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

[Anonymous]

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?

[Anonymous]

A few more than if I WFH, lol. I'd say anywhere from 6 to 10. It varies.

[Anonymous]

I work less in the office than I do at home, because in the office someone is always stopping by to chat, get coffee, etc. At home I'm actually able to focus on the work.

[Anonymous]

I’m far less productive at the office

[Anonymous]

About 9-9:30 in office. On average 30 -45 min at home.

[Anonymous]

Due to child care, I can only be in the office for about 6 hours (yes, even with aftercare etc). At home, I do closer to 9.

[Anonymous]

I go into the office 3 days a week and spend almost all my time talking to people and attending meetings.

In a typical 8 hour day:

4 hours of meetings
1 hour of chatting
1 hour lunch and gym
1 hour of real work

When I’m WFH I do around 4-5 hours of real work.

[Anonymous]

I think it depends on he type of work one does. I WFH, but if I was in the office I don't think I'd work any more/less. I am more productive at home with my "heads down" focus time that I am in the office though. For example, creating a presentation or prepping for a meeting or responding to an email would get done a lot quicker at home. The same output would take me longer, if there are distractions.

Regular Meetings take the same amount of time...In the office, I'd probably spend more active time getting to and from in-person meetings though since I would end up talking to someone.

On my long virtual all-hands last week, I was able to multi-task where if I was in the office it would be 1.5 hours sitting and listening to mgmt "rah rah". And funny, how others who were WFH or online in the office were working as well, because I was getting business questions and Instant Messages from my peers who were multi-tasking on the call as well.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

I've given this a lot of thought, and it is difficult really to compare apples to oranges, but I would say I probably "work" a few hours less per week. BUT I don't think that is a bad thing for me OR my organization.

I am in senior leadership, so the creation of deliverables hasn't been a core part of my job for some time, so comparing is difficult. When I was in the office all day every day, the time spent not strictly focused on some work outcome, was chit-chatting with co-workers, getting coffee and lunch, and occasionally handling personal/kid stuff. Now that I am primarily WFH, the time spent not 100% focused on some work outcome, is taking a walk, rarely running to the store, and even grabbing a nap. I also work variable hours more frequently- sometimes starting at 7:00, sometimes 9:00, sometimes ending at 4:00, sometimes 10:00. But I think that is mostly a wash.

The reason why I say I work a little less is because we have all collectively gotten more efficient at the "100% focused on a work outcome" stuff, "getting the work done"- shorter meetings, deliverables done faster because no distractions, etc.

[Anonymous]

Depends. Some days its 8 full hours of reading, developing documents, actual productive meeting to solve a problem. Sometimes its barely 2 hrs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've given this a lot of thought, and it is difficult really to compare apples to oranges, but I would say I probably "work" a few hours less per week. BUT I don't think that is a bad thing for me OR my organization.

I am in senior leadership, so the creation of deliverables hasn't been a core part of my job for some time, so comparing is difficult. When I was in the office all day every day, the time spent not strictly focused on some work outcome, was chit-chatting with co-workers, getting coffee and lunch, and occasionally handling personal/kid stuff. Now that I am primarily WFH, the time spent not 100% focused on some work outcome, is taking a walk, rarely running to the store, and even grabbing a nap. I also work variable hours more frequently- sometimes starting at 7:00, sometimes 9:00, sometimes ending at 4:00, sometimes 10:00. But I think that is mostly a wash.

The reason why I say I work a little less is because we have all collectively gotten more efficient at the "100% focused on a work outcome" stuff, "getting the work done"- shorter meetings, deliverables done faster because no distractions, etc.

Same here.

[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.

Same with me. I’m lucky that my company has recognized this and we are actually getting a new space that is totally set up for collaboration and meetings and networking and not space for people to sit and stare at their laptop. I meet up with my team in person about 4 times a year for a couple days each time (About half of us are located near HQ and the other half are scattered around the country), and in between I go to the office probably once a month to work and catch up with people. There’s also opportunities to catch up with people at conferences a couple times a year.

to me this is a good balance of face-to-face while mostly working from home.

[Anonymous]

My last job was WFH, very niche, and I was sidelined: I worked maybe 10-15 hours a week. My husband WFH and barely gets time for lunch; he’s busy every day.

I now work an office-heavy hybrid job (off site one day every few weeks and WFH one day a week), and work 45 hours a week easily.

It’s the job, not the setup.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've given this a lot of thought, and it is difficult really to compare apples to oranges, but I would say I probably "work" a few hours less per week. BUT I don't think that is a bad thing for me OR my organization.

I am in senior leadership, so the creation of deliverables hasn't been a core part of my job for some time, so comparing is difficult. When I was in the office all day every day, the time spent not strictly focused on some work outcome, was chit-chatting with co-workers, getting coffee and lunch, and occasionally handling personal/kid stuff. Now that I am primarily WFH, the time spent not 100% focused on some work outcome, is taking a walk, rarely running to the store, and even grabbing a nap. I also work variable hours more frequently- sometimes starting at 7:00, sometimes 9:00, sometimes ending at 4:00, sometimes 10:00. But I think that is mostly a wash.

The reason why I say I work a little less is because we have all collectively gotten more efficient at the "100% focused on a work outcome" stuff, "getting the work done"- shorter meetings, deliverables done faster because no distractions, etc.

This. My time in the office seems incredibly inefficient. I can’t believe how much time everyone used to waste. WFH made me more focused on actual work and deliverables. Before work was a place you went and now it’s something you do.

Last week when I went into the office I barely did any work. I didn’t accomplish anything really. By the time I was able to sit down at 4 PM and actually do work I was too tired from my commute so I just sat there.