To think if you're working from home, you're working?

[TheTitOfTheIceberg]

I'm primarily office based but work from home one or very occasionally two days per week. This is a reasonable adjustment to help me manage a disability.

On another forum recently there was a thread about home working. Around 60% of the people who posted said that they spent part of their day doing housework, childcare, going to an appointment, taking a pet to the vet or similar - the majority giving the impression they viewed this as a perk of home working.

I was very much in the minority of people who said that we treat it as a day at work just in different surroundings - we log on, we crack on, we have a lunch break, we log on again, we crack on, we log off when the working day is over. We're not doing the hoovering or in and out hanging out washing or nipping out to the park with the kids for an hour.

I have some flexibility around start / finish times so long as I'm contactable during core hours (10-3) and sometimes I'll arrange to WFH on a day I have a disability-related hospital appointment because the hospital is closer to home than it is the office so I'll be away from work for less time, but that's always with my manager's knowledge and agreement. (And I'm on leave this week before anyone thinks I'm being a hypocrite and MNing in work time )

AIBU to think it's people who treat WFH like it's a day to get caught up with chores or look after kids on an inset day with work as an inconvenience to fit in here and there who contribute to many managers' reluctance to agree WFH requests for fear their staff will be doing exactly this sort of thing rather than working?

I love working from home as I don’t need to put up with the babble and interruptions from work, save 3 hours of commuting time and can put a load of washing on or get to appointments etc. It is just so much better to have the option.

I would say it’s a perk of flexible working. I work from home 2 days a week. On those days I work less hours, do get small tasks done around the house (I mean the sort that take me 15 minutes, I’m not re painting a room!), I do part of it with one older child in the house, etc.

But I have no contracted hours, I have a professional job and I’m expected to meet my obligations to that role. I work 12 hour days and do lots of travel other days. My WFH days are the padding that makes it possible for me to work nearly from sun up until I go to bed (with a break to bath my dc and put them to bed) other days.

This is the norm in my profession. In fact, we are instructed to build in flexibility to our weeks to allow us to do these things and maintain work life balance. My line manager tells me to get off email if it’s 4pm and she knows I’ve done the school run and my eldest is with me. Every organisation and industry is different.

DH works from home at least once a week and goes out or does chores in 'work time'. But he's a professional who manages his own work load and gets the same pay regardless of whether it takes him 5 hours or 50 hours to do a job.

I work from home a couple of days a week. I usually start earlier and work later because I save 4 hours a day on my commute! So I often get more done.
I do however also load and unload the dishwasher/washing machine and have a tidy or sometimes pop out to run an errand. I figure that in the office I'd be going to the kitchen to make coffee and going out to take a lunch break, so I don't really see there's much difference.

I do an hour at 7.30, then go to a PT session. Then work time 5.30, with a lunch break. Plus 30m at the end of each day for commute time saved.

I am insanely productive when I work from home, and set myself 5-10m breaks every hour. I steam through the, then when I have my 5-10m, yes, I potter about doing chores.

Work get more than a usual day's output, plus an employee who is healthier in both body and mind on other days, because I'm on top of my life admin. Win win.

Oh, whatever.

Congrats, OP, you've won Conscientious Staff Member of the Year.

I used to work on-site in an office and everyone would fritter away time here and there (not necessarily deliberately, I hasten to add) wandering to the kitchen or canteen, going to e.g. get stationery or talk to someone in another building and stopping for a chat with someone on the way…

Unless you work in a horrible call centre type place where you get penalised for loo breaks or not being on a call constantly, or in something like teaching, the working day is punctuated with short periods of 'down time' whether you're at home or not. Managers who worry about their staff slacking off have hired the wrong people and/or need to think about what it means to manage someone and how it is you measure an employee's worth.

I actually really miss the spontaneous office down times, where we'd all spin our chair towards each other and chat, either about work or not.
It's for this reason I have the program to lock my terminal every 55 mins, otherwise I find I don't stop.

My Dh works from home full-time. He probably puts in around 30hrs a week some weeks 50 others. On the lighter weeks he will pick up kids from school, do some diy or gardening, go for a run or cycle.
He has a certain amount of work to do which increases if they have a deadline, but as long as it's done he doesn't have to work like he would in an office. It's one of the perks.

Oh, and one of my 10m morning breaks is a quick shower! Takes me 4m to shower, and another few to dry off.

I spent longer than that today arsing about finding the birthday card and chasing up people to find it for the staff birthday tomorrow!

