Am I allowed to take today off without employers permission?

[vlarder]

I work remotely for a large company. Due to insomnia, I've essentially been working 18 hours a day for the past week. I enjoy my job and have plenty of work to do.

I've just had my last meeting and everything (and a bit more0) is pretty much in hand.

AIBU to take the day off and just periodically check emails?

Of course it's not OK, especially if you did the extra hours because you chose to rather than because your employer asked you do. Go to the doctor, resolve your sleep issues and have a clear discussion with your manager/ check if there is a policy about how you can get back any additional time you work in future.

Yep, iv just been on a 3 hr meeting and listened in and did my ironing.

Morally, I agree with you but it depends on how you think your boss will see it

I would, and I have done so before, but I'm senior enough to get away with it. If you feel like you need to ask permission, you're probably not.

(Mind you, if one of my direct reports came to me and said what you had done, I would just tell them to log off and get some rest.)

This is why I love my manager. We have a set amount of work to get through and he doesn't care when it's done, just as long as it is. I have nothing left to do now until Monday so I have the afternoon free. I'll check emails periodically too, in case something urgent comes in, but it's pointless me sitting here staring at a screen for the next 4 hours. In your shoes I would do it, as long as you know there won't be any negative consequences.

It depends on your workplace.

I can pretty much choose my hours within reason and as long as I'm available for certain meetings. I pop it all down in a spreadsheet shared with my line manager. If I'd dome my hours by now and there was no meeting this afternoon I needed to be at I could finish for the day.

Only you know what's acceptable to your workplace.

I'm an employer and if you've done all your tasks then I say go and enjoy the sunshine. I mean, I'm not your employer, but bloody hell, everyone needs a skive now and then.

You need to talk to your manager about the insomnia and come to some agreement about how and when you work your hours/complete your work. Make your job formally flexible, basically, with terms that you and they are both happy with, so you don't need to worry about this kind of thing any more.

No point asking MN really because it depends entirely on the nature of your job.

In my job it would be fine if all the work had been done. We are expected to work 18 hour days when the work needs doing, so the flip side of that is that we can be flexible when it doesn’t.

If you’re in the kind of role where bums have to be on seats 9-5 no matter what, then it’s probably not ok.

But only you can make that judgment really!

I'd just like to say that the alternative to sleeping shouldn't be scrolling on Amazon or working.

You need to learn to relax and sleep. Maybe speak to your GP. I know how frustrating it is to lie awake, but the blue light of the screen as you scroll or work will not be helping your sleep patterns. Maybe read a book or listen to one rather than turning to computers.

my team all have deadlines for their work, and I expect them to organise their own time to meet those deadlines. I'm not generally too worried about what is getting done when, so long as customer deadlines are met with quality work.

So yeah, take it easy if you have cleared your desk.

But our work fits with this scenario, not all work will...

As your line manager, I would first of all hoped that I had noticed the ridiculous number of additional hours and addressed that with you.

If you asked me about taking time off today, I would say yes.

If you went ahead and did it? I would be telling that that was not acceptable.

I’m a big believer in forcible working - but you can’t just implement that yourself!

So YABU.

Depends if you are allowed flexi time. Otherwise you are expected to work your contracted hours. If you choose to work extra without a formal prior agreement to get the hours back or paid, then you are expected to work today.
However ... if you’ve done your weeks work whose gonna know??!!

Depends on how things are normally handled. Where I am they don't really mind where we work normally, or how we arrange our hours, in fact they're always trying to make us stop working ridiculous overtime and I think they'd have H&S concerns about the impact on your health of your insomnia and over-working. They have a duty of care towards staff.

If I had a meeting I had to miss, I'd let my boss know, otherwise I'd just go to bed. But then I work random hours due to international calls, and am completely flexible.

If you're in a stricter organisation then I'd let them know what you've been doing. If I was your line manager I'd be happy to let you sleep now, but really concerned for your well-being.

Having suffered insomnia, yours is only going to get worse if you perpetuate these rhythms of work and sleep. You need to stick to a sleeping schedule. If you can't sleep go and sit in a chair and then read a nice non-work book. Otherwise you're training your brain to be awake in the night - effectively you're adapting to jet lag!

You would be unreasonable to not discuss this with your manager.
Are they aware you're working 18 hour days? Working remotely doesn't mean you can just sign off for the day when you fancy (unless working flexi hours and all agreed to)
Unless your managers are completely arses I can't see them having a problem if everything is up to date and you don't have any outstanding work to do but you do need to make them aware.

Even when I was working in the office. We were totally fine taking a short day to balance a long one. No manager approval required. We are in charge of our own schedule and worked by billable hour so they really didn’t care when we work. The same is now true that everyone is WfH, but it’s more explicit that some people will be making up hours in evenings and weekends and being less available during traditional hours. You just have to communicate with your team.

It depends - is your work time-based or project-based?

That's one of the things about working from home if you are project-based. As long as you are checking emails and answering the phone when called. If the work is done, it's done. If you get it done at 5 am in the morning, then you don't need to find extra work for yourself at 10am.

However if you are time-based and are expected to do specific things within work hours you are going to have to do that.

I don't see how they would even know if you're available via email/phone and your work for the week plus more is already done. In fact I would say you're not "off" at all if you're responding to emails.

I WFH briefly at the start of lockdown before maternity leave and we were told that as long as our work was done, it didn't matter when we actually did it. I did almost all of my work in the evenings and before 10am (teaching) as I had to look after my toddler. I answered emails from my phone throughout the day.

No of course you can't, but in your shoes I would