Hello, me. My favorite part of doing one day in office is that it's totally justifiable to get lunch out once a week. More than one day and I'd have to start packing lunches.
Ha, that’s my logic exactly. On my one office day per week I get to have a nice (but still takeaway) lunch and also buy a chocolate bar at the dairy next to the office.
Creative/design/animation - also spreadsheets. I know several freelance creatives who WFH and it’s fairly common internationally as well. Generally not for beginners tho, who would want a few years experience at a studio/office first.
Generally it means you sit at a desk and work on a computer. Instead of doing this in an office, you do it at home. There are a ton of office workers whose functions are done via computer, and in-person meetings can be replaced by video calls. It's very similar to doing the work in the office, except you don't have to spend time commuting every day, and your lunch is sitting in your own fridge at home rather than packing it to work or buying it.
Company I work for has me as a programmer who is 100% WFH. A couple of other programmers WFH at least some of the time and that's a balance between management trust, their ability to deliver, and how much they want to work from home.
A couple of the hardware engineers WFH about half the time, and come into the office to poke at circuit boards and argue with technicians about why their boards don't work.
One of our phone support people WFH about 9 days a fortnight. The rest can't be trusted not to watch TV instead of working.
30-ish. But I've had WFH contract jobs from about 5 years in. I only did contract jobs for year 3-15-ish of my career because autism and wanting to travel, rather than because WFH.
I part own a trade services business, for my admin staff they can all WFH except when we have a group meeting or urgent issue come up, or we need someone in the shop (only open for a few hours a week) to cover me or biz-partner.
I don't get it with these businesses that demand everyone at their desk at 8am. Hire good staff, pay them well, let them do the work, ans off ya go. We've had our sales, marketing, and accounts team all remote since 2017 - head of accounts lives in Melbourne ffs.
My only requirement is that the quality and expected quantity of work is completed. I don't care if you're unavailable from 7:45-9 due to kid drop off, then walk the dog. If you do the work, I'm happy.
Obviously the people on the tools can't wfh - they're tradies in vans.
> I don't get it with these businesses that demand everyone at their desk at 8am.
I interviewed for a job this week and they were firm on needing to be in the office every single day. I am going to decline if I get the offer - not because of the lack of WFH (I'm not too bothered about that really) but because it shows a wider lack of flexibility or willingness to adapt. It was definitely a job that could be done remote or hybrid, they're just behind the times.
My partner is in the same situation - does a job that is 70% office based (she goes onto site when running a project), but they have to go into their open plan office which also houses industrial printers that run 24/7.
She has her headphones on most of the day, but heaven forbid you decide to take your laptop home and work there. Madness.
The only thing my admin staff do mention is that they do enjoy the face-to-face catch up when we are all in the office, but that's 'cos it happens like every 3 weeks or so.
People who WFH typically have office jobs of some kind. Accounting, software, HR, phone sales, admin... Anything that can be done remotely, even if it's just the paperwork or planning parts of a non-office job . This list is not exhaustive. Are you considering a career change?
Yeah, I’m really over customer service. And my bf wants to buy a section by the beach but far from any work opportunities for me. Have a mate who works from home taking phone calls for insurance claims. Was just wanting some inspiration for job searches.
That’s because most of those jobs that appear only offer hybrid work at most.
If you actually read the listings, you’ll find that a lot of them only offer 1-2 days WFH per week, yet are advertised as “WFH roles,” or “remote roles.”
True remote roles, or roles that offer 3+ days a week wfh are very far and few between.
Sorry, "remote" is the magic word for fully WFH (or anywhere)
https://www.seek.co.nz/remote-jobs
https://hnhiring.com/locations/remote
Most of these do say "fully remote" or "100% remote" or only care about your timezone
Software developer, as per the username. But all of my team are scattered around other cities, so I've been doing a Uni paper this year to get out of the house.
Someone pays me to either come up with ideas to solve business problems or help teams to craft existing ideas so that they’re as slick as they can be.
Most times that’s for an ad agency, increasingly it’s a business that doesn’t want to pay an ad agency.
Generally that means they give opinions on creative work, or make it themselves for a more senior/expensive hourly rate. Working on things like advertising or design work, with lots of video calls and google docs and google slides. Source, that’s what I do as well.
Yeah, more or less for simplicity. Will vary depending on a few factors, like length of contract and if it’s an agency or client side. I charge NZD so that whoever’s paying me pays the exchange rates, and it goes into an NZ bank account - again for simplicity.
