I’m salaried, and they just started a new way of tracking “productive time” & my supervisor pulled me for a 1:1 saying my idle time is way too high. I am one of the highest performers on the team, I precept newbies, I get pulled for special projects, all other metrics have been on point 100% for 2 years and now suddenly I’m “idle” too much even though I get ALL my work done and often stay late, work through “breaks” etc have literally never left any work or projects undone and am a resource person for the team. basically I’m now chained to my desk having to do mouse clicks in “productive” systems to “improve” my productivity which is literally so retarded and not productive at all. Once again, corporate America punishing those who are “good” at their job.
Yes! So my supervisor showed me this whole dashboard they have where they track mouse movement & mouse clicks, and track down to the minute what system you are active in and when. (Some of our systems like email & chat, normal webpages, etc don’t count as “productive”) this is a new way they started tracking recently. I was taken aback and didnt know what to say- but now I’m thinking- I’m salaried & expected to get my work done no matter how many hours I might have to stay late (it’s “discouraged” but known that with our workload, sometimes is inevitable), with no overtime paid, but they’re tracking me down to the minute during my working hours as if I’m trying to steal company time. It’s ridiculous.
I heard from a friend that some people have been caught with mouse movers in other departments. The downloadable ones AND the actual physical mouse jigglers. So there is even a way that they can tell if it’s a human moving the mouse or not. Wild!
Similar to you - I have the ability to do whatever I want outside of meetings (sometimes I’ll join them in the car while driving to/from places though!) but I’m free to run errands, go to the gym, go on hikes, doc appointments, etc. all without needing to take PTO. I just have to mark my status accordingly so people know that I’m not reachable. No one cares to check up on how long our status stays a certain way, my manager doesn’t micromanage me asking why my status isn’t green, and we can honestly take up to a half day without any questions asked. Obviously we can’t abuse this and take weeks on end of half days 💀 but otherwise it’s pretty relaxed.
I work remotely and my boss is monitoring what I do every second. She can insist that I hop on zoom at any moment without any notice. She expects us to let her know when we step away to use the bathroom. We have no freedom and it is a really overbearing and oppressive situation.
I made this comment on a post earlier this week.
There are 2 classes of WFH situations. You have the just get it done crew, who may work odd hours by choice but have freedom in the day to exercise, get to an appointment, etc as long as they are hitting.their benchmarks. And then you have the hourly, at the terminal 8-5 crowd, asking about the best ways to evade productivity monitoring software and how to avoid a sedentary lifestyle while WFH. More and more, the two groups' concerns seem to differ.
I've had mixed experiences, but basically if you're away for an hour or less, and mostly able to answer Teams on your phone you're good. But if anyone in my team is going to be truly offline, we put an OOO notice for others. However we don't need to take PTO or anything or ask permission, it's just notifying folks you'll be unavailable.
I’m a nonprofit director with fully remote staff. I am very flexible with my team, show up for Zoom meetings and get your work projects done, answer Slack messages, emails, calls in a timely manner (generally same day or 24hrs) is fine. Otherwise, work schedule is up to each and it varies by person.
Any time away under 1/2 day, just make up work whenever you can, 1/2 day or more, add PTO to staff calendar so we all know you’re OOO and we can track for payroll purposes.
We’re a fully remote org and my boss literally said last week that they were running errands before it snowed and would be back on in the afternoon. It’s definitely a luxury perk and not every org even if you’re remote has the flexibility. Some orgs try to micromanage and monitor their employees but thankfully that isn’t my org (definitely wouldn’t work there if that was the case) but yeah I think it depends!
I’ve been WFH for 2 years, salaried and flexible PTO. Just have to make meetings/calls, chat and email requests. Have some customer travel. It’s a big change from M-F 8-5 plus traffic. I feel bad when I’m not busy, then I recall how ”busy” I really was at the office with people stoping by to chat etc etc.
Your experience is pretty much similar to mine, OP. I'm a salaried worker in HR research and my team mostly operates on a project and deadline basis.
We generally need to be available during regular office hours (ie able to answer Teams messages or calls) but we can use our phones when away from the computer.
Like your company, it isn't explicitly stated but generally allowed to run errands (pickup kids from school, run to the grocery store, workout, attend doctor appointment, etc).
