to ask if anyone else is half-arsing their job?

[Spacemannn]

I work full time with two pre-schoolers (due to my part-time working request being declined). I get paid well (although not mumsnet well) for a mid-senior job, with no line management, but the bulk of my salary goes on childcare.

Since having my second child, I just cba anymore. I used to be such a perfectionist and always go above and beyond, but I just don't care as much anymore. I work hybrid, and on my WFH days I'm trying to squeeze in as many chores/life admin as poss in between tasks.

Is anyone else like this? Does it matter? I switch between feeling guilty, and then feeling like as long as I'm getting the work done and doing an ok job, that's fine? I still get paid the same whether I put in 70% effort or 100% effort. There are no promotion opportunities on the horizon, and I don't think I'd want the extra responsibility at the moment anyway.

Any tips for working smarter not harder? I'm organised, responsive and quick, so I don't think it's a case of me not adding value to the company...

I feel like I'm half arsing everything trying to work full time, do best for 2dc, follow my own interests, keep a house going, maintain friendships and see/do things for family. Inevitably things get dropped or missed.

Similar position to you OP in a mid/senior level but no line management and no interest in promotion just yet. I'm contracted 37 hours, but a lot of the time the work doesn't take that long so at home I'll do a workout or some chores in quieter periods. In the office I'd just be chatting so it's not like I'm doing less, the days I am in the office I do a lot less work and with adhd there are less distractions at home (also it's more acceptable to stim when it's just me!). My output is fine, exceptional in fact and have won awards for it!

I quite often have an afternoon nap if it’s quiet. I would work more hours if I got paid a bonus or earned more than colleagues who have same or less output than me.

All the time I can achieve enough to keep me out of trouble in 20-25 hours a week, why would I do more with no reward?

@PotBelliesGiveGoodLoving he is brilliant! thanks :)

If you're half arsing then I think you're being unreasonable.

If you're doing your job to an appropriate standard and then using your break times differently due to the flexibility of your working patterns then that's ok and understandable.

When my DC were young I used to work late some evenings rather than bring work home. It used to amaze me how many times I'd see men (dads) having a coffee and a chat for long periods of time in the staff room. I'm sure if their wives were on Mumsnet they'd be saying "DH works long hours at work so comes home just as DC are getting ready for bed". They were good at their jobs, but there was a lot of shooting the breeze that went on.

@SatelliteStomper

Remember, they'd replace you in a heartbeat and forget about you within a week if you left.

Never was there a truer word spoke

It depends on the job you do but we have performance targets. If you hit them or are thereabouts (and they're achievable) then the manager will leave us alone and if you're idle through periods of the day, or take a lot of breaks, he's not bothered. It's all about hitting your targets.

If you're not hitting your targets then that's when you're under scrutiny.

I work 3 days in the office & 2 at home. I'm definitely doing household chores/life admin on my home days - but I'm not spending any less time on work than I do on my office days.

I usually do 45/50 mins work then 10/15mins doing jobs round the house each hour. It breaks my screen time & that's usually the time I'd be making a cuppa/nipping to reception to get a biscuit out the "good biscuits" tin/chatting with colleagues if I was in the office.

I'm not half arsing my job though as everything gets done to a high standard & if needed I start early/finish late/work through lunch.

My work don't care as long as the work gets done & clients are happy.

All the people half arsing their jobs- would you be happy if a surgeon half arsed their job whilst operating on you?

I think this ignores the nature and reality of some jobs.

When a senior manager has an important meeting, they bring their A game. When they’ve got lower priority tasks, they can be flexible / put the washing on while WFH.

Would I want my surgeon concentrating when operating on me? Of course. Would I care if she did her paper work around childcare and other personal commitments? Not one bit.

A surgeon isn't operating 100% of their time. Are you walking round hospitals shouting at them when you see them chatting or making a cup of tea?