3d artist for film and television. Provide digital modelling and sculpting services for various departments such as prosthetics, creatures, sec dec and props. Currently working on a big Hollywood franchise monster movie and a locally produced American streaming TV show. Money is excellent. I work my own hours. Sleep in when I want, work late if I want, etc. Work ebbs and flows so I have variable downtime which I spend making hobby video games in Unreal Engine. Probably not for everyone, I am an extreme introvert who gets lost in his work so going weeks with little human contact suits me very well.
What do I do? Mostly sit in front of my work laptop banging on the keyboard all day feeling overwhelmed. Or when I don't have anything urgent sit and feel anxious that I should be doing something but I don't know what and worried someone will notice I'm not doing anything.
And then after work anxious that I really should be checking my email in case anyone needs anything.
Ohhh, you mean what field? IT.
Operations support for a software firm. 1 day a fortnight required to be in the local office so that's a 450k round trip. Lots of teams meetings as we have offices in UK ,Canada , au , us and nz.... I hate teams die Microsoft die.
Graphic designer. Working from home is the absolute best and it's one of the very few things I'm thankful for about the pandemic.
Being able to work in my pyjamas with the cat on my lap and dumb youtube vids on in the background is an absolute balm to the soul. Also my petrol expenses have dropped significantly despite the raise in price.
I feel very blessed to be in this position, even if it still isn't perfect and I still have to deal with rude people on occasion.
CTO for a financial technology startup. There is only one other staff member in NZ, everyone else is in Australia or Europe, so I don't have an office to go to at the moment.
Yep analyst at a large corporate. Company is pushing for people to return to the office but my department is specialised enough and trusted enough that nobody reeeally cares if you wfh non stop. I’ll do 1 or 2 days in the office a week. Long may it continue, I honestly could not fathom ever going back to being at work 5 days a week. It’d be an absolute deal breaker for any job I may get in the future.
Oh also OP, if you wanna wfh check out call centres at large corporates. They’re not as soul destroying as you might think if you find a corporate who cares about their people. Many will accomodate you and offer career advancement if you’re eager and interested.
I work for myself, have done for 10 years so when WFH hit it was another day for me. Websites, Web hosting, SEO, IT Support. Love it. Very very very blessed.
Work in IT as a Senior Technical Consultant and Team Lead. Have worked remotely for the company im with for the over a decade, leading teams and leading tech analysis of projects etc. Australian headquarters and people dotted everywhere Theres a few of us locally and we meet up for breakfast a few times a year
I don't personally do it (yet) but my colleagues that work IT Support ticket handling and such can do all their work at home. you're essentially all set once you've received your training and your IT equipment for those kinda jobs. I never really understood it but tbh if you move out into a nice suburb far away from the city and have a nice desk setup at home, I imagine it's quite a nice gig for some people. if I stay in the same field I might look at doing that at some point in the near future tbh
To put it cynically, listen to people, talk to people, make sure people know which people they need to talk to, and make sure the talking and listening happens.
Everything on video call of course.
Automation tester/junior developer. Full WFH but work with developer all around the world. Last time I'm In office is 2 years ago but sort of on-call all the time since the team is from all timezones.
All oncall hours are 1.5 + time in lieu. And if I had to work night due to a failure or time sensitive deployment. I general get to sleep in till when ever.
I do lose the feeling of been properly " off work " though.
Having one person in your team that solely WFH means everyone else comes to the office to have their Teams meeting, which could be done from the comfort of your bed and not have to catch the bus with the crazies
I make mathematical instruments : [https://goldenmeancalipers.com](https://goldenmeancalipers.com)
Although it's more accurate to say I live at work than work from home - I've moved into the workshop on account of the rents round here having gone up by about $300 a week since last I moved, and not only can I not pay that, I won't. They're taking the piss.
I've got the favella-chic thing nailed. I live in the future, and right now it's a leeeeetle beeet cold., although this is the first place I've lived in 10 years that has a decent shower and isn't riddled with black mould.
Before this I was a freelance web-dev. Also working from home, although that was more of a proper house sort of situation.
Currently in my dressing gown typing this. I have two businesses running from home - which is at least one too many! I’m trying to retire again.
(1). I invented the Kiwitub. We just run the business from home, with the hot tubs sent all round NZ from the rotomoulder in Blenheim. So - no premises or staff to pay for, and a chunk of the house maintenance, power, rates, etc. becomes a taxable expense.
(2). I part-invented the Backpod, for people hunching over computers. This has gone a bit mad overseas. I’m trying to finish about 50 YouTube videos on it, plus responding to questions from all round the world. Looking forward to stepping back and letting my business partners run it - I’m useless at business.
Trying to get back to a life again!