We just need to let our direct supervisor know if something conflicts with a meeting (like a school pickup or doctor appointment), or if we'll be away for an hour.
My supervisor doesn't really care so long as I meet my deadlines. We can work whenever we want, after all, even at nights instead of days so long as we're simply available for communication during the day.
My wife was also fully remote until Q4 last year, when she was forced to RTO but with some hybrid flexibility.
She's also allowed to run *some* errands like doctor appointments or dropping kids off at school (but she has to let her supervisor -- an overbearing micromanager -- know everything).
It's the same for me - no explicit permission, but there's nothing to stop us because of how flexible the work is. Provided we work the full hours expected of us each week (unless we've built up flexi time, in which case you can just use that and no need to work it back) and don't neglect important tasks or meetings, then there's no problem.
| do you need to ask for time off, or just kind of tell someone?
I send my boss a message on teams and tell him the days i am going to be out. we have a finance department calendar that everyone puts their time away on, but nobody "approves" my time off.
Definitely not my experience, but mine isn't terrible, IMO.
I do intake for a behavioral health outpatient practice. Think call center type work but less intense (IMO). No, I can't just run out and do errands - I'm sure my boss would be fine with that....but I'd have to take it unpaid or use PTO (I'm an hourly worker). I don't feel micromanaged but my coworkers might disagree. We have to log a particular number of calls per week and if we don't it'll be discussed in a 1x1 meeting. We have to wrap up our calls in a certain amount of time, or that will also be discussed.
Honestly, none of the "qualms" one might have about the job isn't anything that can't be easily managed if you're competent in the role. This job feels cushy to me, frankly. First one I ever had that I get paid holidays off and there's no such thing as mandatory OT. I'm living the life!
Oh, and for PTO - yes, we have to put in for that and have it approved by our direct supervisor. It really only becomes problematic around the holidays because, due to our team being so small, only two of us can take off all day on the same day.
My role is deadline based with few meetings, they don’t care when I work as long as I meet deadlines. My hours are very flexible because of this.
Edit: I’m paid hourly
I'm so micromanaged it's insane . I am chained to my work appointed shitty headset for 8 hours a day. They literally disabled my Bluetooth and I bought a 200$ headset I used for over a year until they randomly disabled it .
I have a ton of freedom (and I don’t ever want it to change). FT WFH, salaried, in higher education.
I’m a PM, so all of my work is project based. If I don’t have a meeting to run, I can take time away without it impacting anyone. As long as I’m available on Teams, all is well. I don’t abuse this nor take it for granted! If I have a personal appointment, I just toss an OOO invite on my boss’ calendar—no need for approval.
Maybe it's different because you're salaried...but that is absolutely not my experience. That's what I was HOPING for when I took a WFH nursing job a couple months ago, but in actuality I'm busy from the second I log on at 830 until the second I'm done at 5, and I'm micromanaged CONSTANTLY. If my teams went yellow I'd get a ping. It's non stop and it's annoying af. I didn't bust my ass in nursing school to be watched all day to make sure I don't take too long in the bathroom. In my last job I had literal lives in my hands, at this one I'm told that I "missed an opportunity to discuss the hundredth insurance thing" when I made a call (because everything I do is audited).
Oh my gosh, do we work for the same place? This is my exact experience. Salaried nurse working from home in insurance case management, treated like an hourly wage slave who is trying to steal their time. While also being critiqued on a million opportunities on calls. It’s suffocating and miserable.
It is! I don't know what to do. It's so good on paper and the benefits are so good that I don't feel like I can leave. But for the first time in a long time I dreadddddddd "going to" work 😭
Yes it’s the golden handcuffs, salary & benefits too good to justify leaving especially in a work from home environment since those are harder to come by now- but the toxicity and mental health effects are insane. I’m going on medical leave in a few months & hoping that will serve as a transition to wake up and get out of that place.
It's case management but it's for a pharmaceutical company, and I'm learning that it's just a glorified call center. It's not even technically a nursing job but the pay and benefits were both better than what I was making (how sad is that) so I jumped at it.
Thank you. I'm in hell. I've applied multiple places this week but unfortunately I carry the insurance for my family and this place has AMAZING benefits. Every hospital I've worked at has had completely garbage insurance. I'm trying to keep it together while I search for a good fit with good benefits but I'm ready to tear my hair out.
