To think remote workers exaggerate how much they actually work?

We have to deliver what we say we will and every morning we have a meeting discussing where we are at. If we did nothing it would be obvious very quickly. Yes, instead of waking up at 5 I can wake up at 8 and instead of getting home at 9 I can be done and watching tv or walking the dog by 5 so there is flexibility but, I still do my work. Also, I can take a lunch break for an hour and go the gym and come back to my desk as a sweaty mess with a sandwich in hand and continue my day, I don't have to deal with the additional bs of doing that in an office and. I can also recline on the sofa while I work instead of in an uncomfortable chair. I can take time to cook a healthy meal for lunch instead of some manky sandwich from home or take a 20 min break and go out with the dog to clear my head. It's not less work, it's more flexibility around the work and more hours in the day not spent on needless commuting. Is it better than going to an office, 100000%. Do I do less work than in an office, nope, I can just be more comfortable while I do it and more productive in my down time.

I'm with you @ZippyGreyOtter

I work from home and spend quite a lot of time doing fuck all. I need to go into the office once a month and it is quite stressful as I spend my day dicking about with spreadsheets pretending to look busy.

Good point!
I think that also might explain why @ILoveWhales doesn't get interrupted much when they are in the office

Work for myself at home earned £100k
last year so not too slack

It’s called being polite and having social skills, clearly something you lack.

I can see going into the office is doing wonders for you.

My old boss was the worst for presenteeism. He was always in the office, from around 5am until 8-9pm, and he never took sick days. He spent 5 minutes sending a few All Users at 5am just to let the whole organisation know he was in very early, and then spent the rest of his time doing personal stuff like producing music and promoting club nights.

I used to come in at 8am, and just work solidly until 4pm and get my work done. I was pretty efficient, but a lot of my colleagues we're really chatty and I found it very distracting. I now work from home (and for myself) and I'm much more productive, AND I save a few hours a day on the commute, so I can sometimes even put the legendary wash on. Usually I work for an hour before the school run, come home and sit on my laptop and before I know it it's pick up time. So in my case I do work a lot when working from home. I'm sure some people take the mick, but as long as the job gets done I wouldn't be that fussed.

It’s partly personality. Some people are skivers, other conscientious.

@ILoveWhales

So clearly the mania for office work hasn’t had the much vaunted impact on your soft skills… I thought this was meant to be part of the point of going back to the office.

Nope. Just about 100% productive here when WFH. (More productive than I am at work with all the distractions.)

You come across as quite an embarrassment @ILoveWhales . I am a lawyer like you but I don't see other, different, jobs as "nothing jobs". Are you just trying to wind people up or are you actually that up your own arse?

You clearly dont have a profession where you learn from others or have responsibility for training anyone.

I do. So we have to be there but that's ok you can sit at home in your nothing job because you and your colleagues are too unprofessional to actually bother to work productively while you're in an office. Chatting isnt compulsory you know, you don't have to.

There are simply too many distractions at work and people want to come over for a chat you can hardly tell them to go away.

Times have changed, wfh is more productive for me and for many others, I get way more done at home, I cannot work in an office 5 days a week as I simply cannot get enough done with the distractions.

Thankfully my boss doesn’t think like you or those who are anti wfh.

Most office workers only do three hours of actual work a day

No, I would be out a job if that was true.

Exactly. Its a “look busy, the boss is here…” mentality.

Oh for sure. The people who want everyone back in the office are the type who spend 1-2 hours every day chatting.

I find working from home far more productive. There's so much chatting in the office. It's really distracting.
Every time I see someone say how the office allows for more social interaction, I think 'You're one of the chatty disruptors, arent you?'
I have my own friends to socialise with. My working hours are for working. That's what I'm paid for

Working from home is fairly new to me having worked out of the home for 35 years, but I'm self employed so I do have to work if I want to get paid.
The flexibility is life changing though. I can start/finish when I want, sometimes start really early as a I'm an early riser and I'm done for the day by 2pm. I am really enjoying it! I used to envy all my work from home neighbours so I thought I'd join them 😂

I think most of us experienced that. But there's a strong anti-WFH contingent on MN who insist it isn't true.

I remember one of my colleagues being astonished at how much work he got done at home when we locked down for Covid - how much time he wasted in the office yapping with the team, making cups of tea, going and chatting with others, pointless meetings. Razor focused and it’s done in half the time.

People who work on site vastly underestimate how much time they spend not working during work hours. The only different with remote work is you can use the not-working time productively or pleasureably instead of browsing news sites and trying to look busy.

Some do. Some presentee office types do bugger all too.

I wfh when not travelling and average 12h days recently.

I find my productivity is inverse to the proximity of my phone.

I power through the first 5h of the day sans phone, then wind down the final 3.