to take my 'downtime' during work hours?

[wishfortime]

By 'downtime' I mean nice easy things, like online shopping, coffee breaks, and a bit of random internet surfing.

I work full time and have a 90 minute standing/rushed commute.

Mornings are a rush with early start and nursery drop off etc, My DH picks up DC from nursery between 6 and 6.30 pm, and i reach home about 7pm, spend an hour doing bath, bedtime routine with DC while my husband cooks, we eat at 8.30 then its cleaning kitchen, laundry and general housework, and getting sorted for next day while my DH catches up on work emails. Weekends are also quite jam packed as both our families live far away, so more often than not we either are travelling 300 miles (at least once/twice a month), or family/friends are staying with us.

So I don't get any 'free time' at home, hence i feel i need to take some 'down time' at work. My workload isn't always 100% capacity, but its the type of job where i need to be there and available or it impacts the team. Its paid well and often things kick off i do need to work late into the evening, and sometimes at weekends from home. (I don't get paid for this 'overtime', which is how i justify to myself that the downtime at quieter times during the day is ok).

If the contract is tailored to a project-oriented job then it still makes sense. You are expected to produce the work to a certain standard, period. Of course in jobs like that the product can always be improved so you could say there is NEVER any real down-time.

It's all too vague for anyone to really comment, actually. When I read the OP I assumed she was a receptionist or something like that twiddling her thumbs in between phone calls. Now people are talking about management roles and suchlike.

Is the cleaner doing extra hours at short notice for no more money?

Yes. As in, tonight I am having a dinner party so the cleaner will be expected to stay late and clean the kitchen afterwards.
Of course that means the kitchen will already be clean tomorrow so the cleaner will have some down-time.

... theoretically.

What is your job OP?

What is your job OP?

I'm a finance manager at a city law firm. Managing a small finance team, and overseeing the finance function.

So basically it sounds like you are dealing mainly with day-to-day issues rather than having say, a monthly or longer term project that has to be completed to a certain standard.
In that kind of situation I would say when the work is done, it's done, so some down-time is justified.
However be aware that if you have too much down-time your employer might feel justified in reducing your hours.

I’m intrigued about why your dh needs to “catch up” on emails every night while you do housework. He’s been at work all day, what is there for him to catch up on exactly?

Presumably you are being paid a large salary, having been promoted.
So no, it's not ok. Take a lunch break. Do it then. Stop going to visit family so often, or having people to stay. Pay for cleaner etc services. Do your online shop in your own time.
If you really do have no downtime can I suggest you address the issues in your life.

I've had bosses who would go to the gym/get their hair done etc etc on 'working from home' days (and would phone me and tell me! e.g. 'I'm going to the gym for an hour, so leave me a message if you need me and I'll call you back').

And who would eBay/FB etc quite blatantly. In fact on at least one occasion my boss and I had an exchange about a funny cat video or something on FB from our separate offices.

So no doubt my experience has made me biased, but IMO as long as you do your work and don't take the piss (e.g. shopping or MNetting ALL day) then I can't get my knickers in a twist about this.

I’m intrigued about why your dh needs to “catch up” on emails every night while you do housework. He’s been at work all day, what is there for him to catch up on exactly?

In DH's job, he has to 'book' 40 hours a week. He needs to do both nursery pick up and drop off because nursery is only open 8am-6pm and my working day (including commute) is longer than that. hence DH needs to leave work early (at 5.30pm), picks up from nursery, then can make up the hours later in the evening.

I think if you where thinking of 2 hours a day for 5 day every week,thats taking the piss.But an extra hour here and there is ok.

The only thing is dont make it obvious and dont tell anyone.

You've answered quite a few questions, OP, but not mine about what your boss would say.

I don't think boss would 'say' anything directly to me. If he approached me then likely he wants me to do something for him, I think he would be more concerned about me doing whatever he needs which of course i would always turn around as quickly as possible. If, later in the day/evening I hadn't done what he'd asked then I guess he wouldn't be happy as i was clearly free, but that has never happened, as i would never leave anything urgent outstanding whilst i surf the net.

