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.

But that attitude is fine as long as it is transparent and works for both the worker and employer.

Op has already been pulled up about concerns relating to her home working...her dogs disturb meetings and she went to the supermarket instead of attending a meeting.

Her childcare issues in the evening are not her employers problem. If she needs a better home/work life balance then she needs to have this conversation, not take it on herself to decide she works Flexi, especially when she clearly can't organise her diary since she forgets to attend meetings due to running errands

This really pisses me off OP.
NOTHING in this country works efficiently anymore and you have the benefit of WFH and still are taking advantage. Entitled much!

Perhaps consider the general public suffering the outfall from all the shirkers in society!
The Civil Service to name just one of many.

I don't usually pay much attention to the other attendees,

This detail is in there, why? The made up rage bait threads always over egg the unnecessary long-winded explanation.

And someone who skives off all the time and then literally has to run and take a crap because they're so scared at being caught. Yeah, sure.

Also, the carriage is the part of the reformer that moves back and forth on the glides, kind of like the belt on the treadmill. The way the OP has phrased it it's like saying she was doing a running boot camp class and a director was on the belt next to her. Weird phrasing.

Sounds like you also do school runs so when are you making this time up? On the odd occasion that I must do school run I take a late lunch to do this and skip my actual lunch break but this is pre agreed with manager.

I have to say I agree with this.

If you haven't spoken to a manager and confirmed it ok to take extra time for a specific purpose then you shouldn't.

The fact that your dogs have separation anxiety is unfortunate but not your employer's problem and if you wouldn't leave an office to pop to the supermarket then you can't do that at home.

If you have a flexible working arrangement then it's different but you don't sound like you do.

Your team , who are obviously paid less then you , won't be happy when they find out how irresponsible you are as their manager . They're bound to find out .

Not sure if they work in the office, but all office workers will be pissed off with you as they have to stick to their 30 minutes.

I'm not sure why you think you're entitled to do this/get away with doing this.

What's the point of a mouse jiggler if people are physically going to see you out of work anyways.

I would not care if my team member was doing this as long as their work was decent and they don’t take the piss. As long as the work gets done I don’t really care if it’s in core hours, or done very early or late.

This scenario would be so different, if you had an arrangement for a certain pilates class each week - eg started earlier or finished later to accommodate the longer lunch. The fact that you've done it without consultation and been caught out is the main problem. If I were you, I would speak to your line manager and explain what happened and explain how you made up the time. Perhaps you could claim that you had chosen the daytime class because your usual evening one was fully booked?

Then, if you want to do this in future, you need to ask if you can be flexible with your hours once or twice a week once you feel trust has been restored. It is situations like this that have companies demanding people return to the office 5 days a week.

the people you manage will be disgusted by your attitude
my manager often works from home when the rest of us arent allowed
it does not make for good working relations

If they will accept you started earlier or worked later to make up for it, say that.
If not, could you book the day or half the day as holiday? Or can you not do that afterwards?

I think everyone that is saying they "make the time up", hand on heart do you honestly? I think with teams there is this thing that if you are green then it's fine, you are working. But I know at my place of work people come in early, log on and sit there chatting. So no actual work gets done. That's their take on "making time up". So you can imagine what goes on at home if they are doing that in the office.

I do think if you are that way inclined and a bit of a piss taker, then they’ll just pretend to make up the time anyway.

Daytime classes are better for me too... unfortunately I have a full time job and so cannot attend them. OP may work from home, but they still have a job and it is perfectly reasonable for an employer to expect them to be working.

If they do the school run, then presumably they usually work 9-3, so are entitled by law to 20 mins break - therefore 30 mins is far from humane.
Given they miss meetings to go to the supermarket, miss the last half hour of the day to go for a run and now take over a double lunch break for a pilates class, I would expect any boss to be having a serious conversation.

I think it should depend on how productive you are generally. When I was at work I would have objected to any complaints, as I more than did my hours and hit all my targets.

I worked from home for let's think, 21 years, before I took early retirement.

In not one job that I did from home did I do less hours than I was being paid for.

On the very odd occasion if I was ill, id maybe take a morning or afternoon to have a sleep but never once did the job not get done, on time, and mostly well before time.

You are a CF.

You need to get in first before this director drops you in it. Say you worked later or started earlier to account for the lengthy lunch break - or that you intend to. If you really are popping to the shops and doing the school run during working hours, then you are taking the piss and you might get more than an informal warning about it.

How long a lunch break does the director get OP?

How much are you getting paid and for what kind of work? Sounds like the real issue here is a bit of a toxic culture, if the money is bad I really wouldn’t give a flying f-bomb about skiving for Pilates

Yes, I think you will be “in trouble”. WFH requires trust from your employer and you are clearly not working your contracted hours. The issue of being underpaid and whether your allocated lunch break is sufficient should have been addressed before.

Irrelevant since it was the directors day off

Also, had op been honest and spoken to work about increasing her lunch break for that day, and making the time up, then she wouldn't be in such a panic. She tried to hide what she was doing.

It seems she wanted to go to the class and not have the pressure of making the time up formally. There are already concerns relating to her home working and she seems to have a very entitled attitude

Nice attempt to whip up a spot of anti-WFH froth, OP.

The one that did Pilates on her day off?

I think you have been remarkably cavalier in your attitude to wfh, especially as it is 'so important ' for you.

How are you running errands, going to a gym class, going for a run etc as part of the school run if you work ft and kids' school finishes at normal school hours time?

How disconnected from your job are you that you "forgot" a teams meeting and "popped to the shops"?

Do you work flexible hours or are you supposed to complete your hours between, eg, 9am and 5pm?

You might think a 30 minute lunchbreak is "inhumane" but unfortunately for you, that is one of the terms of your employment contract.

You might also think you are "chronically underpaid ", but again, that is the contract you accepted.

I think you have been, in MN terms, a CF.

If you add up all your "transgressions ", it paints a picture of someone who thinks the rules don't really apply to them, and doesn't prioritise their work.

And you're supervising others?! How would you feel if one of them took 70 minutes lunch break instead of 30 minutes without asking and getting prior approval?

I would take what happened on Friday as your final wake-up call and either start working exactly the hours that your contract states, or start looking for another job.