To ask if “wfh” for you consists of doing nothing

[Azaelia]

Right I know there’s people who would love to be in this position so I’m not complaining, but I’ve been working from home since last Monday along with the rest of my team. Work has totally dried up yet we are required to log on for 8 hours each day as usual. For now we have been told to “file emails” and this has only taken about ten minutes to do! I’m not sure why we haven’t been “furloughed”. I’m currently drinking a gin and tonic and watching Hayu with my laptop propped up on my knees!!! Is anyone else in this position?

Busier than ever

My paid job is less work than usual but I only did about 2-3 hours a week anyway. I'm busier now though because the dc are at home and I'm finding there is a lot of extra cooking/housework that needs doing as well as trying to teach them all.

Nope, much busier. Its normally a full time/long hours job anyway (City lawyer) but having to home school as well - argh! Start at 6am. Between 9-3 is patchy due to schooling and remote system being in demand. 3pm and full on again until late. I'm slowly going crazy and I'm exhausted despite not leaving the house. Can't even get out for my permitted exercise!

Need to make around 150 calls a day so a little quieter than when at work (usually 180-200 in 8hrs at work)

I'm busier than usual - I work in video streaming so lots more people watching. I normally work one day a week from home but I'm not liking full time - been doing this for three weeks now at our company's recommendation.

Wife has done 1 week wfh and normally isn't allowed to - although her job is mostly emails/phone which she has a laptop and work phone for. Maybe once this is over her boss will be more flexible. But right now she has almost nothing to do. She works supplying take away food places so its food (arguably important) but most of the shops are closed except those that deliver. So she can almost do full work just by leaving the laptop open on the dining table and checking if it goes bong.

I’m about the same. I’m a management consultant so all our systems are fully set up to let us work at a drop of a hat anywhere in the world, so no issues there. I’m working with the civil service right now and they are all working as normal too, although of course the individuals who slacked off anyway will do so more at home. I expect over several months our client work will start to fall off considerably but knowing my company they’ll just get us to work just as hard on internal projects in the meantime (e.g. sector reviews, market analysis etc that are useful references for lots of clients) so doubt I’ll be chilling out.

Only real difference is no commute and no FaceTime - if I want a break or finish early I just check my phone every 30 minutes or so and no one is any the wiser. I’m enjoying that, as we normally work 9am - 8pm and it’s hard to leave earlier than 7pm on a regular basis due to colleague expectations, which I don’t like.

Wfh for me usually is 6-8 hours work, sometimes I catch up on emails. Hoping to be back working next week - not much is coming in urgently but there's lots we need to get done this year. I should be doing two days a fortnight assisting with a more demanding area so will see how well I can do that.

My bosses all have kids so we're hoping people can do a few hours each day and see how it goes. Also I'm deaf and normally refuse to do telecons and more than one video call a day as it's too stressful and exhausting - will see how the tech is nowadays...

Is there some training you could do from home?

Yes I am probably doing about 25% the amount of work I usually do. Everyone is moaning (within the team) saying how much we have to do and how busy we are, but we all know we are lying and it has been absolute bloody bliss

Don't you think you are being a tad ungrateful?

I wonder how many people right now would like their full time pay in exchange for sitting on their arse keeping their eye out for the odd email.

I cannot work at the moment due to seriously ill health. DH is on furlough. His employer says they will pay him 80 percent under the government scheme, on his usual payday "as practical". Don't know what the fuck that means? Pay it if and when they feel like it?

We are grateful for it, very actually, but with no guarantee it will actually show up, it's very stressful. If and when it does show up, it will not meet our weekly commitments. I am really good at budgeting but I can't stretch his wage with 20 percent missing and will have to go into the couple of thousand that took us three years to save.

His employer have also stipulated that if he earns a penny elsewhere, even if he gets the like of a tenner for doing someone's shopping for them, they demand he gives all of the money to them to pay back the furlough scheme money which they will then keep rather than return to the government.

I wish boredom was our only problem.

It's quarter end so I am busy. Expect it to all die down next week though.

Have a few clients to bill and quite a bit of overdue money to chase but going forwards things are going to dry up!

Same here, I’m embarrassed to admit.

Bloody good job though, because I would be unable to manage my normal workload with a toddler!

Not for me - I run the IT at work - so this has been a steep learning curve for staff.

They are all doing fine though. Mostly

I do understand your frustration OP, honest... but you could be in my boat. Working and not sure when or perhaps if you'll be paid.

I'm working as normal for now. We've all be put on notice of furlough (I do conveyancing), so I'm expecting an email with my furlough contract very soon.

I was swamped with work the week before but now everyone in my team is grabbing stuff to do to show that they are more important. We obviously know redundancy is on the way.

I don't play games, I still got work to do but definitely not looking busy like everyone else.

I’m wfh public health related for a local council - we are very busy I’ll be doing an extra couple hours most days atm

Nope, I work for the NHS and am doing Covid19 related work from home, while homeschooling 2DC. I’m actually working longer hours than normal.

No., More than 65% of staff have been furloughed which means the rest of us are doing their work as well as much as possible,

Plus I am a solicitor. There has been a massive spike in people wanting non-molestation orders and occupation orders. Oddly enough.

I am exhausted.

I'm not as busy at the moment.
I test software, which I can easily do from home, but the problem is that many of the development staff, like me, currently have children at home to care for/teach, so their output is slower than normal, and therefore I don't have as much work coming my way. For which I am very grateful actually.

My standard office working day is 8.30 -5 and I'd normally do 26 hours a week. I've told my boss that at the moment, I will work 7 days a week, and just log in when I can rather than doing set hours, to get stuff done that comes my way. Its only fair.

No, I'm busier than I have ever been. I'm on 80% pay yet working days, evenings and weekends.

I'm WFH and am absolutely snowed under. I expect the work will drop off in a couple of weeks though.

I'm flat out, as busy as normal, maybe slightly more. Work for an IT software co so we were all already fully setup for home working. Only new things is trying to do it simultaneously with home school ......

Nope. Virtual non-stop calls. Chained to my desk until I can hit the wine and Downton re-runs (my daughters missed it the first time around!)

I wish, I’ve got so much to do. And amuse after 3 children- luckily with my husband to help out on this bit!