We all work when we’re on annual leave (evenings and weekends), don’t we?

[Changedforthisyear]

This new WFH/ managing childcare life has blurred the lines between work and home. I do the school runs during my work time, so then I make that time up later on. My work hours are all over the place. I’m on annual leave today with nothing to do/ nowhere to go and so I’m catching up on work. Are we all doing this?

YANBU we’re all working when we’re on annual leave, evenings and weekends.

YABU most people are sticking rigidly to their usual core hours.

No, I never work evenings, weekends or on my annual leave. I switch off the laptop and forget about it.

My work can only be done in my rostered hours, I can't take time off for school runs etc so am working my contracted hours only.

I'm self employed always working from home. It teaches you the importance of work life balance. Don't work weekends and when you're on leave. Don't start and it won't be expected.

Haven't RTFT but I think it's really important to have some sort of discipline around working hours and properly shutting off. I also do school run during day at the moment and make this up the same day with starting earlier/finishing later but I certainly wouldn't think of working on weekends or during annual leave. I wouldn't expect my team to either but they have the flexibility I have within the day.

In normal circumstances I work a bit,maybe a couple of hours at the weekend and an hour or so in the evenings
But obviously at the moment it's different
Have been up since 6 ,aiming to do 20 hours over the weekend so leaving me 30 hours to do Monday to Friday which I can do 6-9 am and 6-9 pm round the DCs needs so doing 50 hours which is about the minimum O can get away with
Just forgetting about any kind of normal life,just work,DCs ,housework,sleep
But it's not forever!

I worked from home before covid (BC?!) and have a clear arrangement with my boss that my hours are mine to set. It means I haven't had to get childcare, I worked in-between school runs and in the evening to top up if necessary (so helpful as a LP). My boss is the owner of the business, and it's a small org, so we have had phone meetings in the evening or weekends sometimes, too, just squeezing it in as and when.

It does blur the lines, I did have to check in over Christmas and New Year, but on the whole the benefits outweigh the inconveniences so I don't mind. I don't feel taken advantage of, as I can fuck off for the day sometimes and catch up later, without arranging it with my boss or asking permission.

Not sure how to answer the original question. I work exactly my contracted 37 hours, but I work them whenever I can: early mornings, evenings, occasionally weekends. That doesn't mean I'm constantly working though: I'm just spreading it out and mixing it up with childcare, home schooling, housework etc.

Oh, and when I took leave over Christmas, I certainly didn't work. I switched on my out of office reply and didn't touch my work computer for a fortnight.

I do but it's a symptom of being more senior, working from home permanently anyway and also working for a global company. I only regularly work with one person in the UK, the rest are all over the world including in countries where the working week is Sunday to Thursday.

In previous jobs where this wasn't the case when i finished work that was that.

Yabu. I've been sticking to my annual leave. I think my boss would deactivate my log in if I started working on holiday. We've been told we must look after ourselves.

However I do sometimes log in on my non working days for 30 mins if I've been really busy and want to tie up any loose ends I may have missed.

Agree to a point, day to day, week to week, my hours are a lot more "fluid". I am probably working longer hours, but i always worked while travelling to/from work and don't feel like i've pushed beyond those hours. I'm quite strict about my annual leave though. Those days i will not look at anything, take calls, check email, nothing. Those days are for chocolate and netflix!

I'm only working my weekly hours, sometimes a little more, just doing them more flexibly than before. Definitely not working when on leave (what's the point of taking leave to work?!) or on weekends.

I too think this is very wrong and to have such a poor work-life balance where this is the norm, expected, or done, is something we should all be fighting against. I feel very strongly about this.

Please reconsider OP.

I know that most people are doing this, I have been, our top boss said they would be monitoring who was online over Xmas and be having words if we were supposed to be on leave and still working. They are desperate for us not to burn out and know that mostly we are taking leave to use it up to not cause massive issues next year with everyone trying to take extra days. It did feel good having some time off rather than an odd day here and there.

I should add that I work for the NHS so it has been a case of working to get stuff done so potentially different from say a boss who wants you working all hours to make them money. We have been treated amazingly and had unlimited support since March. I cannot praise our Directors and Chief Execs enough but at times we have had to work 15 hr days which has been unavoidable.

I field simple emails. tbh, I just haven't taken the leave. What is there to do with annual leave time but clean house?

I mostly work during work hours, sometimes I will start late abs start a bit late but my job is the type where there was always flexibility and we are expected to work as long as it takes to get the job done ie even when we were working in the office.

There will be people who don't work a minute over.

If you have to work evenings then do but it is a bit of a slippery slope and much better if you can stick to your hours as it becomes a habit to work weekends or on your holidays and we still need a break even though we are WFH

No I never do this!

Saturday morning. Writing lectures. Yesterday afternoon, walk in snow with husband and baked with child.

It is all a blur - but a benefit is I don't spend all the daylight hours in the office.

@ragged well I went for walks, did some cooking,watched movies and read my book. There are plenty of things to do when not working.

Lunch hours and evenings - yes, work does overkill into these more than I'd like.

Weekends and annual leave - no, not unless there is a bona fide emergency that can't be left until I return. My days off are proper days off, which I use to recharge.

Overspill, not overkill!

I'm in a professional / managerial (non-clinical) role btw, working in the NHS and very busy.

Absolutely not! But my employers are bloody lovely! My boss is in the same boat and we are all understanding that everyone can only do so much!

Weekends are still weekends / annual leave is for not doing work!

Might work a bit late during the week but that’s it

If you let weekend work become a habit, before you know it your boss will be casually giving you a pile of work on a Friday evening that they want finished by Monday morning. In other words, it becomes the norm and the expectation.

I never switch my laptop on or keep the phone on after I've signed off for the day. But I'm within the civil service. We have flexi time and can work our hours any time Mon-Fri between 7am and 7pm but with core hours between 10 and 3.30. Before Covid, this was strictly monitored and enforced. It's been more relaxed since March 2020 when everyone started WFH.
There are no incentives to work longer hours and we are not allowed to accumulate more than 11 hours flexi time.

That said, a coleague has recently started working more hours and taking work during her annual leave, that she took in dribs and drabs throughout December. We are supposed to take work from a pool and work is supposed to be shared equally among people. We have sufficient staff for there not to be any major backlogs even if people are on leave.
The colleague's behaviour was particularly annoying as it effectively prevented some fairly new members of staff from getting more experience and leaving them without any work. This also happened between Christmas and New Year, thanks to which some of the new staff had no work to take.
Obviously the colleague's record looks fabulous, as she's had the most work whereas the new members of staff, who are admittedly not too proactive, scrape for work.
Our manager is new in this role and doesn't recognise the implications of this sort of behaviour. He thanked her for her help, which I'm sure will encourage her to continue with hoarding work.

I'm worried that this will potentially set up an unreasonable expectation for all of us to work insane hours and this will put the rest of us in a worse light than the colleague if work increases, which is inevitable within the next few months due to the impact of Covid on the general peopulation. I now know that the colleague will.
I'm not prepared to any more - my mental and physical health suffered so much during the last spike in work a few years back that I'm feeling the after effects even now.

I love my job but when I'm not working I'm dead to my employer. I absolutely will nkt check emails or even think about work.