Remote work

[CitizenErased]

Hi everyone, I hope you are all as well as possible.

I just wondered whether many of you do remote work due to having endo. I started work as an editor at a small local publisher three years ago, which was pretty flexible and I only had to be in the office two or three days a week. The small publisher then got bought out by a big publisher based in London (I live on the east coast in Suffolk), and they shut our local office and I have worked from home full-time ever since.

But my job has changed a lot, and it's really awful now. I can't stand it much longer. It's stressing me out so badly that it's making my endo symptoms much worse. So I'm looking to get a new job, but I'm struggling to find anything in publishing that is fully remote (other than freelance, which is just too risky for me).

So I know it's a bit off-topic, but I wondered whether any of you work fully remotely, and if so, what do you do? Do you have any recommendations for what I could do?

[ChessJ]

Hey I work in Occupational Health for a massive construction company and work pretty much remotely full time which is a blessing especially as some days I feel so crappy because of my endo as I only have to be in the office once a week instead of the 2 I used to do. Others are in the office 2/3 times a week which is all down to the department you’re in. I looked on indeed for a job and although I didn’t intend to find a job that was hybrid as I had been retail previously which was full on so always on my feet. I got really lucky with the job and a great boss. Hope you find a job that suits you not as stressful as I think hybrid jobs are more common these days. Best of luck x

[Southwestsmiler]

I work for an energy charity. Due to illness this year I'm now largely working from home. Alot of jobs in the charity sector allow remote working. Unfortunately I dislike my role itself but until I'm better and get through the NHS waiting list, it's not possible to think about changing employers or roles which is quite frustrating as well.

[CitizenErased in reply to Southwestsmiler]

Thanks for the tip – I'll do a bit of research around charity roles!

Yeah, I'm in a similar position with disliking my role. A few months ago I thought I could just power through because it's decent pay and full-time home work, but it's got to the point where the stress is just making my symptoms worse, so it's not really worth it. I might as well get a local job that's on my feet all day at this point!

I hope you manage to get through the waiting list soon.

[GrouchoSparx]

I used to work fully remotely for a bank, on their phone lines. Honestly made such a difference, as my job before that was working in a cafe, and I would worry about how I'd get home or if my boss would let me go home early if I had a flare up. Working from home reduced the time I needed off for each flare up: from 5-7 days to 1-2 days per month (if at all).

Unfortunately HR weren't the best at understanding about the endo, wven with doctor's letters explaining that my painkillers came with side effects andsometimes my symptoms were too severe to work, and didn't want to put reasonable adjustments in place for that or the other disabilities I have, and I was sacked on capability grounds in April.

There's a lot of good remote working jobs with local councils, with charities, and some offices. LinkedIn has a lot at the moment. In my experience, it depends on your managers and HR, as to whether they'll support you working remotely, but it's always worth having a conversation with the hiring manager prior to applying to see if the job can be made remote.

[CitizenErased in reply to GrouchoSparx]

I'm sorry to hear you had such a tough time with HR! I am worried about that too. So far I've only had a couple days off for appointments, but I worry about what would happen if I needed time off for surgery. My previous manager was fab and really understanding, but she left last week and now we have an interim manager who doesn't have time for us (and he's a bloke who I've only spoken to once, so I will find it difficult to talk about endo with him).

Thanks for the tip. I'll check out some charities and the local council.