WFH - do you ever just relax?

[ringoffiire]

I love working from home, and when I do, I will quite often do half a day's work and then put my feet up.

I do everything I need to do, and I do it to a good standard. My manager praises me and has no concerns at all about my work. I'm not behind at all.

But if I've done all my work, I simply leave Teams active so that I hear if anyone wants to contact me, and then I get on with whatever I want to do.

If I was in the office, I would still be sat there doing nothing, but just feeling frustrated that I had to look like I was busy until 5.

Right now I'm sipping a delicious beverage at 4pm and browsing mumsnet, because I've finished all my work.

Anyone else? And do you think it's OK?

when WFH if I don’t keep keyboard or mouse moving, system logs us out and it’s gets recorded. Number of clicks recorded so they know what we are up to. Very big brother is watching you !

I'm in the office full time and working flat out the whole day - so yes OP I do think YAB (a bit) U. I agree with PP that if you're being paid 9-5 it's up to you to find work to do in those hours, not get it all done in 4 hours then take the rest of the day off.

This attitude is the kind of attitude that gives WFH such a bad rep and encourages management to force everyone back to the office.

But that is just my personal opinion. I work in a school, so yes it is slightly frustrating to be constantly working hard then hear that my WFH friends have spent the afternoon watching Bargain Hunt with a cuppa!

Wow, it's heating up in here. "My job is so busy, you should be too!!", "My company is hardline and doesn't tolerate slack so yours shouldn't too".
Not all organisations/ jobs are the same.

I mean I can sit on mumsnet for hours at work too……

Well you can’t invent work, and if you’re still available should they need you to be then you’re technically still at work

Oh my god. You’re seriously suggesting that the OP request to reduce her hours? So she can be paid less and have to look for a part-time job to make up the rest of the salary she probably depends on?

I often have a little snooze when I'm WFH... I love it!!

OP, just relax and live the dream. If you can figure out a way of doing your work even faster and creating more leisure time, you should! Watch films, do yoga, batch cook!

The posters here suggesting you volunteer for extra work or the INSANE suggestion of requesting to reduce your hours are, in the politest way I can put it, absolute suckers.

Genuinely what are these jobs? I want one?

I have been with my current firm for over 20 years, full time in the office pre Covid and split 3/2 office/WFH these days. I have never had a day where I can say I am completely worked up, not once, and to be honest, I wouldn't like it if I had nothing to do.
On my at home days I start at the same time but regularly work later, to catch up to give myself an advantage the following day. I can't do that on an office day because the building gets locked up.
I wouldn't consider what you are doing as taking time from your employer, as you are covering the work that they want you to do, but I guess it depends on what they expect of you. When we first started WFH we were told that we were expected to be at our computer from 9-5 apart from lunch break, just as we would be in the office, and if any of the team were not answering calls in a timely manner then the privilege of WFH would be withdrawn.

Yes, same here. Since I began hybrid (3 days in office, 2 at home) my at home days are usually just spent pottering about and doing housework. My home has never run so well and I’m much more chilled than I was. I also get everything done and my manager is delighted - I hit my annual target recently at 6 months through the financial year so I don’t feel bad. I used to feel guilty but now I look at it that they’re not only paying for my work but also my experience and knowledge and luckily for me I can get the work done super fast!

Surely it depends on your department policy. Is there really nothing to do that you can put your feet up and do nothing?

That just never happens
I worked from home Monday and worked til 8.30, Tuesday home from office then another 3 hours, I’m more productive from home as less distractions but under resourced local authority it is just endless demands. Where does everyone find these 70k WFH jobs where you barely have to do anything?! Thought to be fair I’d probably be bored then!

It's the same for me! I sometimes go out to clinics, so have to be fully present then. However I mostly work from home at the moment. I finish in half the time and spent most of today cleaning the house and having a quiet lunch before collecting the children from school.

This is me OP, some days I can have hours where not much is on and other days I have to work late. I love the flexibility and would never go back to twiddling my thumbs in an office just so I can look fake busy!

Blimey I don't get time to relax when WFH in my working days at all. I have a constant to do list and never ever get to the bottom of it! I'd be more likely to do more hours than less. Why don't your employers give you more work to do? Surely it's not normal to finish all your work?

All my friends either work from home or are hybrid.

