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 WFH FT with an option to go into an office whenever I like. I am much less productive from home. I can get things done in half the time in the office.

I’m new to wfh so do actually work as I know it’s a trust thing and they don’t know me very well yet so I’m still a bit panicky.

1 day at home equals about 5 days in the office for me

You must be very inefficient in the office surely! Unless you do shorter days

It's more productive but I don't have a lot of work to do so get all my housework done too.

The office I was in for years, the staff got on very well, so I used to get more done at home as it was easy to constantly talk get distracted at the office
I do about two days from home now, I find the pace easier as there aren’t any constant interruptions.

I used to wfh occassionally and i was much more productive without all the office distractions. Generally my job had me on the road 8 hours a day 2 or 3 days a week and so i was always playing catch up on paperwork and being at home i got more done and not having to wait for printing in the printer queue

I work from home 4 days a week + one in the office for meetings.
I sit at my desk at 9.30, will work flat out until 6 pm. I will stop to have lunch or do the laundry sometimes but I really do work.
I perform better than being in the office. Too many distractions, chit chat, people hovering over me...(It's got to be done though)

My friend works from home one day a week. Today she's had a bath, gone for breakfast, taken the dog for a walk. Watched a load of telly. No actual work done 🙄

I WFH - full time but super family friendly & flexible. On average I do probably work fewer hours than when I was in the office but I work quite intensely.

I work from home and yes I do work! I am on commission only and self employed and I love my job........ And the guy I work with is an old friend to whom I am very grateful for the opportunity. As a single mother it has been the best thing I've done and I would not want to fuck it up.

This latter type have spoiled things for others at dh's office as the big boss has said enough is enough and decreed that everyone must work in the office.

That's poor management though. Forcing everyone to work in the office rather than identify and performance manage the piss takers.

Not all working is typing away though is it.

Fair point.

how do you spend your days, OP?

I hope you engage all day long with the DC, do cooking, cleaning and washing.

hopefully you won't be sitting in front of the TV with a cuppa, feet up doing nothing. This is not what being a Sahm is about.

A lot of my Sahm friends do exactly that (most of them have kids in primary school).

Now, that is making me jealous (I work in an office). Aibu?

I do, i do morning school run, gym for an hour and then work solid for 4 hours, then afternoon school run.
After kids fed and settled for evening ill do more work, usually 3 and a half to 4 hours.
Compared to when i worked from our company's office i get much more done at home.

If I have work to do I'll do it.

If there's a lull, I wont.

Best thing is I can kind of unofficially flex my hours, maybe slack of on the afternoon catch up in the evening that kind of thing.

Mine varies. If I didn't have the option to wfh, I'd be taking a lot more sick leave instead. Sometimes I let my manager know I'm hoping to wfh but might have to count it as a half or whole sick day.

Half my work is planned projects so as long as I deliver by a deadline (say one a week), it doesn't matter when I do the work. The rest is reactive, so if I have my phone and laptop set to alert me to anything coming in, I can have a nap if I want, then respond when required. A lot of both types of work is pure thinking, so getting up and putting the laundry or dishwasher on works well as I mull over options.

In general, I wfh on days I hope will be easier and then as needed work extra hours in the office on days DH is working from home so can give the kids dinner and start bedtime. So yes, I may take a couple hours off to catch up with friends on a wfh day, but I've still got work needing doing!

My managers and team do similar - some weeks will have a huge workload so we are encouraged to take it easy when that's actually an option, and otherwise just asked to ensure others know when we are unavailable, being professionals.

I work from anywhere, pretty much. When working from home I get more done and get to do laundry etc most people in my firm go to the gym a lot, I need to.

Yep. As others have said, working from home meals being much more productive for me plus I can do a wash! Win win!

I wouldn’t dream of just doing nothing- I’m meant to be working so that’s what I do and it’s why the company trusts me to work from home.

IME there has always been an attitude that WFH = not working very hard. When I had no option but to WFH (parent company had “no space” for me in the office after my secondment came to an end) I felt a perpetual obligation to be putting more hours in than normal, just to ‘prove’ that I was doing my work.
I did find that there was an attitude from f&f that “as you would be at home all day, could you just...”. No. . I am working, ffs, not just sat at home.

My dh wfh 2 or 3 days each week. He saves over an hour each day and £24 each week by not travelling. He starts 1 hour earlier, has Skype meetings, phone calls and emails his work in. He does take 1 hour off for lunch to walk dog whereas when he office only has 30 mins. He sometimes finishes 30 mins early but sometimes works 2 extra hours then leaves early one day as long as weekly hours worked all good. There are not enough desks for everyone to work In office every day.

I do far, far more work at home than I did in an office. You can get absolutely absorbed in a job without distraction. I sometimes have to find a quiet corner that's tidy, though, or I can get distracted by what needs doing indoors!

But generally yes - plus you have all the stress of people assuming that you're not working as hard because you're at home, which makes you work even harder to prove that you are!

All the same, I do prefer working from home now to fit in with the school run, although the downsides are it can be a bit isolating at times and I do work in more concentrated bursts (and do things I'd never do in an office, like leave going to the loo til I've finished an email, and then have to dash to it urgently!!!)

I work from home

I’m in the office by 8.30am latest stop at 12.30 for a break back at 1.30 and usually knock off between 4 & 4.30 but will do anything else that needs to be done during the evening, never off call

My husband wfh and definitely works hard during that time, but can be more flexible to take a break to do school pick up and work more later.

I wfh a few days a month, this is because I choose to wfh, when I'm carefully worded writing pieces etc it's a pain to be interrupted by phone calls or colleagues, you loose the train of thought and I swear I can do in a day what takes 3 in the office. And that's despite heading off to take the dog for a walk and making countless cups of coffee.