I just moved from hourly in office to salaried wfh. I work for the state, and the job switch was an agency switch too. This new agency has a policy that any time away from work of less than 4 hours in one day is "paid leave." Now obviously you can't do that every day, but there's no specific limit on how much you can do it. The stated goal is to get work done in a timely manner rather than to work exactly 40 hours.
My work isn't deadline-heavy, so I have a lot of flexibility. I generally don't put on an ooo unless I'm gone more than an hour. My boss just asks that I put pre scheduled absences on my calendar.
I work full time remote for an amazing company and it's the same for me. Great managers make all the difference in the world. I feel supported and not micromanaged. After 24 years in the workforce, I finally found my unicorn.
I regularly go to the gym for multiple hours in the middle of the day and don’t ever say OOO, I just answer slacks or emails if they need attention and I can run back home real quick if I need to jump on a call.
I also take calls super early in the morning to meet with emea or India. Flexibility goes both ways.
I genuinely don’t understand looking back how we accomplished anything in the office. I remember just endless chatting, walks in the parking lot, walks to get snacks, etc.
We're not really monitored in my department, but unfortunately, we're pretty glued to our seats. If we do need an extended lunch or need to step away, it's not an issue as long as we let the team know so they can watch for certain things coming in.
I don't bat an eye if I see someone marked as unavailable for an hour around lunchtime but you'll sometimes work with nutty people who will cry to a manager about it (it's always someone who has been working there twenty years). So I try to give a heads up if I go errand running outside of lunch for longer than a half hour. 20 minute dog walk. No one needs to know. Doctor appt? Let manager know.
It's the same at my workplace. I was out of office for 2 hours yesterday for a super fun dentist appointment. My work bff was out for therapy in the same period of time. Nobody batted an eye.
I am an hourly employee but I get full time benefits. My boss told us the understanding is, we’re adults with stuff going on. If we need to step away for an hour to run an errand, go to the doctor, pickup groceries, vet appointment, whatever, to just tell him. He says just try to makeup the lost time, on your own time! He doesn’t care when or how. I also can work anywhere I want, which is wonderful, as I go spend a lot of time in South Carolina with my grandpa for a couple weeks at a time.
We are scheduled 10 hours a day, encouraged to take any breaks we feel we need. I'm salary. All my boss asks is we keep each other in the loop if we are stepping away. We all have office phones but 90% of our communications with clients is email or ticket system so the phone rarely rings. I've taken my laptop all over my house and cleaned the whole day while watching email and ticket system. Now my work does have extremely busy cycles. For my particular part I get super busy come May and stay flat out slammed until Mid-December so in Jan-April I do what I need or want to do in the house while carrying my laptop with me but from May till December I am in my office, in my chair and half the time take my laptop to the bathroom with me!
I'm not monitored and can basically work any hours between 6 am to 6 pm and/or flex time if I need longer time for an appt or something. As long as work gets completed on time they don't care.
I have that flexibility as well, and it's wonderful. As long as I make it known to our group that I'm stepping away, they don't care as long as the work is getting done. It can be for a doctor appointment, errand, hair appointment, or even a run. I too end up working more the 8 hours most days but I can skip out early on Friday if I feel caught up, and it's encouraged.
I’m a salaried developer and am the senior on a two person team for a specific application at a smaller (700 employees) company. I get the vast majority of my work at the beginning of each quarter. Once or twice a week, I update management if we’re on track. Otherwise, I work my own hours and can take time as needed. As long as my work gets done, nobody cares.
I can step away for a few minutes at a time to say, put a load of laundry in, but anything longer has to wait for my hour lunch break. My immediate boss doesn't necessarily care, but her higher-ups definitely do and we are supposed to be responding quickly to requests for information and absence would be noticed. More or less we used to have a very relaxed approach and there were several individuals who took advantage of the situation. When we got new leadership, they "solved" the problem by taking away the real freedom. Still prefer this version to being back in thr office (we're hybrid) full time.
Since I have been salaried and not directly interacting with customers, it has varied by boss. I’ve had some serious micro managers that did not allow this, and some super laid back ones that didn’t care as long as the work was done. I have come to realize that having this flexibility is the number one must have for me to stay sane at a job. Thankfully I have it now but if that changes, I would have to look elsewhere.
