To think remote workers are more productive but milk it too?

[YourTealBalonz]

WFH can be great for productivity. But let’s be honest, lots of people are milking it. Long lunches, “offline hours”, errands on work time. AIBU to think both things can be true?

A truly ground breaking thread

Well yes both can be true, but if they’re more productive, does it really matter? I work from home but I’m self employed so my time is my own to use as I see fit and I’m definitely more productive because of it.

If the work’s getting done well and on time, it’s not really an issue. I just think in some roles there’s less oversight, so people can underwork without it showing straight away. That’s where I think the milking it side comes in.

I'm capable of being unproductive working in the office or working at home, the two aren't mutually exclusive.

Need laugh reaction back.

well some milk it and some don't. same as in any office where you have a range of productivity and quality of work. I have office colleague who do very little and spend excessive time chatting in the kitchen or by the wate cooler. They do a fraction of some home workers. what is your point exactly???

In what way is it 'milking it' to be both productive and have a decent balance to your working day?

Are you working atm Op?

My point is that wfh can genuinely improve productivity and make it easier for some to slack off without being noticed, more so than in an office where there’s at least some visibility. It’s not saying everyone does it, just that the setup can make it easier for those who want to.

You have truly only just come to this thought process op?

where were you during… oh I don’t know the last 4 years?

If the output’s solid, I wouldn’t call that milking it. By milking it I mean when people take advantage of the lack of oversight to do less overall, not just to have a healthy balance.

So you think visibility (keeping an eye on people, watching over them), increases productivity?

If someone is going to slack off, they will still slack off, they will just do it while youre looking...

sounds a hell of a lot like what youre thinking of is elements of micro management. You either trust the staff or you don't.

Yes, both things can indeed be true. The lack of commute means staff can start earlier when they'd have been sitting on a train, work later rather than rushing to catch a train. The absence if colleagues means a lot of time previously lost to chat is reclaimed. Staff are able to work with minor illness or health conditions because they only have the work to worry about rather than the travel and infecting colleagues. Staff don't need to take a day off (fake) sick to deal with domestic emergencies. All of this often compensates for the extra life time the remote worker carves back from the working day.

When I WFH I start earlier, seldom take a break and work later, sometimes I take some of the time back. When I work in the office, I spend the entire day walking from meeting to meeting with my laptop, but do less hours. Neither is wrong they are just different, but it always pisses me off when people think that it's some kind of jolly.

Let's not forget that many businesses have lowered their outgoings by reducing office space, if my whole org was in the office every day, there are not enough workstations.

Seriously this one again?!

In life there are always people who will slack off and find a way to take the piss be it at home or in a work setting....20 min smoke break x3 a day or multiple stand in the work kitchen and yap for 20 mins.

The vast majority of us who wfh most of the time work solidly in fact many end up taking less breaks.
Yes my washing machine gets put on....at the same time I put the kettle on and wait for it to boil. It gets hung out at lunchtime.

Nevermind the fact the wfh means people are less likely to take sick days and push through when they shouldn't! My sick days have reduced by 85% since wfh..... I don't get less sick I just work through it more as I'm no where near anyone else! Only if I am vomiting do I now take a sick day!

I think it depends on what you do and what you need to do.
I have done some form of remote working for over 10 years, so not a Covid-related situation. I was at my desk and logged in, usually earlier than if I had been in the office, because I didn't have the travel time. I took my contact-stated lunch break, although I may have put the lunch on during working time if it needed to cook. I did the work required, and some, met deadlines, attended meetings etc.etc.
Any domestic activity, such as putting a load of washing on or setting the dishwasher off either happened before I started work or at lunchtime.
Starting early meant that I sometimes finished early, depending on where my team was based. Sometimes I was on a call (with the boss) at 19:00 on a Friday evening. Didn't really matter.
In my last role I needed to attend to some personal business about an hour away from where I was based. I would start very early that day and block the time I was out of office in my calendar with where I was and why (no details). That appeared to work well.
However, I have had mails from other people telling me that they were just going out to cut the grass or similar, in case anyone wanted them - I was 2iC so would have been the next port of call. Fine by me as long as there wasn't anything critical happening and I had their private number, so could WhatsApp if anything acute came up.
I had far less respect for colleagues who blocked their entire day in their calendar, which made it extremely difficult to see whether they were in back-to-back meetings or just pretending to be really busy. Obviously you could check what they were up to, by trying to invite them for meetings at certain times, in which case clashing meetings would have shown up. Not very believable either way and points to poor time management.
What I never did was go shopping or anything that needed me to get into the car and go somewhere, because I was able to arrange/plan for these activities to be done out of office hours.

In a way, yes. WFH gives me the flexibility that if I have had a shit night with my disabled DC I can take out an hour while they are at school and have a nap. I will then log back on in the evening and make up that hour. If I need to go to school, same applies. It offers a flexibility thst being office based does not.

However, it also relies on the person having integrity and being honest. Easy to take advantage of with someone less than honest and hard to monitor. I also absolutely do not work with my children awake.

I don’t do any of those things 🤷🏻♀️ I log in, work till lunch, take my unpaid lunch break for 1 hour. I then work till my finish time. I don’t disappear at all.

Lots on employers are now monitoring what each member of staff actually does so hopefully those that aren’t pulling their weight will be pulled up for it.

Depends on the role, I’ve had wfh where I couldn’t do that, call centre work every minute monitored and jobs where they really don’t care if I have a long lunch or go out in the afternoon and I’m trusted to manage my time.
also it’s as much of a mixed bag as in the office, I know plenty who dick about in an office too skiving.

My DH has worked mostly from home for a long time - over 20 years now - and he is definitely more productive at home than on the odd days he goes into the office. He did regularly take time out of his day to do the school runs when we had DC in primary school but always more than made up for it at other times. But of course it's also open to abuse. I'd say it depends very much on the individual and to some extent the job.

I WFH FT when not travelling and take time out daily to go for a swim or a yoga class. My work is great, I'm productive, I just make time work for me.

My job is task/project dependent. Working from home does give me flexibility but the work still needs done and deadlines need to be met. The difference is I can do the reading and written work in ways that suit me - I’ll often write later on at night rather than trying to force myself first thing in the office.

If I’m unwell I can often work through it because I don’t need my game face on so can look like death at my desk. So I’m equally productive, more able to flex to suit my work demands and more able to take some slack when things ease off a bit.

A bit of both for me. Last 2 months at work I've not had a single minute to be unproductive. I've been too busy. The month before that however I had loads of time to do housework etc.

If they are completing all their work on time and to the required standard or better how are they ‘underworking’?