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.

What are you recuperating FROM?

Creative writing endeavours

But getting there, the class and getting back is at least an hour and 10 minutes. And that doesn’t include preparing and eating a meal, which presumably you do as well? If you can barely drink a coffee in 30 minutes how long does it take you to eat?!

I hope it works out ok. I would use this incident to evaluate my career choices - do I really want to work for a firm where I work late, work hard, receive remuneration that is not competitive, while constantly clock watching and looking over my shoulder? Is there a firm out there that would appreciate my work ethic and provide me with a more grown up, trusting and flexible working environment? And god forbid, allow me to do my lunchtime Pilates class without causing me to hyperventilate?

Good luck OP, they don't deserve you.

You're not working down a mine why do you need to recuperate?
Maybe it's time for a new job

Yeah, this is pure rage-bait. Well played, OP.

Just how physically demanding is this desk based WFH job that means after 3-4 hours work, you need an hour or more to 'fully recuperate"? If you are that slow drinking coffee, it strikes me that you are mostly an inefficient individual.

You are wrong about France too. They are entitled to a 20 minute break after 6 hour's work. It is custom to take longer, not legally mandated. The only mandated part is that lunch cannot be eaten at your desk.

Fully recuperate?

If you want an hour for lunch see if you can add the extra 30 mins to the end of your working day.

Top tip - the suppression doesn't work (at least where I work) if you use a headset. It's amazing if you don't though. No idea why but it's a consistent issue I have when on calls with people using headphones that there's background noise. I suspect you could sort it by going into the settings and forcing it to use the computer mic rather than the headset one.