My favorite quote:
While employees in the office might kill time messaging friends or flipping through TikTok, remote workers take advantage of being far from the watchful gaze of bosses to chip away at personal to-do lists or to goof off.
Nearly half of remote workers multitask on work calls or complete household chores like unloading the dishwasher or doing a load of laundry, according to the SurveyMonkey poll of 3,117 full-time workers in the U.S.
Oh noes, people actually doing things that are useful for their families instead of even more computer time.
It’s insane that this is even considered strange or surprising. When I work from home, I take longer lunch breaks and I often stop working earlier, but I’m still three times as productive compared to sitting in an office.
At home, I actually get focused time to do something and think. At the office, this is extreamly difficult with all the distractions and noise constantly interrupting my train of thought.
Do people who work in the office not shower? 🤔
I agree, though I have to admit that my kitties yelling at me for pets (one is especially loud) while I’m on the phone is a bit of a nuisance. But I’ll take that over the old office I was in where there’d be three conversations competing across space rather than people just walking over to the desk of a coworker and talking at a normal volume. God, I hated that!
There is a concept that companies and managers need to wrap their stupid brains around. And that is that they are paying for your work not your time. So long as you complete the jobs and tasks they ask of you and need from you it shouldn’t matter what the hell you’re doing otherwise.
But they’re dumb Boomer infected brains have been programmed to expect people to sit in cubicles and offices like drones and stare at computer screens all day long. All so rich CEOs can walk through the building and feel more impressive.
P.S. obviously this is referring to salaried jobs not hourly jobs.
My partners boss took a lot of issues with multitasking and I can’t understand his logic.
I was getting fed up of my partners breakfast and lunch dishes piling up in the kitchen.
I’d come home from work to find the kitchen a disaster zone. I wouldn’t even have a clean spot of bench space to put my water bottle down.
My partner would explain he didn’t have long enough on his lunch break to wash the dishes, and his boss was cracking down on people doing personal chores during the work day.
I suggested if he can’t clean up like he’s at home, he needs to prepare food like he’s in the office. Ie, make a lunch box the night before so there aren’t 40 dishes on the day.
He explained that this is how he used to eat in the office, because they had a cleaner who worked while everyone was in, tidying up after them, they’d cook meals for each other and eat family style, and his boss still encourages family lunches via teams/zoom.
So his boss used to hire someone to clean while the pencil pushers were pushing pencils. Now there is no one who’s job is to clean, but his boss won’t let anyone clean up after themselves, but still expects them to generate mess for team building.
I told my partner he can either get a lunch box, or he can tell his boss “I’m doing the dishes during the work day, if you’d prefer I don’t, I won’t, but I’ll need a raise because divorce is expensive”
If it was any other boss, I’d tell my partner to suck it up and eat faster so he can wash up on his break, but it’s the fact the boss is still working in the office with the cleaner, so he’s got someone cleaning up as he works, but he won’t allow his staff to also work in a safe and clean environment.
Yeah that’s a terrible boss. There are a shit ton of those. And the fact that they’re arranging his work at home the way he would work in an office is just ridiculous. The idea that you have a “lunch break” at home is just stupid. You should be able to do the work as it’s needed not clock-in clock-out style like they’re in an office.
It also comes from the fact that many jobs, and many more historically, are/were, in fact, paying you for your time. If you’re fortunate enough to work in a job that doesn’t care how much of your time is “company time,” and you can work 5 hours a week to get everything expected of you done, that’s great, but I would be quiet about it.
Any manager I’ve met would likely make a decision to give you 8x the amount expected of you each week, if that’s your situation. That would indicate to me that we can find find someone less skilled that will take longer to complete objectives but we can pay significantly less, or we’re not getting as much out of you as we’re paying for.
Most people don’t have the luxury you’re describing, so I would hold on to that job situation!
If you’re fortunate enough to work in a job that doesn’t care how much of your time is “company time,” and you can work 5 hours a week to get everything expected of you done, that’s great, but I would be quiet about it.
Ok, first there are no jobs like this. Or, to be more precise, there are jobs like this but they are few and far between and are always in offices where you can make it look like it’s taking a lot of time to get your work done while basically goofing off. And generally speaking they’re hourly paid.
