To ask if you sneak off to the gym during work hours?

[inneedofaglowup]

I know there's a lot of "that's cheeky and taking the piss" bit how many of you actually do it when working from home and is it really that bad if you do do it??

This.

I do occasionally, obviously meetings, etc take priority. But my work is flexible. I can take an hour off when it suits me and work longer into the evening if I wanted. But also my gym is 5mins drive, I can go and use it as my lunch hour.

And seeing as most days I don’t go to the gym and work through my lunch hour i don’t think the odd hour at the gym matters.

I go in my lunch hour, hardly sneaking. I do a class at 9.30 one day but start work at 7.30 so the 45 minutes is made up beforehand. I tend to work much later than I would in the office as well so I don't see it as an issue.

I have flexibility so one morning a week I do a PT session from 09.30-10.30 which is facilitated by WFH. I otherwise work long hours.

I don't know why you'd make the generalisation that everyone doing this is taking the piss. We're allowed to flex our hours as long as we work the full hours sometime that day, and attend any meetings that we have. That applies when we're working in the office as well, so I could take gym stuff to the office, take a long lunch to go to the gym and shower etc, and it would be fine as long as I made the time back.

Some people are very defensive about this, is it just a jealously thing?! I definitely go to the gym during the working day. In fact I usually work there for a lot of the time and so do an awful lot of other people so I can assure you it’s VERY common for people to be gone for a hour or more from their laptop in the middle of the day!
my job is super flexible, an international team all on different time zones who all travel a lot so no one would have any clue when you were “meant” to be at your desk. I get the work done when I need to, but otherwise I picked the job because of its flexibility to be able to exercise on the day and do school run etc.

you wouldn’t say it was “stealing” company hours if someone walked their dog in their lunch break would you? So what’s the difference?

I just don't think it it fair that some people can get away with working when they please while others have to keep to time

I think that's an odd view. Jobs have different terms, different perks, different downsides. You may as well complain that some people get to travel to nice places for work, or that some people have more holiday, or that some people don't have to wear a uniform etc. As long as they're working within the terms agreed with their employer (I appreciated some people aren't, but if I went to the gym during the work day it would be fine as were allowed to flex our hours day to day) I don't see what it has to do with anyone else.

I don’t but only because I’m not organised / disciplined enough. Otherwise I would. In my role I have to meet commercial targets but it doesn’t matter how I do it, so it isn’t time bound in that sense.

The OP asked about 'sneaking off' to the gym, so clearly is not referring to environments that many have where it's fine to work flexibly and take time away from work during the day.

I manage a team of 8 and we have a hybrid working arrangement, 2 days WFH, 3 on-site. Pre-pandemic we had a flexi time system where you could start between 830 & 10, finish between 4 & 630, but business need had to be prioritised.

Once we moved to the current arrangement there was initially no flexi time & an attempt to have standardised working hours, which just didn't work & it was silly to try.

I'm fine with colleagues taking time during the day, but a gym trip wouldn't be ok, unless in lunch time. My team need to be contactable throughout the working day to ensure collaboration & team working - so if someone was unavailable in core hours for more than 15 minutes (and not in a meeting or with some indication on their calendar) that would be an issue, and is one I've had to deal with as their manager.

I do have more flexibility as a manager as I will work late / weekends as needed so can fit in a personal task on occasion. I'd rarely do it. Likewise I need to be available to my colleagues as much as possible.

I don't sneak off - I just do it. Not the gym but I do a long walk a couple of times a week, get hair done, go for lunch with DH, see friends, go shopping

I don't have set hours, just have to get the work done. Often do a bit early morning, evenings or weekends - whatever suits my life best

No choice but to wfh anyway (except when visiting clients) the office is in LA and I'm in the UK!

No I don’t because I actually have to work in my job to earn my salary.

I'm a bit like this. If my mind is fried at 4 and I can't concentrate I'm better of going and blowing off a bit of steam.

Having said that I was marking a dissertation at 5 am this morning for an hour before my kids woke up and will work tonight when they go to bed. As long as my work is complete no one cares when I do it

No. I mean I could. But I don’t have time I have deadlines and actual work to do.

I occasionally go to the gym during the working day (it goes in phases generally aligned with how busy we are). It's also more likely I head there with my laptop in a gap between calls and finish my last hour or two of calls off from there so I can start there early after work.

I also sometimes have to start at 6am to get things done, or work at the weekend or work late.

It's give and take and I've been told I'm exceptional at my job so I don't think it's affecting my performance.

I don't work from home but my husband does and definitely goes to the gym during the work day! He says he makes up for it working early/late. I'm not so sure. I guess he needs to break the day up, it must be so isolating being on your own behind a screen all day.

My productivity is measured by my actual time recording on files, so I know what I'm achieving, where and when.

I don't need to rely on my self assessment.

I sometimes use my ‘lunch hour’ to go to a class if I’m WFH. No different in my mind from those who go for a run at lunchtime from the office of to go the gym near there?

Generally though I don’t as I want to finish at a reasonable time.

Really? Wow

Maybe you're being sarcastic (I hope)

All the time. And meet friends for lunch, lay in the sun, take the dog for a walk or piddle about buying books and frocks online.

I work for myself, so as long as my clients are happy, we are all happy.

I could not live with the lack of freedom that means someone monitors when I leave my desk. It would make me utterly miserable.

Unfortunately OP this is exactly the kind of thing that gives 'w'fh a bad rep.
And no, as a teacher I can't just sneak off and leave 30 teenagers to it.

Trying to work out if this is a joke

I do sometimes if I get time, but I don’t have to “sneak off”, I work in an outcome based role in a company that values work life balance and flexibility wherever possible. I feel the same about my team, they can do what they like as long as the work gets done. In reality I rarely get time during the day.

Never. I take phone calls.
I'll put a load of washing out but I'll only be 5 mins max.

Omg. Please get a grip.

Yep. So many people seem to think that all work is office based or WFH. If I was at the gym patients wouldn't get seen. I have to take time off (unpaid) if I want to see my children at sports day etc, yet there are others there saying 'my work don't know I'm here'. I have to wonder what all these jobs are where it doesn't get noticed if you're not doing them..