to think it doesn't really matter what you do when WFH as long as you get the job done?

[workyworky1]

When I WFH, I get most of my household tasks done in the day, I will do top up shops, pop to the library to return books etc.

Occasionally I have been to IKEA.

The work gets done. I just do it between life admin and tasks.

I have won an exceptional performance award in the past and my manager told me last week that he wants to nominate me for another.

It depends on the nature of the job of course but it works for me.

No my job can't be outsourced to India because it involves some face to face work along with expertise.

Life is unfair. I had no work come in yesterday at all, so I had the day doing all my chores and going out for walks.

But Google says it's the amount:

"the amount of something produced by a person, machine, or industry"

It depends whether you think of yourself as being paid for hours or being paid to deliver. It sounds like your boss wants you to deliver, not just simply log on for set hours.

I have known many people who work the hours without fail but are not doing much within the hours! That's the other side of it

Our company doesn’t mind when we do the work as long as it gets done. In fact, we are more productive as a team than when we were completely office based.

Taking that approach is the reason my company has really high staff retention. People are happier, and when needed they are more likely to want to go the extra mile for the company.

I have a lunch hour - it's blocked in my diary (will move if needed for meetings). Most people take lunch around the same sort of time.

Yes, but Jim's saying you shouldn't be paid for that day then. Arguing for piece work payment I presume, which doesn't work for many jobs where you're not producing something tangible.

That would be unprofessional imo, answering a customer phonecall or whatever in IKEA with all that background noise.

Agree, it's fine, as long as you are not contracted to be available at specific times

I have no set hours, just have to manage my customers's needs. Some weeks take more hours than others. Most tasks I need to do may have overall deadlines, but up to that point it doesn't matter what time of day I do them

I am paid for my knowledge, experience, contacts and expertise - gained over a couple of decades

My manager couldn't care less that I sometimes go shopping, have lunch, go for a walk, spa day etc. as long as I keep customers happy and hit targets

I mainly agree if the work is getting done and you are working your full hours. I see no harm in doing the odd job throughout the day. Even shopping I would say is fine if your are using un unpaid lunch hour.

However, there are some people who push it too far. We have someone in my company who takes a 2.5 hour lunch break everyday to go on a long bike ride, I personally think that is taking the piss and going too far.

I work from home permanently and have to log 40 hours a week. We can do those hours at a time to suit ourselves and the project team we’re working with. Nobody checks up on who is where as we all have different working patterns. As long as we all join a weekly check in meeting on teams and meet our deadlines, we are left to our own devices.

I quite often do my housework/laundry during the day, go out for lunch with my mum or go to the cinema. When I first started, I’d message my manager to check she was okay with my plans as it was a totally alien concept to me. She’d laugh and tell me to go ahead. Now I just put my out of office on and go out.

Surely it depends on your work schedule? Mine involves a flurry of very time-sensitive live calls or Teams messages at the start and end of the day, a dead zone in the middle of the day, and ideally being available for ad-hoc Teams requests late into the night. I don't feel bad about a long lunch in the office or at home

I wouldn’t go to IKEA but I will do little jobs around the house, and nearly always fold my washing if I’m on a teams call where I only need to listen and not talk.

In the office I inevitably get drawn into loads of chats with my team so it probably equates to the same amount of “downtime”. I value both- would rather be sat with my chatty team when I need to work through a process I don’t know that well, and would rather be at home in the peace and quiet when I need to focus on something.

Jim as in me? Where did I say that?

I don't get calls from customers in my role. I meant I will answer emails from my phone when I am in IKEA or out on a walk or shopping. Does it matter where I am?

How is it taking the piss though if you get all your work done.

what difference does it make if it’s done during office hours or not. Sitting at a desk in an office makes no difference - if you are in there- people scroll the internet, take long tea breaks and chats in the kitchen, do personal stuff !

even when I’m at work I pop out to the post office for personal things I need to post and stuff ! I do personal bank things or general life admin etc during quiet times.

Well I don't work for Google, so I'm not especially bothered what it says. I also don't work for an employer who lacks the capacity to think dynamically.

I'm not a teacher. But say I was. Would my value only be in exam results? Or would there be other ways to also measure my value, and thus, my output?

Same here, plus replying immediately to email queries.

My work hours aren't set. I do my work, sometimes start at 6am sometimes at 10am. I have weeks where I work more and others less. I get all my work done and more. Love being so flexible. I have so much more time than when I used to commute that it's easy to get everything done.

Well now you've specified emails and not phonecalls that's different. Emails can be from the beach in Cyprus. However it remains unprofessional to answer business phone calls imo (as I said) in a setting such as IKEA.

Role-dependent. I had a remote job during Covid during which I managed to eggshell all the woodwork in the house, lay wood flooring and fit a fireplace, all ready to sell up and get out of dodge now I no longer needed to commute. Sadly it was a fixed-term contract and I’ve had different roles since, all remote; some I can put a wash on, dinner in the slow cooker, bit of gardening, others I’m glued to my desk all day. None as good and cushty as the eggshell paint job, sadly. The pay was baller, too. Alas.

It would not be a problem for me or for any company that has a decent relationship with it's employees - one that is based on co-operation and joint venture.

However for many companies or managers, it's more of a master\servant relationship where they think they own you for the time you are at work (and often after that as well) and it is more a case of control, rather than productivity. I doubt they would be happy with this, no matter the value or quality of the work you are actually doing.

I'd be glad I work for a decent company OP and not care about what anyone else thinks.

I run my own business and we are fully remote, I actually love the fact my staff can now help out with family stuff, walk the dog, get washing done and generally live a more balanced family life.

When we have tight deadlines they work late put in hours when we have slower days they do what ever they need to do.

As a result we feel much stronger as a team, we understand each other roles and we all fell less stressed and do better work.

As the boss I have college runs, dog walks, elderly parent appointments etc.

So as long as we are all transparent it work so so well for us all.

Definitely role dependent but I do think you're taking the piss doing your weekly shops and have a jolly in IKEA. I also think project managers have fake jobs and over inflated egos ;)

I manage a team of 10. They all work as OP describes and i don't see it as taking the piss at all. They get the work done. They attend meetings at the right times. Outside of that, their time is their own to manage and I don't care if they knock off to go to ikea for a bit, because I know they're getting the work done. Its skilled work and they're capable adults. They're also generally happy and content with their work lives, they can work around sick children, they can attend all the school plays etc. It works really well for us.

How am I taking the piss? I can have a jolly in IKEA, do my weekly shops and I am getting nominated for an exceptional performance award!

BTW I am not a project manager