Do you ever do personal tasks during business hours?

[Anonymous]

A guy on my floor heads into the bathroom every weekday at 10 am sharp. He takes a newspaper with him for entertainment while he takes a dump for at least half an hour.

Everyone in the building knows to avoid this particular bathroom in the morning. He's not on a scheduled break and doesn't seem to have a medical problem. He's been doing this for 20+ years and no one wants to call him on this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I sometimes take care of personal stuff (like paying bills and coordinating my kids' activities) during business hours. I try to make it up in the evenings by working from home, but I don't always do so. (As a mom working full-time, I feel pretty stretched. DH is great too, but a lot still falls in my lap.) I tend to take care of these personal tasks for about 45 minutes in the early afternoon, when I tend to be less focused anyway (and then I seem to get a second wind at about 2:45 pm.)

I have a good job (in-house attorney at a company here in the DC area), and I feel guilty because my employer is not getting a full work day out of me every day. (Sometimes I work way more hours, but most days I'd guess I'm "working" and focused perhaps 7.0 hours per day.)

Do you ever do personal tasks at work? Are you productive during business hours at all times?

I welcome input from others.

Thank you!

As long as you are not billing clients for the time you are spending on personal stuff, I don’t see this as a problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Never.

My office requires you to provide notarized statements bi-annually attesting to this. Internet pages are tracked and managers get weekly reports on all sites visited by employees. Any external calls require a passcode. Tom sheets are completed in 15 minute increments regardless of level (director+ even). We also have mandatory training every 3 months on this policy (with a computer based quiz at the end).

This sounds like CSGP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Of course. I work under non-exempt [b]so I work until the job is done and not on an hourly basis.

Huh? If you are talking about FLSA, then I think you have this backward.

[Anonymous]

I will take care of personal stuff during work hours....but I will also take care of work stuff during personal hours.

[Anonymous]

Please don't feel guilty over this!!! Hours per day is such a lousy metric in the modern workplace. Focus on your accomplishments... if you're doing your job well, not letting things fall behind or slip, and your boss is happy with your performance, it doesn't really matter if their getting 5 hours or 10 hours from you per day. People work at different paces, and lawyers aren't fast food workers. You should be focused on what you get done, not how long you sit at your desk and focus. I think 7 hours of focused time is more than most people give!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Never.

My office requires you to provide notarized statements bi-annually attesting to this. Internet pages are tracked and managers get weekly reports on all sites visited by employees. Any external calls require a passcode. Tom sheets are completed in 15 minute increments regardless of level (director+ even). We also have mandatory training every 3 months on this policy (with a computer based quiz at the end).

What an utter waste of time. So much ridiculous busywork (sites tracked, reports made, all that timesheet garbage) when real work could be done!

[Anonymous]

There is much friggin' toolishness on this post! You are a person, not a machine or a slave. You think your company will care that much about you when they decide to to layoffs or cut benefits or whatever? Please, just do your work and forget about whether it takes 5 hours or 8 hrs or whatever. If you can get your work done fast, by all means use the rest of the time for your life. Rebel. Live a little.

[Anonymous]

I worked at a non-profit right out of college where I did actual work approximately 3 hours a day, but I was always praised for my skill and efficiency. I don't feel bad because I ended up getting furloughed twice, they got at least 70 hours back

[Anonymous]

I'll do quick personal things, like call a doctor or something, but I generally don't do anything that takes a long time, like my taxes or monthly bill paying at work.

I'm not worried about getting into trouble. We are results driven and as long I get my work done, it's all good.

My problem is that I'm not good at switching between priorities. Work is pretty busy and once I'm in it, I find it hard to think about home things.

[Anonymous]

Was paid for a 35-hour week at an association. Did personal tasks for two hours a day. Answered emails in the evenings and on weekends from members. Traveled 20% of the year.

Received excellent performance reviews and merit increases.

[Anonymous]

Depends on what you do and office culture, but 45 minutes a day seems like quite a bit of time. That would be weird at offices I've worked at, from the most structured to the mist laid back. That's quite a bit of time each day, especially if you also break to eat and to chit chat at all.

[Anonymous]

I had some days in January where I was not able to take a lunch break, much less check my personal email or pay the power bill. Last week, I had 2 days where I had literally NO work to do and spent both of those days reading the internet/doing grad school work. I would have preferred to go home and bake things, but I had to stay because my job requires my physical presence and if something had come up when I was at home baking, it would've been a problem for my boss. My boss does not, however, have a problem when I spend 3 hours reading the internet, unless he asked me to do something else and that thing isn't getting done because someone was wrong on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Depending on the job. I used to do personal tasks and still be bored at my jobs.

The current job is the first in my life that demands more than 8 hours of my time. There are so many problems to solve and I am totally into it. I do not even take DCs' calls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depending on the job. I used to do personal tasks and still be bored at my jobs.

The current job is the first in my life that demands more than 8 hours of my time. There are so many problems to solve and I am totally into it. I do not even take DCs' calls.

Sounds like you have a great job!