To think it's easy to feel guilty while wfh?

[moderndaywitch]

When I wfh I feel like I have to constantly be working for the 7.5 hours. I feel panicked and guilty of I don't have anything to do as my tasks are all done.

But when I am in the office, and with office jobs in the past, there would be a lot of time spent chatting and socialising, both about work and about non- work stuff, and longer than necessary meetings. At home, meetings are just about the matter in hand (no going off on a tangent) and the general chit chat doesn't happen, I just get my head down and do the tasks I have until they are done. In the office, the same meetings can take 2.5 hours as opposed to one hour.

Does anyone else feel 'guilty' wfh?

Not really. Whilst my job is essentially a 9-5 one, the unspoken reality is that what I’m actually valued and paid for are my occasional moments of brilliance where I can provide technical legal guidance on or jurisdictional context to an issue which results in the company saving itself hundreds of thousands of pounds and a lot of reputational damage. Once I accepted that, any guilt over not being fully present for every hour of the day quickly subsided.

As long as you’re fulfilling your role, and unless you’re keen to press for extra responsibilities or to add value, it’s fine to do as you are.

Not at all. I'm very productive, get more done in a shorter time, take longer lunches and breaks, finish earlier and don't feel guilty in the slightest. I hate office chit chat anyway.

Yes, I have WFH guilt sometimes. I would be mortified if anyone thought I was slacking, so I give 110% effort to be available and responsive. When it’s an office day, I am visible so feel (rightly or wrongly) that I can relax a bit.

Yes I totally get what you mean. I always feel like I have to be green on Teams!
That's why I don't understand when it's said that people WFH are more unproductive - I barely get anything done when I'm in the office!!

Nope. I get all my work done in fewer hours and then spend the remaining paid time doing housework, exercise or relaxing.

Not at all. So long as I keep on top of my workload nobody cares.

I don't go out of leave my laptop for too long though, in case an urgent email or Teams message comes in - just spend probably a bit too much time pissing about on the internet

Yes! I feel I have to be constantly available to the point of feeling guilty if I nip off to the loo or stop to have lunch.

YANBU. I always feel guilty, even though I’m way more unproductive in the office. In the office I dawdle, chit chat and get distracted. At home I usually get all my days work done very quickly and am motivated to do more. I can really focus at home.

Nobody monitors or tracks me but I feel more guilty at home when I get up for 30 seconds to take a parcel in, or make a cuppa, or answer the phone. I feel like I really must be there and ‘available’ on teams 9-5 and if I’m not I worry about it. I know nobody is checking my teams status all day and I do need to chill, as in the office it doesn’t enter my head to worry

Totally get it, but I believe I'm paid for what I contribute, not the number of hours I 'work'. I have also learned over the years that I can get a helluva lot more done than most in 'normal' office hours, so don't feel I should be penalised by having to take more on.

I'm the same as you - never leave my chair unless it's to go to the loo or make tea and am always very productive. I think I have an overactive guilty conscience 😂.
In the office I spend a lot of time chatting to everyone, hardly productive at all!

Absolutely not, I feel I'm way more productive, we are mainly office based but I had a day at home recently and felt I got loads of what I was working on done

In the office you get constant interruptions/ noise/ asked "can you do this for me"

I will put a wash out if needed/ switch what washing is on radiators and take my usual lunch but I still get more done! I'm very conscious not to take the p* though as I know if I did it would be bye bye to any days at home

I get the work done, on my own timetable and do my best - so no guilt needed

We have to get away from being paid for ‘hours’ although that is the easiest measure in a lot of cases. If I get my work done whether that takes me 20, 40 or 45hrs, I shouldn’t feel bad about having unproductive hours during the 40hrs paid. For example my colleague is in a role that is busy mon/tues the rest of the week quiet, maybe some meetings or tweaks. They can’t assign them to another project because the busy time is the same days. So it’s accepted they pay for availability of 40hrs which they are, but don’t necessarily utilise every hour.

No not at all! I meet my deadlines and I’m available for scheduled calls/meetings. I don’t glue myself to my desk though, I do chores, walk the dogs, take a nap… I’m self employed because I don’t want to be bound by expectations of presenteeism or have to commit to be “on” non stop for 8 hours. As long as I’m delivering the work agreed, I do what I want. And I don’t feel even slightly guilty.

It’s imposter syndrome, men don’t feel like that !

Nah, not really.

Even our manager says we are the most productive team in the company - in fact he tells me to slow down a lot of the time

😀🤔🍸