Do You Take Work Home With You? Interview Question

Do you take work home with you? Is a question an employer may ask for various reasons. Some jobs might require you to think a little about things whilst at home. In other jobs your boss might be happier that you aren’t thinking about work when you’re at home. The best way to answer this is to look at the job description. If it seems the job will be quite stressful it is probably best not to take that kind of work home. In other jobs, such as creative roles, there should be no problem with taking it home to mull over ideas. Here are some examples of how you might answer this question.



Example Answers

1-

“Working as a Police officer, I try not to take my work home with me. I think if I did I would probably become quite depressed. Obviously it is upsetting if I have had to deal with violent crimes or deaths during my shift, but once I am home with my family it makes me appreciate that I have them, and I put it to the back of my mind. I will however often find myself sat trying to put a name to a face I saw on a CCTV clip, or find myself using my ‘coppers nose’ whilst out shopping etc. I have saved a few stranded motorists and have stopped a few shoplifters in my spare time!”

2-

“As a designer, I do often take my work home. I say that in the sense that I find inspiration everywhere, and will find myself out and about thinking ‘Oh, that colour would be perfect for the logo I am making for my client’ or ‘I will just pop back to the park that I did the photo shoot in last week with the kids and get a few more photos of those fantastic trees for the garden centre brochure’. I really don’t mind it, inspiration is all around me, and it helps me to gain creativity I might not find in the office through the day!”

3-

“I am quite lucky in that my job is relatively simple, so I don’t really need to take it home with me. Nothing stresses me in my job, I really enjoy it. So really all I take home from my job is my uniform to wash!”

4-

“Working in a nursery I do occasionally take my work home, literally! I have often had to take one of my charges home with me to babysit when the parent has been held up or had an emergency, and the nursery had to shut. A lot of the parents hire me for babysitting outside of nursery hours anyway and my previous employer was perfectly happy with us doing that as it helped build bonds between us and the children, and the parents.”

photo by: jono mueller