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?

Yes, I work in a large London primary school. We all take a full hour for lunch on a Friday, it’s good for us and our wellbeing and SLT recognise that and make sure it’s always possible.

Absolutely this. I get that there are loads of jobs where you have no choice but to be completely present during your contracted hours. But, there are also lots of jobs where getting the work done and delivering what is needed can be much more flexible.

My work is very very flexible. My company is very anti ‘presenteeism’. If you have delivered, your work is a good standard and you are committed and present for all the important stuff, happy days. If you go to the gym every day at 3 or if you have a quiet afternoon, nobody cares.

There have been people in our team who were performance managed due to shoddy or constantly incomplete work but that happened pre wfh when we were all in the office too.

Omg an hour for lunch is a thing of the past for all schools I am aware of. 30 minutes according to the timetable but less because you have to get sorted for the afternoon and then are probably teaching in a different room.
When I was teaching in secondary school you'd be lucky to have a wee and a sandwich.
Expected to line up your form if there was a fire bell over lunch.

Yes, the homeschooling was stressful. I had that too for the first part of lockdown before key worker care was sorted. But I’m saying my actual job was much easier at home. And we did do all live lesson for the second lockdown (private school).

This.

These threads always bring up people who are convinced that businesses per se are mandating that people come back to the office. Nobody ever offers any proof of that, though. There are certainly examples of it, but that isn't proof that it's something happening across the board. It would be perfectly possible for remote working rates to stay the same, or even increase, even whilst there are some high profile examples otherwise.

But someone always says it, and gets agreement, because people like the idea of it.

It’s the opposite of flexible! Not complaining- just stating facts. I’m told what days I have to do and given a timetable that is organised down to the minute. That’s not flexible (or ‘agile’😂). The workload is massively varied though - due to the great holidays.

Why is it piss-taking to take some downtime where you can? Especially when, as PP says, you've likely worked much longer days earlier in the week instead.

I always take a half day on Fridays - I work for myself so no "piss taking" involved, I just don't book clients in after midday. It makes such a big difference to my work-life balance and has no impact on my finances.

I wfh 90% of the time. I couldn't just log off early. I'm always busy and my phone is on until 5pm and it's common to be on a call after that time.
I took an hours holiday this week as my son had an emergency dental appointment. Next week I've got 3 hours holiday booked so I can go to sports day.
I often don't take a break throughout the day and on the days I manage to it's a quick 30 mins and I usually spend that doing household things.
But no commute and can do the morning school run and be back at my desk in time to log on.
Have never worked anywhere where I'd just be able to log off if my work was done. I have so many screens open that it's hard to even move away from my desk with just my laptop and be able to work effectively

I work on/off during Fridays. DD goes to nursery 4 days and has a childminder Friday for 3 hours each afternoon, but both work 5 days. We just take it in turns to look after her in the morning. She has swimming at 9.30am so one of us does that, the other works, then the one who took her works whilst the other makes her lunch and puts her down for her nap. We can both make/eat lunch/work whilst she naps. Childminder takes her post nap until about 4.30 and one of us takes over again. The 3 hours childcare vs 5 days nursery means we can see more of her, have more relaxed start/end to the day without nursery runs and we save a bit of money.

I was answering emails at midnight last night because a customer raised a seriously escalated complaint and I had to organise a variety of different people mainly across the US to investigate and produce a response.

My core house according to my contract are M-F 9-5.30 but with the expectation that I'll work as needed to get the job done.

So yeah, I'll be taking it easy Monday if I can, might go to a cafe in the morning and start my day with a latte, slice of cake and a bit of time reading a book.

Yes your job, not everyone’s but I know teachers think that their job is the single hardest one ever.

