Digital presenteism

[emptydreamer]

Just curious, a question to all whf workers.

What I have noticed during the time of the lockdown and prolonged working from home is that the boundaries between the "personal" and "working" times became very blurred.

There was no need to rush off at X.XX pm to catch a particular train home or to pick up from school/nursery. No one sees you "arriving". You are always very close to your work laptop and work phone, and it would take literally 5 minutes to check emails. People started responding to emails at all hours (I often had email exchanges that started at 8pm and ended past midnight).

I also caught myself several times having unpleasant thoughts when someone wants a sharp finish of a meeting at say 5pm. Like - "surely you're just sitting there in your front room and you could afford another 15 minutes to finish the discussion". I have never thought anything like that before and it was an unpleasant surprise to myself.

On the other hand, it also seems quite accepted that people run some errands in parallel with working from home - I had people excusing themselves from meetings as there's furniture delivery / boiler guy coming / etc.

I thought it would change now when the schools are back and are imposing a certain timetable on the daily life - but no.

Is it in line with your experience? Do you think we are moving to a situation where there's no fixed start and finish to the working day, but employees are expected to perform work tasks in parallel to personal life? Obviously, it is applicable to a narrow sector of white collar professions only, but still?

We work flexible hours and are trusted to keep our own time records - in 12yrs no-one has checked my time sheet!
You do realise that if your job involves working on a computer network that, should the boss think you are swinging the lead, they can check to see if your computer was actually accessing and doing anything rather than just being logged in?

I’d be offended if you suggested I should let a meeting overrun because we’re all just WFH. My whole life doesn’t belong to my employer! Plus, giving a deadline to a meeting often reduces pointless waffle.

I expect people who are working in the evening were making up time due to not being able to work during the day, especially during lockdown when schools and nurseries were closed. Even now, a lot of after school clubs haven’t reopened, so you’ll have people working school hours and catching up in the evening.

Early on in lockdown, I had an email from a manager (different department) where her email signature stated that she would be sending emails out of hours, but you should not feel obliged to respond until your normal working hours. I thought this was a good response to the blurring of work/ life boundaries.

What I have noticed during the time of the lockdown and prolonged working from home is that the boundaries between the "personal" and "working" times became very blurred.
DH tends to operate longer hours by working part of the time when he would usually be travelling to work. However, he works full normal working hours because of the large volume of meetings he has. He switches off laptop and logs out of accessing systems by 6.30 p.m. Logs back in the next day. Uses VOIP for phone calls so, as he's switched off, no workaholics or people working unsocial hours through choice can contact him.

He works properly in works time but, before and after that, home life is a priority. No blurred lines here. I think structure helps us to get through these difficult times.

I have worked from home for 20 years so very used to it.

If a meeting needs to run over my normal working hours and i can stay then i do - however, i find the assumption that after work i am just sitting around in my front room and have nothing else to do really offensive so if i cannot stay then i do not because many of us have lives when we are not in work.

So if i can i do - if i can't I don't but also if I have to work outside my working hours for anything other a few minutes i always take it back as TOIL. If this was not acceptable to my employer i would l leave asap.

PLus on my non working days and after hours i do not answer my work phone or work emails unless i know there is an emergency/critical situation and then i would but this only once or twice a year.

Definitely agree that assuming people can stay in a meeting for 15 minutes longer because they’re at home isn’t right. If you were in the office and had driven in- you might not have anywhere urgent to go, but it it’s still the end of the hours you’re being paid for and you’re entitled to go and do whatever you want.