What do you do on a quiet wfh day?

[BakersKitchen]

My whole team including my boss seem to be on annual leave today and summer is a quiet time for us anyway. Altogether - not much to do!

Work-wise I have monitored my emails in case anything comes in (it hasn’t), so I have:

• done some life admin and made a few phone calls
• walked into town to get a few bits
• made my husband some lunch
• started on some baking I wanted to do at the weekend
• watched some of the series I’m watching

Anyone else had a quiet wfh day? What do you do with it? I always feel like you can’t actually take it “off” because you are meant to be working but I also don’t see the point in being chained to my desk when there’s not a lot going on.

Yes, "housekeeping - deleting files no longer needed etc", definitely not whizzing around the house with a duster or hoover.

WFH for me is 9.00 - 17.30 at my desk and working.
I will hang out washing or fetch it in or answer the door for a parcel, but that's about it.
If I nip out (e.g.to the post office, bank, appointment), I tell my boss or a colleague before I go and when I come back.

Lunch is usually something reheated or quick. I eat slowly so usually about 40 mins and I catch up with personal mail etc then.

I don’t understand people on this thread who have an issue with people WFH doing life bits. If there’s no work to do.. what do you expect people to do? I’m an ED nurse, so I spend 13 hours in the hospital and aside from my break (if I get it) I’m usually floored. However when I was doing my training, some areas were quieter than others and there a few days there wasn’t much for staff to do so people would sit chatting, or doing life admin, or outstanding training/CPD - how is that any different? They just couldn’t leave the hospital, obviously.
I used to work in a corporate role before I retrained, and during COVID we were moved to full time WFH. It was in a sector with extremely busy months where you’d finish late, and quieter months. If there’s nothing to do, there’s nothing to do! This concept of trying to look busy for 37.5 hours a week is crazy and draining.

I find this really shocking actually. I can’t imagine going out to lunch or doing my own admin on a day that I am supposed to be working.

My boss actively encourages this on quiet/admin days.

Sometimes I sort my emails and file them all away.

Today I’ve bought a handbag, put some laundry away, put a load on, had a shower (at lunchtime to be fair), read the papers online (work adjacent task), listened to a work related podcast and kissed the dog numerous times.

I wfh on Mondays and Tuesdays. Mondays are exceptionally quiet, so that's when I like to get my ironing done. I've also recently had tradesmen round to quote jobs for me.

Teacher here so am insanely jealous. WFH days don't exist for us! What jobs do you all do?

While some employers won’t mind how their employees juggle their day as long as the work is being done, others will latch on to these examples as reasons to scrap wfh and call people back to the office.

Pre-covid most of us were in the office and usually needed permission even to finish a few minutes early for an appointment. My employer at the time would give people a talking to if they took an extra 5 minutes for lunch. Yet now, there are people admitting they’re going out for coffees and doing housework while they are getting paid to work.

Unfortunately, some political parties and certain newspapers/ news sites hate people working from home and will use any excuse to slate it. If we want working from home to stay, we really can’t take the piss and give these people a reason to criticise it.

I understand what you're saying, but I'm in a job where it's all or nothing. Either really busy, or nothing to do - it's just the nature of my job. If it's a choice between sitting at the dining table and staring at the wall or getting on with a few household tasks, which makes more sense? I always keep my laptop near me, and have an eye on my inbox in case anything urgent drops in.

but I'm in a job where it's all or nothing
Couldn't you use the downtime to learn something new or do some training?

... others will latch on to these examples as reasons to scrap wfh and call people back to the office. This.

Always something to do!
Today I had a quiet day, I started researching possible venues for an event early next year, deleted a load of out of date files/data, ran some reports that I will need for Monday afternoon but I have a meeting for most of Monday morning so I’ll at least be able to take a lunch break rather than trying to do it then, worked on a loose idea for a day event in November and contacted a few people as potential guest speakers.
Basically some admin tasks to keep my onedrive tidy and some forward planning to make life easier for future me.
Of course I still had my regular work emails coming in, just fewer of them as lots of people are on holiday.
During my lunchbreak I went and collected ds school uniform which I had pre ordered and got a text to say it was ready for collection, then I plated up some leftovers for lunch when I got back and took them to my desk so I could crack on and eat at the same time.

I know loads of private sector people who work from home.

I am public sector and an "average" WFH day involves barely getting a chance to wee . A "quiet" day means I actually had a lunch break and also got to get up and go for a wee and give the dog a quick cuddle a couple of times

I try to write my book 📖

There are some joyless people on here. I work really hard- evenings, weekends, holidays if necessary. But it’s a job with peaks and troughs. In a peak I might easily be working 60-70 hours a week. My employer expects, and gets, a lot of uncomplaining flexibility. But flexibility goes both ways - if in quiet times I had to do busy-work to be sure my employer got their 37 hours, I wouldn’t be nearly so accommodating in the busy times.

So today it’s a quiet day: I’ve kept an eye on email and done some work, but I’ve also taken DD out for a GCSE celebration lunch and done some laundry. I think my employer has a pretty good deal.

That's fine. But if people just post away on chat forums about how they dick about when WFH they risk more and more employers taking away the option

And for disabled people like me that would be a catastrophe. I am able to work from home as a higher rate tax payer. If that option was taken away I would be claiming benefits

The whole public v private sector debate is nonsense. I have worked in both, in a variety of types of role in both, and there is no difference between sectors. The differences are caused by the type of job, the culture of the organisation, and the personality of your manager.

I WFH most days. Some days are back to back. Most have a few gaps in, during which I might go for a walk or do some chores if there's time. Some days I have absolutely nothing to do. I manage my own schedule, have a manager who trusts me because I deliver, and am always contactable even if I'm sat on the sofa watching a film with my laptop on my lap. I don't feel in the least bit guilty or that I'm doing anything wrong. I deliver what my employer wants, have good relationships with my colleagues and am flexible to work harder than my contract states when required.

I used to work in the office all the time. Now I work in the office sometimes. I am less productive there than at home. Too many people jabbering, too many phones going off.

I know I work less hard than nurses, teachers, builders, chemical engineers and a million other types of worker. But they've made their choice and I've made mine.

Basically all of the above. It’s one of the best bits of WFH x

no such thing as there’s always things to do, it’s quiet so I’ve done some work Christmas prep to get ahead

Like OP I have busy times and quiet times. Busy times it's 10-12 hour days whether I'm at home or at the office, no chance of lunch never mind hanging the washing out. Weeks like this week, I've washed all my bedding today, given the kitchen a good clean, and got a few Vinted parcels posted - most of my team are on holiday so all my people management stuff and a lot of my regular meetings have been cancelled for this week and next.

Do you have non work conversations in the office? Ever had a haircut during a lunch break? Ever taken five minutes extra on your break??

The sanctimonious reactions on here are a bit much tbh

Yes, WFH is great land there are perks, but as my boss says, are the deadlines being met??? Yes, boss, they are. They always are.

Exactly.

If works quiet, surely it’s quiet in the office or at home. Why would it matter where you are?

It’s swings and roundabouts. I’ve been working numerous 12 hour days the last few weeks. If I need to take 30 mins to sort some life admin when it’s quiet then I do. I encourage my direct reports to also make good use of flexible working so they can maintain a good work life balance while also meeting their deadlines.

Why does it matter to you what I do? Yesterday I took a nap. The week before I earnt my employer 23 million. Am I taking the piss?