I'm in two minds. If your boss looked over your shoulder and saw you on a shopping site what would his reaction be? If you've already offered to help a busier person if you can help them and they've declined and if he can see that you're not otherwise busy and he doesn't mind, then fair enough. If you drop everything when a work job comes along all well and good. At least you can look reasonably professional.

I used to work in an open plan office and wasn't always busy. Many was the time I was bored to tears - there was only so much time I could spend cleaning my typewriter or tidying the stationery cupboard. One lady who was lucky enough to sit behind a long partition sat with a book behind her keyboard. I was by an open corridor and didn't have the brass neck. If you can get away with it I don't entirely blame you.

OP, I'd bet anything that your city law firm lawyers are taking the odd hour here and there when they can. Even when that can bill for it!

You've got some quite sanctimonious answers here, OP, but if you look at studies monitoring how much time people spent at work vs. how much productive time people spend at work there's a big difference for the vast majority of people. Lots and lots of people are taking ten minutes for a chat there, lingering in the kitchen and staring out the window when they make a morning cup of coffee there - the vast majority of office workers aren't working non-stop for eight hours a day, no matter what people may claim. You're neither unusual nor some kind of time thief.

The thing that may bite you in the arse, OP, is if you’re breaking a company internet use policy/rule and this gets found out.

A few years back I had a gynae condition that was worrying the hell out of me and the NHS didn’t want to know. I spent a good proportion of the working day google-ing stuff (proper medical sites). Then something went wrong and in order to fix it the IT guy - yes, a bloke - needed access rights and got a sight of my browsing history, its subject matter and huge extent .

Oh, and please don’t conflate your mental reckonings about employer demands, contracted hours etc with some kind of ‘busy working mum’ justification. Women are already often assumed to have their minds not really on work once they have kids, and citing your busy family life just reinforces this. (Yes, of course men sometimes watch porn at work - however, AFAIK they don’t try to blame the pressure of the kids/iLs/laundry for it .

YABU.

DH has these evening meetings too, and he accepts it as part of his work as he gets paid substantially for doing the work he does.

If you're having these late meetings and you agreed to them, then they are also part of your hours and you should not be helping yourself to extra time because you can't organise your time properly at home, sorry.

I also work full time in a demanding job, regularly stay late and do work at home around my kids. There just isn't enough time in the day to have as much downtime as you! If you accepted the promotion, you should be prepared to do the work, sorry, or move aside for someone else who can.

Presumably you are being paid a large salary, having been promoted

I don't think i'm paid a 'large' salary. I probably get paid less than you think. Promotions don't always come with huge pay rises.

Stop going to visit family so often, or having people to stay.

We have two families, both live far away. its not fair on grandparents etc who want to see DC if we say we're cutting trips and not allowing them to visit. I really don't mind travelling once a month, so we visit each set of parents every two months, and also letting them each both visit us every two months. then with friends, other family on the weekends in between, then its easy to get fully booked up.

Totally agree, Margaret.

It has been demonstrated, in multiple studies, that people are more productive if they work shorter hours, yet we insist on long hours. People compensate by taking downtime within their overly long hours.

Do you have "core hours" at your work place? Eg I've worked in an office where everyone had to be at their desk / working between 10am and 12pm and 2pm and 4pm, but outside of those hours could (within reason) decide how to make up their full contracted hours

Do members of your team have the same opportunity to "take downtime"? If you glanced over their shoulder and saw that they were MNing or doing their weekly online grocery shop, would that be OK? Genuinely OK?

OP I agree. Not all promotions come with a huge pay rise. Some of them come with the addition of flexibility in regards to how much of your family and home life is affected by the additonal hours spent working outside (and often on top of) usual contracted hours.

I hated being treated like a timewatched child. I do my hours, and well bloody more. All the time.

I take back some flexibility for the fact I can often start at 7am, and not end until 10pm with time in between. My contract is 8 hours a day.