Salaried jobs, on the other hand, have a pretty rigorous work load. They don’t hire people for a salary position without knowing how much work it takes to get the job done. So whether you are sitting in an office or sitting at your desk at home, the same amount of actual work is required. The only difference is that you don’t waste hours getting dressed up and commuting to your job. This is why work from home arrangements tend to be far more efficient for both the worker and the company.
The reason these CEOs and managers are trying to force everyone back into offices is to justify their own egos and jobs. There is literally a ton of evidence that work from home jobs are way more productive than work from office jobs. But these egotistical douchebags don’t care. They need to see people slaving away at a desk and to be seen walking through their expensive office buildings in order to feel like they are worthwhile.
The backlog at my old job was a solid couple of years long. Probably a decade if you included all the non-critical stuff
Gonna blow some fucking minds here: There are dishwashers in offices! And all sorts of other bits and pieces like coffee makers to futz around with. Got to be seen to be doing your share! Make a pot of coffee! Unload the dishwasher!
Honestly I am sure I waste just as much time or more when I’m in the office. And I’m interrupted more often so I’m less productive generally.
Me as a programmer
- Exhausted working on something realizing I’m no longer being productive and stuck on a problem.
- Decide to take a break and go empty the dishwasher
- Comes back more refreshed and almost immediately solve the problem.
Edit: Side note - companies I worked at that had dishwashers also expected employees to take turns emptying it / loading dishes others didn’t put in it.
Do office workers actually work? No, but they make coffee, collaborate, and network.
Collaboration is actually useful. The phrase you’re looking for is synergizing the cross-functional modalities.
Alright stop, collaborate and listen
While experiencing overwhelming anxiety that their boss is going to come around the corner and chew them out for not working.
Don’t forget smoking.
Offices still have smokers, right? The nearly retired old lady who smokes two packs a day and is way too familiar with the young men?
I’ve not worked in an office in like a decade, so I don’t know.
Yeah she’s still there and her name is Pam. Really interesting lady when you get her talking.
Oh yeah theyre interesting and usually fun.
It’s the bitch who doesn’t smoke who hangs around trying to fish out rumours who’s not a good time.
I have a day job and a night job, and I do surveys for money between work tasks and read books on my phone. My night job I can pretty much do one handed while doing whatever on my phone. I don’t care at all.
Quit hoarding all the jobs, you!!
Sadly I am too old for Only fans.
Fuck this corporate propaganda.
Work from home and be happy.
I once worked with a colleague within an academic setting for a EU wide project. We were understaffed. She constantly complained about how she works extra hours at home and on weekends. Well, my problem was she wouldn’t let me work at work because she used at least 5 hours of the day to trash talk colleagues behind their back (including me when I was on sick leave or, probably, out to pee). Damn I wonder why she had to work that much after working hours.
If people realized just how much overpaid goof off was going on in the business positions between Director of Whatever and CEO and Company President most workers would rip their bosses asunder and wear their heads as hats.
Businesses during covid: we are seeing an all time high in productivity from our workers due to them working from home, this is amazing!
Businesses after covid: these people working from home are nothing but lazy leeches who probably arent even doing their job and are robbing us of our money, despite all our previous statements to the contrary and verifiable statistics counter to this narrative we’re now pushing!
despite all our previous statements to the contrary and verifiable statistics counter to this narrative
This was by far the most frustrating part of the RTO push at my old company. The unofficial motto I was always told was “Show me the data”, as it was basically impossible to push for any sort of decision without solid data to back it up, even if everyone in the group thought it was a good idea.
When RTO was announced and the big all people town hall was held, multiple group heads stood up and asked the execs why they were doing this, and what data they had to back it up. Literally, and I quote from one of the execs, “Well, we don’t really have any, but we feel that people will be more productive, will be sharing more ideas and innovating when in the office.”
Yes, the executive at a multi-billion dollar automotive company literally said with a straight face to thousands of engineers who’d been working almost entirely from home for the past 3 years “This decision is based on feels, not reality”. Even better was since there was already an initial non-mandatory RTO push, some absolute chads even interrupted them to pull up hard data showing they had been tracking productivity since the RTO push, and their group members were significantly less productive on days they were in-office. Not only that, but they also showed there literally wasn’t the office space to fit everyone. The exec just hand waved it away and said “I’m sure we have plenty of desks for everyone”.
