Working From Home

[trailer]

If kids are in school or looked after etc then working from home is doable but if you have young children just forget about it. I lost count of the amount of Zoom calls I did with children on my knee.

[brokencrossbar1]

I find that the key to it working for me is making sure I keep getting exercise and I keep a structure to the day. I go for a 20 minute walk nearly every lunchtime and that breaks the day and gets me fresh air and then get out for a run 2-3 times a week. I have had meetings with the baby on the knee but that doesn’t happen anymore. I’m lucky as there are 4 of us in the team with young kids and we only have a small enough team.

We had been doing team ‘chats’ 2-3 mornings a week at the start just to keep us sane. We don’t do it as much but we have a weekly meeting and ad hoc chats 4-5 times a week and that helps. I certainly would be happy to keep this going when we go back to normal as I’ll be in hearings most weeks so I would be out of the house or office anyway

[general]

Hope you all continue to work from home - makes my newry to dublin return journey an absolute breeze in the mornings 

like some - i cant work from home.

[bennydorano]

I can't work from home and I have no wish to either, I know the type of person I am, I need structure and the discipline that structure gives. The wife is WFH and 3 teenagers are at home - it would be a punishment sending me home to work.

[armaghniac]

Hope you all continue to work from home - makes my newry to dublin return journey an absolute breeze in the mornings 

like some - i cant work from home.

Getting out of Newry can't be a bad thing.

[Mario]

I'd love to get a London job in the current environment and live in NI. I don't think anyone in my industry will ever be back in the office full time so I think in theory it should be possible and good for NI wages. My company has got rid of its belfast city centre office completely, we now have an office outside Belfast with only 25% capacity.

[Fear Bun Na Sceilpe]

https://www.rte.ie/news/2021/0115/1189819-remote-work-strategy/

Them FG/FF feckers at it again, making changes and running countries and all that

[Taylor]

I'd love to get a London job in the current environment and live in NI. I don't think anyone in my industry will ever be back in the office full time so I think in theory it should be possible and good for NI wages. My company has got rid of its belfast city centre office completely, we now have an office outside Belfast with only 25% capacity.

In theory Mario - but in reality it will be companies offering a lower salary because they know they can get away with it (in many cases it will still be better than what companies pay here now)

[imtommygunn]

In the IT space it's very possible to do that. A good mate of mine does it and I know other ones who have done it before too.

It depends on the area you work in I guess. It's definitely very possible in programming anyway.

[gallsman]

I'd love to get a London job in the current environment and live in NI. I don't think anyone in my industry will ever be back in the office full time so I think in theory it should be possible and good for NI wages. My company has got rid of its belfast city centre office completely, we now have an office outside Belfast with only 25% capacity.

Have a friend based in London who works in IT in the City. Management already having discussions about different pay scales for those "living outside the commuter belt".

He's lucky enough to be in a position where he can tell them to get fucked and is going to move to Edinburgh and commute 2/3 days every fortnight on his own dime as required, but that'll not be the standard for sure

[WeeDonns]

I'd love to get a London job in the current environment and live in NI. I don't think anyone in my industry will ever be back in the office full time so I think in theory it should be possible and good for NI wages. My company has got rid of its belfast city centre office completely, we now have an office outside Belfast with only 25% capacity.

This is what prompted my question
I previously worked in a software developers in Belfast - good enough money, hours, perks etc
I moved home to west Tyrone & did the ~2.5-3 hour commute daily for a year - they talked about allowing WFH a few days but it never materialised, so I got fed up & moved to a local firm - 7 years ago now.
It wouldn't have all the perks of the previous job, or the salary I'd be on now if I'd stayed putt - but it was the right decision at the time to cut out that commute

Can't help but think it'd be great to be getting the Belfast equivalent to my salary, but WFH with none of the financial or time costs of the commute now

Have a friend based in London who works in IT in the City. Management already having discussions about different pay scales for those "living outside the commuter belt".

Can understand this. The high Salaries are necessary because of the high costs of living in the city, but if those costs are massively reduced you either have employees with a lot more disposable income, or more profit for employers if they reduce salaries based on location..

If companies in the city realise they can hire skilled software developers in the sticks for a reasonable salary for that location, then they might start  doing that - but what's to stop them hiring developers from countries where that costs are even lower