To think most people aren’t 100% focused and productive the entire time they’re at work?

[stealingtime]

I was having a conversation with a coworker today, I’ll call her E I sit next to another coworker, who I consider a friend, I’ll call her K.

So E and I were on our lunch breaks at the same time. People have different lunch breaks as some people do different shifts/they want someone available to answer phones and be available in case any clients drop in.

K has an earlier lunch break to us, she works shorter days starting earlier as she has to work around her children.

Myself and E were chatting on our break, I would have considered E an aquaintance rather than a friend, but we were chatting. In the course of the conversation I said something along the lines of “yeah, I was saying about that to K this morning”

E then goes “How were you talking to K this morning? She started before you, and she doesn’t take her break at the same time?”

I was a bit bemused by that comment and said “Well, me and K sit next to each other, so we were chatting then.”

E then says that I shouldn’t be chatting to K instead of working, to which I said that I didn’t spend all day chatting, but would occasionally have a brief conversation whilst working.

E then tells me that what I’m doing is stealing time, and that she would never dream of chatting on work time.

I said to E that nobody works at 100% efficiency all day every day, we get up and make coffee, we occasionally have a brief conversation, if we need the toilet we go.

E disagreed with me and said that she and (other coworkers) would never do any of that on work time, that they would make coffee and use the toilet before work, would only chat on their allocated break times, and said that she was shocked that I thought that this was genuinely okay to do.

E is not a manager or supervisor. E and I are at the same job level, as well as K.
Do people really spend 100% of the work day on task/being productive, or is E just being holier than thou?
I might point out that nobody has ever raised any issues with my work, and I have been with the company a number of years.

AIBU to think that most people aren’t being totally productive the entire time they’re at work?

E sounds great fun.

Happiness at work is directly linked to productivity.

Do you work at Amazon?

Nope there is alot of fun and laughter in my work place along with plenty of work and the social connection I get from work is important to my overall wellbeing as a single parent to an autistic child otherwise my day could be very isolating.

Perhaps now or earlier on in her career she worked for a very strict line manager or company where that was the culture

E is telling fibs. It's simply not possible to be 100% focused all the time. It's easier to appear 100% focused though

What sort of weird universe is she living in? Even school classes chat, it's not an exam!

Is E Dwight from the office?!

Not normal at all! There's tea breaks, chat breaks, catch ups with colleagues etc. That's part of building relationships and networks at work, the breaks are for a break from work.

No, it's completely normal for people to have the odd chat/stop to make a drink/go to the loo etc at times during the working day. As long as they're getting the work done and the other activities aren't excessive, it isn't a problem.

As a manager, I want my teams to spend a bit of time chatting to each other. It helps them to bond and be happier at work, and I believe that makes them more productive in the long run.

Good god know. It is perfectly possible to be productive and chat at the same time (some of the time).

Actually, that reminds me of an awful student job I had in a packing factory - I think we were stuffing envelopes or something similar (it might have been calendars). I got banned from chatting to my neighbour, even though we were by far the most productive.

I always imagine offices to be the type of work environment where people can waste a bit of time faffing with coffee or toilet breaks but I’ve never worked in one so don’t know. But honestly, I think I am pretty much focussed on work 99% of the time I’m there and being paid. I work school hours though and large numbers of children don’t give you much time to think about anything other than them. There’s lots of human interaction and chatting, it’s just mostly about work out of necessity and there’s time to do personal things on unpaid break time.

E is for Ebenezer Scrooge.

E sucks the joy out of life.

I think it's been shown time and again that most people in office-type jobs do 4-5 hours of work, max, on an average day. So no, most people in those roles aren't.

I am a senior manager and I go and chat to all the staff during the day it’s nice for morale and team building. I obviously do not encourage them to chat instead of work, and they don’t do this they are all working hard and just stop for a quick chat from time to time. We have a pretty happy, nice workplace where everyone cares about each other and that’s worth a lot, it’s not just about productivity- which by the way is always better when people are happy. But I have to say I do solid hours and so does everyone else, no one seems to be spending more than 5-10% of their work time chatting.

I think the current term for This E character is a ‘boot licker’ and I’d have no qualms in telling her that.

At least her stance has made it possible for you to get out of any further engagement with her, just look terribly bemused and say ‘God, are you chatting on work time?!’

I work hard and dont like to be distracted but when I’m in the office I chat a fair bit. In fact if you do any kind of teamwork it’s really important. We chat mostly about work; often not task focused but sharing experiences and ideas etc. It does make me less productive than on my wfh days where I just power through; but the quality and depth of the teamwork improves through our social interactions.

Is E an AI robot?

E is nuts

My work are lucky to get 40% of me at any given time let alone 100! I can't think of anyone at my work that is on task for 8 straight hours, it's just not possible.

It’s not even desirable to fit and ignore your colleagues all day in the same building. Even if it were possible.

Those relationships built up through occasional chat are really valuable for companies in a whole range of ways.

Tell E to Google water cooler conversations and find out how important they can be in a workplace.

Poor E, sounds like she has some issues around her work. I am fortunate to have the sort of job where walking around chatting to people is actually a huge part of my day, and is part of how I show my productivity. I'd hate to have her job where presumably she is chained to a desk all day.

I can believe that people like E exist but they are a small minority

We don't tend to chat at work but that's the nature of the job
Breaks and lunch then yes but it's possible for me to go a day without speaking to colleagues except "hi, bye, you ok?"

I think it's not usual or even possible for anyone to be 100% productive all the time at work!
When I work in the office I have chats with my management colleagues usually about work but occasionally about kids, or my team, again can be about work or today I had one member of staff telling me the ins and outs of her menopause problems; it's all part of working with humans.

Even when WFH I'll go and make a brew and while the kettle is boiling will shove a load of washing in to hang up in my lunch break. Today DH was WFH too and we had a five minute catch up about the kids nativity dates. Didn't occur to me that we were stealing time!! We both work hard and get our jobs done in the allotted time.
It's healthy to have mini breaks anyway. E is being unreasonable.

E is a twat.

E will be posting on AIBU "AIBU to be upset I didn't get a work leaving card" when no one contributes to her collection or signs a card for her because we couldn't have such things during work time.

Should say we message a lot though even if it's not actual spoken conversation!