DH used to WFH in his previous job. His manager didn't care what he did as long as his job was done to its usual standard and that he was contactable. Sometimes he'd take DC for appointments, or arrange something non work related that would take longer than his lunch break, but he'd more often than not make the time up later in the evening or something. The way he saw it was the perk of working at home was more flexibility and no travelling time, so normally any jobs like hoovering could be picked up in the time he'd have usually been on the train. He also liked that as he was WFH he'd get less stuff dumped on him, so often got the more trickier things done without interruption and often felt like he was more productive.

people who treat WFH like it's a day to get caught up with chores or look after kids

One girl had even shared photos of the horse rides she'd go off and do on sunny days, and said if she got back and found her boss had tried to get hold of her while she was off riding she'd just claim her Skype connection must have gone down for a while!

If it wasn't for her sex and the horse rides my work CF goes for dog walks I'd have wondered if she worked with me!

I'm currently in a nightmare situation with a colleague that does this. We aren't well supervised (it's all remote and he's very good and sounding busy and effective) and his odd trips home once in a while have resulted in him 'WFH' for approximately half the week each week and he's late every bloody day

He freely tells us it's because he needs to look after his kids or his animals despite it being against policy to be looking after children when WFH, or because he's having work done to the house, or because he needs to leave bang on 5 for whatever event is in the evening. He'll travel home in the middle of the day after taking a lunch break, or suddenly put it in the diary last minute without mentioning to anyone in the office.

We can see when he's online. We know he isn't pulling his weight. His clients call us when they can't reach him. We can see how long he's been 'away' from his computer and we know how long it takes for him to return our calls. We have core hours we need to be available for clients and have a lot of urgent queries; he's rarely there when he should be.

We've raised it on multiple occasions with management and nothing has been done. Team morale is through the floor because of it. If anything ruins flexible working for us it's going to be him. Everyone else is fantastically available from home because they aren't total CFs that take the piss, but we risk losing them because of his behaviour. It's just shit.

I'm not currently working but have, in the past, worked from home on a regular basis. This was particularly useful when my company was having a CEO election and I was the organiser for scheduling all the logistics, conference calls, webex sessions, physical meetings, presentations by various media and would just track the time zones around the world to make sure everything worked and happened on time. That might mean me working from 6am or earlier until extremely late at night the same day.

On the other extreme I used to love working from my home on Mondays (thus avoiding the inevitable late running engineering works, etc which happened then) working in a more relaxed fashion in my home office. Thursday afternoon & Fridays I was at my mothers where I had broadband also set up and at my desk by 7/8am and just ploughing through stuff before the weekend. But I had time for a lunch and a chat with my mum and to get stuff done for her too.

You can make it work for both you and your employer if both sides give a little.

I think it depends whether you do a set hours job. My D.h works from home once or twice a week. He uses those days to go to medical appointments, and yesterday, he went to my son’s sports day from 12-3. He also had a medical appointment at 4.30. Saying that, he worked from 6.30-11.30am, and then from 5-10.30pm, so did his hours. For him, that is the benefit of home working, and he promotes similar flexibility to his team.

I would note that on the flip side, next week he is on a business trip, leaving the UK on Saturday afternoon and returning the following Saturday. He also often uses WFH days to do a 16+ hour day when projects are nearing completion.

Given the long hours, non-family friendly travel and antisocial hours he often gives his company, he would probably resign if anyone questioned him for taking a two hour lunch break etc.

I think it really does depend on what you do, though, and what the company expectations are. DH is very senior, works long hours and gives up a lot of family time for the company, and they are willing to give him some of that back when needs or wants it.

I work from home a lot of the time for the NHS, we get a heavy workload so as long as we get all our work done it works out fine. Personally I get more done at home because I'm not distracted by noisy, interrupting colleagues (do miss them though!). I am less stressed as I have more free time (no commute) and can keep on top of said heavy work load as I'm in the most part more productive. Also I'm never off sick now, if I feel bleugh I can swap my diary around to do easier/home based stuff and work harder /longer the following day to make up for it. I think the better life/work balance benefit helps reduce stress and sickness.

Perhaps I should have made clear with my shower comment- the people claim to be working during this time. Do not start early, do not work late, do not make up their hours at a later date or declare it as a long lunch. The 30 mins they were in the shower will be put down on paper as being at a desk. They will take a separate lunch break later and also take the dog out etc.
So in no way have they worked their hours that day.

When I WFH I start at around 8am because I don't have the commute, so if I do take the dog out half way through the day or finish early to go somewhere, I make that clear in my hours.

I fucking love getting up in my pyjamas, staying in them and having a big long bath halfway through the day.

I get my work done. I'm a fast worker. WFH is great for learning to work smarter not harder, and did you know that the average office worker is only productive for 3 hours out of an average 8 hour day anyway?