What's your work style when WFH?
WFH turned me into a part-time employee, I accidentally discovered I clocked 17 hours 34 minutes of “meetings” (doing puzzles, watching The Office, and writing bad fanfic) this week. I started creating fake “status meetings” for myself to stay green on Teams (no red “away” status = no panicked emails). Just open a meeting, mute, and minimize, eternal online. Friday night, I checked the total time across all my solo “meetings”… and nearly choked on my wine. 17.5 hours of “being present,” minus:
- 5 hours actual work (shockingly efficient! I power through tasks in 90-minute bursts)
- 3.5 hours lunch/coffee breaks (still gotta stare out the window like a sad goldfish)
- 2 hours mandatory meetings (where I nod vigorously while crocheting under my desk)
Compare to my old office job, 2-hour lunches, 45-minute coffee runs, and “watercooler chats” that were just gossiping about Karen in accounting. I’m always within 3 feet of my laptop, speaker on, ready to fake a cough and say “sorry, bad connection!” if someone pings. Plus, my boss thinks I’m swamped, this week in our 1:1, she said, “You’re doing too much! Let’s redistribute work.”
I finish 80% of tasks by 11am, then let the last 20% “marinate” until deadline. Keeps me available for emergencies. Stay just responsive enough, quick replies, emojis in Slack, maybe a “here’s a draft!” update to look proactive. Anyone else have a hidden WFH timer shame? Or better yet, a genius way to slack off? Share your hacks.
I think part of why people are so pissy about WFH employees doing ‘nothing’ is because they don’t realize how little time it takes to do assigned tasks. At the office you’re forced to pretend to be working but if you get your assigned tasks done in 5 hours, would should you still be there??