If you work in the office, how many hours do you actually work?

[Anonymous]

These bozos who are paid to measure productivity don’t understand what spurs productivity. Being around people who are constantly talking, kills productivity. I see people do nothing at office other than constantly chattering, walking to rest rooms back and forth or at each others desks. How is that productive? How.
I am absolutely able to focus and get more done quicker at home, because of no distraction. Being at home does not preventing me from reaching out to people I need to,

[Anonymous]

I had 80% telework before covid too, and my in-office day was all chatting and socializing and getting coffee, no work on deliverables. That part is the same now, except I'm only required to be there 6 hours to check the box, so I leave and do some work from home after my commute.

I used to work with a guy who we thought had a lot of meetings because he was never at his desk, but we found out he would just go sit in his car for big chunks of the day. Being in office doesn't magically create motivation or oversight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I try to not do any work when I go into the office. It’s pointless for me to be there. I consider it as being paid to be in the office building. I talk to people and attend Teams meetings but I don’t accomplish anything.

When I WFH is when I actually work. Others I work with have shared the same thing. We are in a hoteling office layout and it’s too chaotic to work. Going into the office is for talking to other people in-person, grabbing lunch, getting coffees etc. Basically networking.

Curious why you don't consider talking to other people work? I spend a lot of my in office days either in meetings or talking to people one on one about projects and clients. I consider all of that work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I try to not do any work when I go into the office. It’s pointless for me to be there. I consider it as being paid to be in the office building. I talk to people and attend Teams meetings but I don’t accomplish anything.

When I WFH is when I actually work. Others I work with have shared the same thing. We are in a hoteling office layout and it’s too chaotic to work. Going into the office is for talking to other people in-person, grabbing lunch, getting coffees etc. Basically networking.

Curious why you don't consider talking to other people work? I spend a lot of my in office days either in meetings or talking to people one on one about projects and clients. I consider all of that work.

Because the talk is meaningless apart from perhaps networking and making friends. By talking to people in the hallway I do not make progress with any of my deliverables. Most of the people I talk to do not work on anything related to my work. Most of the talking is small talk. Any talking related to work is done via Teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had 80% telework before covid too, and my in-office day was all chatting and socializing and getting coffee, no work on deliverables. That part is the same now, except I'm only required to be there 6 hours to check the box, so I leave and do some work from home after my commute.

I used to work with a guy who we thought had a lot of meetings because he was never at his desk, but we found out he would just go sit in his car for big chunks of the day. Being in office doesn't magically create motivation or oversight.

+10000. I like being back in the office because you can get away with doing less work. For whatever reason showing up physically makes management think you’re working. I plan my vacations, read the news, grab coffees, use the gym and work on my budget.

It’s all a charade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I try to not do any work when I go into the office. It’s pointless for me to be there. I consider it as being paid to be in the office building. I talk to people and attend Teams meetings but I don’t accomplish anything.

When I WFH is when I actually work. Others I work with have shared the same thing. We are in a hoteling office layout and it’s too chaotic to work. Going into the office is for talking to other people in-person, grabbing lunch, getting coffees etc. Basically networking.

Curious why you don't consider talking to other people work? I spend a lot of my in office days either in meetings or talking to people one on one about projects and clients. I consider all of that work.

Depends on the office. At my prior job it would be someone coming to my office ostensibly to talk about a work issue but devolving into complaining about the person working on the project (both professional and personal), then it might turn to a personal convo, then I would remember a work thing I wanted to mention to the person, then it would devolve into more BS. Then we would go see the Director and repeat the story, brainstorm about what to do about this worker, go off on tangents, Director would start reading her emails out loud and answering phones while we sat there, then back to work talk a bit, then more BS, etc. This could be an entire morning.

I'm in a remote job right now and other than some basic chit chat to open the meeting, the meetings are much more on topic. We make progress and end on time. Everyone has the document available via screen share.

That was another thing I hated in person. I would often be the only person who had printed a copy of whatever we were supposed to discuss and could talk intelligently about it. Others would either just sit there and nod along without knowing what we're discussing or we'd have to wait 20 minutes for the admin to run copies for everyone.

[Anonymous]

When I started going back to the office a couple days per week, I thought those days would be my most productive, but the opposite is true. Even though it's somewhat antisocial, I try to keep my door shut to limit all the small talk because it's really a huge time suck, and I usually have too much work to have time for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I try to not do any work when I go into the office. It’s pointless for me to be there. I consider it as being paid to be in the office building. I talk to people and attend Teams meetings but I don’t accomplish anything.

When I WFH is when I actually work. Others I work with have shared the same thing. We are in a hoteling office layout and it’s too chaotic to work. Going into the office is for talking to other people in-person, grabbing lunch, getting coffees etc. Basically networking.

Curious why you don't consider talking to other people work? I spend a lot of my in office days either in meetings or talking to people one on one about projects and clients. I consider all of that work.

It is work in the sense that this kind of "relationship building" is supposedly why we have to come in. And I dont think it's useless! But it doesn't help me meet tomorrow's deadline that I'm getting pressured about, and the deadlines are bigger and faster than before covid.

You can have the pace that comes from being head-down without distractions and commute, or you can have a mandatory bagel social, but you can't have both at the same time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like being back in the office because you can get away with doing less work. For whatever reason showing up physically makes management think you’re working. I plan my vacations, read the news, grab coffees, use the gym and work on my budget.

It’s all a charade.

I noticed that if I show up, so much time is spent in meetings, getting breakfast, lunch, attending workshops that by the time that is done it is almost 4pm. Working from home, I wake up at 6am and start completing deliverables until 11:30am. The afternoons are for following up, trainings and other admin projects.

In office presence is a major time suck.

[Anonymous]

Like two? Maybe three? Does it count to be quickly reviewing an email before deleting or e-filing it for a grand total of five seconds? Because I do that.

[Anonymous]

I work as a nurse.. 95% of my shift is spent on a relevant work task, either clinical or admin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Some workers seem to have gotten used to thinking working in the office means they can actually only work a couple hours per day. No one actually works the full 8 hours.

How many hours do you actually work in a day if you work out of the home?

Not everyone, only the 20-somethings who seem to be allergic to actual work. I work 9-6 in the office (including working through lunch at my desk), and several hours on site with clients a few nights per week. Not infrequent emails for work over the weekend as well

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I try to not do any work when I go into the office. It’s pointless for me to be there. I consider it as being paid to be in the office building. I talk to people and attend Teams meetings but I don’t accomplish anything.

When I WFH is when I actually work. Others I work with have shared the same thing. We are in a hoteling office layout and it’s too chaotic to work. Going into the office is for talking to other people in-person, grabbing lunch, getting coffees etc. Basically networking.

Curious why you don't consider talking to other people work? I spend a lot of my in office days either in meetings or talking to people one on one about projects and clients. I consider all of that work.

Because we are in a hoteling arrangement and the talking isn’t about work. It’s about the weather, sports, commute etc. The people I sit around don’t work on any of my projects or know anything about my work. The people on my projects are located in other cities. We are all being forced to go into the office to hold Teams meetings and prove that the expensive real estate is being used.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: I work as a nurse.. 95% of my shift is spent on a relevant work task, either clinical or admin.

I have had jobs where I have spent all the time working, and ones where I did an hour or two of actual work. I’m not sure the latter are preferable. When you are busy the time goes by much faster…

[Anonymous]

In the office 3 days a week. Get in at 8:30 and leave at 3:30 for school pick up. About 7 hours. Most days don’t take a a full lunch hour and eat at desk. If I have something lingering, I will work at home, after hours.