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?

Working from the office can also be great for control freaks and people who do not trust their staff. It's also a great way for demotivating staff with shitty travel and long commutes.

People who work from offices are also able to toss it off at coffee machines, wandering round the office to kill time, talking to colleagues at their desk, taking long lunch hours and hiding in spare rooms to have pointless meetings or just to hide.

At least people from home are not looking for creative ways to hide it from their boss. 🙄

I would also add people WFH also take less time off sick and make less colleagues sick if they catch illness, saving lost time to business with sick leave.

Works both ways.

Yes, it's a mixed bag.

Some people can be more productive at home. Other's find it more difficult, they get distracted by household things.

Some have better balance for themselves without a commute but that does not mean they use that time to work.

Many jobs don't have easy ways to measure productivity which makes it harder to know if someone is being less productive. And then, there are also kinds of work that are fundamentally social and not directly productive, like mentoring younger or new workers.

And then there are the people who are overtly taking the piss, the mouse jiggler types.

I must have seen at least 1000 versions of this thread..please just stop

It's the best of both worlds

Zero interruptions that you usually get in an office, so productivity is higher

But access to housework/childcare/ shopping or whatever when you have a lunch hour

As long as they do whatever work they're needed to, meet their targets etc what's your problem.

You're a bit late to this particular party btw 🙄

Not all businesses work with targets.

It makes very little difference in my view. If I'm in the office, guaranteed I'll have hours wasted by the people who want to be babysat. If I'm at home working, I can actually do my work without adult children needing my attention to babysit them. And if that means I can do other things then good. Presenters helps nobody.

Read again "if they do what work they're meant to".

What is your problem exactly, can't you bear to see the world of work evolving.

Milking looking busy in an office is just part of working in an office, most people don't even realise that's what they're doing. It's just what they've always done, and what everyone does.

Tea breaks/gathering at the cooler or kitchen, having to "discuss with colleague", walking quickly round so people think you're doing something important, looking focused at your computer when you're not really doing anything besides daydreaming.

This is why people are more productive from home. They are less distracted and working more than in an office.

I'm sure that some people milk it, put their washing on during a break, overrun at lunch... But not half as much as they milk all the distractions and "looking busy" in an office.

It's easier to pretend to work in an office than at home, because you just need to look busy and productive... Not actually be busy and productive. From home, the proof is solely in the pudding, so you have to actually do the work.

I think that's why a lot of people are actually afraid of the rise in WFH. They'll be outed as useless and unproductive, with no mask of observable "busy-ness" to cover their ass.