If output is where it needs to be does it matter how long it takes or where you do it where a job isn't location specific? Not really, I'm paid for a job, if that takes 20 hours one week then it takes 20 hours, next week it might be 40 or 50. Personally, I'm paid for my knowledge and experience and it doesn't really matter how long it takes. Equally im not paid to sit in front of a screen for no reason.

Oh, wow, thats such an excellent and relevant point, well done you. Back to your desks everybody, someone could DIE if those meeting minutes don't get written up by 5pm!!

What do you do for a living, out of interest?

You don't think it's shocking that your friends openly admit they're barely doing any work, and even bragging about doing other things?

It's called quiet quitting and enough of us are doing it for it to have a name. If our bosses want us to do our best they can start paying us appropriately.

Exactly, but not even the actual job of surgeon is 100% operating, so if you saw her not operating she could still be doing her job (consultation appointments, teaching juniors, paper work etc.)

That’s like saying teachers teach 100% of their working hours.

I'm bobbing along for now, also work ft with young children. I don't have the energy to "chase" opportunities, at my work they always want volunteers for things or asking for people to be involved in stuff, attend things etc etc. They would all give you a leg up and make you more visible etc etc (though wouldn't directly get you a promotion, it paints you as a keen bean). There are lots of people in my team in their late 20s who say yes to everything, they volunteer they are in and on everything me on the other hand late 30s and more senior than any of them just here bobbing. I do my work and will when required work late for a deadline or I will present when directly asked, but I'm not volunteers and making more work for myself. I'm tired and still get woken up in the night by my youngest. I get my mark, do my job, but that's it for now. I will step up in a couple of years because I do want to work my up, just right now I've no energy to compete with the visible keen beans.

I'm taking my foot off the gas a bit. I've realised slowly but surely I've started taking on elements of a role that aren't mine hence giving me more work. That stops now. I'm not paid to do 3 jobs.

One thing I learnt was how to use all the Microsoft applications really well especially Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

I can churn out professionally formatted documents or presentations far quicker than my colleagues, that's how I work smart. So for my colleague it would take them say half a day, for me its like an hour or two max. So I then get 'spare time' and I refuse to stick my hand up for extra work - been there done that and gets you fuck all!

Stress is something to avoid at all costs it just wrecks your health so I prefer to have a stress free job where I am meeting all my objectives than to be taking on more and more work and running round like a headless chicken so to speak.

I'm in the office full time, our five person team has only had two of us in it for most of the last 18 months, and I am still half-assing it because I am permanently tired. We have two new staff now and, once they are up and running, I can probably offload some of my tasks on to them to spread the workload, but tbh it's more about bums on seats than us having a lot to do.

I went above and beyond, hoping it would help with my pay review. Pay review submitted, guess how long I'm looking to wait for it to come back? 8 weeks!!! Clearly, my company don't actually want to reward my hard work, so now they aren't getting it.

I manage about 45 people staff and operators, I’d be horrified if I thought they were all going balls to the wall all the time. There has to be slack in the system whether it’s equipment or people. Otherwise everything is going to be late, probably shoddy and likely expensive.

managers who think they are getting value for the company by whipping the employees and pinching pennies are missing the point.

Leading by example I had a 15 min nap on the reception sofa this afternoon

Yeah I won't be putting my hand up for more work. I wait to be asked

Two of my colleagues are half arsing. I'm generally left to pickup the slack and it's really annoying.

I work like crazy but get rewarded for it. Random bonuses, above average pay rise that others won’t get etc. so I will continue to work hard until they stop treating me well. Once they do I’ll do the minimum or find somewhere else.

I managed teams for 20 years and we know who’s the genuine lead swingers and who’s a decent worker who sometimes slows down.

Many jobs have busy and quieter periods and natural ebbs and flows.
I never micro managed my teams. I always cut them some slack in the quieter times knowing that when it was busy, they would step up because they were treated like adults and not monitored constantly