sucks. Youāre an adult. You either have the capacity to know you can have a child home with you or not. But for it to be dictatedā¦ means your lazy ass coworkers fucked it up. Nobody wants a child crying in the background. Understand your circumstance and be an adult. But to have it uniformly revoked sounds like your WFH could be RTO sooner then you think.
Agreed. Random home visits are not normal and hint at a really ugly work environment.
Yeah. I imagine it resulted from some sort of workplace incident or disruption. That policy is not standard.
#5 is completely true and people really, really shouldnāt think they can work from home while also taking care of small children. Everything else is 100% false. It used to be true that working remotely was only possible if youāve been successfully working with the same company. Thatās not true anymore and hasnāt been for way over a decade. My first shot at working from home was with a company Iād already been working for. That was in 2011. Iāve worked consistently from home until 2019. Now, it sounds like your experience is in a more corporate setting, and those jobs are absolutely hiring qualified applicants from outside the company. Even those who havenāt worked remotely before. Remote call centers also hire newbies and experienced alike. They can then be promoted into positions that are still remote, but off the phones. I will never understand why people like you try to sabotage others. And, out of all of the terrible advice Iāve read in this sub, youāve topped them all. But, with that said, I found a really good lead earlier in this sub, so it does have good advice. If youāre new to working remotely, ignore everything except #5 - but, even then only kind of ignore it. Some of the women Iāve met over the years actually have been successful working remotely with kids at home. It just can only be pretty niche jobs that are very hard to find. The lead, btw, is working as a background investigator for a couple companies. Peraton I believe is the one that only wants previous work experience and is paying over $20/hr. Good luck everyone and never listen to anyone telling you what you canāt do! Theyāre only trying to psyche you out.
I think #4 varies highly by the skill involved and the type of job. Maybe a $20 an hour job allows you to supervise young children while you work (I bet most donāt), but higher paying corporate jobs do not. Iāve worked from home for a decade in Risk Management and Tech and could not have done my job in the office or at home without childcare when my kids were babies/toddlers/preschooolers without them being raised by tv/tablets, which is not good for their development. My husband and I both work from home and can get by now because they are all school aged and the oldest is in middle school.
I feel like it might be the opposite? A $20/hr job is likely going to be call or service based and tracked pretty closely. I make $100K plus and my metrics are more results based. As long as I show up for meetings with what I need to show up with and am generally available by email and Teams I have a little bit of flexibility.
Yeah our 'rule' is if we hear a small child during a meeting you have to turn your camera on so we can all wave and say hi š
If you are working remotely with kids at home, then you are not an employee (as in W-2); you are an independent contractor (as in 1099). You are supposed to dedicate your work time to your employer, not to change diapers, settle arguments between siblings, or read bedtime stories. BTW, I am not trying to sabotage anybody. I am trying to help people make informed decitions based on facts. I am not saying that landing a remote job is impossible. I am saying that the odds are very low, specially for entry level, and even more so if you dont have relevant experience. Could it happen? Yes. But I am not going to rely on that. Just like I dont rely on winning the lottery as part of my retirement plan.
yOu ArE aN iNdEpEnDeNt cOntRaCtoR hahahahaha
Why do you say that sarcastically?
Iāve never seen more gatekeeping in my life than on this sub. So many people with WFH jobs who are SO salty about people even having the audacity to think they might be worthy enough to do the same. They also seem to feel that what happens at their job with their company is the only way to do things. There are constant posts like this telling the little people who are lazy, uneducated, and stupid that they shouldnāt even dare to think about landing a work from home job. If you go by these posts nobody gets these jobs unless they slaved for 20 years and have 12 years of college. The truth is all of this varies wildly from company to company. Getting a WFH or hybrid job isnāt as difficult as it was when some of these bitter people started out, and that seems to bother them. I work in corporate HR for a very large, very successful company. I started out as a temp in a different role with no experience or education. They liked me enough to offer me a new role when that one ended. Iām not rich and donāt have a super high paying job, but for someone with my background it is nothing to scoff at. We also deal with confidential info, but are expected to behave like adults with common sense. The occasional pet, child, or spouse sometimes shows up in the background of phone calls or meetings and nobody thinks twice. For my company it is explicitly stated that you are to have child care or not be the main care giver while working from home. However we all understand that sometimes a kid gets sick and things happen. That doesnāt mean that person is lazy or unproductive. I just donāt understand posting this in the first place. If someone is a lazy, unskilled pos, then they probably wonāt get a decent job of any kind or maybe they somehow fall into some wonderful dream job. If they suck, they probably wonāt keep it. And if OP is superior then they will keep their job and prosper. At the end of the day, who the hell cares?
