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.

I worked from home in my last role, and yes I worked. It was the opportunity to get certain things done without people knocking on my door, I probably got a lot more actual work done.

My hubby works from home, one day a week and again, yes he works. Like myself he gets a lot more done, his is mostly all his report writing, he does this on the days at home so he can concentrate without interruptions.

I know one lady at one of our classes who is actually "working" whilst in the swimming pool with us and has taken her daughter out of nursery from her work at home day.

One of our friends talk a lot about the Jeremy vine show and (used to Jeremy Kyle) whilst on his PJ's on the sofa, but he's contactable so claims it to be working 😂😂

I'm a single parent sahm and I work full time, self employed working from home and i work bloomin hard for it. So if i don't work whilst at home, I don't get paid and we then don't have enough to cover our basic expenses, so yeah I do work when working from home.

I often don't get dressed til noon though!

Ahem, also guilty of this. There just doesn't seem to be any point.

I too get more done when WAH - but I might put a washing load on whilst waiting for the kettle to boil, then hang it out in my lunch break. However the fact that I can do less than 1000 steps in 8 hours means I most certainly am working!!

I wfh quite a lot but it is the boring adminy side of my job. If my friends asked me what I did all day, thats what Id say because I dont think it would be that interesting so I wouldnt give them chapter and verse. I put the washing on so I can have a walk about and make a cup of tea. I'm still working though. If your friends are being paid not to do anything, that is their bosses problem. Who do you think has the money to pay people to sit around all day doing nothing?

Yes I work from home on Mondays and I can assure you I work just as hard as I do the rest of the week when I'm in the office

I work from home one day a week at the moment so I can cover DDs appointments. I’m not working for a couple of hours during the day but back at my desk when she is in bed and put a couple of hours in then.

I guarantee, if your friends are not producing any output whilst WFH it would be picked up by their managers.

'But my friends don't seem to. To be honest I don't think they're given much to do so not their fault.'

Bit judgemental aren't you? How on earth do you know how much work people are given to do? I worked from home for many years- note: from home not always AT home. My job involved driving all over the UK and regular travel to London- 5 hours round train journey which meant leaving home at 4.45am and not getting home until around 10pm.

Yes the days when I actually managed to be in my officer home, I did take my dogs for long walks at lunchtime but, frankly, having put in an average 80 hour week I think I'd earned the time.

Don’t be jealous, I’ve been working from home for nearly 20yrs as a sole trader doing technical / gruelling work and for the first 15 yrs having to generate enough money to keep me and the family above water. Not so bad now as children have grown up. Never had any time to do anything nice/ mix with other people and the only bonus was being able to work at night to perhaps free myself up for going to a daytime school event. Really funny as I remember someone else in similar situation saying to me “the problem with working from home is that no one believes you’re actually working!” So true!

@FaFoutis
That's nonsense. I have WFH while looking after children for years, as do many of my colleagues. I WFH 95% of the time and the work gets done even if I have to stay up all night.

So what do you do with the children? Are they locked in a room? Or perhaps you don't have to participate in conference calls that could be interrupted? I'm not trying to goad you, I'd just love to know how you can look after a child/children and still concentrate fully on work?

Hope that last one wasn’t directed at me! Children at school during day and in bed at night

I work from home 2 or 3 days a week and get so much more done than if I was in the office. I do work my assigned hours and don’t take the piss. I find it easier to think without the background noise of an office.

My DH was delighted to WFH for two days a week in lieu of a pay rise as he could ‘lose’ his three hours commuting.

He spent those three commuting hours working.

So what do you do with the children?
When they were small I got up before them, worked while they watched TV or played something I set up for them, worked while they napped and then late at night when they were asleep. I can read and research while they are there. Writing has to wait until they are asleep.
In the daytime I run meetings, record lectures and speak to students, the children knew from being very young that they need to be quiet at those times. It's completely possible but exhausting.

I did work from home for a few yrs. Nowadays I can't do it replying to some types of emails. So fairly Impossible.
DH works from home quite easily, interruptions don't bother him, he doesn't get distracted.
Glad it works for others.

I know a few people who freely admit they don't get anything valuable done during "WfH" days. They just pretend to office that they did some work.

I do twice a week. I get more done as in the office there's so much noise I find making phone calls hard. Lecturers in and out distracting from any admin to. Much easier at home.

I WFH when not on mat leave and I do have some skivy days where I laze around, have a long lunch with DP (who also WFH), might make a couple of calls at most. But then some days I work until midnight with barely a break for a cuppa so it balances out.

I think there is also something to be said for wfh being an opportunity to regain some balance.

So many people spend so many more hours working than they are paid for, if you’ve done 40h over 4 days and get paid 35hpw then taking a couple of hours downtime whilst wfh on day 5 is not unreasonable.

Companies have found so many ways to eat into our personal time, evenings, weekends etc - at some point personal time will eat into work time. The companies were the first ones to blur the lines, not the workers!

I tutor, Mark exam scripts and do ad rating.

I have worked full time, some days 11 hours and then gone home and worked. A lot will depend on the job just how much work is done wfh.

I work from home occasionally.

It’s so quite I get loads done, I do forget to stop though and for some rreason feel guilty raking a lunch break. Seems odd to sit down and have a sandwich in front of the telly or in the garden when I should be working. But I would take a walk and grab a bite when I am at work.

I WFH full time. I used to be office-based but then they introduced WFH for certain roles and I was selected. First thing we did was move to the beach 150 miles from the office. Why live in the city if you don’t need to go to the office anymore?

Our company policy is you cannot WFH if you have children under 12 in the same house at the time. You either have to send them to a relative or some form of childcare or you have to work in a separate building like a cabin in the garden or something. It has been made very clear it’s not a replacement for childcare.

Yes I do and yes I work. I don't do non money making things like Avon and the like, I am employed by a company and have hours I must do each week and the office is a few miles from my house. My workload exceeds the hours I do I feel and because I'm out of sight, I feel like they don't see me literally cramming 25 hours of work into 18. I also have my son away in childcare while I work, it's not possible to work when he is here

Cue all the mums netters sayin oh I work so hard from home...

Everyone takes the piss now and again ... even my bitch of an boss.

Yes I fact I tend to work more intensively and really have to remind myself to drink and pee!