If you WFH, what's your Friday afternoon like?

[OldPine]

This week has been full on. 12 hour days Monday & Tuesday. Lots to sort Weds & Thursday so am not gonna lie, I'm now lying on my bed periodically tapping the track pad on my laptop while Mumsnetting and holiday shopping. DH is mowing the lawn! Anyone else taking Friday afternoon a bit easy?

Oh the places I have opened a laptop. On a kerb outside a pub. In the dentists waiting room. Restaurant tables obviously, that’s quite civilised. A field once as I had a day off and we went on a day trip to Sheppey

My hair dresser used to have a home salon so I'd walk to her house (2 mins) and do some work while the dye worked its magic. She bloody well moved and now I have to go to the actual salon at the w/e. It's more of a treat I suppose, but it worked so well before.

@MrsWidgerysLodger sounds great! What job did you do.

Its so hard when looking at career changing to be able to see by the type of flexibility and atmosphere in the job.

I see "busy" and "fast paced" in ads and then think of threads like this and wonder if it's all relative.

I work to my best out put. Monday and Tuesday I could easily do 10+ hours. Friday we pretty much avoid meetings but I try to network, finish up outstanding issues and if I'm lucky prepare for my 9am team meeting on Monday. Then go to the Gym + swim.

I'm a teacher so don't work from home, but take Fridays easier in that I leave as soon as lessons are done (2.30pm). Monday-Thursday I leave sometime between 4 and 5. I love the Friday feeling!

I’m with you op. I have meetings mon to wed pm next week, 8:30pm, 7-10pm, 6-8pm and 8:30 - 9:30, so am thinking of finishing early the Friday. I won’t be pretending anything though, I’ll be quite transparent about it! There is no argument for getting people back into the office here, colleagues can see I’ve been actively working all these evenings and I bloody well wouldn’t do it if I had to go to the office every day.

How on earth are you able to go to a cafe for lunch. do you work in the UK?!

Started at 7.30 finished at 19.00. Ten minute break for a coffee and a pee. Same as every other day. We've twice as much work and half the number of people to do it as this time last year.

If I have work to do I'll do it, if people put in meetings I'll attend but generally by lunchtime there are no meeting and after I've sorted my to do list most stuff can wait until Monday. I think a lot of office jobs are more about output than hours and if the work you need to do is done then no one really cares if you are working 8 hours a day. I'm in the office twice a week and even on those days if I feel I can leave an hour or so early because my work is done then I will, no point just sitting there for the sake of it. Work peaks and troughs through the week and some days are longer than others. Fridays at home seem generally accepted as more chill day even by senior leadership. Output over hours!

I do more work if I’m at home on a Friday. If I am in the office we usually go out for lunch then crack into the beers around 4.30. If I’m at home I generally eat at my desk and wait until at least 6 for a wine!

It's a catch up day and I tend to have an "easy" meeting with my senior team at 3pm. After that, we all log off or just keep an eye on things while handling personal stuff

I wondered this too! No teacher I know has more than about 15 mins to eat lunch!

The lack of understanding screams out from every word of that post.

How do they track you?

The days of having to be at work for a set number of hours or submitting a timesheet are becoming an anachronism. Most organisations, like mine, have an agile working policy. There is absolutely no expectation that I am in front of my laptop at set times. We are actively encouraged to have a work/life balance and to get our work done at times that suit our lives. Sometimes this means I might be working in the evenings to finish reports or present them at committee meetings.

We are a public facing organisation, so our admin support staff so have to work office hours to be contactable. But I do allow them flexibility where I can.

Tracking employees who work with computers is extremely straightforward using software - most business track their employees to some extent.

What the poster describes is often the case with e.g. call centre jobs, where the system will track when you are available to take calls, on a call, time spent between calls etc.

Sorry, from MN it's never come across as this. How do employers check? I was just responding to the OP who felt that having to work hard for a couple of days felt entitled to taking the Friday off. She clearly doesn't represent or give justice to you and others who do. Xx - I think this is a bit unfair. I didn't take Friday off, I was still working up until 2pm. But having worked roughly 48 hours up until Friday, I took the opportunity to take it easy for the afternoon. Yes, the poster who wrote about every second needing to be accounted for...that sounds awful. But when her day is done and she logs off, that's it. I'll have to log on today, check up on the issue, contact a few people and do the same tomorrow. And should it kick off again, I'll be back online sorting it out.

@TarantinoIsAMisogynist employers would need to declare this for it to be legal. I don't think everyone is being tracked.

No, not everyone is. But it's common in call centre type roles, whether working in person or remotely, and has been for decades. I had a call centre job in the 00s and we were monitored on call length, time active, breaks etc even back then.

Never even heard of ‘agile’ working policy until this thread! Does it just mean flexible? But I’m a secondary school teacher so it doesn’t really apply to me. I certainly don’t begrudge people their flexible working practices- I get that people make their choices, and my choice to continue working as a teacher certainly is influenced by the fact I get good holidays!

But I’ll never agree that working from home is as stressful or draining as actually being at work. During the pandemic, we taught from home and it was nothing like as tiring or demanding as being in the classroom! I could mute the buggers for a start…

The thing is, most types of work are different and it’s pointless to try to compare really. To me, the work I have to do in the holidays is fairly relaxing: preparing resources, writing schemes of work, general planning. This is because I can do it in peace, without thinking “quick, quick - year 10 will be here in 5 minutes” and I haven’t also got a growing list of parents to ring/kids to see at that point. The environment makes all the difference. So I guess I do sometimes wonder about people for whom all work is calm, desk-type work in the comfort of their own homes; are they really as tired as someone who’s been on their feet in a hospital all day, for example?

But, as I said, I like my job - I like the structure and the holidays, even if term time is completely manic.

My workplace do not track and state this clearly but I worked briefly in a call centre years ago (onsite) and every single move you made was tracked and your stats were what was discussed at one to ones with management. They tried to discipline a heavily pregnant woman for having too many toilet breaks, thankfully there was a union.

Teaching is flexible working but rather than balancing week by week, ie working hard Monday-Thursday and taking an easy day Friday, you balance the year by working around the clock during term times but also having 13 weeks minimum off a year.

I think the point to make is that different ways of working affect different people in different ways. There are people who find remote working much easier, and others who hate it and struggle to function. If someone says they really thrive off being physically in the presence of others to do their job, I don't feel the same but it's not for me to disagree with them either.

It may be that Admin stick to 9-5 all week while others work later and longer hours through the week so a couple of hours on the Friday evens it out.

But I’ll never agree that working from home is as stressful or draining as actually being at work. During the pandemic, we taught from home and it was nothing like as tiring or demanding as being in the classroom! I could mute the buggers for a start…

During the pandemic I had to do my own job wfh and homeschool both i
my children at the same time.

Although we didn't get any live lessons from the teachers just pdf worksheets and some YouTube links.

Now the at was demanding and stressful and draining.

Ugh I don't even like to think about what a shit time that was. We got sod all too, for which I don't blame the school at all. Meanwhile nearly half of DCs class were in school in the 2021 lockdown.