Those now WFT are you slacking?

[grapesandcarrots]

My friend told me her boyfriend sleeps in until 12pm when he's meant to start at 9am. He sets his alarm for 8.55am and writes a message in the group chat 'morning everyone, I am working on XXX this morning. If anyone knows any great resources for XYZ then please let me know." Then goes back to sleep. If anyone tries to contact him before 12 he can just say sorry I was so engrossed in research for XXX.

I was really taken aback by this.

The friend then admitted to finishing early by 20m and starting a bit late by 20m. To taking lots of breaks and calling her mum during the day and cleaning her flat and endless news sites. Both her and her boyfriend are on great terms, love their jobs, and their bosses love them.

I have not slacked off because its not it my nature and found i've worked more due to little else to do.

What are everyones thoughts? Do you slack off during the day more now and to what extent?

YABU - I slack off more
YANBU - I would never slack off.

I slack off more now but not necessarily intentionally. There’s so many more distractions. A quick cup of tea turns into me realising the kitchen cupboard is a bit messy and before I know it I’ve spent 20 minutes sorting it out...

No if anything I do more, because I am not travelling, and people only contact me on work things. Probably spend less time when making a cup of tea than when at work, even though I often go to put washing in or out whilst the kettle is on.

God I find I’m doing more as I’m paranoid they will think I’m slacking! My work load has ballooned though so I’m working at weird times of day not strictly 9-5.

I guess they can't have much to do. There are days when I do less as my workload might be lower, but that was the same in the office. There are days I work much harder, as I don't take breaks to chat to colleagues.

I wouldn't say I slack off exactly. I do as much work as I would have done in the office and once that's done I finish for the day. So many less distractions at home/no chatty colleagues etc so it's easy to get my work done in less time. My job has never been about presenteeism though, my line manager is of the opinion of 'if the work gets done, I don't care when you do it'.

Hmm I find it evens out over the course of the week. I do more personal errands during the day in terms of checking my personal emails more often, will do a couple of quick chores such as throwing a wash on, quick hoover if I notice the dog hair piling up that if I were in the office I clearly wouldn't be able to do. However, I also check emails in the evening, pick up calls that come through after my finishing time and I even worked on some critical projects over my Christmas Break. So for me, its swings and roundabouts.

I think flexibility is crucial in these uncertain times, for both employers and employees.
If my employer was micro-managing every second of my day, I wouldn't be happy and I would certainly be refusing to help them out in some of the ways mentioned above.

A lot of the time which, when in the office, comprised of random chats with colleagues I passed as I was walking somewhere else / bumped into in the canteen and general chatter and jokes with desk mates I now use to run errands, potter around the house and so forth. It’s technically slacking, I suppose, in the sense that I’m not working whilst on work time, but I’m getting the same amount done as I would in the office (though I do miss chatter with colleagues.)

If your friends are similar, getting done all the work that’s required and expected and still high in their employer’s esteem then I don’t think they’re doing anything wrong, to be honest.

I’m still going out to work but DH is WFH, he says he’s as busy or quiet as he would be in the office so some days it’s constant calls/ teams meetings/ clattering away on the keyboard.

We’ve all been at home all day today and the kids have done more than him work wise. He logged on for a quick 15 min meeting and is dicking about a bit on excel and email but in between he’s hoovered, sat with youngest DS while he did school work, made a curry and nipped to the vet for some medication.

He absolutely wouldn’t be logging on then going back to sleep/for a nap though.

I've never slacked off before, and always ended up doing more when wfh because of no distractions. But the last week or so I've run out of work being filtered down to me, and despite repeatedly raising it, it's lost in some sort of committee while they decide what to assign to me so I've now given up and decided I've asked and asked so now it's up to someone who can actually do something about it to sort it out!

I don’t deliberately slack off, but as I have small children my attention is taken by them. I’ve had my best ever appraisal this year though, so it can’t be that bad

I'm not napping though. I'm sat here logged on, watching for emails and answering any phone calls that come through.

I'm slacking a bit today. A few meetings have been cancelled so I have found myself with a bit less to do than expected. Generally speaking though, my workload has gone crazy since COVID started (and was heavy enough before that). I worked more than 60 hours last week and my diary for the rest of this week is chock-full of meetings and project work - for the latter, I'm in a situation of waiting for other people to get back to me with vital data before I can keep going with my side of the project. I'm therefore expecting to be run off my feet in the rest of the week so am making the most of unofficially taking some time back today. This is, the second day I've had like this since COVID started and I lost a load of annual leave which I couldn't take before the end of the calendar year due to work priorities. I do still feel really guilty about my easy day today though. I'm convinced someone will realise and I'll be tarred as a constant slacker. Tbh, I'd ideally like to take an impromptu holiday on days like this, when it becomes apparent early on that it will be quiet - saves me losing the time later and I could therefore sit on the sofa, browse MN and watch tv without feeling so guilty, but our policy and system will not allow leave to be booked with less than 2 days notice.

