Do you ever do personal tasks during business hours?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

I think he went to my high school. Is his name Daryl?

[Anonymous]

Yes, I do personal stuff if I need too. It's impossible not to in my opinion. How else would a person schedule doctor's or dentist appointments? But I always make sure my work is done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

I think he went to my high school. Is his name Daryl?

His name is Tom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP,

You are right that you should not be doing personal stuff during business hours. That is why moms get a bad rap at work and are put on mommy track. You should make it up by working longer hours, at night, or on weekends.

I've done personal stuff at almost every office job I've ever had. The only exceptions are part time telemarketing and data entry jobs I had during college (which were not really "office jobs" since we didn't have offices or even real computers). Everyone I know, male and female, spends time at work dicking off. Some people spend time socializing with co-workers, checking sports scores, shopping online, circulating internet memes, and others spend time paying bills, reading news online, whatever. I think there is more stigma for women doing kid/family stuff than for guys talking about sports and reading the newspaper, which I know my father spent a chunk of every work morning doing. (He was a lawyer.) Wasn't it sort of traditional during the Mad men era that businessmen would start every day in the office drinking coffee and reading the newspaper? Think of it as a time honored tradition . . .

[Anonymous]

Yes - I have to do some things during normal business hours. But I dont ever take a "lunch" - I just eat whatever whenever I can for a quick minute.

Also, sometimes I work at night anyway. So I think ultimately my company gets their time.

[Anonymous]

I don't think I've ever had a job that required my full time effort. I do what I'm paid to, and I can do it in less than 40/week. The rest of the time I dick off on DCUM

[Anonymous]

As others have said, some things can only be done during work hours - like scheduling a Dr's appointment, though I do step away from my desk to make those calls. Or scanning in an FSA receipt which is much harder to do at home.

Our work policy is that limited personal use is permitted - and the example we're given is that if we're scanning in one receipt, that's okay, but if we're printing out 50 copies of a birthday invitation then that's a misuse of resources. Use of our time is similar - a short discrete task, like setting up an appointment, is probably fine, but writing your next blog post is a no no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think I've ever had a job that required my full time effort. I do what I'm paid to, and I can do it in less than 40/week. The rest of the time I dick off on DCUM

+1

[Anonymous]

I do personal at work and often work at home. My employer doesn't care. Their flexibility is why I am a dedicated, top performer.