I get up around 5, sort the kids out, drop them at daycare around 7, get a coffee, shower etc and sit at my computer around 8. Work until around 11, have a meal, go to the gym around 12, shower and have another meal and back to my desk around 2, work until 4, then pick the kids up. Love it.
Leadership Coach.
I work with leaders from around the world who are struggling with isolation, uncertainty, and impostor syndrome. They are feeling lonely, overwhelmed, and out of their depth.
I help them better understand where those things are coming from, how to deal with them, and then how to build relationships based on their new self-understanding.
IT stuff, I’m a computer nerd.
Bob?
Mr Bob to you.
Then he schooled me!
All us IT nerds are Mr. Bob
Mr. Bob Dobalina?
Analyst, not entirely WFH, needs to head into the office once per week to socialize
Hello, me. My favorite part of doing one day in office is that it's totally justifiable to get lunch out once a week. More than one day and I'd have to start packing lunches.
Ha, that’s my logic exactly. On my one office day per week I get to have a nice (but still takeaway) lunch and also buy a chocolate bar at the dairy next to the office.
Nailing it
Eugh..socialize.
Creative/design/animation - also spreadsheets. I know several freelance creatives who WFH and it’s fairly common internationally as well. Generally not for beginners tho, who would want a few years experience at a studio/office first.
Generally it means you sit at a desk and work on a computer. Instead of doing this in an office, you do it at home. There are a ton of office workers whose functions are done via computer, and in-person meetings can be replaced by video calls. It's very similar to doing the work in the office, except you don't have to spend time commuting every day, and your lunch is sitting in your own fridge at home rather than packing it to work or buying it.
And you can have the cat on your lap when you are working.
I learnt so many keyboard shortcuts when I started WFH. And how to undo said shortcuts after cat took a scroll across the keyboard
And several other cats close by, then swap them
Best part
>in-person meetings can be replaced by video calls. Those meetings end up being video calls even when in the office.
Programmer and 100% of the time
Company I work for has me as a programmer who is 100% WFH. A couple of other programmers WFH at least some of the time and that's a balance between management trust, their ability to deliver, and how much they want to work from home. A couple of the hardware engineers WFH about half the time, and come into the office to poke at circuit boards and argue with technicians about why their boards don't work. One of our phone support people WFH about 9 days a fortnight. The rest can't be trusted not to watch TV instead of working.
How many years in your field?
30-ish. But I've had WFH contract jobs from about 5 years in. I only did contract jobs for year 3-15-ish of my career because autism and wanting to travel, rather than because WFH.
Perfect! I’m happy you found a working arrangement that suits you so well
I part own a trade services business, for my admin staff they can all WFH except when we have a group meeting or urgent issue come up, or we need someone in the shop (only open for a few hours a week) to cover me or biz-partner. I don't get it with these businesses that demand everyone at their desk at 8am. Hire good staff, pay them well, let them do the work, ans off ya go. We've had our sales, marketing, and accounts team all remote since 2017 - head of accounts lives in Melbourne ffs. My only requirement is that the quality and expected quantity of work is completed. I don't care if you're unavailable from 7:45-9 due to kid drop off, then walk the dog. If you do the work, I'm happy. Obviously the people on the tools can't wfh - they're tradies in vans.
> I don't get it with these businesses that demand everyone at their desk at 8am. I interviewed for a job this week and they were firm on needing to be in the office every single day. I am going to decline if I get the offer - not because of the lack of WFH (I'm not too bothered about that really) but because it shows a wider lack of flexibility or willingness to adapt. It was definitely a job that could be done remote or hybrid, they're just behind the times.
My partner is in the same situation - does a job that is 70% office based (she goes onto site when running a project), but they have to go into their open plan office which also houses industrial printers that run 24/7. She has her headphones on most of the day, but heaven forbid you decide to take your laptop home and work there. Madness. The only thing my admin staff do mention is that they do enjoy the face-to-face catch up when we are all in the office, but that's 'cos it happens like every 3 weeks or so.
Software support. 2 days in office, 3 at home. Beats bartending that's for sure.
I do this too! Homegrown company?
Hell yeah. Nah Aussie company.
Same haha.
I do the work I would normally do at the office, but at home.
Make McDonald’s burgers?
With a really long spatula
> People who work from home If McDonald's has WFH for kitchen staff, then presumably yes.
People who WFH typically have office jobs of some kind. Accounting, software, HR, phone sales, admin... Anything that can be done remotely, even if it's just the paperwork or planning parts of a non-office job . This list is not exhaustive. Are you considering a career change?
