to get life admin done on a quiet WFH day?

[LoveWFH]

I was working until about 10pm last night and today I’m waiting to hear back from international colleagues before I can continue with a project.

So I’ve been in that annoying limbo where I can’t really move things forward.
I’ve been for a walk, done a supermarket shop, been to the post office, done some batch cooking and got on top of the housework.

I’m still checking emails and available, just not glued to the screen. I don’t feel that bad about it because I know when things are busy I regularly work late.

AIBU to think this is just part of WFH and it balances out?

YANBU. You were up to date with your work, you were checking email and you put in the extra time when it's needed.

Though I dare say a lot of people are chiming in even as I type this, to say that unless you were at your desk (even if just staring at the screen because there was no work to do) you were stealing time from your employers. 🙄 Or maybe I've just been made cynical by the content of so many WFH threads on MN.

That is shocking! That really isn't the sort of job where there's any excuse for not giving proceedings your full attention. I hope she got caught.

I am quite surprised no one's informed us all that there's 'no such thing' as life admin, though, as thatn seems to be the MN party line. 😄I'm sure they'll be along presently.

I’m a teacher so we don’t get skiving time although I am online.

I manage a team of people. We all largely WFH. I don't give a flying fuck what any of them do in the working day so long as the work gets done and they check in every hour or so / pick up their phone if I ring, in case anything urgent comes up.
But that's my team and my job and my workplace. It obviously depends on all of those things as to whether it's appropriate for you.

I work with APAC, normal hours do not apply. So yeah, I switch my hours around.

I do a lot of life admin during my working day if I’ve completed what needs to be done. No point sitting and staring at a screen if I can bake a cake, put some laundry on and clean the bathroom.

I do this all the time as does everyone else I know who wfh. Today I let the electrician in, washed our dressing gowns which were long overdue, and cleaned the oven. People who say YABU are just jealous.

That was my approach when I managed a team. All I was interested in was outputs. As long as they fulfilled their objectives and completed their work to deadline I didn’t give a shit when they worked or for how long. It meant they were more inclined to be flexible when it was needed.

If everyone at your work agrees that sometimes you must work longer, but you can take that time back on quieter days, that is your company's business.
If there's a job that's paid for by the taxpayer, and managers hardly do any work, only come in very little, skipping to the beauty salon while "wfh" while the worker drones have to travel in every day, and end up working longer than their paid hours, well, you can see why some people say wfh is cheating!

Is this the first time you've done this despite regularly working late OP?
I mean YABU if you often do unpaid evening work and have never taken time back before. Flexible working should work both ways.

It’s ok to an extent but sounds like you need more than one project? Or there’s always admin to catch up on, meetings to join etc.

You seem to be mistaking the OP - a responsible adult - for a schoolchild.
Making sensible decisions about the use of your time, achieving a decent work-life balance isn’t ‘skiving’.😂
Of course there are jobs which don’t allow for such flexibility but many do.

I have several projects. But sometimes they are all quiet or busy. I am uptodate with admin and there were no meetings to join.

Maybe you have a different work environment?

i think its fine - as long as you are working your hours - i regularly work 12 hours AND sometimes log on in the weekends - so if i have to do a morning supermarket run if its quiet - my boss isnt going to say no - my company are incredibly flexi tho.

YANBU. Your organisation is paying for your availability and if you’re not needed at a certain time then you can do what you want. I’m not needed until 10.30am and am up to date on my work. So far, I’ve done some housework and have scheduled some listings for eBay. I always schedule the listings to start outside of work time for two reasons. One, I’m paranoid that someone from work could see me uploading (although that would mean they also weren’t working) Two, more people are likely to be browsing in the evenings.

This is totally fine. I do it and am happy for people I manage to do it. As long as the work gets done, I don't care if they get their banking sorted out during the day as well. I know they will put the extra effort in if needed and as part of a mature workplace I accept that the reward for that is flexibility on my part too.

If you are able to tell your employer what you are doing and they are fine with it, it's not a problem.

So your hours are flexible and you're working flexible hours? What would the issue be?

So why are you asking if you are being unreasonable then?

Don't quite get your question.You sound happy/confident in your setup,so what's the point?Unless you're just having a nice start to your day and wanted to chat about it?

How many people in the office look at shite on the Internet, do their on line shop/banking. Photocopy their important documents. Buy insurance for the car...everyone does it.

Most Christmas' i worked and played online games for the period a week before Christmas until the new year simply because most of my clients managers were off. I was there for problems, did the end of months financials and there was nothing else to do

Sorry .. didn’t mean to sound arsey! Just meant why are you doubting yourself?

It would be fine where I work too. We have projects/ month end pressures. But today I have very little to do!

If I was in a physical office I would still have very little to do.

at our place it's all about deadlines, billable hours & customer satisfaction.

meet the deadlines with the appropriate number of billable hours and a happy customer then no-one cares when those billable hours were actually done

(obviously there are meetings to dial into and e-mails that need timely response)