If you WFH, what's your Friday afternoon like?

Actually, lots of the jobs I'm talking about involve a great deal of being bothered by others. I get pestered much more when working these days than I did when I used to clean in a pub before it opened and there was nobody there aside from one other staff member, for example. Because people use phones, email and instant messaging.

The problem you have here is that you don't know what you don't know. You aren't able to understand how ridiculously unaware you sound, continuing to pronounce on jobs you have no experience of and don't understand. It's proper Dunning Kruger.

To clarify, I don’t think call centre jobs are made up.

I’m talking about the interminable bullshit that seems to dominate a lot of work time. I am a teacher (which I know will get some posters’ backs up straight away) and I am usually busy doing what I deem ‘real stuff’ - either teaching in the classroom or marking work or developing resources. Increasingly, from management, I feel we get a rising tide of what I’d call made-up work; audits and quality assurance projects and working parties that we’re supposed to get on board with during our non-existent available time. And all of it is just bullshit. It’s box-ticking nonsense or interminable meetings where nothing real is actually achieved. That’s the sort of work I was referring to; people in management, in various organisations, may well be up to their eyeballs in that sort of work as they sit in their home office, but I have little sympathy, I’m afraid, as it is probably of their own making.

@BernardBlacksBreakfastWine except it's not
My job is behind a screen but I'm still dealing with customers on the phone every single day and I actually find it tougher than retail
I mean if call centre work is a made up job then it can cease to exist tomorrow and everyone will get on fine?

Good luck ringing a car dealership, the bank, oh 999 won't exist

It's just jealousy - like if they're not allowed to do it, nobody should 🙄

The real world thing can only be called be ridiculous by those who don't live it, because if they did they would understand. Of course many online jobs are difficult, however while doing them one isn't simultaneously being bothered by others. Xx

Exactly, being out in the reality of the world with a stessful job and simultaneously dealing with the public is a double barrel. No escape, gruelling, physically and mentally exhausting 😪

I don’t really do any work on Friday. I decline any meeting or calls and move them
to another day in the week (fortunate to have enough autonomy to do this). I usually go to the gym, shopping, deal with life admin etc and pick up DC from school. I WFH and go into the office 1 day a month.

I think most of my team do the same. No-one has to pick up anyone else’s work, we all manage our workloads.

I don’t understand the anger directed towards people who have the flexibility to take it easy on Fridays. Such an odd attitude. I work in an industry with a niche role that allows for that but are some downsides to my job. I don’t resent people who don’t have to endure those downsides in their jobs. We all have our crosses to bear.

My contract is hours per week, rather than hours per day.

So I tend to work way over my hours M-W, with the hope of finishing early on a Friday.

Usually though, Friday ends up being my busiest day 😂

Oh I agree. I get paid an awful lot to have a very cushty life by going into the office once every week or so. Also 'leading a team' is so much easier than being the team. An individual contributer has an operational to do list and deadlines coming out of their ears, a 'leader' is easier in my experience.

Agree with this. If you’re actually in the thick of it, in a hospital, restaurant, classroom, whatever, with actual people snapping at your heels, it’s a world away from any job, frankly, that allows you to put your own front door and a computer screen between you and the real world. Yes, you might be called at all hours etc. but it’s still not the same as being somewhere at work.

I admit that if you’re, say, the PM or the actual head of the armed forces, you don’t get much what we’d call down time. But your average MNetter (who’s always ‘leading a team’) doing some made-up admin job or other from the comfort of her own sofa 🤷‍♀️Sorry, not buying it.

Well, mine is quite niche so I won't be able to oblige unfortunately. Soz. Skilled technical is about as far as I can go. Maybe others will say more.

But anyway, the 'real world' thing always sounds ridiculous. People should have the honesty to admit that they're trying to use it as some kind of badge of legitimacy, despite clearly having no experience of understanding of the roles they're talking about. The fact that something doesn't resonate well with a person when they hear it doesn't make their instinctive response any less ignorant.

If you read the post that that post was quoting, they’re talking about having to work outside of normal work hours or on holidays etc so not a case of them just totting their laptop around during the day, but sometimes being needed outside of that time.

Often, I do more on Fridays than other weekdays. I typically squeeze an extra task in on Friday evenings in between watching something on TV. (Self-employed and work by the task rather than the hour.) In the past, I've knocked out some writing in the middle of the night when insomnia struck, then took it easy the next day, when sleepiness finally kicked in. If all my work gets done properly, by the end of the month, it doesn't matter what day or time it happens.

There are downsides to the job, too—such as having no-one to call who can cover for me—so I feel no shame in taking advantage of its positive aspects, such as the extreme flexibility it offers.

Same here, was wfh teaching and had my own DC to home school. I still found this less stressful than being in school all day and as soon as the day ended, no meetings, commute, just switch off computers! X

That really is nice, hence the suggestion of a 4 day week, but this can only work for certain jobs. Yet again, it shows the difference between office work and other areas, eg a nurse can't reduce hours due to output. Xx

Isn't this a case that you should be working and not juggling other activities? So, you have a space and do your tasks, not take kids swimming and get out a laptop? Sounds like you are going about your own lives and cramming in laptop as you go. Not ideal work or family wise, the rest of us who don't work from home/waiting areas/fields can't just leave and have to book clubs, appointments etc after work.

Or you could be joking, as it comes across, but is also quite believable. Xx

Exactly, this type of OP doesn't give credit to all who do work conscientiously for the days they are being paid for. It smacks of lazy gloating. Xx

I would be very interested in knowing the roles and I stand by what I say with 'the real world'. This is the stress of traffic, finding somewhere to park (or PT and the delays), being among other people with the noise, interactions and emotions, doing a job like teaching classes of 30 students one after another, attending to patients, dealing with rude shop customers. Yes the real world, not working on a computer and being able to mute, switch off, being on your own with no other human stress and immediate demand around you, purely the task you are doing. I understand this is of course mentally draining and being at a screen not the best for concentration, online meetings make me feel sleepy!

All jobs have their ups and downs, but when an OP says they are able to just take a day off and pretend to work, of course it won't resonate well with those who don't have this opportunity. Xx

I could ask for and probably get condensed hours but I am the same, I get the work done efficiently and well but I don’t sit at my desk all day by any means. I do the work when it’s there and flexibly. So I think that really means working 5 days to allow that flexibility to take a long lunch and go for a swim or whatever if it’s quiet but also be willing to work early/late if needed .

Do you mean you work condensed hours over 4 days? Hoping to get this approved when I return from mat leave as I would love a day off with LO but worried I will regret it as currently the job is flexible e.g I can nip out in the day and catch up in the evening, which I will obviously lose if working long days

How do you find it?

My phone line and screen is recorded
A screen shows all our statistics, how long we have been on a call, how much after call time we have, whether we are on lunch, on a call, doing an email etc
Rota shows our break and lunch times
How many calls we take, how many outgoing calls we make, everything like that is on a daily and monthly email

It's manic. I'm in fintech so Friday is finalizing all the prep for changes to software/systems to be done at the weekend. I dream of a 5pm finish to be honest but it usually doesn't calm down until the US markets close.

Umm my very non-confrontational comment seems to have struck a nerve with you 🤷‍♀️

I was just clarifying that I found wfh much less tiring than physically being at work, but that homeschooling (as a separate issue) at the start of the pandemic was really hard. I don’t really get your response?

Fridays are always my busiest days, so my Monday becomes my Friday of sorts, normally start at lunchtime and mostly checking on chat messages and planning for the week.