It isn’t piss taking though. This is a very old school view. When I worked on a checkout, I worked very hard for all the hours I was there, couldn’t work from home and wasn’t able to take any down time on the job as with many other jobs - but then I went home and didn’t think about work or need to stay late unless I volunteered for overtime.
I now run a team and work in a very senior job and am available pretty much 24/7. Therefore I take down time where I can, because the couple of hours I might spend doing that on a Friday afternoon are offset hugely by the hours I’ve spent working into the evening, early mornings and weekends during the same week. I feel the same about my team, if they are doing their work and are delivering to a high standard they can do what they like in terms of working hours. It’s about outcome and management, not clock watching old school working hours. If someone isn’t delivering then it’s managed appropriately in line with their goals and objectives- not whether they are “piss taking” by having a couple of hours downtime in the week.

And also, "genuine people impacted by my behaviour"....I can guarantee no one is affected by my sitting on a bed, scrolling through my phone while simultaneously tapping the trackpad so my laptop doesn't go into sleep mode where I can't see the screen. Because while I can still see the screen, I can action anything urgent that comes in. And you know when people would be genuinely impacted by my behaviour? When they WhatsApp me at 5.30am to say the shit has hit the fan and needs sorted and I reply that I don't start work for another three hours because I'm in a different time zone so they'll have to wait. But I don't do that and never would, because of the flexibility afforded to me which allows me to do the aforementioned relaxing during what you deem to be core work hours.

Fridays are always my busiest days, so my Monday becomes my Friday of sorts, normally start at lunchtime and mostly checking on chat messages and planning for the week.

Umm my very non-confrontational comment seems to have struck a nerve with you 🤷‍♀️

I was just clarifying that I found wfh much less tiring than physically being at work, but that homeschooling (as a separate issue) at the start of the pandemic was really hard. I don’t really get your response?

It's manic. I'm in fintech so Friday is finalizing all the prep for changes to software/systems to be done at the weekend. I dream of a 5pm finish to be honest but it usually doesn't calm down until the US markets close.

My phone line and screen is recorded
A screen shows all our statistics, how long we have been on a call, how much after call time we have, whether we are on lunch, on a call, doing an email etc
Rota shows our break and lunch times
How many calls we take, how many outgoing calls we make, everything like that is on a daily and monthly email

Do you mean you work condensed hours over 4 days? Hoping to get this approved when I return from mat leave as I would love a day off with LO but worried I will regret it as currently the job is flexible e.g I can nip out in the day and catch up in the evening, which I will obviously lose if working long days

How do you find it?

I could ask for and probably get condensed hours but I am the same, I get the work done efficiently and well but I don’t sit at my desk all day by any means. I do the work when it’s there and flexibly. So I think that really means working 5 days to allow that flexibility to take a long lunch and go for a swim or whatever if it’s quiet but also be willing to work early/late if needed .

I would be very interested in knowing the roles and I stand by what I say with 'the real world'. This is the stress of traffic, finding somewhere to park (or PT and the delays), being among other people with the noise, interactions and emotions, doing a job like teaching classes of 30 students one after another, attending to patients, dealing with rude shop customers. Yes the real world, not working on a computer and being able to mute, switch off, being on your own with no other human stress and immediate demand around you, purely the task you are doing. I understand this is of course mentally draining and being at a screen not the best for concentration, online meetings make me feel sleepy!

All jobs have their ups and downs, but when an OP says they are able to just take a day off and pretend to work, of course it won't resonate well with those who don't have this opportunity. Xx

Exactly, this type of OP doesn't give credit to all who do work conscientiously for the days they are being paid for. It smacks of lazy gloating. Xx

Isn't this a case that you should be working and not juggling other activities? So, you have a space and do your tasks, not take kids swimming and get out a laptop? Sounds like you are going about your own lives and cramming in laptop as you go. Not ideal work or family wise, the rest of us who don't work from home/waiting areas/fields can't just leave and have to book clubs, appointments etc after work.

Or you could be joking, as it comes across, but is also quite believable. Xx

That really is nice, hence the suggestion of a 4 day week, but this can only work for certain jobs. Yet again, it shows the difference between office work and other areas, eg a nurse can't reduce hours due to output. Xx

Same here, was wfh teaching and had my own DC to home school. I still found this less stressful than being in school all day and as soon as the day ended, no meetings, commute, just switch off computers! X