Do remote workers actually work? Yes, but they also shop and shower

A good boss doesn't give a shit about whether the workers do other things during work time, as long as the work is done satisfactorily.

The first hour in the office was spent staring at the screen wiggling the mouse from time to time when the screen saver came on because too tired from commuting every day. But, it was at the office so it was productive staring I guess.

Gotta love how the articles frames it. While at work people "kill time" with tik tok but at home they "goof off" folding laundry

And in the office there are people who literally hang out at the coffee machine for 30-60 minutes at a time, talking to everyone who comes by under the guise of "networking".

The media gotta stop reporting on the laundry like it's the equivalent of stealing from the company.

You think that's bad, wait until you hear about the shareholders and landlords.

They dont even have to pretend to work to get paid.

Sounds like they take micro breaks, which is not only healthy, but can help with productivity.

Is anyone complaining about this?

When I used to work in office:

• Wake up at 7am, get ready to go and take a 1 hour commute in, usually there by 9:00
• Try to find parking, walk to office, morning break room coffee and chatter, usually settle in around 9:30
• Get interrupted multiple times by desk drive bys
• Take 2 hour lunch around noon with multiple coworkers because why not
• Get interrupted multiple times by desk drive bys
• Leave at 4 to try and avoid some traffic

Now that I work from home:

• Wake up and hop online to work, usually settle in by 7:30am
• No desk drive by interruptions
• Eat at my desk during meetings or while simultaneously working
• Sometimes start laundry or something during the day, but who cares?
• Usually work later than 5

Jokes on you, I shop and shower while at the office as well.

If anything, one should absolutely take care of mundane tasks with downtime between productive tasks. If their workflow allows for short breaks, it doesn't make a difference to the employer if nothing is done or an unrelated task is done.

They pay people to complete tasks for their corporation. They don't own the worker's bodies or minds due to the virtue of providing a paycheck.

This concept of whole ownership of people really is baked into US social consciousness.

Fuck this corporate propaganda.

Work from home and be happy.

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.

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!

Do office workers actually work? No, but they make coffee, collaborate, and network.

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 coworkers recounting the oh so cute exploits of their oh so cute grandchildren in excruciating detail is very productive, I'm sure. Definitely makes the extra long commute worthwhile for me.

I love the day ending and my chores already being done. I log out and it's like I'm completely done and can go fuck off somewhere.

In a lot of meetings I’m expected to be in I mostly just listen and jump in to answer specific questions. When working from home I like to be active with chores during the meetings, I’ll just take them on my phone. Sometimes I do motorcycle maintenance! It helps me concentrate much better than watching talking heads.

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.

Sometimes office workers rinse the coffee pot 😤

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.

I can admit I delay work more from home than I did when I was at the office. I do about the same amount overall I just don't get around to it as quickly.

But the company I'm with would also have to pay me 20-30% more to go into the office as I have better offers for that already and I'd still probably just hop to another company that lets me work from home for a similar salary.

Production went up 15% in my department by going from 2 days in office to fully remote. Some employees still have to go to the office for disciplinary reasons, but that's a manager's job to make it happen, if managers are too dumb to realize some employees aren't working then it's a management issue, not a remote work issue.

You pay me a salary to solve problems, not to warm a chair. Make me hourly if you want that. My rate is quite steep, I assure you.

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 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.

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 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!

My billables jumped by 25% when I switched to fully WFH. I never want to go back.

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

I could be at home rubbing one, trying to do a push up, or taking a nap in between calls. I'm stuck here pretending to look busy while shit posting or watching Youtube since everything is working. Think I'll play Minecraft after my smoke break. I miss work from home...

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.

you risk becoming almost self employed, working for you and not someone above

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.

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.

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

Do people who work in the office not shower? 🤔

So whilst I do this myself and 100% believe that multi-tasking like this is a good thing, the one argument I've seen which I don't have a suitable response to is the idea that if you have time to spend on other thing rather than working, you're not managing your workload correctly. I.e you're being paid to work, not paid to fill the washing machine, pop to the shops etc. If you find yourself with spare time you should be proactively asking your manager for additional work, rather than goofing off. Same applies for working in the office.