If you work from home, how many hours do you actually work?

[Anonymous]

I work 8-9 hours a day at home. In the office it is much less because of constant distractions and interruptions. I am Gen X.

[Anonymous]

Another Gen X and I telework four days a week. Total work time around 45-50 hours a week, with the in-office day being the least productive.

[Anonymous]

I WFH every day. I average about 4 hours actual work/day. I work about 20-25 hours/week. I’m an IT consultant.

[Anonymous]

2 hours per day. Sometimes none. Grade 14 in federal government.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would say I average about 3-4 hours of solid work a day.

Keep in mind - even before WFH was common, there was a lot of research out there that knowledge/desk workers topped out at about 5-6 hours of solid work a day no matter how many hours they were in the office. So comparing this to 8 hours is a bit silly.

I'm not doing anything weird like a mouse mover or having my spouse check my email. If I'm actually going to be off Slack for more than an hour, I let people know (like if I have a doctor's appointment or have to run an errand or something), but otherwise, I'm always responsive. My bosses are happy with my output and deadlines are getting met. But yeah, I take frequent breaks, and I do thinks like unload the dishwasher, clean the kitchen, sort laundry, etc during my work hours. And that's average - if it's a busy week, it's a busy week, I'll get my stuff done and hit my deadlines. On the other hand, if it's a slow week, I might take a nap.

OP here. I’m a SAHM wanting to go back to work. My youngest is now in elementary but my older kids seem to require more rides than ever. Before I stopped working I used to have a part time job that was 30 hours per week in the office. My boss was ok with me part time because I did more work than people who actually worked full time. I had to cram all this work in the hours I was at the office and I often finished at home because I left to pick up my kids. I definitely got the short end of the stick on that job.

Now it seems like WFH culture is here to stay. I’m hoping I can work full time work from home and work around 25-30 hours per week.

Part of the problem ^^.

Why? You’d prefer her to work 25-30 hours from an office and just sit in her office for another 10-15 hours? How is that efficient? Why can’t she take advantage of technology?

I bet the invention of the assembly line would have really bothered you. You’d want those workers spending way more time building something.

[Anonymous]

I'd say about 6 hours a day. I do school drop off and then try to squeeze in a workout most mornings. I have lots of meetings and calls throughout the day most days but if I have a break I do some quick house chores. then things wind down around 4 or 4:30 and I can do pick up if need be. I feel productive but also happy that I can get other things done so I highly prefer WFH.

[Anonymous]

I work pretty close to the full 8. Sometimes 9. Had an unusual 11 hour day Thursday due to a deadline (went back to work after kids were in bed). I am a fed, I don't count the unpaid 30 min for lunch even though i frequently work through it. I might take one or two 10-15 min breaks during the day, which I'd do in the office just charting as well.

I do work more at home than AT work, even though I don't actually devalue those in-office conversations some other people do, I think they help with relationships and informal news sharing. I miss them since I went remote, but I don't miss the 2 hour commute.

[Anonymous]

I just posted a thread about WFH and rethinking one’s retirement horizon. Unfortunately, the first poster decided I was a troll, the same OP as this thread, and got my thread deleted. Why?

Anyway, I’ll ask my question here because it’s to the same audience. If you work minimal time from home - about 3 hours a day or less - and you could mostly keep your WFH status, would it change your time horizon for retirement?

For me, it has. The combination of low effort, a regular professional salary, and the flexibility to work from various locations has me not seeing retirement as a huge improvement over work. I’m a federal worker, and though the pension is nice, it’s nowhere near my salary.

Thoughts?

[Anonymous]

Some weeks 5 hours, some weeks 80.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just posted a thread about WFH and rethinking one’s retirement horizon. Unfortunately, the first poster decided I was a troll, the same OP as this thread, and got my thread deleted. Why?

Anyway, I’ll ask my question here because it’s to the same audience. If you work minimal time from home - about 3 hours a day or less - and you could mostly keep your WFH status, would it change your time horizon for retirement?

For me, it has. The combination of low effort, a regular professional salary, and the flexibility to work from various locations has me not seeing retirement as a huge improvement over work. I’m a federal worker, and though the pension is nice, it’s nowhere near my salary.

Thoughts?

I know quite a few people who worked the full day (8+), and made retirement decisions based on just the commuting aspect (e.g. retiring to avoid a major office move, or post-covid rto). I respect that. But as federal workers we don't have the flexibility to work from anywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just posted a thread about WFH and rethinking one’s retirement horizon. Unfortunately, the first poster decided I was a troll, the same OP as this thread, and got my thread deleted. Why?

Anyway, I’ll ask my question here because it’s to the same audience. If you work minimal time from home - about 3 hours a day or less - and you could mostly keep your WFH status, would it change your time horizon for retirement?

For me, it has. The combination of low effort, a regular professional salary, and the flexibility to work from various locations has me not seeing retirement as a huge improvement over work. I’m a federal worker, and though the pension is nice, it’s nowhere near my salary.

Thoughts?

I know quite a few people who worked the full day (8+), and made retirement decisions based on just the commuting aspect (e.g. retiring to avoid a major office move, or post-covid rto). I respect that. But as federal workers we don't have the flexibility to work from anywhere.