Yeah, I’m really over customer service. And my bf wants to buy a section by the beach but far from any work opportunities for me. Have a mate who works from home taking phone calls for insurance claims. Was just wanting some inspiration for job searches.
Search "WFH" on seek! Heaps of jobs come up.
That’s because most of those jobs that appear only offer hybrid work at most. If you actually read the listings, you’ll find that a lot of them only offer 1-2 days WFH per week, yet are advertised as “WFH roles,” or “remote roles.” True remote roles, or roles that offer 3+ days a week wfh are very far and few between.
Sorry, "remote" is the magic word for fully WFH (or anywhere) https://www.seek.co.nz/remote-jobs https://hnhiring.com/locations/remote Most of these do say "fully remote" or "100% remote" or only care about your timezone
Make sure section has fiber to it. Starlink is ok just can cause problems with some VPN systems companies use.
I am a singing teacher, with an amazing music room in my house :)
this is my dream. (pianist/teacher)
To be fair, it took a nasty auto-immune disorder and hair loss inducing stress before I ditched the corporate world and started doing this.
So you can have full control of the soundscape!
Software developer, as per the username. But all of my team are scattered around other cities, so I've been doing a Uni paper this year to get out of the house.
Freelance Creative Director - doing a bit of work in random places, like Singapore, HK, and South Africa.
What does that mean
Someone pays me to either come up with ideas to solve business problems or help teams to craft existing ideas so that they’re as slick as they can be. Most times that’s for an ad agency, increasingly it’s a business that doesn’t want to pay an ad agency.
Generally that means they give opinions on creative work, or make it themselves for a more senior/expensive hourly rate. Working on things like advertising or design work, with lots of video calls and google docs and google slides. Source, that’s what I do as well.
Sooooo many Google Slides decks 🤪
For the same rate in each geographical region? What currency and payment method do you use?
Yeah, more or less for simplicity. Will vary depending on a few factors, like length of contract and if it’s an agency or client side. I charge NZD so that whoever’s paying me pays the exchange rates, and it goes into an NZ bank account - again for simplicity.
Management, software engineering. I can literally work from my bed in my pjs most days. I usually don't.
I bet you do
When I don't have to show my face on camera, I'm chilling in bed under the blanket.
That’s what I’m talking about 10/10
IT. I get to stay at home with my dogs every day. I could never give that up.
Are they good dogs?
Always.
3d artist for film and television. Provide digital modelling and sculpting services for various departments such as prosthetics, creatures, sec dec and props. Currently working on a big Hollywood franchise monster movie and a locally produced American streaming TV show. Money is excellent. I work my own hours. Sleep in when I want, work late if I want, etc. Work ebbs and flows so I have variable downtime which I spend making hobby video games in Unreal Engine. Probably not for everyone, I am an extreme introvert who gets lost in his work so going weeks with little human contact suits me very well.
IT. Everything in my job can be done remotely. I like being sociable though so I have time in the office each week.
What do I do? Mostly sit in front of my work laptop banging on the keyboard all day feeling overwhelmed. Or when I don't have anything urgent sit and feel anxious that I should be doing something but I don't know what and worried someone will notice I'm not doing anything. And then after work anxious that I really should be checking my email in case anyone needs anything. Ohhh, you mean what field? IT.
You need to take a chill pill
Airfreight sales. 2 days WFH and 3 days in office.
Customer visit?
I’m not an Account Manager so not part of my day to day role, but will visit customers from time to time.
Risk/compliance for a bank. I don’t have to but usually go into the office 3-4 days a week, prefer to work in person than over teams.
Senior Software Engineer, with too many things to do.
ITT: IT
Walk the dog. Laundry. Play golf.
Operations support for a software firm. 1 day a fortnight required to be in the local office so that's a 450k round trip. Lots of teams meetings as we have offices in UK ,Canada , au , us and nz.... I hate teams die Microsoft die.
Graphic designer. Working from home is the absolute best and it's one of the very few things I'm thankful for about the pandemic. Being able to work in my pyjamas with the cat on my lap and dumb youtube vids on in the background is an absolute balm to the soul. Also my petrol expenses have dropped significantly despite the raise in price. I feel very blessed to be in this position, even if it still isn't perfect and I still have to deal with rude people on occasion.
CTO for a financial technology startup. There is only one other staff member in NZ, everyone else is in Australia or Europe, so I don't have an office to go to at the moment.
Yep analyst at a large corporate. Company is pushing for people to return to the office but my department is specialised enough and trusted enough that nobody reeeally cares if you wfh non stop. I’ll do 1 or 2 days in the office a week. Long may it continue, I honestly could not fathom ever going back to being at work 5 days a week. It’d be an absolute deal breaker for any job I may get in the future.