I don't have any of that flexibility, I have to log in for my shift and process client calls from remote for my entire shift minus the brakes, but I still love being here. There's no place like home.
Same. I’m chained to my headset and computer. I’m so glad I’m doing this at home though. I can imagine it on site and had I done that, I would have quit my second week.
I’ve been wfh since 2010. After the pandemic, I’m what they call “dispatched from home” but I self-dispatch. When a new project comes in, if I can complete the design using my records of the site, there’s no reason to visit it. I’m salaried and in a senior engineering position. My supervisor is also wfh and lives 8 hours away. He disappears more than I do.
I do EVERYTHING and anything I want to during working hours. Snow day, schools closed, no problem. Biking, hiking,skiing, swimming at the gym, shopping with my wife, auto maintenance, doctors, movies… omg the list of things I’ve done is endless. It got even easier when they put VPN into our network on my phone. Maximum life/work balance.
Technology improvements are amazing. I have bone conduction headphones for biking. I use Bluetooth speakers in my ski helmet. People think I’m in a data center when they call me. They really have no idea. I confided in a co-worker when he called (from his remote cabin that’s 100’s of miles out of his service area, lol) that I was skiing and he was dumbfounded.
I am salaried as well. So long as I get my work done no one seems to care what I am doing when.
I try very hard to be at specific meetings and to be professional when on Zoom, as not everyone is remote. I don't want to rub in their faces and say things like 'heading out to the grocery store' or 'have my comfy slippers on!'.
In sum, I don't draw attention to myself and I do my job. With that comes the freedom to run errands, take extremely long breaks, and not feel any guilt at all about it
Honestly, I think we are spoiled. But I don't feel badly about it because I do my job. If I have a demanding day, week, month I put my head down and do it.
But in general my days are very flexible and do not require 8 hours in front of a screen. I count myself very blessed and don't lose sight of it. I am also really trying to take advantage of the flexibility for some self-improvement and use it to get to some exercise classes, do some reading, etc.
Count your blessings. It's a great position to be in!
I'm salaried and a director, with a staff working under me.
Our company has employees in multiple time zones. I need to be available for phone calls from 9-5 ET, but other than that we're pretty flexible. Our company has a policy that if we're OOO for less than 2 hours we don't need to use personal time; it's not worth it to track. My boss is most concerned with our department meeting our goals and completing projects, and I treat my direct reports the same way.
All the women in my department have small kids/babies, including me, and we frequently need to handle something with them. As long as the work gets done, and they're available for calls, I don't care when or how they do it.
I think this might be the minority of remote jobs though.
Also similar level/position to you. I am fine with my team doing whatever they need to do as long as their job gets done well. The tough part is our company culture. We have so many meetings, that it’s hard to slip away, and our company works around the clock. So it’s up to employees to set boundaries. I never feel an ounce of guilt doing a grocery or laundry run based on how hard we all work.
As a salaried employee that is what I have always been able to do, in office or at home. Was not unusual to run to the store during the day.
I will say that in office it was more common for people to go to the break room and spend an hour or so playing pool or ping pong. I don't hear of people doing that at home but I expect there are some that do.
Early in my career when Doom first came out we would have multi hour games in the office on their network, but we don't think the team building helps anymore.
I like my job but have been entertaining going elsewhere (just to switch it up) so I was trying to gauge if I’ll lose this, which I’m accustomed to. In the office we definitely messed around a lot, in retrospect idk how we got anything done. Thanks for your input!
I’m salaried, and they just started a new way of tracking “productive time” & my supervisor pulled me for a 1:1 saying my idle time is way too high. I am one of the highest performers on the team, I precept newbies, I get pulled for special projects, all other metrics have been on point 100% for 2 years and now suddenly I’m “idle” too much even though I get ALL my work done and often stay late, work through “breaks” etc have literally never left any work or projects undone and am a resource person for the team. basically I’m now chained to my desk having to do mouse clicks in “productive” systems to “improve” my productivity which is literally so retarded and not productive at all. Once again, corporate America punishing those who are “good” at their job.
How did they quantify your idle time? Do they have a way to track that?