It’s absolutely infuriating seeing these people getting paid millions, if not billions, to suck so hard at basically everything.
I worked at a different company that was big on “data driven decisions”. They had tshirts made that literally said something like"data > feelings"
Before the pandemic, someone mentioned that studies were showing 4 day work weeks were effective and made people happier. The CEO just said “Yeah we’re not doing that.” Didn’t read the article or the study. Just nah.
After the pandemic, they were making people go back into the office. Same energy.
So what I’m saying is management and leadership are often just gutfeel idiots. Expensive babies.
It was never about RTO or Productivity. It was all about getting people to quit to reduce the bottom line. Otherwise they would have had layoffs and would have looked bad and cost more money in severance. It’s all just trying to save money.
If they’re mad about people shopping while working from home I have bad news.
People shop from their phones while working at the job site too. I see several of my coworkers doing this frequently. Shit, I’ve done it.
Sure, we can’t shower on site unless you’re a firefighter or something, or have a gym at workplace, but still.
Employers need to reign in their power hungry bullshit. You don’t own your employees, and if the work is getting done on time, you have nothing to complain about.
I work from home since 2012, so almost 12 years. The small company where I work started allowing remote working with me, and then many colleagues followed. Now we are 100% remote with one day a week in office. All my workmates and I know very well that we are far more productive when at home compared to when we are in office. My commit history also confirm this. I will never take in consideration another developer position if not allowed at least 80% of remote working.
I’m in the exact same position now, 80% from home. It’s incredible.
100% wfh is hard to beat when looking at new positions. I’d have to at least double my income for me to go into the office
I’ll absolutely turn off the camera and do laundry or make lunch during a Teams meeting. I’m still on the audio and participate. I’m just able to be productive at work AND at home simultaneously.
Right? Shocker, I’m able to listen to a thing actively and vocally contribute while doing something mindless like doing/folding laundry or making food because they use different parts of my brain.
The meat mech is capable of doing something physical with no thought, while engaging language processing for something else.
This was my experience as well but I found it a drag. My family loved me working from home, because I did more of the housework, great dinners on time, basically I did more so then they did less. Wildly productive overall, yes. Work took longer for me, less condensed, probably better work product that way, so sure everyone was getting better work from me but it was unbalanced. Husband and kids did less.
I don’t have a commute really, 20 minute walk or 4 minute drive, which I know is unusual, but I do like working in the office and leaving my laptop there better. Work stays at work. It’s not a strong preference, would do either but life more balanced for me with the office job.
I take much shorter lunch breaks, but longer naps. Much more comfortable on my couch than in my car like I used to have to do.
Amen. I work through lunch, honestly. I’m sitting at home at my computer, may as well eat something and work for the 30m or so. I have no reason not to, besides not working for the sake of not working.
This article can be applied the same way to Office workers. No they’re not working 100% of the time. What’s a problem is if they’re exceedingly unavailable or underperforming at their job and affecting others.
Shit, my desk used to be next to the kitchen. I made lunch and ran/emptied the dishwasher at the office and the bosses didn’t whinge about how I spent my time. I also did a bunch of my ideation on the office couch.
But do the same things in my home and it’s a problem? That tells me what the real issue is: the threat of agency.
My management prizes my ability to write complex things ina professional and easily digestible manner. However part of that process might look like I’m doing nothing at all, while I’ve got a half a draft written and I’m just sitting there for an hour and a half doing sudoku puzzles while what I’ve written vs what I need to say percolates in my brain. And yet I have to be cautious about it because some of them are convinced we work in a widget factory, where ass in seat and hands on keyboard equals work produced.
I stay at home to work on cool projects and I go to the office to get through mountains of boring administrative tasks and socialize. The whole time at work issue being discussed isn’t as important as labour productivity.
I’m constantly preaching that “we don’t work in a widget factory, there is only the work there is to do, and if it’s all done, wtf are you complaining about? Asses in seats does not correlate to work completed. As long as we’re available to complete tasks, you’re getting what you’re paying for.”