Obviously, such workers would find retirement an improvement, but those are not the ones I’m talking about. I’m talking to those workers who have the circumstances I mentioned, and there are many of them, even in Corporate America. Haven’t you heard of “employee hoarding” where companies in some competitive industries hire workers just to keep them from the competition? There are many articles about these people doing next to nothing for their paycheck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just posted a thread about WFH and rethinking one’s retirement horizon. Unfortunately, the first poster decided I was a troll, the same OP as this thread, and got my thread deleted. Why?

Anyway, I’ll ask my question here because it’s to the same audience. If you work minimal time from home - about 3 hours a day or less - and you could mostly keep your WFH status, would it change your time horizon for retirement?

For me, it has. The combination of low effort, a regular professional salary, and the flexibility to work from various locations has me not seeing retirement as a huge improvement over work. I’m a federal worker, and though the pension is nice, it’s nowhere near my salary.

Thoughts?

I know quite a few people who worked the full day (8+), and made retirement decisions based on just the commuting aspect (e.g. retiring to avoid a major office move, or post-covid rto). I respect that. But as federal workers we don't have the flexibility to work from anywhere.

Obviously, such workers would find retirement an improvement, but those are not the ones I’m talking about. I’m talking to those workers who have the circumstances I mentioned, and there are many of them, even in Corporate America. Haven’t you heard of “employee hoarding” where companies in some competitive industries hire workers just to keep them from the competition? There are many articles about these people doing next to nothing for their paycheck.

Nah. I work in corp America. F500 firm. The unsaid knowledge everyone still knows is how few people there are above 60.

[Anonymous]

Then there’s the project manager at my until-now fully remote job who has decided that since a few of her reports have been unreachable and not meeting deadlines that we all need to come back to the office on a hybrid schedule.

To me, it’s like the teacher taking recess away from the whole class because a couple kids misbehave. It sucks since most of us have been very productive working from home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just posted a thread about WFH and rethinking one’s retirement horizon. Unfortunately, the first poster decided I was a troll, the same OP as this thread, and got my thread deleted. Why?

Anyway, I’ll ask my question here because it’s to the same audience. If you work minimal time from home - about 3 hours a day or less - and you could mostly keep your WFH status, would it change your time horizon for retirement?

For me, it has. The combination of low effort, a regular professional salary, and the flexibility to work from various locations has me not seeing retirement as a huge improvement over work. I’m a federal worker, and though the pension is nice, it’s nowhere near my salary.

Thoughts?

Late 40s so ideally 10 to 15 years away from retirement. But my problem with this is if you’re only working three hours a day and truly working like 10 to 2 and don’t have to check in at other times I think this would be OK. My challenge is in my work from home job I don’t typically need to work 40 hours a week, but I’m definitely always Available and if I’m going to be gone for a kid pick up or a doctor appointment I always put the notification on Slack so people know where I am and I’m always checking in.

Working for several more years where I don’t have control over my schedule doesn’t sound appealing to me if I don’t have to do it. If I was truly working 15 hours a week I might say yes but in my reality, I’m probably working actually 30 hours a week but checking in and available more.

Frankly, it would really stress me out if I was getting paid for a full-time professional job and truly only working three hours a day but that’s just me. I also think I would be bored as hell. I enjoy working out, cooking meals, squeezing in a 20 minute nap, etc. but if I had hours and hours of free time during the day yet still chained to a job I think I would go crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just posted a thread about WFH and rethinking one’s retirement horizon. Unfortunately, the first poster decided I was a troll, the same OP as this thread, and got my thread deleted. Why?

Anyway, I’ll ask my question here because it’s to the same audience. If you work minimal time from home - about 3 hours a day or less - and you could mostly keep your WFH status, would it change your time horizon for retirement?

For me, it has. The combination of low effort, a regular professional salary, and the flexibility to work from various locations has me not seeing retirement as a huge improvement over work. I’m a federal worker, and though the pension is nice, it’s nowhere near my salary.

Thoughts?

Late 40s so ideally 10 to 15 years away from retirement. But my problem with this is if you’re only working three hours a day and truly working like 10 to 2 and don’t have to check in at other times I think this would be OK. My challenge is in my work from home job I don’t typically need to work 40 hours a week, but I’m definitely always Available and if I’m going to be gone for a kid pick up or a doctor appointment I always put the notification on Slack so people know where I am and I’m always checking in.

Working for several more years where I don’t have control over my schedule doesn’t sound appealing to me if I don’t have to do it. If I was truly working 15 hours a week I might say yes but in my reality, I’m probably working actually 30 hours a week but checking in and available more.

Frankly, it would really stress me out if I was getting paid for a full-time professional job and truly only working three hours a day but that’s just me. I also think I would be bored as hell. I enjoy working out, cooking meals, squeezing in a 20 minute nap, etc. but if I had hours and hours of free time during the day yet still chained to a job I think I would go crazy.

This -at my job we have to be available for the full work day online, even if we’re not that busy. I wouldn’t feel like I was really enjoying the benefits of retirement if I was still online 40 hours per week.