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The question was whether you could do them in an hour in-between swims at the health club or justify an 8 hour job into a 6 hour day.
Yes. Quite probably.
In fact, I know some of them do.
Just to be clear I wasn't anticipating doing gym stuff all day every day with just a few breaks for work. That would be pretty tiring, I think.
My OH took a job that was completely WFH as she THOUGHT it would be better for her... She hates it, gets lonely, and has takena new office based job.
I do laugh though, as "There seems to be a common theme in a couple of threads lately with people WFH doing pretty much anything other than actually working" is absolutely true!! She takes the kids to school, goes shopping, does washing, does ALL SORTS of things that aren't work...then worres she's busy!
When I'm at the surgery I'm like a proper busy bee fromt eh time i get in, to the time i leave..
When I worked at the CCG (office based) i was in awe at the 'busy work' most people got up to. Honestly, I still stand by my statement that if their boss said "I expect project or workload X to be completed this week and you can go when it's done", the office could have been empty by tuesday afternoon....
DrP
I’ve typed out a reply / deleted / typed a few times on this thread.
The way of working is/has changed. The rest of the working world is catching up on the way a lot of companies had already moved to before COVID.
I’m a director of a US risk management company. I generally work from home, if I want to. If I want to spend the day cleaning that’s my choice. We are a results driven organisation. I have a large team, if they want to work from home and clean their house, that’s ok with me. They have targets, I expect those to be met. If they want to work in a coffee shop, I don’t mind.
That being said, I do try and encourage people to come into the office for face to face meetings, a lot of this is to ensure people are safe, feel part of the wider team, feel comfortable with talking to each other about more than just work etc. The metaphorical arm on the shoulder, checking in on people.
For reference today I’m still in bed, I’m about to go and log on before my shower….I’ll go through last nights emails and then shower and have breakfast. I’ll go to a coffee shop later this morning and take my laptop with me. I’m working on next months Town Hall, so I don’t need multiple screens. I’ll do a couple of meetings when the East Coast US come online, will then go to the gym and be back on line for a couple of meetings with the West Coast guys, I’ll probably finish about 2100 tonight. This is all my choice for how I like to split my day, based on what I need to achieve and not based on how long I should sit at my desk.
I would hate to work in an environment where there is a lack of trust. It’s up to management to ensure individuals are aware of their targets, that they are achievable and regularly reviewed. I know this isn’t appropriate for all roles, but works for the approx 1000 staff within my arena.
The vast majority of my staff are incredibly skilled and talented folk, to retain them we need to ensure we are offering them the appropriate rewards and working environment. A flexible approach to working is one such method we use. It works well for us. But we are a large global business and have been working with teams with staff based in different locations for a long time.
I do laugh though, as “There seems to be a common theme in a couple of threads lately with people WFH doing pretty much anything other than actually working” is absolutely true!! She takes the kids to school, goes shopping, does washing, does ALL SORTS of things that aren’t work…then worres she’s busy!
That is because you are measuring work by number of hours sat in an office rather than the output. I get more done than most other people yet I can still go out for a ride, walk the dogs, do any number of things while still working in between doing that.
If I get done what is required of me (which I do) then what does it matter how I get that done and at what time of the day? This is the modern way of working which a lot of people really don't seem to understand.
I do laugh though, as “There seems to be a common theme in a couple of threads lately with people WFH doing pretty much anything other than actually working” is absolutely true!!
It probably is (he said, posting on STW instead of working). But is an office any different? Few places bat an eye over smokers, yet take a ten minute smoke break out of every hour and you've effectively got staff on a four day week.
Honestly, I still stand by my statement that if their boss said “I expect project or workload X to be completed this week and you can go when it’s done”, the office could have been empty by tuesday afternoon….
Quite. Which is how it should be, n'est-ce pas?
yet take a ten minute smoke break out of every hour and you’ve effectively got staff on a four day week.
i hope you aren't an accountant 😉
I’ll do a couple of meetings when the East Coast US come online, will then go to the gym and be back on line for a couple of meetings with the West Coast guys, I’ll probably finish about 2100 tonight.
It's hard to understate this.
I don't doubt that for many roles a traditional nine-to-five existence is unavoidable. For me, one of my suppliers is based in California. 5pm here is 9am over there. As a Californian might say, "do the math."
Desk-based workers need to be going into an office if it provides a net benefit. They don't need to be going into an office because that's just what they've always done.
The work gets done to a high standard and your boss is whining that you did it at the gym / pub / coffee shop / mum's basement / Chamonix, that's little more than jealousy I'm afraid.
The vast majority of my staff are incredibly skilled and talented folk, to retain them we need to ensure we are offering them the appropriate rewards and working environment.
Are you hiring?
A mistake that a lot of people make is assuming that if I work really fast and get X done in one day, then I can get 5X done in a week. But I can't, personally. I can work really fast for short periods of time but not all the time. If you ask me to do something that is 50X it will take me more than 50 days because I cannot work at that rate all the time. What is stimulating and engaging for a day would become exhausting for two months.
i hope you aren’t an accountant 😉
Ten minutes out of an hour is 80 minutes per workday. Over five days that's 400 minutes or ~6.7 hours. It might not be a full day but it's close enough for the purposes of an example in a convivial discussion.
A mistake that a lot of people make is assuming that if I work really fast and get X done in one day, then I can get 5X done in a week. But I can’t, personally. I can work really fast for short periods of time but not all the time. If you ask me to do something that is 50X it will take me more than 50 days because I cannot work at that rate all the time. What is stimulating and engaging for a day would become exhausting for two months.
Oh absolutely...which is why, in my role, I can work my butt off, pretty well I think, for a few days a week plus a few half days, but I couldn't work like this for 5 full days a week...
DrPart-time