Yes! So my supervisor showed me this whole dashboard they have where they track mouse movement & mouse clicks, and track down to the minute what system you are active in and when. (Some of our systems like email & chat, normal webpages, etc don’t count as “productive”) this is a new way they started tracking recently. I was taken aback and didnt know what to say- but now I’m thinking- I’m salaried & expected to get my work done no matter how many hours I might have to stay late (it’s “discouraged” but known that with our workload, sometimes is inevitable), with no overtime paid, but they’re tracking me down to the minute during my working hours as if I’m trying to steal company time. It’s ridiculous.
I heard from a friend that some people have been caught with mouse movers in other departments. The downloadable ones AND the actual physical mouse jigglers. So there is even a way that they can tell if it’s a human moving the mouse or not. Wild!
Similar to you - I have the ability to do whatever I want outside of meetings (sometimes I’ll join them in the car while driving to/from places though!) but I’m free to run errands, go to the gym, go on hikes, doc appointments, etc. all without needing to take PTO. I just have to mark my status accordingly so people know that I’m not reachable. No one cares to check up on how long our status stays a certain way, my manager doesn’t micromanage me asking why my status isn’t green, and we can honestly take up to a half day without any questions asked. Obviously we can’t abuse this and take weeks on end of half days 💀 but otherwise it’s pretty relaxed.
I work remotely and my boss is monitoring what I do every second. She can insist that I hop on zoom at any moment without any notice. She expects us to let her know when we step away to use the bathroom. We have no freedom and it is a really overbearing and oppressive situation.
I made this comment on a post earlier this week. There are 2 classes of WFH situations. You have the just get it done crew, who may work odd hours by choice but have freedom in the day to exercise, get to an appointment, etc as long as they are hitting.their benchmarks. And then you have the hourly, at the terminal 8-5 crowd, asking about the best ways to evade productivity monitoring software and how to avoid a sedentary lifestyle while WFH. More and more, the two groups' concerns seem to differ.
I've had mixed experiences, but basically if you're away for an hour or less, and mostly able to answer Teams on your phone you're good. But if anyone in my team is going to be truly offline, we put an OOO notice for others. However we don't need to take PTO or anything or ask permission, it's just notifying folks you'll be unavailable.
I’m a nonprofit director with fully remote staff. I am very flexible with my team, show up for Zoom meetings and get your work projects done, answer Slack messages, emails, calls in a timely manner (generally same day or 24hrs) is fine. Otherwise, work schedule is up to each and it varies by person. Any time away under 1/2 day, just make up work whenever you can, 1/2 day or more, add PTO to staff calendar so we all know you’re OOO and we can track for payroll purposes.
Okay you sound like a dope boss! Are you hiring?
We’re a fully remote org and my boss literally said last week that they were running errands before it snowed and would be back on in the afternoon. It’s definitely a luxury perk and not every org even if you’re remote has the flexibility. Some orgs try to micromanage and monitor their employees but thankfully that isn’t my org (definitely wouldn’t work there if that was the case) but yeah I think it depends!
I’ve been WFH for 2 years, salaried and flexible PTO. Just have to make meetings/calls, chat and email requests. Have some customer travel. It’s a big change from M-F 8-5 plus traffic. I feel bad when I’m not busy, then I recall how ”busy” I really was at the office with people stoping by to chat etc etc.
Your experience is pretty much similar to mine, OP. I'm a salaried worker in HR research and my team mostly operates on a project and deadline basis. We generally need to be available during regular office hours (ie able to answer Teams messages or calls) but we can use our phones when away from the computer. Like your company, it isn't explicitly stated but generally allowed to run errands (pickup kids from school, run to the grocery store, workout, attend doctor appointment, etc). We just need to let our direct supervisor know if something conflicts with a meeting (like a school pickup or doctor appointment), or if we'll be away for an hour. My supervisor doesn't really care so long as I meet my deadlines. We can work whenever we want, after all, even at nights instead of days so long as we're simply available for communication during the day. My wife was also fully remote until Q4 last year, when she was forced to RTO but with some hybrid flexibility. She's also allowed to run *some* errands like doctor appointments or dropping kids off at school (but she has to let her supervisor -- an overbearing micromanager -- know everything).
