To think working from home is becoming a skivers charter

[Viviennemary]

Of course I know there are a lot of people who work from home very conscientiously. But it seems more and more people when they have childcare problems, house needs cleaning, traffic bad, staying in for delivery or they just need an easy day. Work from home. Anyone come across this. I know it's a bit of a risk putting this in AIBU but I just wondered.

Apologies for typos. Fat fingers on phone!

I'm more productive when i work from home.

A senior manager in the public sector shared with me that one day all her staff were 'working from home'. She was uterrlu dismayed and disappointed when she logged into the internal system and saw that not one, not even one file had been edited (and therefore no one from her team of 20 people had done any work). So no, yanbu.

I agree . I think many people work into the evening through and fit in hours here and there ? But it’s galling

@viviennemary you're not my boss's boss are you? I swear he thinks I'm painting my toenails when I WFH.

I have a choice, commute for 90 minutes, find the car park is full, walk from public car park 30 minutes away, to find there are no hot desks left and sit in the canteen. Switch that to logging on at the time I'd normally leave the house, exclude any sort of coffee or lunch break, shoulder taps, interruptions and another 90 commute home and BINGO, work have got at least 3 more hours of productivity out me.

It's a no brainer and so what if someone has childcare issues or a delivery coming. Are you just jealous because you can't WFH?????

It's about the output, not where you are on any given day.

However I do think some people who take advantage from the work at home policy may very well likely be taking advantage whilst in the office too?

Speak for yourself OP. Some of us have the discipline to wfh.

Maverick - " I work in emerging technology and only today I was reading am article about how remote working is going to grow rapidly over the next ten years. "

I recall being promised that about 15 years ago.

I work longer hours and with less breaks at home. Don't like it though miss the Buzz of the office. By mid afternoon I want a chat with a human over something other than work

Hmmm. My past couple of jobs haven’t been very busy a lot of the time. I can either sit at work doing nothing and get given stuff like shredding or re-organising the stationery cupboard if I ask for sign or work from home with my instant messaging on and my emails open!

Last year, I worked from home a couple of days over the Christmas break. Almost everyone else was off. I had nothing to do.

Personally I worked way more productively for my own business at home than I did dicking about in an office with loads of other skiving pisstakers.

I am more productive working in solitude but from working with other people, I have seen people I work with not be productive when WFH - they do what they can do remotely which isn't necessarily what's needed.
It depends on the individual.
Combining childcare and working from home is very difficult.

Working in an office with very limited internet access (no social media, personal e-mail etc) and not a chatty environment improves productivity in my experience.

Yanbu Op but it needs to be managed, and is no different to any other work issue in that respect.
Childcare issue- you can't work and look after your children, company policy.
Feeling a bit rough- you're off sick or you're at work. If you don't come in you'll be put down as sick so more fool you if you work.

I don't work well from home. I am
Easily distracted, procrastinate and often get very little done. i minimise it for that reason. I don't think I'm unusual.

I’ve just worked 9 hours and will only charge for 7. To make up for getting to work 10 minutes late on the days I do go into the office.

So no. I think you know some tosses

I'm far less productive working from home. There are too many distractions, I procrastinate and then start panicking about 4.30.

That said, surely they'd only be so many days you could skive off "working from home" before it became apparent to your boss that you were a total piss taker? [Hmm)

DH works very hard at home.

I have a friend who oftens stays at home when she wants an easy day. She also used to save her work up for when she was in the office so she looked busy!

It's not too hard to check on skivers if you utilise key loggers.

Well I agree OP

There’s a lot of “protest too much” on this thread

Recent classics in our office are those who work from home when they are not well enough to come into the office

If I was managing (which I’m not) them that would be a sick day

You either need to have great self control or be a bit of a blagger to cover up the lack of productive work to your Manager, if you are skiving too much instead of working.

There is a world of difference between once or twice a year for genuinely unforeseen things such as the boiler packing up or a train strike and those who do so on a regular basis, some of whom I think are either shirking or trying to avoid some or all of their work colleagues.

I also expect it is something taken advantage by those on above average income and those struggling to make ends meet would probably not be in a job where it is an option.

As for parcel deliveries, the law should be changed so you don't have to wait in all day. Same with gas and other such utility appointments. Mobile technology is such that is unnecessary to do this.

DH works very hard and tends to do longer hours when he works from home. Today, for example, he did calls at 6.30am & 7.30am. He then worked (answering emails) and watched the toddler while I took our older one to school. He closed the office door at 9.15 and didn’t emerge until 12.30. He had a half hour lunch break, then worked flat-out writing a document until dinner at 5.30. He went back into the office at 6.15 and is still going. He probably won’t come out until 9ish. He uses working from home to catch-up with fewer interruptions.

My partner works from home managing social media and the creative side. He goes on location to shoot (all over the world) edits from home, replies to social media at home, has meetings via conference calls. It's a 3 hour round trip to the office so it makes sense to get an extra 3 hours done at home minus the commuting.

YANBU to suggest some people are skiving, YABU to suggest everyone is skiving.

I tend to WFM with a specific goal in mind, eg writing a report or appraisals when I don’t want to be interrupted. The closest I have come to skiving when working from home is completing the task I had aimed to do quicker and better than if I’d been in the office, then taking it easy for the rest of the day (usually no more than a couple of hours).

As well as not needing to commute, it’s also a real treat to be able to sit in PJs and slippers with a good coffee and some music on instead of taking time to get ready in the morning etc. Just that in itself motivates me not to skive.

However I know plenty of people who do little more than respond to emails (and never proactively send anything) and online shop all day in the office. They’re usually the ones who stare up and glare at you when you go over to their desk. I also know plenty of people who do abuse the flexibility of WFM but they’re probably the people who would otherwise have pulled a sickie.

Overall it’s like anywhere, the system is open to abuse and is only as good as the people managing it.

I'm self employed-do I need to build myself an office block??
Yabu and generalising

In my current (crappy) team, senior managers work from home all the time but people in my more junior role as not as encouraged to work from home...

I often work from home where I am much more productive. I also have output that other people need to review and approve and constant deadlines so it would be very obvious if I were goofing off.