Was I unreasonable to go to Pilates in the middle of the day? Feel sick....

[SisterJude7]

I work from home and am allocated 30 minutes for lunch. I am chronically underpaid for my level of seniority (I manage a small team). In my view, it is inhumane to expect human beings to only take a mere 30 minutes to recuperate, although many of my colleagues relish missing their lunch breaks and wear their lack of lunch as a badge of honour. I admittedly sometimes go for a run, attend a gym class or run some errands before school pick up which is beneficial for my own wellbeing. No issues with my performance, I work my hours and I have finished late on numerous occasions anyway. The daytime classes tend to be cheaper and use less of my Class Pass points and besides, I have zero time in the evening.

Anyway, on Friday, I attended a 50 minute Pilates class. I don't usually pay much attention to the other attendees, but during the warm-up, I was absolutely blindsided to see a director on the carriage opposite (she has Fridays off). My stomach absolutely dropped-she definitely clocked me and looked stony-faced but briefly nodded. To make matters worse, the shock went straight to my bowels, so I needed to dash to the loo 😭😭. I had no choice but to complete the class which felt like the longest 50 minutes of my life with a churning stomach. She scuttled out at the end of the class.

Do you think I will be in trouble? I have spent all weekend ruminating. I don't want recent minor transgressions to be put under the microscope- I've been spoken to informally about my dogs barking in a client meeting and once I also forgot a teams meeting and popped to the supermarket. I don't want to be forced to go back to the London office as my dogs have separation anxiety and I need to be around to pick up my DCs. Should I say something and get in there first? My DH thinks I am overreacting, it will be fine and that I should just buy a mouse jiggler from Amazon which I don't agree with.

You say you work your hours - you don’t if you go to the supermarket / spend a minimum of 70 minutes getting to and from your class on your 30 minute break.

If you want to retain this job - and WFH jobs aren't that easy to get these days largely because of this sort of carry on - you had better be at your desk and logged on and working the all hours specified by your contract. They will be looking for you to put another toe out of line and for heaven's sake don't compound it by buying a mouse jiggler. No more popping out to Pilates, going to the supermarket, going for a run and most of all not forgetting a Teams meeting when popping out. My boss would be giving me an utter telling off and probably a written warning and I am a senior person. It is simply dishonest.

I think you will probably be fine- just don’t make a habit of it.

In my world, when I worked NHS, you couldn’t even disappear for 5 minutes without being asked where you were, why you took so long, where is @anewusernametoday

I agree.

A 50 minute class.

Is this a wind up??
if not then yes you are definitely taking the piss and it’s people like you who give legitimate home workers a bad name.

Hmm. I think it will get mentioned to your line manager. The director will be annoyed as she will be thinking that she takes Fridays off so she can do pilates classes in the middle of the day. She will think you're taking the piss.

If I was you I'd be working some evenings in the coming weeks and sending some emails etc out to show. You need to be whiter than white from now on.

Of course you are taking the piss. It’s perfectly normal to have thirty minutes for lunch.

How would a mouse jiggler help the fact that you were seen out at a pilates class? 😂 Also they are easily detectable these days, most employers have clocked on to this.

Basically OP, I suppose you need to follow the rules of your workplace, and if they won't be flexible to allow for this sort of thing then you shouldn't do it.

Lots of workplaces ARE flexible though. If I had a chat with my manager about needing some time in the middle of the day to exercise, she would be very happy for me to flex my time and make up for that at the beginning or end of the day.

Perhaps you need to find a more flexible workplace?

I wouldn't recommend continuing if they clearly aren't happy with it. It sounds like you didn't discuss/ clear it with your manager beforehand though so I can understand why they would be a bit annoyed.

I assume OP means that she makes up the time earlier/ later in the day.

Being chronically underpaid is subjective - everyone but everyone thinks they are underpaid for what they do

you sound like a total piss taker

if the privilege of WFH was so important to you then you should have respected it and not abused it

I hope you get disciplined and WFH removed

(by the time you have walked to and from your class and assuming you get there a couple of mins before it starts then you are having a lunch break of at least 1hr 15 mins)

If you have a set amount of time and exceeded that, then yes unreasonable.

Your whole past pretty much sounds like the problem with wfh tbh. I “pop” here, I “just quickly” that - it sounds as tough work fits in around your home life

Do you start very early, because otherwise you seem to have a very short work day if you stop at school pick up, as presumably you are looking after children after them get home from school. Once you add the runs, trips to super market etc, you seem to have a pretty short day.

Is 30 mins lunch what you HAVE to take or are you actually able to work flexibly??
It’s ridiculous you can’t do an exercise class at lunchtime- I think that’s quite normal. I’d make sure my diary was properly organised and it was clear for example I work until 7pm etc or have my hours clearly marked

Ive seen loads of people on MN say how super efficient they are they can get all their (ft) work done in 2-3 hours/days wfh. One person said they had 2 FT wfh jobs and spent 1 or 2 hours a day on each.

However im 99.9% sure this post is just fake rage bait because it reads like a wfh annoyance bingo card and they havent been back to address any questions

You need to either follow the rules or agree with your manager that you are alllowed to work more flexibly. Your opinions about your pay, what is humane and badges of honour are irrelevant here.

I think you know you are being unreasonable. It sounds like you are jealous of your husbands role which is more flexible. However this could put your own job at risk. If you don’t have time to do all the things you want/need to do I think you need to cut your hours. I would walk the dog in my lunch break and put the washing on but apart from that I work.

Some jobs allow this flexibility, whether WFH or in the office, some don’t or can’t. That’s just a fact of life so if you don’t like your terms of employment or your specific role then you need to leave or renegotiate. There is quite often reasons why roles are set up the way they are and that’s to ensure business need is met.

On principle I agree that time away from the desk, whether it be to eat a relaxed lunch or attend a fitness class, is valuable, and probably makes for better employees.
But you sound quite disorganised and a liability overall; your dogs bark in client meetings and you've forgotten a teams meeting and popped to the supermarket?!? I can't find that much sympathy for this latest situation, TBH.

And if your dogs have separation anxiety, that is on you and you need to sort it out.

I think it depends on the work culture- my company supports truely flexible hours and would be fine with it. My sister's company is the opposite.

I tend to think it isn't a big deal when you do your work. My sister thinks the opposite.

This probably explains the contrasting views in the thread. I think only you know if it will be problematic- your concern makes it sound like it's something your company doesn't like/endorse.

So what? "I'm a soldier, for me, lunch is a tin of cold beans while on sentry duty"

Only you know the culture in your team, but if you're senior enough to manage several direct reports, not trusting you to manage your time through the week to allow a quick palates class is mad.

I'm surprised at the po-faced officious responses on here. If stakeholder service expectations are met, and OP dedicates her contracted amount of work to her job, what kind of jobsworth cares if she took an hour and 10 for her lunch?

And you should be that is total and utter fraud (edit spelling)

Maybe she was supposed to be at work too? (Time for you to go to Pilates at a different time)

Basically this!