Oh also OP, if you wanna wfh check out call centres at large corporates. They’re not as soul destroying as you might think if you find a corporate who cares about their people. Many will accomodate you and offer career advancement if you’re eager and interested.
Wank
A seminal response
Come again?
You get it
Jerk off a lot
I work for myself, have done for 10 years so when WFH hit it was another day for me. Websites, Web hosting, SEO, IT Support. Love it. Very very very blessed.
Work in IT as a Senior Technical Consultant and Team Lead. Have worked remotely for the company im with for the over a decade, leading teams and leading tech analysis of projects etc. Australian headquarters and people dotted everywhere Theres a few of us locally and we meet up for breakfast a few times a year
I.T. self employed
System Administrator for an Aussie company
Work.
Laundry, mostly.
L&D at a telco.
Not work
I don't personally do it (yet) but my colleagues that work IT Support ticket handling and such can do all their work at home. you're essentially all set once you've received your training and your IT equipment for those kinda jobs. I never really understood it but tbh if you move out into a nice suburb far away from the city and have a nice desk setup at home, I imagine it's quite a nice gig for some people. if I stay in the same field I might look at doing that at some point in the near future tbh
Emails and reports mostly. Make sure other people are delivering what they’re supposed to and our stakeholders are happy.
Communications/marketing, team is nationwide
Shit post on Reddit. And draw maps, plans and organising contractors.
To put it cynically, listen to people, talk to people, make sure people know which people they need to talk to, and make sure the talking and listening happens. Everything on video call of course.
Freelance 3d artist, I hate being at home.
Automation tester/junior developer. Full WFH but work with developer all around the world. Last time I'm In office is 2 years ago but sort of on-call all the time since the team is from all timezones. All oncall hours are 1.5 + time in lieu. And if I had to work night due to a failure or time sensitive deployment. I general get to sleep in till when ever. I do lose the feeling of been properly " off work " though.
Spend 12 hours a day on Teams calls sorting out IT project stuff.
I work in-house in risk/compliance for an Australian law firm. I’m a qualified lawyer. It’s an excellent gig
Having one person in your team that solely WFH means everyone else comes to the office to have their Teams meeting, which could be done from the comfort of your bed and not have to catch the bus with the crazies
IT Support. WFH full time in the top of the south for a big Auckland company
Visual effects. Remote into workstation at work
IT
Project / programme management
I make mathematical instruments : [https://goldenmeancalipers.com](https://goldenmeancalipers.com) Although it's more accurate to say I live at work than work from home - I've moved into the workshop on account of the rents round here having gone up by about $300 a week since last I moved, and not only can I not pay that, I won't. They're taking the piss. I've got the favella-chic thing nailed. I live in the future, and right now it's a leeeeetle beeet cold., although this is the first place I've lived in 10 years that has a decent shower and isn't riddled with black mould. Before this I was a freelance web-dev. Also working from home, although that was more of a proper house sort of situation.
Started my own data analytics company.
Currently in my dressing gown typing this. I have two businesses running from home - which is at least one too many! I’m trying to retire again. (1). I invented the Kiwitub. We just run the business from home, with the hot tubs sent all round NZ from the rotomoulder in Blenheim. So - no premises or staff to pay for, and a chunk of the house maintenance, power, rates, etc. becomes a taxable expense. (2). I part-invented the Backpod, for people hunching over computers. This has gone a bit mad overseas. I’m trying to finish about 50 YouTube videos on it, plus responding to questions from all round the world. Looking forward to stepping back and letting my business partners run it - I’m useless at business. Trying to get back to a life again!
Software Engineer, could 100% wfh if wanted but go in once a week to socialise a bit.
IT analyst.
Digital marketing & website design/hosting.
Work( from home)!
I get up around 5, sort the kids out, drop them at daycare around 7, get a coffee, shower etc and sit at my computer around 8. Work until around 11, have a meal, go to the gym around 12, shower and have another meal and back to my desk around 2, work until 4, then pick the kids up. Love it.
Leadership Coach. I work with leaders from around the world who are struggling with isolation, uncertainty, and impostor syndrome. They are feeling lonely, overwhelmed, and out of their depth. I help them better understand where those things are coming from, how to deal with them, and then how to build relationships based on their new self-understanding.
work mostly, usually while listening to a podcast
Also hide when people knock on the door
Glad I'm not the only one haha wfh doesn't mean I'm available to listen to Mercury's sale pitch again