Thing you do when you WFH...

[SleepDebt]

...that you'd never do in the office.

My DH was shaving his beard In-between emails this week and it made me chuckle at the thought of him doing this in the office.

What things do you do while you WFH that would be completely inappropriate/slightly hilarious if you did them in the office?

If I can take a call on my mobile I do with headphones in and do a spot of gardening whilst talking, if it’s a meeting i can just listen to I chop the veg for dinner, put the washing away etc.

I have found I am much happier working hybrid as I am hyper focussed in the office as I’m not shattered and the amount of chat by the photocopier/long lunches and lots of breaks that used to happen don’t anymore, I think people save that for at home pottering!

I've just remembered the most important one. Be WARM all the time. No air con. Tracksuit and slipper socks. Therefore fewer trips to the toilet to warm up.

I dye my eyebrows
do admin on my laptop whilst in bed (Dcats and Ddog help me)
I decorated half my bathroom whilst watching online training

I genuinely sit at my desk and work all day! I did catch myself on my on my phone too much, so put it in another room now. If I can't concentrate on teams calls I do mindful colouring to help avoid fiddling about and not listening. I was working from home several days a week pre-covid and used to save concentrating work for home days, so perhaps that's stuck.

I’ve no time for anything like some of the posters here. I did love working under a gazebo in the garden last summer wearing shorts and tee shirt. In winter I could light the fire and use a big blanket.

Wear slippers, put a load of laundry on at lunchtime, have a cat in my lap (mine occasionally yell at my Teams calls…I’ve never pretended they’re not around!), when I’m running an extract and have to wait I do read MN on my phone but id do that in the office…

DH has a half day one day, it’s become a bit of a habit that we have a quickie when he gets in. Definitely couldn’t do that in the office!

Honestly ? Civil servant. I work 2 .5 hours more a day than I used to sitting in traffic. I pollute the planet a whole lot less.

My only big change is that I shower at lunchtime.

I am a kinder person who has more time for my home community. I volunteer now because I'm not knackered and sitting in traffic 2 hours a day. My volunteering equates to 8 hours a week (run a brownie pack and am on the village association)

How is that not for the better ? When I went in to work I wasn't even with my team as they are mostly 200 miles north of me .. ? I literally drove an hour to sit at a desk.

I get the putting a wash on or painting nails whilst listening to a meeting but how on earth do people have the time to be doing housework/gardening/doing life admin/watching TV and taking naps during the work day? I could do those things but it would mean I'd get behind on my work load.

When I was in manual work we used to roll our eyes at a lot of office based "pen pushers" who claimed their work was hard/tiring. Now I see why!

Mondays - laundry
Tuesdays - hyper focus on work to make up for Monday
Wednesday - vacuum everywhere, change bedding
Thursday - same as Tuesday
Friday - deep clean a room (take the laptop with me)

I’m too boring / busy / well-behaved to do any of this. WFH is still seen as a privilege in my organisation and I wouldn’t want to be the one seen to be taking the piss that got it removed for the rest of the team.

I sometimes sit with my skirt hoiked up over my hips while my oestrogen gel dries on my thighs and if my back is sore (I have sciatica) I’ll do a few stretches between calls on the Pilates mat I keep next to my workstation so that I don’t seize up, but that’s as rebellious as I get I’m afraid.

Same, totally shocked by how many people don't need camera on or have so much time to do other things!

Listen to audio books
Yoga
Iron
Bake cakes
Make soup
hoover
clean the bath
go to the supermarket
chat with my partner
watch TV
go to the gym
read
listen to music
put the laundry on

No wonder I’m so busy these days!

I'm starting to understand why the service levels of some of the firms that I deal with has plummeted since Covid.

I’m so jealous of people on this thread. I’m generally being pinged with urgent things on instant message (and therefore expected to reply immediately) from 8:30am, sometimes as early as 7:30, until around 7ish every evening, and usually I have calls all day with an expectation of camera on. Sometimes I’m on calls with my boss about one key priority and she’ll be sitting instant messaging me about another, but I’m still expected to completely absorb what’s being said on the call 🥲 WFH has completely eroded any normal work/personal time boundaries in my team. I actually love my job, but my laundry has to wait a while to get put away and I’m certainly not getting any shagging done on my lunch break 😂

Amazing! Sounds like my kind of job.

None of my work is customer facing at all. In fact, its barely colleague facing.

At lunchtime I can walk my dog.
He's not allowed into schools so yeah, big bonus. And the rest of the day he snoozes under my desk.

In my old job which was painfully quiet and boring:
Ride my horse in my lunch break
Tidy outside/stables
Walk the dogs
Gardening
Laundry
House work
Paint my nails
Cooking/Baking

In my new job which is super busy:
Cup of tea if I am lucky
Paint my nails if off camera

I do like to try and work in the garden if the weather is nice and I have been tempted to go to a cafe to do some work but never manage it.

Sit and scroll through MN whilst pretending to listen to a conference call with my camera off.
Have my bearded dragon on the desk or on my lap whilst I work.
Eat a fried egg sandwich at my desk and make a right mess with the yolk.
Spend a bit longer in bed because I can wash my hair in my lunch break rather than in the morning.

I get a 10 min break in the morning and afternoon, and half an hour lunch. The rest of the time I have to be at my desk. I don't understand how some of you manage to potter about doing housework!

I am at these! I work longer/harder at home than I did in the office as there are fewer distractions. My job is pretty busy and I just would not have time for any of this. I am public sector though, so would feel like a right shit if the tax payer was paying me to paint my nails.

I do wear my slippers though and drink a lot more tea than I would in the office (what a rebel )

I’d love to know what these jobs are that you handle calls without taking notes, attend meetings without listening or concentrating? Yes now and again but not on a regular basis?

Could you give us some insight by mentioning what the jobs are where you can do gardening, make the dinner, clean the house and have a nap all while working.

We have a cameras on at all times policy and any travel time I save using TEAMS is just filled up with more referrals.

We have a no camera policy for team meetings. No one needs to see my apply fake tan …… again.

In my case, the calls where I don't concentrate tend to be like company/all team call type things - more of a download of info from the top but a bit of a nice to have. Obviously if it's a committee or something, I pay attention.