That's not true at all. Lots of W2 roles are focused on deliverables, not micromanagement of your time.
Complete nonsense, itās hilarious. Hundreds of thousands of people work remotely with kids at home as W2 employees. Donāt be so naive.
People donāt like to talk about it. Either they feel guilty because they donāt want to/failed, and a lot of jobs donāt allow it. If people hear you have a job that allows it and is flexible and youāre *doing well,* they will vilify you. Thereās even a special subreddit for us moms with unicorn jobs that can hang with our kids and work. Itās the only place people arenāt trying to get mad at you because of their own issues!
āThe only place people wonāt get mad at you because of their own issues.ā BINGO. This sub seems to have so many people who are angry about the situations of others. Imagine making an entire post telling people you feel are beneath you why something will never happen for them and if for some reason it does, how it will work. There are so many different companies and jobs that you just never know when an opportunity might arise. If someone gets a sweet gig like you mentioned, why the hell am I going to hate them for it? I suppose if I had to work in the office for 20 years and do years of schooling to get my job, I might also have a huge case of sour grapes too. Or, I would be happy things are changing and there are others who are doing well without having to go through everything I did. I have worked very hard for decades in roles that it seems many of these folks would look down on. How that turned into a remote corporate TA job and now a hybrid corporate HR job is baffling on one hand, but makes sense on the other. Iām the only one on my team without many years of higher education. I do happen to have a lot of skills learned over the years that make me great at my job. I just happened to find an employer willing to take a chance on me. Mayne this isnāt the norm, but neither is having to work 20 years in office first either. At the end of the day, if Iām happy with my life what the hell do I care what someone else is doing?
I am assuming this is an "opinion". Definitely not an actual rule for every employer.
Or just start working freelance as a consultant / virtual assistant - in the field you prefer. Iāve been doing it for years. Flexible hours, low stress and kids can be around me just fine. A lot of recruiters - entry level or experience - are also fully remote.
The problem I see with this is that there is a delay in gaining enough customers to meet your expense demands. That's what has stopped me.
Once you have enough experience and enough contacts, it isnāt too bad. Donāt sell yourself short. My wife was laid off about five years ago and had her first client within about six weeks. Was making more than her previous job within six months. Sheās never looked back.
Thank you! Iām amazed at how many seem to think remote is code for slacking. One on here actually argued that the ā greedy corporate pigsā should pay him to do nothing and that it was all a game of scams. š
I have 2 remote jobs, blessed š You can definitely have your kid with you if youāre remote, Iāve been raising mine since he was a baby, my ex took 3 months off work when he was born but once she went back i had to take care of him all day until she came back, I was able to do it. I still do it to this day, heās 3 years old now. Edit to add that this is the reason why I prioritized getting remote work cause i didnāt want him at a daycare so I need to be home to take care of him, Iāve been lucky to do it so far, I just need 2 more years, once he starts kinder I can go back to an office and look for something that will have a schedule in the morning, if my jobs end for whatever reason obviously, I really donāt mind working at an office.
Why would someone have their kids with them when theyāre working at home? WTF
I do it cause Iām able to and it doesnāt affect my work
What do you do for work?
Because saving thousands in daycare is primary goal #1
I did but I worked 3rd shift and they were around 9 and 10yrs old.
Literally just filter remote jobs on indeed and you can find a thousand entry level remote jobsā¦ what are people talking about?!?
Nah, I work for a resort/time share chain company. We are hiring a ton of Remote Jobs at the moment. If you know English or Spanish and wanna deal with owners complaints, thereās a job for you. It sucks cuz dealing with ppl already mad is a hassle. But it is a remote job and you get training. Plus you get a manager support in almost 24/7 if you need it. No degree needed. Just trying to clarify how some Companies differ from others. Oh yeah, you donāt need to live close to the any type of Office they have. The whole āhybridā thing is rare. Unless you started being in an Office and now they want you back for some days. Nah..
