Hi All,
Just had a lovely holiday in Scotland with the dogs but came back to the news I'm being made redundant!  Worked there 17 years as a credit controller.  Main thing is I worked from home 4 days a week which was great, not having to leave Molly and Max.  I also have an elderly mother and I'm her main carer. I am trying to think what to do next, and was wondering if any of you work from home or can give me any ideas of what sort of things are available?  I was thinking along the lines of a virtual clerk/assistant, but any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Being in the same job for so long I've lost touch with what's out there!  Thanks

How are your writing skills? I work from home and do marketing literature now but a good job if you like writing is online help/ technical writer. The money is good for private contractors but like all positions where you work for yourself you have to drum up the business. There are also agencies that will find work for you as well. If it sounds the least bit interesting I can point you at some websites with more information about it.

Completely different but definitely something you can do from home most of the time.

(of and of course my job is completely home working as well - marketing communications manager :))

Thanks, I'd be interested in looking at the sites you mentioned.  It's a bit scary really, I've got a good basic education and various computer skills but have been so 'comfortable' doing a job I know so well that I probably don't know what else I can actually do!

I too would be interesred in those sites if that is ok. I would love to work from home. Thanksx

I forgot to post I used to write our online help and thought about doing this myself but switched to marketing instead. Count on investing some money in software. Robohelp from Macromedia is probably the most commonly used. You can find general information about writing online help at Winwriters. If you want to focus on writing online help it's worth checking out Microsoft as well since you would be writing primarily for Windows platforms. (oh yes, you must wade though the developer's network!) There are loads of other opportunities though. Think about the amount of instruction booklets you have; from using your phone to navigating the local council website. Somebody writes this stuff. Past experience in a field can position you well to specialise, or at least bid for, jobs in that field.

Cherryleaf is the agency I hired our contractor from. They also have classes and information on their site about being a technical author.

That should get you all started as those sites have loads of links to other information.

Thanks from me for those links Lori, that sort of thing would be ideal for me - dog knows I spend enough time on the puter, may as well make it earn its keep :D would solve my worries about leaving the dogs to go to work as well.

Awww Best Of Luck!

I've got a similar problem, I'm not having my fixed term contract renewed at the end of Sept.
They are outsourcing my job (Sales Ledger, Purchase Ledger, CC and Payroll)
as the person they have bought in as finance manager wants to keep it where she
lives in London Sadly the CEO was overruled by the chairperson as I think I
would have still be able to keep my job...the Finance manager has been unnecessarily nasty to me
a few times so I guessed something like it may be on the cards..:rolleyes:

To add insult to injury I'm having to go in when I'm on annual leave (as the FM is also off) to show the
outsourcer what I do and how the systems work etc...alot of the other staff said
I should tell them to get stuffed. Especially as I've worked long and hard to get the
accounts as uptodate as possible etc. MUG that I am. I guess the problem is that I live too close to work 6 miles away.

My problem is also trying to find a job that is local to home, that I can get home at lunchtimes for the girls etc.
I'm getting worried as I've had my CV put forward for a couple of jobs and nothing yet. The agencies seem quiet at the moment.

Fingers crossed you get the job of your dreams. :)

It may be small consolation Boxacrazy but when my colleague and I were replaced by "outsourcing", it really didn't work and the auditors said the company should bring us back!

Good luck with your job search, sounds as if you have some very useful skills. :-)

Already happened here once...bought it back in house again.
Then they shuffled staff structure and I went at end of Jan, got asked back and re-started in March..
and now off again at the end of Sept :(

Thanks I'll need the luck :)

This is interesting!! I would love to be a proof reader,as I can skim through paragraphs,and can spot mis-spelled words,wrong grammar and punctuation, while I am reading.Any type of literary work,working from home,would be right up my street,but I never know where to look.

Any advice or help would be most appreciated

Cheers,

Jean

I would love to do that too Jeanb but never know how to get started either

Thanks all, it seems there are a lot of like minded people out there.  I do credit control at the moment and they've decided to centralise the department, there are 4 jobs available at head office at Leeds, but although I work from home 4 days a week already because of the distance to my office, they have turned me down flat even though Leeds is another hour away at least. They too have tried this before, failed and passed the jobs back out to the regions but all the people that were responsible for it last time have gone so they are just repeating history without realising it!  Going to check out the sites you have recommended now, thanks again.