To think remote workers exaggerate how much they actually work?

[ZippyGreyOtter]

WFH is convenient but AIBU to think lots of people log on, do a bit, then spend most of the day coasting, while loudly insisting they’re “more productive than ever?”

Oh aye, I log in, and then immediately piss off to please myself for 8 hours.

Back in the real world, I think most people WFH are indeed, WFH.

A small number of people take the piss, some of them get found out and dealt with and some of them have shit managers who let them coast and slack.

Much more likely is, theres a bunch of very jealous folks out there who are office based and would rather not be, but can't swing it for whatever reason, and so they like to have a good old bitch about those of us who WFH.

I work from home in a role where I have targets to reach. Other that time to nip to the loo or grab a drink, there's no time to slack off. Production wise its exactly the same in the office to what it is at home.

I can genuinely say that I get almost twice as much done at home compared to being in an office. But it completely depends on the person and the type of work. My work is very detail oriented and I work better in complete silence. So you can imagine that being in my home office alone is more conducive to me getting things done. It’s very easy to measure my outputs, so if I was coasting I’d have been found out a long time ago. I’m very available and contactable, and my colleagues have even commented on this, and never had a problem getting in touch with me.
I’ve also been doing my job a very long time and built up a lot of goodwill.

I don’t think there is a blanket rule or standard for this, like I said, depends on the person and the type of work.

No I work very hard often doing more than my hours

If someone coasts at home, they’d do it in the office. We’ve all seen people who do nothing, chat or wander round looking busy.

For me and many others wfh means I can stay full time, flex hours around life and in return I’ll do extra as and when needed because it’s a reciprocal thing.
it also means I’m not in ND burnout and needing time off or having to go and recalibrate myself multiple times a day so there’s more productive hours.

Yabu

I do more work because I worry people think I'm slacking off!

We're having a busy period at mo and today i stated work an hour early and did another 2 hours after dinner.

@ThatCyanCat I don’t think so - my role is an Exec Assistant and a huge portion of that work is supporting an Exec on the day to day, but I couldn’t see them via teams, could never get in contact with them to take work from them. I think had it been an in person role, I would’ve been able to push for more. I think it’s entirely role dependent.

Who cares. My manager would notice pretty quickly if I was doing nothing, just as I’d hope any half decent manager would.
But if someone has a job where they have more hours than work, everyone is happy with their output, and they’re not looking to go the extra mile for a promotion etc then 🤷🏻‍♀️

Honestly, all the "productive" people I work with are mostly doing their jobs wrong.

My mat cover wrote essay-length documents for compliance that still didn't answer the key questions. I've replaced half his waffle with a few simple tickboxes.

This guy on a project keeps making me helpful "examples" of how I should be doing my job, and sending management useless summaries of legislation changes that I have fully covered already.

Yes, these buggers are probably sat there typing away a lot more of the day than me, but I know what I'm talking about, and I don't waste time.

Nope absolutely incorrect. Our work is monitored and we are monitored through teams showing us as active. I literally take a break for my 15 minute tea break and my lunch. Get far more work done at home when there's no one chatting constant shit like in the office to distract me.

I’d have found that pretty tough too though I’ve also had this when I worked in an office (where you can’t do stuff to fill the time).
It’s actually quite stressful.

However in your current case, this isn’t a wfh issue, it’s a management issue.

My DP's activities are tracked - including how long he's in the loo if not in his break. He's PT - works a 6 hour shift, and gets a 15 min break. He oftens has cases to "finish off" for an hour or so unpaid. This is exactly the same as his office days.

Yes I think you’re probably right @BurntBroccoli, if the work isn’t delegated it isn’t delegated at home, or in an office. I could imagine it being a lot more stressful pretending to be busy in an office. At least my house has been redecorated before I go back I guess 😂

I bill in 6 minute increments and have to justify every charge as I work for a nonprofit. There is no chance I could coast.

I think the people who think people who WFH are doing nothing, are the kind of people who try very hard to do nothing in the office and only perform because they are being watched by their colleagues or boss.

If you are a manager and you don’t trust your staff to WFH, you need to get better staff and be a better manager.

DD2's workplace now allows WFH only on an individual basis.

She's allowed to WFH full time with one day a month in the office, plus any important meetings or trainings. My nephew isn't allowed to wfh at all (same workplace). And openly admits that's a sensible decision because he was too easily distracted at home and his housemates interrupted him a lot.

Good management deals with coasters regardless of where they work.

Agree with all this. Most firms are now back 4 days, which is a good balance.

Wfh has been shown to be far less productive on average, most companies are only reluctantly offering it to attract personnel in a competitive environment to recruit staff.

https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2023/06/28/the-working-from-home-delusion-fades

"The researchers had not made a mistake. Rather, they received more precise data, including detailed work schedules. Not only did employees answer fewer calls when remote, the quality of their interactions suffered. They put customers on hold for longer. More also phoned back, an indication of unresolved problems.

The revision comes hot on the tails of other studies that have reached similar conclusions. David Atkin and Antoinette Schoar, both of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Sumit Shinde of the University of California, Los Angeles, randomly assigned data-entry workers in India to labour either from home or the office. Those working at home were 18% less productive than their peers in the office. Michael Gibbs of the University of Chicago and Friederike Mengel and Christoph Siemroth, both of the University of Essex, found a productivity shortfall, relative to prior in-office performance, of as much as 19% for the remote employees of a large Asian it firm. Another study determined that even chess professionals play less well in online matches than face-to-face tilts. Yet another used a laboratory experiment to show that video conferences inhibit creative thinking."

I think in the parenting circles we’re in productivity drops during the school holidays with the constant distractions of children at home, then it’ll ramp up again until half term. There are a LOT of parents that do school pickups whilst working full time, some will have officially moved their lunch break, some are completely flexible, start earlier and finish later but there must be some that need to do 9-5 but spend the rest of the afternoon giving snacks, sorting out arguments and cooking dinner and little work is getting done when it should be

No. My day is back to back teams meetings. I spend most evenings catching up on work I’ve not been able to do during the day !

Snap. I go into the office once a fortnight but the rest of the time I WFH and am in endless meetings. It would get noticed if I didn't come up with the goods

Well if my team or I weren’t being productive it would be immediately noticeable to everyone else so YABU.

I think people’s perception of remote working says a lot about the individual themselves, someone who thinks remote workers don’t do much should almost certainly not be trusted with remote working as they would expect to be doing fuck all.

Oddly enough, OP, I’m actually a grown-up who can get their work done without my mummy boss breathing down my neck 😂

I'm sure everyone is different but... I went from a company which was fully flexible but with office space is people wanted to use it, to a full time office based role....I am in shock at the laziness, presenteeism and poor outputs of the current place.
No one seems to do anything.
My prior place out of 80 staff I could think of maybe 1 or 2 people who were a bit lazy and rubbish, the others did long hours when needed, were committed and hard working
I'm wondering if the hybrid/flexible roles attract the best and brightest, which might account for the difference?

Some people coast, but in my team it would be pretty obvious if anyone was. We have to pull our weight as we have deadlines to meet. So, no, we don't coast.