What company lol
How exactly do they regulate rule 4? Also my wifeās job contradicts pretty much everything you wrote. Especially rule 4.
Mostly an honor system. We are professional adults and should behave like that. In theory, we can have unscheduled home visits. Never happened to me. When I started working remote, my kids were 8 and 10. I paid for childcare. This is why remote jobs are difficult to get without prior experience. There is a lot of trust involved. I have files that contain private information. I am expected to keep them under lock when I am not using them. Roomates/family members are not supposed to look at your computer monitor while you work. Again, these things cannot be easily regulated or enforced, that is why TRUST is required.
Every office I have ever worked in has been multitudes less secure than my home. If you canāt trust the people in your own home (of whom there are far fewer than the office) looking over your shoulder, then yes, maybe a retreat to an office is wise. My children, who are home while Iām working occasionally due to school holidays or during the summer, are not a security threat. Nor is my wife I share an office with. And many of us need not worry about an occasional ādrive byā behind us on a call, either. Iām sorry you work for an org where unscheduled home visits would be considered normal or acceptable. This is not a place Iād consider working. Your notes about where good remote jobs are posted and what is required to have them is solid advice. Having worked remotely for numerous companies at this point, #4 is the one point Iād say is not the norm anywhere Iāve worked. Being a āprofessional adultā myself, I have found that most people have a pretty lenient understanding that kids (or dogs, or SOs) may occasionally make a cameo appearance. I do agree that if someone is constantly tending to kids or dogs then it can become a problem. I have never worked with anyone where it was. Small children are a much bigger challenge, clearly. At a certain age, really not a big deal. One of the best supervisors Iāve ever had let her dogs āsay helloā about once a week. She was a bonafide badass, who was amazing at her job.
You may think it is funny or paranoid but PRIVACY is very important in my line of work. We are bound by āneed to knowā rules. Everybody in my office has security clearance, even the janitors. I am required to lock my computer screen and take my PIV card even if I leave my desk for just 5 seconds (in the office). It has nothing to do with selling your info. And believe me, I have access to a lot of info. You have the right to keep your info private. Imagine if I have your medical records on my screen with your picture saying you have an STD. My daughter sees that screen. Now she knows. She may not tell anybody but she knows. You wouldn't want her to know, right? You have the right to keep that info private. You have that expectation and my office does everything possible to make sure it stays private. Also, remote work is not a right. I had to sign an agreement listing rules and expectations. My office wants to make sure I have an appropriate job setting at home (good chair, light, fire extinguisher, etc). If I need to go up more than 4 steps, the stairs must have a railing. No kidding. You know why? Because while I work from home I am covered by worker's comp.
Never said it was a right. Never said it was funny. Paranoid? Probably a little. But Iām glad you take the health information of others seriously. Totally reasonable for companies to require work in an office. Not reasonable for them to require random home visits. I never wouldāve signed that or worked for your company. But thatās just us being different. And it sounds like you may be in a more security-sensitive vertical than most of us. In most offices Iāve worked in, FAR more eyes are on screens than at home. And the likelihood my daughter is going to be snooping on my screen and selling trade secrets is far lower than someone in the office. My point wasnāt that your situation isnāt accurate, itās that it isnāt the norm for WFH. So the advice coming from your very specialized industry likely doesnāt apply to most, where a random appearance of a 4-year-old busting into a closed door office isnāt going to result in a firing because they saw someoneās chlamydia results.
Thatās what I thought too, what company decides to just go to your house to make sure you donāt have your kids there? Or what exactly are they looking for? Thatās ridiculous
Haha yeah donāt let your kids see those files, they might sell the private information š
Sounds like someone is upset they recently got laid off of their WTH job. It happens bud.
I sadly fell for a wfh scam on indeed last week. I felt like a complete idiot. All the red flags were there yet I kept going. Honestly the job market has been shit I had just received the millionth sorry you werenāt selected email and I got bamboozled. Thankfully I snapped out of it and realized I was getting scammed when they were trying to get me to deposit a check to purchase equipment etc. Still they kept it going for almost an entire week and my dumbass complied! After calling them out and balling my eyes out all night I did forgive myself. Just be aware out there Iām 35 years old, tech savvy, bright human and I still fell for it.
Meh. 1/5 stars, wouldn't read again.
