To think people who work from home don’t understand this?! And they’re paid more usually

On the other hand if you work a job with set hours in a physical building...no one is going to ask you to 'just pop on a call' with the US at 8pm/Australia at 6am.

I find I can do more quick errands on my office days than my wfh days - I work 5min away from the high street so can pop to M&S to buy school trousers/the entertainer to buy birthday presents for the DC friends etc on my lunchbreak.

I WFH (I have offices I can work in as and when).
I’m not paid to be sat behind a desk from 9-5.30.
one day last week I saw a film, had a late lunch with one friend - then watched another film - and had pudding and a coffee with another friend, later that week I left my home at 730 am, drove 200 miles, worked all day and well into the night at a work dinner.
Next week I will be in London working solidly for 2 days and nights.
So I feel ok at going to get my hair and nails done during the day.

This is nothing to do with WFH vs not WFH. This is to do with you have an inflexible job that requires set hours and a rigid time off policy vs a job where flexible working is acceptable. It can often be that a role with flexi-time more easily enables WFH but it's not a linear relationship.

Wait until you hear about self employed people who work from home, OP, in a job they can choose their hours. That’s me; and I can do whatever I like. I still need to work about 50 hours a week, but I choose when and can chop and change and go out and all sorts. Bet you think that’s not fair and you should get extra pension contributions from your employer (that I don’t get at all) to make it fair, right?

I used to work full time from the office, and would still regularly book appointments on work time and just come in early/stay late on other days to make up the time.

I get that this maybe isn’t possible in some jobs (eg teacher, surgeon, checkout assistant), but it’s not a WFH thing - it’s a job type thing.

I think your friend is in the minority. I work in an office and can wfh when I like but only do this if I have a particular heavy day and need the peace and quiet.

no one I know has their hair done or any of the other things you have mentioned during the day when they are working. I think your friend is painting a false picture of working from home.

I sometimes take 1-2h during the day when I WFH but I make up for it in the evening. That is common practice where I work.
However, I also sometimes use my lunchbreak to have my nails done or drop off a parcel etc when I’m in the office. Or take a late and long break if I have a personal appointment nearby - and I’ll arrive earlier/stay later that day.

What actually is your issue? The fact you can’t get your nails done during the working day, or that your friends don’t understand this? Had one of them said something? I feel I need more clarity on the situation with your friends that’s bothering you.

Also don’t be under any illusion that people who WFH are all free to gallivant. My boyfriend WFH and if his mouse hasn’t moved in an 8 minute period, his boss hets an alert.

I've had office based jobs that were flexible and where I was able to take time for things like dentist appointments and make it up later. And I have friends who work from home under inflexible conditions.

I deliberately only work for companies that offer a degree of flexibility but I certainly don't have time to go galavanting around town.

Working from home isn't the same thing as flexibility.

Working from home for most of us doesn't allow this at all. Occasionally we can make up hours in the evening but we are at our desks at the required time and do not leave for the doctor, dentist, hairdresser or school pick ups. And we are absolutely not allowed to have primary aged kids unsupervised in the house while we are working

Because being senior she's very likely to work whatever hours needed, if business requires her to work on Saturday midnight or be available on Teams whilst on hols she'd be available then. In my experience all senior roles do way more hours than officially contracted to.

As to the rules - I bet she's on higher pay than average, is this unfair as well?

I work from home and I have to take leave for dental and hair appointments. I was 8 months pregnant and so busy I couldn't take a lunch break.

Sounds like you're resentful of people with flexible working hours rather than WFH?

What's your friend doing that makes you think she doesn't understand that you haven't got the same flexibility?

And no, I guess it's not fair that some people can and some people can't, but that's true of many jobs and their particular perks. Some let you wfh flexibly, some get you discounts on clothes, some get you free theatre tickets, some have additional benefit programmes, some let you travel...

What like firemen, nurses, police, bus drivers, surgeons, shopworkers, delivery drivers, lifeguards, pilots, soldiers, train drivers, baggage handlers, chefs, road workers, butchers, sailors and builders?

What makes you think we're all running around for appointments during the working day? I'm certainly not. I'm working because if I don't, I don't get paid.

It's got nothing to do with whether you work from home or not. It's got to do with how flexible your job is. Pre-covid, I went in to the office most days. If I had an appointment during the day, I made sure it didn't clash with something I had to be in the office for and just went. Same if I had to stay at hime for a tradesperson or delivery. So long as my work was done, nobody cared.

Post covid, I work from home unless I have to go in and it's the same now as it was then.

I do three days in, WFH on a Friday, and don’t work on a Wednesday. On the days I am in work I take lunch, on a Friday at home I usually eat at my desk. Things like haircuts I am lucky I can do on my (unpaid, my contract is 80%) Wednesday off, and my employer is flexible about dental/medical appointments - I thought they had to be because those places are generally closed at weekends.

In my last job we had flexitime and outside “core hours” could flex our working time over a four week period. That was great as you could definitely do a lunchtime appointment, late start or early finish, or even accrue an extra “flexi-day” off each month if you banked enough time.

Yes, same here. We have to be available at all times in the working day. We gould get called into a teams meeting by colleagues at any time, so dentist/ doctors/ lunch has to worked out the same as when we were office based. I must admit though, the fact that we dont have the awful commute twice a day has increased my downtime a lot.

Accept it and stop complaining or you will make yourself miserable.

Am I the only one sick of the "It's not fairrrrrrrr" whining?

I must have missed the golden ticket handed out at birth that guaranteed fairness for life.

Ugghhh @Ugriap my wfh schedule consisted of 6am - 3pm meetings (with mayyyyyyybe a 30 minute break when I wasn't in a call but that usually got interrupted with a crisis) then I would get to cram in a full day's worth of stuff to do from 3-5ish . Super flexible and allowed all kinds of time for galivanting and fun time 🙄

Why should you get more annual leave if you can't work from home? Surely the flip side is that she's often working in the evening whereas you leave your work at work?

When I worked from home I certainly didn't have time to go to the hairdresser's. Son wfh sometimes and also has no chance to leave his desk except for 30 minutes lunch and 5 minute break am and pm.

You are judging on one high earner - one of my WFH jobs was very well paid, but I was putting in 18 hour days routinely, so I had way less time to myself than anyone else I knew!

I WFH (well, hybrid) and I neither galivant around, nor 'fail to understand' that other people can't. You sound jealous of the WFH element.

It’s mixed. My daughter works from home but has no flexibility whatsoever. She’s in the same position as you. The best she can do is take a parcel in.

I don’t know. Some firms in London are saying they want to remove any London Weighting if people don’t need it, if they’re not travelling or needing to work in town.