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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think working from home is becoming a skivers charter

233 replies

Viviennemary · 06/12/2017 18:44

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.

OP posts:
Getsorted21 · 07/12/2017 09:35

I think it's a good thing to wfh if your sick (obviously depends on severity).

DHs work encourages them to wfh, largely as they have already outgrown the office they moved into 1 year ago.

Very, very occasionally DHs has wfh & not even opened his laptop but other nights is wfh until 10/11pm. I think it's about trust.

brogueish · 07/12/2017 09:38

I think there may be a difference between people that always work from home (normal working day) and those that sometimes work from home (feels like a day off?). But maybe not.

I've been a permanent, FT homeworker for just under 10 years, and have very recently started working one day a week in the main office for a specific project. I have been genuinely shocked at how little work gets done there, it seems to be constant chatting and going for lunches and coffees and personal phone calls... When I WFH I might put the washing on (5 mins) but I don't have multiple non-work related chats every day, I don't take lunch and I work the equivalent of the commute. In the main office everyone takes an hour lunch and nobody works a second past 5pm, it's a totally different culture - probably healthier to be fair.

Before anyone comments, I have annual leave today to do some xmas shopping, I'm at the pc to check emails before I go out.

dameofdilemma · 07/12/2017 11:08

I think whether wfh works really depends on your job.

Wfh is great for my own personal targets/goals and I get loads done without wasting time on the commute. Its quite a selfish approach though, focusing on my own personal workload.

Its not so great for my colleagues who end up having to pick up ad hoc urgent matters, respond to clients who turn up at their desks unannounced, attend meetings (senior management mtgs can't be dialled into) etc, to the detriment of achieving their own outputs.

Its also not so great for junior staff who I'm less likely to overhear and support ad hoc and who are less likely to pick up the phone to ask for support.

Its quite a team focused job though and we recognise team players more than individual star performers.

Nyx1 · 07/12/2017 11:57

OP re your reason for posting - I find that poor managers are just poor managers, so they manage home working, either as a regular thing or the odd request, very badly.

Raindancer411 · 08/12/2017 17:54

My hubby gets more work done at home than he does in the office...

Blahblahblahzeeblah · 08/12/2017 17:56

On the days my husband works from home he works bloody hard and usually.for longer hours too as there's no obvious switch off at home time.

shhhfastasleep · 08/12/2017 18:00

I work from home because our office has run out of space and can't afford to buy it's way out of its rental contract.

dantdmistedious · 08/12/2017 18:01

I feel under pressure to be more productive when WFH, I do more here than when I am I the office. I WFH two days a week and I'm well aware they don't have to let me do that so I constantly feel like I have to prove my productivity.

amgine · 08/12/2017 18:02

I WFH 1 or 2 days a week. I get much more done as there are less interruptions. I can start earlier, lose the commute. The other plus side is I can deal with home stuff more easily. Instead of mooching round shops at lunch time I can hang up the washing, do the washing up so it not wasted time. My kids are still in school / breakfast club /after school club and nursery. I still go on if needed and will shift them around or just not do them if it’s not convenient for work or in the school holidays when kids are at home. I swear some days I get less done in the office.

Suebreo · 08/12/2017 18:12

It’s all about the individual, nothing to do with the place of work. Lazy is as lazy does.

pollymere · 08/12/2017 18:33

When I worked in an office, I used to regularly wander around or go on the internet. However if I was working from home I felt conscious of the need to get the job done and probably got far more done! I agree that some use it as an excuse for a jolly but I now find it very useful that my dh can work from home if our dd is ill. He makes up any lost time when I get back but usually dd is sleeping anyway.

JeanBodel · 08/12/2017 18:34

In my office it is starting to be frowned upon not to work from home.

We are currently one desk between two so you're supposed to WFH 50% of the time, and there are plans to reduce it further.

Aside from the expense of maintaining an office, they don't want staff wasting time on commuting and they don't want to provide staff parking.

I think WFH is the way of the future.

Bubblebubblepop · 08/12/2017 18:38

Tbh I think it's very common, whatever level you're at, to work differently under "supervision" I often have distracted lazy days at home. It doesn't happen at work as I have staff and my own line manager close to me and I simply wouldn't be able to do it. It's very common for people to behave differently when left to their own devices.

Polarbearflavour · 08/12/2017 18:39

Bosses were out and nobody seems to work Fridays. I WFH today and had very little to do so watched tv and ate a yummy brunch out!