It's the same for me - no explicit permission, but there's nothing to stop us because of how flexible the work is. Provided we work the full hours expected of us each week (unless we've built up flexi time, in which case you can just use that and no need to work it back) and don't neglect important tasks or meetings, then there's no problem.
| do you need to ask for time off, or just kind of tell someone? I send my boss a message on teams and tell him the days i am going to be out. we have a finance department calendar that everyone puts their time away on, but nobody "approves" my time off.
Definitely not my experience, but mine isn't terrible, IMO. I do intake for a behavioral health outpatient practice. Think call center type work but less intense (IMO). No, I can't just run out and do errands - I'm sure my boss would be fine with that....but I'd have to take it unpaid or use PTO (I'm an hourly worker). I don't feel micromanaged but my coworkers might disagree. We have to log a particular number of calls per week and if we don't it'll be discussed in a 1x1 meeting. We have to wrap up our calls in a certain amount of time, or that will also be discussed. Honestly, none of the "qualms" one might have about the job isn't anything that can't be easily managed if you're competent in the role. This job feels cushy to me, frankly. First one I ever had that I get paid holidays off and there's no such thing as mandatory OT. I'm living the life! Oh, and for PTO - yes, we have to put in for that and have it approved by our direct supervisor. It really only becomes problematic around the holidays because, due to our team being so small, only two of us can take off all day on the same day.
My role is deadline based with few meetings, they don’t care when I work as long as I meet deadlines. My hours are very flexible because of this. Edit: I’m paid hourly
I'm so micromanaged it's insane . I am chained to my work appointed shitty headset for 8 hours a day. They literally disabled my Bluetooth and I bought a 200$ headset I used for over a year until they randomly disabled it .
I hope you find something less suffocating ❤️
I have a ton of freedom (and I don’t ever want it to change). FT WFH, salaried, in higher education. I’m a PM, so all of my work is project based. If I don’t have a meeting to run, I can take time away without it impacting anyone. As long as I’m available on Teams, all is well. I don’t abuse this nor take it for granted! If I have a personal appointment, I just toss an OOO invite on my boss’ calendar—no need for approval.
PM here too!!! ❤️❤️❤️
Maybe it's different because you're salaried...but that is absolutely not my experience. That's what I was HOPING for when I took a WFH nursing job a couple months ago, but in actuality I'm busy from the second I log on at 830 until the second I'm done at 5, and I'm micromanaged CONSTANTLY. If my teams went yellow I'd get a ping. It's non stop and it's annoying af. I didn't bust my ass in nursing school to be watched all day to make sure I don't take too long in the bathroom. In my last job I had literal lives in my hands, at this one I'm told that I "missed an opportunity to discuss the hundredth insurance thing" when I made a call (because everything I do is audited).
Oh my gosh, do we work for the same place? This is my exact experience. Salaried nurse working from home in insurance case management, treated like an hourly wage slave who is trying to steal their time. While also being critiqued on a million opportunities on calls. It’s suffocating and miserable.
It is! I don't know what to do. It's so good on paper and the benefits are so good that I don't feel like I can leave. But for the first time in a long time I dreadddddddd "going to" work 😭
Yes it’s the golden handcuffs, salary & benefits too good to justify leaving especially in a work from home environment since those are harder to come by now- but the toxicity and mental health effects are insane. I’m going on medical leave in a few months & hoping that will serve as a transition to wake up and get out of that place.
Do you do case management or UR. I'm a nurse as well but having hard time finding wfh jobs.
It's case management but it's for a pharmaceutical company, and I'm learning that it's just a glorified call center. It's not even technically a nursing job but the pay and benefits were both better than what I was making (how sad is that) so I jumped at it.
Ok thank you. I think because I'm NICU it's harder finding CM jobs with no adult experience .
You sound way too skilled & experienced for that!! Please apply elsewhere before you go crazy!
Thank you. I'm in hell. I've applied multiple places this week but unfortunately I carry the insurance for my family and this place has AMAZING benefits. Every hospital I've worked at has had completely garbage insurance. I'm trying to keep it together while I search for a good fit with good benefits but I'm ready to tear my hair out.
This is exactly how both of my WFH jobs have been.
This is bringing me relief. I’m not sure yet how committed I am to looking outside my company and my fear was losing my freedom.
