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?

The whole point of being brought back into the office was to encourage interaction and as a PP says "water cooler" chats can be very informative

I work in a school and atm have some particularly challenging dc. Due to staffing levels there is no opportunity outside of unpaid break and lunch to chat, go to the loo or do anything apart from 100% focus. I'm utterly exhausted and as a single parent it's affecting my home life. At little more than minimum wage it's just not worth it and am considering what job change will be the right move. Previous years it's not been like this so I can definitely see the difference and effect it has not getting those little chats and down times

It’s the law to have a ‘work wee/poo’, especially if things are really boring 🥱 I only work from the office 2 days a month but we usually end up chatting for quite a bit. Your colleague is a nut job.

Yep, that's me. We don't have to justify toilet breaks or making a brew but we couldn't say go to the toilet then make a brew 15 mins later as it should have been done at the same time
Between incoming calls, spreadsheets, making outgoing calls, emails.. I don't have time to talk and a conversation between calls takes all day!

I worked in Germany for six months. Our small team started at 7am. At 9am every morning we went into the boss’s office for coffee and a snack and spent half an hour chatting. Some of it was work-related but a lot wasn’t.

Even machines get downtime for maintenance!

As a Business Analyst, I would say that “E” is unreasonable.
Studies show that people are generally focussed at 80% of the time, so when you are planning projects, you build this into the planning.
As a side note, my projects are always completed on time and in budget - because I build in a sensible contingency!

Another reason E is unreasonable is that people have different working rhythms.

Personally I’m not particularly productive first thing - I’m not a morning person and it takes me a while to get going. But on the other hand I’m often very productive early evening and have a second wind 5-6.30 or so.

As others have said upthread humans are not robots and treating people like they are is generally a bad idea for any workplace.