Bubblebubblepop · 08/12/2017 18:41

To add I completely and utterly agree with dame. Few jobs can WFH without others suffering and they are the ones where you have no interaction in the office earlier

PickAChew · 08/12/2017 18:48

DH gets far more done when he works from home because he is in more control of his distractions. If he's doing it because he does have an appointment or there is an issue with the kids that would otherwise require me being in two places at once, or whatever, he either starts work earlier or makes up the time in the evening.

KnightofWands · 08/12/2017 19:12

Frankly, if anybody is working from home and taking the piss too often then they won't be delivering the goods and will soon find themselves not working at home or anywhere else. If somebody says they are WFH but it is for a personal reason AND they do not put in the work effort on that day THEN PROVIDED they do make up the effort what they are really doing is taking advantage of some flexibility to make their work-life balance better and (again) PROVIDED they make it up and its not overly budening others that's a good thing!!. In practice WFH is not about taking the piss and many people that do it on an employed basis are typically giving away hours for free to their employer that their employer wouldn't be getting if WFH was not an option.

browneyes77 · 08/12/2017 19:16

My job is a field based role so I work from home everyday (I work in retail so we have stores and then a head office which is 100 miles away from where I live).

To be honest I find I get more done being away from an office and quite often it means I end up working later because there isn’t the 5pm cut off and everybody leaving the office and going home thing. So quite often I’m still working at 7pm. It’s too easy to say “i’ll just finish this etc” and before you know it it’s 6:30pm.

I’d be lying if I said there weren’t the occasional days when I’ve done less hours and run personal errands but given that I’ve ususlly worked many extra hours already by that point, I’m just taking the time back. And my company are fine with that as being field based they let us have flexible diaries.

I do think some people take the piss though, it’s inevitable that some people will take advantage all the time.

KnightofWands · 08/12/2017 19:51

There is a comedy film "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" from the 60s that probably still illustrates how not-WFH can equally be taking the piss. I can also remember past periods whern there seemed to be a rush among many folk to be seen (by your boss) as first to arrive & last to go...but how much real work was going on in between was highly questionable.

NeverTwerkNaked · 08/12/2017 20:04

Exactly knight... I shared an office with a colleague who was first in and last to leave, but he spent most of the day dicking about on his computer looking at cars/holidays.

Similarly we’ve got a colleague in our team at the minute who is driving everyone up the wall constantly wanting to chat. Not a quick bit of chat every now and then but none stop chat. Once one person has finally got rid of him he starts chatting to the next one. I’ve started WFH more to get away from him
(Our manager knows and is planning to start taking action, but it’s been a long time coming )

GreenRut · 08/12/2017 20:05

I wfh and manage a department who mostly wfh. My workload depends on how much needs doing, just in the same way it would if I was in the office. If I have a task list for the day then all tasks are completed on time, just as they would be if I was in the office. I don't understand the idea that you can wfh and work less. If you've got objectives, tasks to do, presumably someone to deliver the outputs of those tasks to, it would be very quickly noticed if your productivity dropped and would be (rightly) addressed.

My wfh means I can collect my dcs 3 days a week (and work agreed to it on this basis). It is lonely at times, there's not necessarily a natural stop to the day that there is when in the office, but all in all it gives me a better work life balance.

Bubblebubblepop · 08/12/2017 20:06

Because not everyone's day involves a list of tasks to tick off?

XmasInTintagel · 08/12/2017 21:01

Frankly, if anybody is working from home and taking the piss too often then they won't be delivering the goods and will soon find themselves not working at home or anywhere else.
This ^

I used to know several people who didn't work that hard, and weren't too helpful to others at work (often agreed to do something, then simply didn't bother).

Then we had some redundancies - and they're all gone. Ironically several started their own businesses, so I can only assume they got a bit more motivated!

MB625222 · 08/12/2017 21:17

Some jobs are not all about working hour after hour. Some are based around the skills and value you bring to the business. I know the value of my role to the business and they know I get 4/5 calls a week offering me new opportunities elsewhere.

As such I basically do what I please hours wise. Some days I do 10 hrs. Some days 2. I always take my child to school so never start before 9.30am.

I have weeks where I am mad busy and weeks where I am not. I went shopping for 2 hrs yesterday between appointments. Work don't have a clue what I'm doing when I'm not in the office.

Airbiscuits · 08/12/2017 21:34

I run a team of 12. I've just made two redundant. I don't think it's entirely coincidental that one has WFH 60pct of the time this year (despite a new boss) and the other 50pct. Neither struck me as the most productive or indeed particularly contactable when WFH.

I WFH myself on occasion and am v productive so I'm not totally anti. But if I can't see you and I don't know what you're doing and what output I do see is sub optimal, then be warned. You may not have a job much longer.