If you work from home, do you actually work?

[fallacy]

I'm a SAHM but I have many friends that work full time. A lot of the time they wfh and from what I can tell, not a lot of work actually gets done.

I'm jealous.

Yes I do. Job is quite demanding. I wfh if I need to concentrate a lot e.g. researching or writing.

I work from home and I am probably more productive when I work from home. Because I don't get people popping by my desk every 10 minutes to ask questions.

So yes, I very much work from home, although I do flex my hours around child care, so I may start at 4am some days, so that I can take the kids out after school.

Yup. If I don't do the work, I don't get paid (I am an interpreter, and when I don't have face-to-face assignments, I do telephone interpreting)

I do, usually 1 or 2 days a week. I concur with pp above that it's often more productive.

My Dad and husband definitely do work when they're working from home. But my friends don't seem to. To be honest I don't think they're given much to do so not their fault.

I wfh full time, a job I used to perform in an office before my company closed the office in favour of us working from home. If I didn't work when I was at home, the job would never get done!

Someone I know spends 2 days a week shagging her married boyfriend, courtesy of the County Council education budget. Full time work !!!!!

Yes, I work from home about 75% of the time - I'm a trainer and my 1:1 sessions are via Skype and all my marking is done from home so I have to work :) I've had corporate jobs where I had the option to work from home and would say the same amount of work gets done except in the office you are distracted by other people, at home you might put the washing in and out of the machine etc.

Wow Higgy.. some type of work at least...

I wfh my hours vary I have core hours I need to be available but I have deadlines so that does control the workload and people I deal are very much standard office hours.

I work entirely from home (we have 2 construction businesses). I am in my office from 9.15 until 12. I then put a load of washing on whilst my lunch is in the the microwave, eat, walk the dog and I’m back at my desk by 12.45 until 3pm. Once all dc are in bed at 8pm, I am usually back in the office until 10pm. I do this Monday - Thursday.
I don’t Mumsnet or use my personal social media during the working day. If I’m working, I’m working. If I spent my days pissing around, I would have no work for our staff as 90% of both companies’ work is found through me and my networking, our book keeping would be fucked and the two businesses would be chaos.

Most of my hours are working from home so I have to, I work much longer hours when I'm at home which gives me the chance to stick some washing on etc. I have tight deadlines so I have to get everything done regardless. I think in a less demanding role I can understand why people maybe wouldn't do as much. It doesn't suit everyone.

I definitely get more done at home than in the office as no one bothers me and also I don't need to factor in travelling time.

Of course I work when I am WFH. I am on holiday today … just in case anyone feels the need to point out that posting here is not work.

It may be that they are too polite to ask you to let them get on with it, they may have started at 6 in the morning to clear the school run or they may work later after dinner to make up hours.

I do use social media during the working day but I make sure I add extra time on at the end of the day and often log back on in the evening.

Yes my second to last job was completely home-based. I would have been sacked very quickly if I had not done anything.

Currently working freelance so wouldn't get paid at all if I didn't do the work being asked of me.

It may be that they are too polite to ask you to let them get on with it, they may have started at 6 in the morning to clear the school run or they may work later after dinner to make up hours.

Quite a leap there. What on earth do you mean!

I'm not the one instigating conversations.... actually.

It can go both ways. Sometimes it can be really productive as so much time is saved by not putting makeup on and not commuting. Sometimes the temptation of daytime TV and house chores is distracting. My work can tell if I am online and working so it's pretty hard to skive. I would say it's about equal to working in the office.

My office is very WFH friendly, large corporate, and I often hear people saying theyve come into the office as they have too much to do. WFH means working off a surface pro whereas in the office we have large curved screens. I think it depends on the type of work. My colleague is WFH today around a playdate at the zoo!!

Oh and trying to WFH and look after a kid is impossible. Some of my employees have tried to make out they could WFH with their young child, that is absolutely not okay and very few employers would allow it.

I do...but not as many hours as I ‘should’ do.

Simply because I don’t need to...I can spend 4 hours wfh and get more done than in 7 or 8 hours in the office.

No questions, no distractions, no getting spotted and dragged into a pointless meeting or group confra call or asked to show xyz head-office big wig what our department does.

I wfh on a Friday and ‘should’ work 7 hours but often get far more than I need to/am expected to in about 4 or 5, so I call it a day there.

I'm jealous.
Why?

I get less done if anyone is home because they keep talking to me
If I am left alone then yes

I work from home, and yes, I'm so productive I'm on mumsnet haha

In previous jobs I’d WFH one or two days a week. A lot of the time there was nothing to do so I watched Netflix and had my laptop with Skype messaging on next to me and my Blackberry too.

Yes, I do. It's hard to quantify and must look odd to others BUT the flexibility allows me to work in the evening, very early in the morning, on weekend and public holidays...so yes, in fact, more work gets done at home.