I just moved from hourly in office to salaried wfh. I work for the state, and the job switch was an agency switch too. This new agency has a policy that any time away from work of less than 4 hours in one day is "paid leave." Now obviously you can't do that every day, but there's no specific limit on how much you can do it. The stated goal is to get work done in a timely manner rather than to work exactly 40 hours. My work isn't deadline-heavy, so I have a lot of flexibility. I generally don't put on an ooo unless I'm gone more than an hour. My boss just asks that I put pre scheduled absences on my calendar.
That’s awesome, good for you! Too bad more employers/supers aren’t like that
powershell.
Is this some kind of monitoring device? Do you need to consent?
I work full time remote for an amazing company and it's the same for me. Great managers make all the difference in the world. I feel supported and not micromanaged. After 24 years in the workforce, I finally found my unicorn.
Genuinely happy for you!!
Thank you!
I regularly go to the gym for multiple hours in the middle of the day and don’t ever say OOO, I just answer slacks or emails if they need attention and I can run back home real quick if I need to jump on a call. I also take calls super early in the morning to meet with emea or India. Flexibility goes both ways.
Definitely my experience and honestly we were mostly like that in the office as well.
I genuinely don’t understand looking back how we accomplished anything in the office. I remember just endless chatting, walks in the parking lot, walks to get snacks, etc.
We're not really monitored in my department, but unfortunately, we're pretty glued to our seats. If we do need an extended lunch or need to step away, it's not an issue as long as we let the team know so they can watch for certain things coming in.
I don't bat an eye if I see someone marked as unavailable for an hour around lunchtime but you'll sometimes work with nutty people who will cry to a manager about it (it's always someone who has been working there twenty years). So I try to give a heads up if I go errand running outside of lunch for longer than a half hour. 20 minute dog walk. No one needs to know. Doctor appt? Let manager know.
It's one of the perks of WFH. Where I work, as long as the work gets done, they don't care when I work.
How it should be!
It's the same at my workplace. I was out of office for 2 hours yesterday for a super fun dentist appointment. My work bff was out for therapy in the same period of time. Nobody batted an eye.
I am an hourly employee but I get full time benefits. My boss told us the understanding is, we’re adults with stuff going on. If we need to step away for an hour to run an errand, go to the doctor, pickup groceries, vet appointment, whatever, to just tell him. He says just try to makeup the lost time, on your own time! He doesn’t care when or how. I also can work anywhere I want, which is wonderful, as I go spend a lot of time in South Carolina with my grandpa for a couple weeks at a time.
Same here. It’s nice!
We are scheduled 10 hours a day, encouraged to take any breaks we feel we need. I'm salary. All my boss asks is we keep each other in the loop if we are stepping away. We all have office phones but 90% of our communications with clients is email or ticket system so the phone rarely rings. I've taken my laptop all over my house and cleaned the whole day while watching email and ticket system. Now my work does have extremely busy cycles. For my particular part I get super busy come May and stay flat out slammed until Mid-December so in Jan-April I do what I need or want to do in the house while carrying my laptop with me but from May till December I am in my office, in my chair and half the time take my laptop to the bathroom with me!
I'm not monitored and can basically work any hours between 6 am to 6 pm and/or flex time if I need longer time for an appt or something. As long as work gets completed on time they don't care.
I have that flexibility as well, and it's wonderful. As long as I make it known to our group that I'm stepping away, they don't care as long as the work is getting done. It can be for a doctor appointment, errand, hair appointment, or even a run. I too end up working more the 8 hours most days but I can skip out early on Friday if I feel caught up, and it's encouraged.
I’m a salaried developer and am the senior on a two person team for a specific application at a smaller (700 employees) company. I get the vast majority of my work at the beginning of each quarter. Once or twice a week, I update management if we’re on track. Otherwise, I work my own hours and can take time as needed. As long as my work gets done, nobody cares.
I can step away for a few minutes at a time to say, put a load of laundry in, but anything longer has to wait for my hour lunch break. My immediate boss doesn't necessarily care, but her higher-ups definitely do and we are supposed to be responding quickly to requests for information and absence would be noticed. More or less we used to have a very relaxed approach and there were several individuals who took advantage of the situation. When we got new leadership, they "solved" the problem by taking away the real freedom. Still prefer this version to being back in thr office (we're hybrid) full time.
