To ask if you sneak off to the gym during work hours?

No way would I ever do that! That's just taking the mick. I put the washing on and put it out at lunch but other than that you are working from home not going to the gym! You do that on your own time.

I don’t sneak off; if I go I take it in my lunch hour and / or make up the time. I only do it if I don’t have meetings.

There are people at our place who do take calls from the gym. One clueless woman was on a training course and couldn’t figure out how to turn off her video so we got to see her working out 😂

When I WFH I still have meetings and deadlines. I can be more flexible about my
Lunch break and start and finish times, but I still do my hours, usually a bit more.

And that is exactly what happens at my place of work. Workmates will say "I need to pop out for an hour" and then make time up. We don't "sneak off". We aren't 14.

It seems like most posters on this thread do that. Only one or two are piss takers.

Yes, that's a really silly thing to find unfair. The only time I think it could be relevant is if of two people doing the same job in the same organisation, one has flexitime and the other doesn't.
Obviously, different jobs have different conditions.

No I don't sneak to the gym as you put it, but I do occasionally go to the gym (if there are no meetings - usually either during lunch or at the start of the day so I start a little later and make up time at the end of the day).

I wfh 2 day and in the office 1 day. I don't 'sneak off' anywhere because that is taking the piss if anyone needs to get hold of me, particularly as half the team work in an earlier time zone. I do however work for a decent person who is fine with his team pottering off to run the odd errand now and then so long as we stick something on the team WhatsApp and make up the hours. If your plumber billed you for 9 hours and only worked 8 how would you feel? Take your lunch break later if you want to ho to the gym when it's quiet.

I go to the gym once or twice a week in working hours, and often take a long walk along by sea after school drop off.

I don't have fixed working hours, I have work that needs to be done. Sometimes that takes much less than typical FT hours, sometimes it means I can get to the gym if I also work in the evenings, sometimes it means no gym and working to midnight.

I've had jobs with set hours before, I know it isn't possible for everyone, but it's possible for me so I'm going to do it. That flexibility is also the reason we've both been able to stay FT with young DC and no family support. I value it hugely.

Yes, but if I'm chatting by the kettle and something comes up, I'm back at my desk in less than a minute, whereas it would take me longer to get home or get to somewhere I can set up my laptop if I'd gone to the gym.

Yes, since COVID most office workers can WFH and don't necessarily have flexitime.
In my job, I wouldn't be able to go to the gym at 10am say, but I could probably take my lunch a bit earlier or later without any problem.

I don't sneak off anywhere but I might rearrange my working day and take lunch earlier or later to get outside for a little bit. Our little team lets each other know and any time is always made up on.

Nope wouldn't cross my mind to sneak out anywhere. I WFH full time and have done since the pandemic. During my working hours I work. I might wash up or do the odd job in lieu of the gossip session the WF the office team have, but for 40 hours a week I 'belong' to the company.

If I have to go out of office for something like say car MOT or there is a domestic crisis I make my manager aware and clock out.

My company trusts me to work and not skive off and I appreciate the trust they have in me.

I quite often go swimming over lunchtime, which takes just over an hour.
As long as my work gets done, no one even notices/cares. I’m often online evenings and weekends to get projects over the line so see it as a 2 way flexibility.

This might be the most entitled post I've ever read.

Most people of working age won't be able to afford to retire and you're whinging that they are walking their dogs?

Appreciate your immense generational privilege and leave us be.

Yeah, "race to the bottom" here means in terms of working conditions.

I agree that working perks, salaries and conditions should be more evenly distributed. The way to achieve that is by making jobs with poor conditions better, not by making jobs with good conditions worse.

There would be no sense in me going to an office to write my work alone. As such, a perk is flexibility. It doesn't make any sense to say well better hope nurses don't all stop working. True! But I also hope that everyone who does my job and the jobs of other people on this thread don't all quit to become nurses. We need all of these jobs. Fairness would be improved conditions that let everyone balance out of work life.

Crikey, some of the bitter and resentful folk on this thread would explode with rage at my workplace. I have a woman on my team in a technical role that involves a lot of coding. She's a night owl and prefers to do this work between about 11pm and 2am, and I'm fine with that. I rarely schedule anything with her before midday, but if required, she would willingly attend.

We also have many staff whose family live in other European countries. They are allowed to go over and work from there for several weeks at a time, seeing their family after work.

Jobs have always been horses for courses and people should pick one that works for them.

I take an hour instead of half an hour at lunchtime to ride my horse. I either start half an hour early or finish half an hour late to make up the time. The times I am gone for are in my calendar so if my colleagues can't reach me during that hour they know why. I wouldn't do it and not make up the time because I don't want to lose my job.

Let's just hope those of us at the 'bottom' don't all decide to get a flexible WFH job then.

Yes, go back to university for three years and change careers so you can go to the gym for an hour in lunch break😂

No I don’t sneak off at all.

I went for a run yesterday over my lunch break and my line manager has never been anything but supportive. I actually put “run” in my work calendar so everyone can see.

No one is saying get a "better" job. Just pointing out that if you want to wfh (since you seem to think it's such a cushy number) then get a job where you can?

How have I been rude?

Fair enough, who's going to cover the meetings with Australia then if she's working 9-5?

If you have so many meetings that you need to put them in a 2 hour slot over lunchtime I'd suggest you probably have too many meetings tbh.

Sorry but I don’t need to be thankful to you for being a healthcare worker when you are being so rude about other people. You have zero idea what the rest of us do but are happily judging away.

My point stands to anyone who is jealous of others flexible working to go find a job that allows it. My workplace have had flexi home working in place for donkeys years, they aren’t going to change because of jealous people and I’m not going to genuflect to healthcare workers as some kind of higher being than the rest of us.

Honestly it's just a goady thread, maybe even a newspaper fluffpiece. I work from home, and I work very hard. Like a lot of WFH jobs though, my tasks are more project based, so I can take an hour to go to the gym and then work an hour in the evening instead. I don't "sneak" anywhere, I'm contractually obliged to work for 37.5 hours a week and do well more than that - just not always 9-5.

These threads are always make me think about the sheer amount of time wasted in the office chatting over photocopier, being asked random questions, having work interrupted all the time. But if someone puts a load of washing on then it's somehow terrible and taking the piss, even if it wastes less time.

No, thankfully I don't feel like that about myself. But I've read comments on threads similar to this saying 'get a better job where you can work from home then' and I can see why healthcare workers are leaving when instead of being thankful people are just suggesting they quit.