To ask if you go to the gym during work hours, HOW?

[inneedofaglowup]

How do you fit it around work hours? I use my "lunch hour" to pick up the kids and it's making me sad I can't fit an hour at the gym in whereas I know people do manage to do this!

My hours are very flexible so I often make up time in the evening which is how I manage exercise and being able to pick up the kids. Also very bored of my job but value the flexibility too much to make a change

Yeah during ‘lunch hour’. If I can’t make lunch hour due to work, I block some time during quieter time for a ‘meeting’. But I think taking lunch hour AND excercise time is unreasonable.

My kids are a bit older so don't need me for the school run. I wfh 9-4.30 so sometimes I'll start earlier or finish later and go to the gym at lunch. I don't enjoy it though as I'm always clock watching and the daytime older folks are slower on the machines so I can't power through quickly as I'd like.
I prefer going straight from work and working off the days stress.

Making up the time sounds good. I would prefer going before or after work but my DH is currently working abroad and comes home once a month. So for the next few months its not going to happen :(

In reality you can only really do this if you are a CF and are taking the you know what. Unless you have an onsite gym or only exercise for 20-30 minutes. No way have you time to physically get to a gym or exercise class (driving/parking or walking there), get changed, do exercise, cool down maybe shower or put deodorant on, get changed, get back to work and then eat lunch and be back at your desk within an hour.

I have a work colleague in another site office who openly brings her breakfast into work to eat, does life admin in work time, uses it as an opportunity to nip out to catch up with various colleagues in other offices, makes about 4 hot drinks a day, eats lunch at her desk so doesn’t have a dinner break and finishes work at 3 to meet and walk home with a 13 year old, sometimes logs on for half an hour after she gets home. She does this and forgets she does an exercise class over lunch time in works time, often pops out to the shops about 11 or 2 (but she hasn’t had a lunch break) or nips out to get her eyebrows or nails done (but doesn’t take a lunch break so she is still justified in nipping out at 3) and maybe or maybe not logging on later.

If I need to exercise during working hours, I'll work at the gym in the morning. Workout at lunch time, go home pre shower/after a super quick shower and carry on working at home. My work is really flexible and I couldn't work out and take an additional lunch break.

Could you look at shortening your hours in the short term if you really want to exercise during the day? Or take a day's annual leave over 2 weeks and actually just take an hour a day for 7 days? Depends how flexible your employer is.

WOW 😮 And nobody questions her for this?

I go to the gym before work and walk the dog after.

I can’t during work hours because I’m erm working.

She doesn’t do all of this every day but she takes a lot of liberties across the week. Our Line Manager is moving into the same office as her shortly so changes maybe coming.

I'd love to do the annual leave thing but I don't think that would work unfortunately with my employer. The gym is literally a few mins from my home but i don't want to be a CF about it and p off my colleagues by taking the mick. Maybe I'll just have to wait until DH finishes work abroad so he can get back and do the pick ups like he did and I'll get that time back.

I can take as long as i like for lunch or just clock out for the gym and clock back in. I'm not working those hours so not being paid and just need to make up the hours.

I have a very flexible job. Basically as long as I have worked my set hours during the week, then I can manage them however I want. I usually work through school hours, but sometimes do a bit over lunch/evenings/weekends so I can do other things during the week.

Surely the line manager doesn't need to be in the same office to be aware that the work isn't getting done. What kind of job is it?

I take a two hour lunch and go to the gym or for a long walk 11:00-13:00 and either log off late or on early the next day. My job is very flexible though, so as long I get the work done there is no issue. I prefer to exercise during daylight so this is great in the winter months.

I expect a good few people who do this are taking the piss.

I can do it because I'm self employed and can plan my own diary though.

Put the kids in after school club twice a week and go during work hours on the third day? 3 times a week is a decent amount of gym time. Or if you join a david lloyds you can bring the kids with you and they can go in the creche/do activities whilst you work out.

I sometimes do this, either gym or swim twice a week during a lunchbreak. I do this because the gym is a 3-5 minute drive away and as long as I do my hours it doesn’t matter when I do them. My dc are old enough to not need walking to and from school.

If you have flexible hours you can just start or finish earlier and take a longer lunch break.

I mostly wfh and am contracted 7.5 hours a day. I live a 20 minute cycle ride away from the gym/pool. I can easily start work at 8, stop at 12.30, get changed, be at the gym/pool by 1, do a 40 minute work out and ride home by 2. I can then work until 5.30 and still pick the kids up on time from after school club at 6. The post workout shower may not happen or might happen in a quick 5 min break from my desk but there is no one around to smell me anyway.

This all obviously depends on me WFH. I also tend to eat left overs for lunch, or something I have prepared in the morning while I read emails/do training. When I worked in an office full time I couldn’t go to the gym or pool. Not even on the weekends because by then I would be too exhausted from the 3-4 hour daily commute.

So that’s the answer - flexi hours, WFH, facilities nearby, partner to help with school runs and wrap around childcare. A pretty niche set of circumstances but it can be done.

I tend to do this around once a week as I have other responsibilities I have to flex around (namely a gazillion family medical appointments due to chronic illnesses etc). I also try and go to the gym or pool once a week before anyone else in my house wakes up and also fit in a quick workout while the kids are doing their swimming lessons.

I really feel like employers need to prioritise the health of their workforce more and it should absolutely be the norm that people can flex their workday to fit in exercise and medical appointments. Employers need to remember that their workforce are people, not robots. They should also bear in mind the consequences for the economy, the NHS and the country of ill health and overwork. They will be forced to soon anyway. We have an aging population that needs the younger generation to have the time and energy to care for them (the NHS and social care are definitely not going to manage this). The younger generation can’t work and care for their elders if they are obese, sick and overworked. Well, not unless we dose everyone up in an SSRI and ozempic, then brainwash them with a few workplace courses in CBT to gaslight them into accepting shitty behaviour from their employers.

I exercise three times a week, all from home on Les Mills on demand.
once at the weekend
once on my non working day
one lunchtime I do half an hour
plus make an effort to do10k steps each day

Obviously most of this is shockingly unreasonable but making about 4 hot drinks a day is fairly normal surely? That's one every couple of hours.

I use to do a lot of home workouts and runs during my working day pre my youngest. I was super organised and my dinner was already prepped in the fridge so I could eat at my desk when convenient. I have flexible working so would just fit it in at a convenient point of the day.

I go in my lunch hour. The gym is in the building next door, it literally takes me 6 minutes to get there and get changed. 40 minutes exercise, 5 minutes shower and back at my desk within an hour. Unfortunately I only go to the office once a week, so I'm very unfit.

I don’t get what the issue with having breakfast at work is?! I know lots of people who eat at their desk

I go swimming at lunch and just make the time up later in the day

Now I go to the gym at work before I start 3 days a week. I used to go lunchtime 2/3 times a week - it was very close, half hour workout, 2 minutes shower and eat lunch at desk. Obviously if I had a lot on, I would work through lunch anyway (worked in finance, so lunch was for wimps 😉).

My contract is 9-5 but my contract is 7 hours a day with an hours unpaid for lunch. I have a gym 3 minutes from home, twice a week I go and do a 45 minute class (so includes cool down etc). I go home and have a 2 minute shower (not hair etc.) and grab a pre made lunch or smoothie and am generally away 1 hr 10 total. The other 3 days I have lunch at my desk so is fair enough…

I’m a single parent and works for me. If things are busy I’ll do some more work in the evening rather than work through lunch on those 2 days - as I can’t pop to gym in the evening…