"Remote" in a job advert means at least five different things, and the difference between them is worth thousands of pounds and several hours of your week. Before you accept a working pattern, work out what it costs you and verify what the employer actually operates.
What each pattern really costs
Fully remote. You save the commute and often the cost of living near an expensive city. You pay for it in visibility — promotions still skew towards people the decision-makers see — and in home office costs, heating, and the discipline of separating work from life. It works best for people with a defined output and an established network inside the company.
Hybrid. The most common pattern and the most badly specified. Two days in the office means you still need to live within commuting distance, so you keep the housing cost of the city and lose the flexibility of remote. The upside is real: informal learning, faster escalation, and a social floor. The trap is hybrid that quietly becomes four days.
On-site. Highest commuting cost in money and time, and the least flexibility. In return you get the fastest ramp-up, especially early in a career or in a hands-on role, and you are never the person forgotten on the conference call.
Calculate the real number before you compare offers. A £4,000 higher salary that comes with a £3,000 annual season ticket and ten hours a week of commuting is a pay cut.
The questions that reveal the real policy
Ask these in the interview, not after the offer.
- "How many days on site, and is that a policy or a team norm?" A written policy is stable. A team norm changes when the manager does.
- "Which days, and who decides?" Fixed anchor days are a genuine constraint. "Whenever the team needs you" is not a policy.
- "Has the requirement changed in the last two years, and in which direction?" This is the single most useful question. Companies that have already tightened once usually tighten again.
- "Where is the rest of the team based?" Being the only remote person on an office-based team is a much harder job than being remote on a distributed team.
- "How are people who work remotely represented in the last round of promotions?" Watch how quickly they answer.
- "Does the salary change with location?" Location-banded pay is legitimate but you need to know before you move.
For fully remote roles, check the boring things
- Which countries can you legally work from, and for how many days a year? "Work from anywhere" usually means "anywhere we have a payroll entity".
- Equipment and allowance. Who supplies the laptop, the monitor, the chair, and is there a home-working contribution?
- Core hours. A remote role across five time zones with 9am–5pm UK core hours is not flexible.
- Meeting culture. Ask what proportion of the week is meetings. Remote roles with poor written culture become all-day calls.
Getting it in writing
The working pattern is a contractual term or it is a preference that can be withdrawn. Before you sign:
- Ask for the pattern to be stated in the offer letter or contract — location clause, days on site, and any notice required to change it.
- If the employer will only put "hybrid, in line with company policy", ask for the current policy document and note its version and date.
- Confirm in email what you were told verbally, in one short message: "Confirming my understanding: two days on site, Tuesdays and Thursdays, with the team based in Manchester." A reply that agrees is evidence.
If an employer refuses to write down the pattern they described in interview, that is your answer about how stable it is.
Choosing
There is no universally better option. Early career and hands-on roles benefit disproportionately from being in the room. Deep, output-driven work benefits from being left alone. Most people should optimise for the shortest total commute time they can accept rather than the abstract label — three days at fifteen minutes each is easier than one day at ninety minutes.