Working remotely - how long

02-06-2023 6:24am #1

For anyone lucky enough to still be working at home, how long does it take you to complete all your tasks?

I am finding now I am done in 3-4 hours a day, fully done.

Is that strange. I have asked for more tasks but am told the work I produce is great.

Wondering what others do?

Supercell · 02-06-2023 6:48am

I work from home mostly, when i've got my regular work done i'm nearly always doing some course or another to upskill . I'm an IT worker so keeping up to date is essential, keeps my mind busy and my skills relevant. I couldn't sit around doing nothing, would drive me crazy.

Grayson · 02-06-2023 7:18am

I find myself working longer but I did move jobs (and country). I don't think I could go back to working in an office full time. We have an office day every second Wednesday. People travel far to do it. We organise the time so that we only discuss stuff that needs the whole team present. Afterwards most of us grab dinner together. So we still have some social contact.

I was contacted about a job back in Ireland a couple of months ago but I was told it was 3 days a week in the office minimum and honestly I couldn't face doing that. Getting Dublin bus every day. Hoping there's space on the bus. Standing there until the bus empties enough to get a seat. Wasting two hours a day, up to 10 hours a week in a stupid commute just so I can do the same work in an office.

Kintarō Hattori · 02-06-2023 8:44am

Still working from home thankfully, moved job about 8 months ago and that's fully work from home. I couldn't go back to working in the office, all that lost time travelling and lots of time missed out with my 6 year old. Now I can drop and collect her from school.

In terms of managing the work, I have to work around customers so I can have times where I might have a meeting at 10, 10:30, 14:00, then nothing more. It varies quite a bit so you're never really sure of when the schedule (despite the fact that it's me who sets it.) It's determined by when the customer is free. It's fine though. You can take the paperwork at a leisurely pace.

YellowLead · 02-06-2023 9:47am

It will clearly depend on what kind of job you have. Lower skill work where you are doing specific tasks and have a set amount of them is very different to a more demanding job where it makes no difference every day you are doing the full hours and above and projects are ongoing for months / years.

megaten · 02-06-2023 1:50pm

Still remote though I think they'll be looking for me at least once a week sooner rather than later. Work is a constant battle though the timers for projects can vary form 3 hours a day to 7 depending if the woek is just nose to the grind stone get it out type stuff or stuff that requires lot sof thinking and correspondance.

RoboRat · 02-06-2023 2:09pm

I can WFH but I choose hybrid to go in and see my team - I do 2 in the office and 3 at home. I don't finish all my tasks because, for every one I complete, I have 3 new ones... all set by me :-O

I do like working from home as I get a lot more done when I'm not in meetings (still the bane of my life). I can't imagine going back to the office full-time, it's fine for a day or 2 a week.

RedXIV · 02-06-2023 2:50pm

I've got enough work to keep me occupied for the next few months :D WFH has def increased my productivity but I still catch myself working late some days to play catch up but it's worthwhile in my mind, as someone else called out, I get so much more time with my kids

Potential-Monke · 03-06-2023 8:54pm

Thankfully still WFH, but I think that's mostly because they forget there's a night team. But, and something that I think is a great advertisement for the company and how well it's modern tech is working, we're dead quiet most times. I could have my work done in the first few hours, or sometimes in 15/20 minutes, and i'm then waiting for work. It's IT, but it's first level support that required no IT background, but it should because those without it struggle. Basic network diagnostics and simple fixes, anything more it goes to second level/on-call. But that's also rare.

I could spend that spare time doing courses, and my employers insist on it in order for me to get my bonus. But their offerings are basically access to LinkedIn Learning. Ah, no thanks. And not just because LIL is full of people who think they're good at teaching but are not, but because I will get nothing from my employer for doing it. I'm extremely happy with the hours and my rota, so I have no reason to look for promotion, and as these courses are not needed to do my current job and if they're not going to increase my wage once I have it done (I mean courses like CompTIA N+) but expect me to do level 2 work for free instead of passing it on.... Nah. I will stay doing this until I retire if needs be, and while I would like more money, I don't think the effort is worth the potential reward. And I say potential, because who wants to hire a 40 year old with no college course but numerous small courses? No one.

But I hope to never have to work in an office again. One of the best things about WFH is if I'm finished at 8am, I click log off, close 2 screens and the laptop, and I'm done, at home, ready to relax. I don't think any money is worth giving that up.

04-06-2023 12:38pm

WFO one day a week, and between constant interruptions and chatty types, usually accomplish much less on that day, but make up for it on the days I am WFH so it balances out.

Potential-Monke · 07-06-2023 10:37pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120676295#Comment_120676295

I think it's very unfair if there are multiple people house sharing and someone decides that's a good environment for WFH.

bb1234567 · 08-06-2023 10:36am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120688555#Comment_120688555

How is it unfair? They pay for the space to be used 24/7 so can do as they wish. If they clearly use more gas than everyone else in the house then that is a separate issue but I don't see how they should be expected to vacate their own home just because most people work in an office usually.

murpho999 · 08-06-2023 10:41am

Anyone like me who is the opposite and much prefer working in an office.

