Women’s workload has increased from wfh

[Fluffyiguana]

Is it just me or does anyone else feel like their workload in the home has gone up so much since they started working from home?

I mean it makes sense with now having two adults in the house 24/7 rather than just a few hours in the evening and weekends.

I just feel like I’m spending my life loading and unloading the dishes, replacing toilet roll, vacuuming, taking the bins out and repairing and replacing household items far more often due to them being so much more in use. The work is never done!

DP does chip in but feel even between us there’s a lot more to do and refresh.

I did not appreciate how much of a difference it makes going out to a place of work 10 hours a day where they have a cleaner emptying the bins, hoovering and replacing kettles from over use!

There are definite advantages to wfh but this is a big disadvantage to me..

There's a glaringly simple common denominator running through this thread...

Equal partners = no increased workload whatsoever, in fact life is streamlined

Unequal partners = female is knackered

Your OH “chips in”? What the hell does that mean. No, don’t tell me. It means he does the bare minimum while you take up all the slack right?

To coin a MN cliche, you don’t have a WFH problem. You have an unequal partnership problem. He makes more than 50% of the mess and does less than a third of the clearing up.

I love it. My work is very flexible though so I do get a chance to do housework every day. Plus I take an hour or so on a Friday and do the 'big clean' ahead of the weekend.

No, I've not noticed anything. DH and I do everything 50/50 though. We both WFH and both clean up after ourselves if we make a cup of tea or lunch. There's no "chipping in"; he's a grown man who can clean up after himself just as well as I can. He often preps dinner on his lunchbreak. We have flexible schedules and we'll go shopping and have it put away so there's no faff, etc.

I don’t think it makes much difference here. DH works from home most of the time and I work completely from home.

I do most school runs (my hours are set to reflect this) but we’d have to get her to breakfast club/ collect her from after school club anyway so it’s no different.

One of us empties the dishwasher in the morning whilst DD has breakfast - we both put our dishes etc in then as we go. DH never really has breakfast and I rarely do but if I do it’s probably a banana or a bit of yogurt so sticking the peel in the bin/ bowl in the dishwasher is no real hardship. We usually have leftovers from the night before for lunch, or something quick and easy and we’ll both clean up after ourselves and put pots in the dishwasher - I’d have to do that if I made my lunch in advance to take in with me anyway.

DH mostly stays at his desk and I tend to sit at a small table in the living room, we’re not wandering around the house making mess. If things are quiet I’ll make use of the odd 5 minutes to stick a wash on, change a bed, fold some laundry etc. DH gets more of a set lunch break than I do and will do jobs during it like emptying bins or making a start on prepping dinner.

He finished a bit early today (due to having to start exceptionally early as a one off) so collected Dd from school and they’re still out the front playing in the snow and I’ve finished up some bits of work and now I’m having a rest and a cuppa. Dinner is an easy one and all set to go. In previous jobs we’d both still be battling the commute right now, before eventually collecting DD from childcare and having to start dinner etc.

YABU.
I've wfh for years.
It doesn't create more work at all.

I'd say it's mainly DP to be honest... he's taken this as an opportunity to have a full on cooked meal from scratch x3 a day and seems to have endless drinks and generate a lot of rubbish.

Well, as you've said - it is a 'dp not clearing up his mess' problem, not a wfh problem.

I rather like the fact that if I am emptying a dishwasher whilst waiting for the kettle to boil, then it means my dishwasher is empty, rather than emptying the one at work then coming home and still needing to empty ours.

But, when I make a brew, I generally would reuse the same mug.
Yes, I'll use a plate at lunchtime, but I don't have to wash the tub I would otherwise be taking my lunch to work, in.
Not really sure how you are filling bins so much, if you are both working.

I've given this some thought. Our energy and water usage is higher. We use noticeably more toilet roll, but the workload feels less because I can fit it in here and there because I'm physically there at home to do it.

It takes no time to put a wash on while I'm making a coffee. Probably less time than I spend cleaning the kitchen at the office or listening to office chat.

I don't have my packed lunch containers to wash when I work from home and not much additional washing up because I probably microwaved leftover lasagne for lunch in the dish I originally cooked it in then lobbed in some salad and ate it out of there too 😁 So instead of an assortment of travel containers to wash I've just got a fork

When my husband is WFH too he's doing housework stuff too. He certainly doesn't create mess or fill bins. What with?

The only housework I do while WFH is the washing as I can load/unload washing machine during the day. Everything else is done as it would be if I was in the office. DH and I don't really make a mess if it's just us working and it's been a godsend for me as I work compressed hours so very long hours if you add on a commute at both sides of the day.

I haven’t noticed any increase. We re working so not creating mess. I have a few coffees but use the same cup then just put it into the dishwasher. I’d be running the dishwasher anyway each day. I tend to have a sandwich for lunch and DH has a cottage cheese and an apple most days. I go out the washing machine on most days before work and hang up washing on break or lunchtime so I spend less time going that at the weekend. Not sure if there is a lot more rubbish but we both take it out and husband always does it on a Friday anyway.

To be fair that probably has been a little true, particularly in the days when I was WFH 4 days a week and DH was working out of the house 5 days a week. But I would more than happily do domestic labour instead of my commute and loved having very little to do in evenings and weekends so we could do more as a family.

ssd

Its kind of gutting hearing people are doing housework when they are being paid to work. But maybe im jealous.

to be fair people just said they’re lucky they can stick on a wash- that takes less than two minutes. In all workplaces you get an hour lunch

Not sure who is 'doing housework when they are being paid to work' tbh ?

On a day I have to go in to my office, I would leave home at 7.15 to arrive around 8.30 - 8.45, spend 5 mins getting through security doors, signing in, going to the loo, taking coat off, setting laptop up to start work at 8.45 (on average). I'd take about 5 mins break for lunch, then leave at 4.30 to sit in traffic on the journey home. Time worked = just over 7.5 hours.

At home, to start work at the same time, having got up at same time, I've got 90mins to do anything I want at home.
If I finish at the same time, I've got another 90mins to do with as I wish.
Usually, (due to my own preference), I'd start a bit earlier, then stop for 15mins at around 10am (once the wash was done) to hang it out in the sun. Sometimes, at lunchtime, I'd prepare the evening meal. But I'd still work far more than the 7.5 hours I would have done in the office.
I just organise the hours in the day, to suit myself (around meetings, obviously).
My contract says I should work 7.3 hours a day. When you have no commute, it is easy to fit that into your day alongside either doing some jobs around the house, or walking the dog, or going for a swim or a run during daylight hours rather than at night.