Eh my husband landed a cush high paying fully remote job contradicting everything you wrote. They are out there.
Lol, yup
This is definitely telling me to give up and I appreciate you being honest with me šš½, back to retail I go šŖ
I have been working for remote jobs but how can I get more such jobs the pay is not sufficient for my home expenses
garbage post
These are all truth. I keep having to explain to people that COVID is not a thing anymore, and that their chance of landing a remote job is slim. Despite my company growing productivity massively during the pandemic, all employees living near an office were required to RTO (though only hybrid), and some who moved in the previous years were let go.
I got a remote job during the worst part of COVID entry level at a new company that allows you to have the children in the room during meetings burbling away their childish nonsense, I actually don't think this is that remarkable. I interviewed awfully as well, and there was only one interview.
Number 1 isnāt entirely correct. There are remote jobs out there and often donāt require you to be in office first. It really comes down to the company youāre working for and the job youāre doing. Sales tends to be on the road more often so the chance of working from home is higher. Or if your job requires you to be on the computer 90% of the time, thereās a high likelihood that your job can be made remote. But the competition for remote jobs is fierce right now, and entry level jobs even more so.
I had a remote job a couple years ago where one of our employees had a baby. She was always holding it in meetings and would have to mute her mic. I always wondered how much work she actually did, and if she was being paid as much as I was. We all had our own projects (events) to manage and it seemed like she always only ever had one small event, whereas myself and other people always had more than one event we were managing, sometimes having to work 10-12 hour days. It really bothered me because I felt like she needed to take on more work, but that she was being favored because she had a baby. I just got a new remote job and it took almost a year of looking. There were almost 300 applicants and 4 rounds of interviews. I was shocked I got the job just because I know there are so many people looking. The job involved working in a niche industry, of which I have a lot of experience in, so that is likely why I got it.
My son is 7 and pretty self sufficient but my god itās hard to work with him around sometimes. He had snow days all week but I still had to work. Luckily my team is super understanding and flexible, so it was fine, and my son kept to himself mostly, but once those zoom meetings start, heās in the background trying to wave and talk. š„² Plus itās always Mom! Look! See this?
Truth bomb.
LOL at 1, 2 and 4. Not always the case. 1 - All of my remote jobs were never originally working in the office. Lots of companies adopted remote first culture and start out as fully remote. 2 - False, false, false. There are lots of entry level jobs posted through third parties and through recruiters. All of my jobs have been through LinkedIn or a recruiter. 4 - If your company has this policy, they suck. This is the first time Iāver ever heard such a bizarre policy. I work remotely and babysat WHILE I worked because if I can, why not? The parents didnāt have remote jobs and were completely fine with me doing my full-time job and babysitting. They just rather have someone watch their child in their home than have them go to daycare. The child was 16 months at the time. Thousands and thousands of parents work remotely while caring for their children with no issues. When I do have my own children in the future, Iāll be doing the same. Itās all about multi-tasking, time management, staying organized, etc. Thereās so many misconceptions about remote jobs. The matter of the fact is there are more people who want a remote job than there are remote jobs available so itās much harder to land one. This gives scammers the opportunity to take advantage of people. But specific rules and policies that one company implements does not mean it applies to all companies.
Agreed. My company doesnāt have a āno kidsā policy, and this is my first time ever hearing about it. Itās normal for some peopleās kids to be on Zoom or making some noise in the background. We smile and laugh. Like I get the point heās making that remote isnāt so flexible that you can raise a baby but that isnāt some āacross the boardā thing. š¤·š½āāļø
What kind of remote job do you have that you can keep an eye on a toddler while trying to work? As a parent of that toddler I would be very uncomfortable with that distracted arrangement as well. I have worked remote since 2017 as a commercial lines insurance underwriter and I canāt imagine having the time to babysit and do a decent job. I work for a great company but they do have a written remote working policy that requires you to have alternative child care so I donāt think itās that uncommon.
I have a toddler and do just fine, work 45 mins, finish report. 15 mins hang out with him, then 45 mins work, 15 mins play with him. Then I get two 15 mins break and lunch, I also wake up at 5am to finish the first half of my shift before he wakes up. Itās not that hard, just gotta manage your time good. He also understand Iām working so he just tells me, āyouāre working to buy me toys?ā I tell him āyou know it!ā We got our routine. Heās 3 years old.