There is one person in my team whom I, and others, definitely suspect of doing what your friend's boyfriend is doing but there's no way of proving it, unfortunately.

I slack off as much as I did in the office. My workload is very variable so some days I work 12 hours nonstop, some days I watch Netflix and keep an eye on emails.

I don't care if my team is sleeping in until 12 or making personal calls as long as the work gets done.

It's just different. My employer is like a PP one where it's about what you get done and the quality rather than 9-5. I work quite of hours sometimes- evenings and weekends- and so it all evens out.

I've been depressed with lockdown though which has affected my productivity, on meds and HR are aware. Some people do struggle keeping at it when so isolated etc it's not necessarily slacking, more struggling.

I don't slack off, but I do not work 9-5/any kind of standard hours. It's a waste of the day to spend it working when I can work early morning and late night and have the afternoons for myself. Nobody cares, and I meet all the deadlines. I think it's silly to dictate starting and finishing hours when someone is working from home unless there are things that absolutely need to be done at specific times. I know some jobs have time limits like this, but for any that don't, it doesn't matter if someone is working at 9am or 9pm.

i'm in a bit of a slack period work wise at present and am enjoying the time i have to get a head start on CPD etc so am listening to a lot of webinar recordings. while doing this i'm also doing chores around the house. thank you wireless headphones.

I am the same as pp who say that they are doing bits and bobs round the house but they are not doing coffee room chat or whatever at work that would often suck up time. So overall I'm getting the same amount done.

I would never log on and pretend to be working but then go back to sleep though. That is definitely taking the piss. It even seems worse to pretend that you're working than to just sleep in and not bother to send the original message, if that makes sense?! Because at least that is just slacking off whereas in this example it is outright lying.

We work flexibly, as long as the work gets done no one really minds if you didn't start at 9am on the dot for example. As long as I am contactable, I do all my work and attend the meetings I need to, all is fine. I will take a break to put washing on or wash up but then I am also flexible the other way and will work later if required.

Oh and also I am saving a lot of time by not having to wander round the site at work, although this is good exercise, sometimes my meetings are 20 minutes walk apart so that would be 40 mins for me to walk from my office to my meeting and back. Whereas now those meetings are all online.

No doing more as is my husband. I usually do an extra 3-6 hrs per week.

My husband has been doing ridiculous hours as it's harder to set boundaries when WFH but he is trying to be better at this this year.

It depends on the day, some days I have less workload and use the time to clean a bit or sort things out and other days I am very busy at work and are entirely focused with that.

I'm still as busy as I was before we were working from home (we have been working from home since the last lockdown) but I've found I stretch my work day more, for example I logged on at 7:30 today to sort my weekly todo list and clear emails before our 9am team meeting. Then paused to get my son ready for school, then logged back on. Had a shorter lunch break than I would in the office, and now I've stopped to get some dinner on but I'll be back on in a hour to finish up some other admin bits.

I've found work/life balance quite hard in some ways but better in others. When the job has been very stressful its just meant I can't unwind, but on a normal day I like being able to spread my work out like this.

DH definitely isn't, if anything he is working more as he doesn't have to commute, so is "out at work" for the same length of time, just actually working rather than travel etc.

At my work (hospital) some admin are wft and it has been suggested that one of those is not doing the work she should. We aren't expecting all staff to do normal office hours (unless the role necessitates it) so people can work around kids etc but the throughput of work needs to be similar to that in the office, and for this particular individual, it isn't.

@LemonBreeland

I guess they can't have much to do. There are days when I do less as my workload might be lower, but that was the same in the office. There are days I work much harder, as I don't take breaks to chat to colleagues.

I'm like this.

Today, for instance, is quiet. Between Christmas and last Friday I was rushed off my feet. Swings and roundabouts. But no different to working in the office.

My job involved a lot of travelling around a fairly large county, so often half our day would be in a car, travelling to home visits or meetings or to one of a number of bases.
Now we're working from home with meetings on Teams or Skype, and with only those home visits assessed as being absolutely necessary taking place, and most replaced by phone or video calls, we invariably have a fair amount of 'relaxed' time.
Our manager takes the view that as long as we're up to date on our work, are contactable when needed, and able to attend a crisis if necessary, then they're not going to police what we do every minute.