Did almost 2 years during covid. Main advantages was less commute, less cost.

Initially it was great but when it got to winter 2021 I felt very isolated, especially as I was back to living alone after traumatic marriage break up.

I found my life was just going from kitchen table to couch. So home became the office and after work it was dark evenings with nowhere to go. Became quite bleak.

Also started to get sore back etc from poor set up (which I know was wrong)

Then in April 2022 I got a new job that was in a company considered front line and need an extensive handover with a retiring person I was replacing and I much prefer it.

Better to work with a team, exchange of ideas better. Better for coaching team members and exchange of ideas. Also good to have lunch with people and social contact.

Finally separation of work and home life is much better to me. I could maybe do 2 days a week from home if suited but think working in an office is better.

RedXIV · 08-06-2023 10:57am

I had my first week in an office last month since March 2020 and I will admit, I got a real buzz out of meeting folks and having conversations and communicating, which is way easier in person than over calls. I really enjoyed it.

But because I left for the week (it was abroad), my wife had to take the week off for childcare. The amount of money we saved because I have the flexibility in my job to pick up the kids and do the occassional errands during the day as needed, coupled with the potential commuting savings as well makes WFH a no brainer for me.

As my kids grow up and move on I may reconsider but for now, back to the office happily means the room beside the kitchen :D

Potential-Monke · 08-06-2023 7:42pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120689644#Comment_120689644

Probably should have been clearer. Fair enough if one of the people in the house owns it, but for everyone else sharing the house then I would consider it unfair on everyone else to tiptoe around because of it. I don't think a house share is the best setup for WFH is all. I'd get thick if someone told me to keep it down because I was laughing or something similar while relaxing.

BattleCorp · 11-06-2023 11:26am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120689662#Comment_120689662

I can see where you are coming from. When COVID hit, we were all sent packing and had to work from home. This was supposed to be a temporary measure but it lasted for over a year and a half. I also felt isolated when I was working from home. My job involved maybe 3 days office work and two days visiting sites so I was used to a lot of interaction with people. All of that stopped and I had the 4 walls at home to look at for a year and a half. I found it difficult to be honest.

At the start I was doing crazy hours, all my own doing of course. I really wasn't happy working from home. Weirdly I felt guilty if I missed a call because I was out in the kitchen making a cup of coffee or in the Jacks. Sure why wasn't I at my desk? I don't know why I felt guilty because I missed plenty of calls when I was in the office but not at my desk and I didn't feel guilty then. After about 6 weeks I copped on and set a routine. I got up at my normal time, had a shower and dressed for work, got my breakfast and started my work at exactly the same time I would have started in the office. I took my breaks at the same time and finished strictly on time. That helped me a good bit. I also allocated 15 minutes per day (during work time if I'm honest) to make a social call via Teams to a different colleague each day. That helped with the isolation. The Company then copied my idea and we had a 30 minute social call with everyone on the team every Friday. One rule, no talk about work. It worked very well but I still missed the office.

In September 2021 I changed jobs and got a job close to home that had a hybrid working version. I much prefer that than working from home 100% of the time. I'm now usually only in the office once per week but sometimes it could be more. I think hybrid keeps people in touch more.

I found the downsides of working from home to be isolation, demotivation and less opportunity for peer learning. The advantages were that there was no commute and when you were finished work, you were home already. I wasn't one of those who was more productive when working from home. I felt the opposite.

Anyway, to answer the OP's question, as I was a health and safety manager, I'd never be finished my work after two or three hours. If that was the case, I wouldn't be doing my job properly. There's always stuff to do. I was the full 8 hours working when I was working from home.

martinedwards · 11-06-2023 11:33am

I do call centre work, so I'm on the clock.... a full day is a full day.

3 years and no intention of ever going back to the office if I can avoid it!

BattleCorp · 11-06-2023 11:34am

@murpho999

Regarding your sore back, I'd a Director of my old company come to me and tell me she had a sore back since she was working from home. She was blaming her workstation set-up at home.

I asked her to map out her typical day when working from home. It turned out that she could easily be sitting for 2 - 3 hours without once getting up out of the chair whereas when she was in the office she averaged no more than 15 minutes in the chair at any one time as she'd be constantly interrupted, getting up talking to someone, going to the printer etc.

I told her that her problem wasn't with her chair, it was with her ar5e (yep, I'm very bold for putting it that way). She looked at me puzzled. I told her she wasn't moving it enough. She needed to stand up every 15 minutes.

She set her fit bit to buzz every 15 minutes to remind her to stand up for a few seconds and stretch and she also adopted the practice of standing up whenever she was on the phone to anyone. After a week of doing that, no more back pain.

Just a suggestion if your back is still sore.

Working remotely - how long

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