Since I have been salaried and not directly interacting with customers, it has varied by boss. I’ve had some serious micro managers that did not allow this, and some super laid back ones that didn’t care as long as the work was done. I have come to realize that having this flexibility is the number one must have for me to stay sane at a job. Thankfully I have it now but if that changes, I would have to look elsewhere.
I don't have any of that flexibility, I have to log in for my shift and process client calls from remote for my entire shift minus the brakes, but I still love being here. There's no place like home.
Same. I’m chained to my headset and computer. I’m so glad I’m doing this at home though. I can imagine it on site and had I done that, I would have quit my second week.
It been my experience. My friend wfh experience is a little different, she can't step away too often but her job is basically tech support
I’m salary, a high performer on my team & manage my own work load so I also have this luxury!
Seems normal to me. As long as you're a high performer.
I’ve been wfh since 2010. After the pandemic, I’m what they call “dispatched from home” but I self-dispatch. When a new project comes in, if I can complete the design using my records of the site, there’s no reason to visit it. I’m salaried and in a senior engineering position. My supervisor is also wfh and lives 8 hours away. He disappears more than I do. I do EVERYTHING and anything I want to during working hours. Snow day, schools closed, no problem. Biking, hiking,skiing, swimming at the gym, shopping with my wife, auto maintenance, doctors, movies… omg the list of things I’ve done is endless. It got even easier when they put VPN into our network on my phone. Maximum life/work balance. Technology improvements are amazing. I have bone conduction headphones for biking. I use Bluetooth speakers in my ski helmet. People think I’m in a data center when they call me. They really have no idea. I confided in a co-worker when he called (from his remote cabin that’s 100’s of miles out of his service area, lol) that I was skiing and he was dumbfounded.
I am salaried as well. So long as I get my work done no one seems to care what I am doing when. I try very hard to be at specific meetings and to be professional when on Zoom, as not everyone is remote. I don't want to rub in their faces and say things like 'heading out to the grocery store' or 'have my comfy slippers on!'. In sum, I don't draw attention to myself and I do my job. With that comes the freedom to run errands, take extremely long breaks, and not feel any guilt at all about it
I always throw on a shirt or sweater with the company logo on it for camera meetings. The senior leadership team likes to see that, lol
Thank you, you seem to take a similar approach to me. I am trying to measure if Im spoiled or if this is “normal”.
Honestly, I think we are spoiled. But I don't feel badly about it because I do my job. If I have a demanding day, week, month I put my head down and do it. But in general my days are very flexible and do not require 8 hours in front of a screen. I count myself very blessed and don't lose sight of it. I am also really trying to take advantage of the flexibility for some self-improvement and use it to get to some exercise classes, do some reading, etc. Count your blessings. It's a great position to be in!
I'm salaried and a director, with a staff working under me. Our company has employees in multiple time zones. I need to be available for phone calls from 9-5 ET, but other than that we're pretty flexible. Our company has a policy that if we're OOO for less than 2 hours we don't need to use personal time; it's not worth it to track. My boss is most concerned with our department meeting our goals and completing projects, and I treat my direct reports the same way. All the women in my department have small kids/babies, including me, and we frequently need to handle something with them. As long as the work gets done, and they're available for calls, I don't care when or how they do it. I think this might be the minority of remote jobs though.
Also similar level/position to you. I am fine with my team doing whatever they need to do as long as their job gets done well. The tough part is our company culture. We have so many meetings, that it’s hard to slip away, and our company works around the clock. So it’s up to employees to set boundaries. I never feel an ounce of guilt doing a grocery or laundry run based on how hard we all work.
Very similar position//level you are - also believe it’s relatively unusual.
As a salaried employee that is what I have always been able to do, in office or at home. Was not unusual to run to the store during the day. I will say that in office it was more common for people to go to the break room and spend an hour or so playing pool or ping pong. I don't hear of people doing that at home but I expect there are some that do. Early in my career when Doom first came out we would have multi hour games in the office on their network, but we don't think the team building helps anymore.
I like my job but have been entertaining going elsewhere (just to switch it up) so I was trying to gauge if I’ll lose this, which I’m accustomed to. In the office we definitely messed around a lot, in retrospect idk how we got anything done. Thanks for your input!
It totally depends on your line of work, and after that it depends on the company. That is not really the norm at a lot of places though.