This is what it’s like for 2 of them:

Friend A who is hybrid (once a week in office) constantly uses social media throughout the day, and messages me frequently. She also cares for her toddler at home. During the holidays, such as the Easter holidays, she has been taking her children out nearly every day, and I assumed she had taken the time off to be with them. When I asked how many days she’d taken off, she told me she hadn’t taken any off, and that whenever they go out she checks her phone to see if there are emails she needs to reply to, and checks if anything needs to be done urgently. If so, she can do some on her phone, then either rushes back to complete the rest at home, or does it later on if not urgent. She’s often telling me that work was slow. She has never said work was busy or difficult. Earns over £40,000.

Friend B who is work from home (only 1 day in office per month), invites my children and I to her house sometimes when I’m on my holiday, but she is meant to be working. She looks really relaxed and sits and chats with me, then occasionally gets up and moves her mouse around, clicks a few buttons, and checks her emails (she’s never had any to reply to while I’ve been there), then comes back and sits with me. She also goes out shopping and for walks during working hours. She says she has the odd day or week which is really stressful, but the rest of the time it’s really easy and chilled out. Earns around £40,000.

As a perpetually stressed out, and deeply fed up and burnt out Teacher, I’m so envious of my friends’ working formats, and the freedom they have. They can never believe it when I tell them half the stuff I do in one day, and I can never believe it when they tell me all the non-work related activities they’ve done in a day, or when they say, ‘it’s coming up to my busy week at work, I’m dreading it.’

In my opinion YANBU… but I’ve not mastered your skill yet! When WFH I start earlier, finish later & often forget to take any breaks. My partner however manages to do their work, have a nap, watch a podcast, do some gardening…

I wish I was better at work / life balance.

I get way more work done at home and I get my breaks deducted even though I don’t take one at home.
Actually I apologised to my manager yesterday because when I was in the office two weeks ago she had given me work to finish before I left for my AL, and I couldn’t complete it because I had a coworker stay behind crying on my shoulder for two hours about a situation she had going on at home. Said coworker does this all the time when I go in, I’m only there once a week but it’s every week, that day is such a waste of a journey for me, there’s far too much yapping and time wasting going on!

Not sure what you want me to say tbh. You chose your career. If you're not happy with it then change it.

I work in a school, so yes it is slightly frustrating to be constantly working hard then hear that my WFH friends have spent the afternoon watching Bargain Hunt with a cuppa!

I don't mean to be rude but why would you get frustrated about the fact that people spend their days in different ways to you? You chose to work in a school, presumably for a reason, and there are ups and downs to it like any profession. Presumably it is something you are passionate about and you find it rewarding, and it's a stable career with a good pension (they seem to be most people's reasons for working in education).

My day job has downsides, including that it is not particularly my passion or what I would be doing with my time if I could choose. I do it to fund my actual passion which is currently unpaid work for the rest of the week. Although I might spend some of my WFH time watching TV, I rarely actually have a day off because I spend weekends doing unpaid work and trying to build something that will eventually bring in an income.

We each choose our paths.

I don't earn anything like 70k.

Why do you care what your WFH mates are doing? How does it affect you?
I hybrid work and have done for over a decade. I work at home, I don’t have time to watch TV during the working day. I’m not envious of people who are in totally different jobs to me doing totally different things.

Martyring yourself is no fun. Ask your friends if there are any jobs going at their place of employment !

How does it affect me? Well, it affects me by knowing that we all get paid a (fairly similar) full time wage but I know for a fact I’m working harder? Why would it not be frustrating to be paid the same amount as someone else working less hard? I’m not ‘matyring’ myself, I’m not losing sleep over it, but I am allowed to weigh in on a Mumsnet thread about this exact topic.

For the record I am looking for other jobs with a similar WFH set up. Unfortunately the job market isn’t ideal at the moment.

If I was in a role where everyone was doled out the same amount of work and you just had to finish the tasks, then yes I would finish it as fast as possible then do my own stuff. That kind of job must be pretty rare though?

As it is, if I don't have something to do (rare) I find myself something to do or ask. Or if I'm having an off day mentally I'll just take the afternoon easy and read a book or something. I work unusual / longer hours fairly regularly to work around management (I'm a PA), so I don't feel bad about this.

Overall, no-one knows how I fill my day when I WFH. But I'm not eager to be first in the queue should redundancies come up and the bosses think, 'Hmmm, Heliss doesn't really add much.'