My favorite quote:

While employees in the office might kill time messaging friends or flipping through TikTok, remote workers take advantage of being far from the watchful gaze of bosses to chip away at personal to-do lists or to goof off.

Nearly half of remote workers multitask on work calls or complete household chores like unloading the dishwasher or doing a load of laundry, according to the SurveyMonkey poll of 3,117 full-time workers in the U.S.

Oh noes, people actually doing things that are useful for their families instead of even more computer time.

It’s insane that this is even considered strange or surprising. When I work from home, I take longer lunch breaks and I often stop working earlier, but I’m still three times as productive compared to sitting in an office.

At home, I actually get focused time to do something and think. At the office, this is extreamly difficult with all the distractions and noise constantly interrupting my train of thought.

  • @AlecSadler@sh.itjust.works
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    194 hours ago

    When I used to work in office:

    • Wake up at 7am, get ready to go and take a 1 hour commute in, usually there by 9:00
    • Try to find parking, walk to office, morning break room coffee and chatter, usually settle in around 9:30
    • Get interrupted multiple times by desk drive bys
    • Take 2 hour lunch around noon with multiple coworkers because why not
    • Get interrupted multiple times by desk drive bys
    • Leave at 4 to try and avoid some traffic

    Now that I work from home:

    • Wake up and hop online to work, usually settle in by 7:30am
    • No desk drive by interruptions
    • Eat at my desk during meetings or while simultaneously working
    • Sometimes start laundry or something during the day, but who cares?
    • Usually work later than 5
    • sunzu2
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      75 hours ago

      There is a class difference in there though… Some people own while others slave

      • Thats exactly what I mean. My aim is to point out the ridiculousness of them trying to moralise it, by making the people who ease off a little bit to put to washing on out to be lazy and undeserving of their wages etc.

        That wrath for people not working or “slacking off” slightly while getting paid is only reserved for poor people.

        • sunzu2
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          122 minutes ago

          The regime relies on plebs larping this bushit.

          If tomorrow every fucking wage slave got a pair of balls and started acting like daddy capitalist, half of issues would be solved and parasites would be punished.

          But instead of we got bootlickers serving as regime enforcers 🤡

  • 2ugly2live
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    175 hours ago

    I love the day ending and my chores already being done. I log out and it’s like I’m completely done and can go fuck off somewhere.

  • @exanime@lemmy.world
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    807 hours ago

    Gotta love how the articles frames it. While at work people “kill time” with tik tok but at home they “goof off” folding laundry

    • @Nommer@sh.itjust.works
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      22 hours ago

      I’m killing time right now because there’s nothing to do but yet I can’t go home and clean up the clutter that’s accumulated from being stuck at work all day with nothing to do.

      • @leftytighty@slrpnk.net
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        -15 hours ago

        I feel like they’re just trying to use variety in their wording and either configuration would have upset you

        • @exanime@lemmy.world
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          125 hours ago

          I can tell you it wouldn’t… We usually do not have multiple words because they are completely and 100% interchangeable.

          It is the exact same message manipulation when a cop outright murders someone the headline often says something super tangential like “Perp lost life in altercation with police”… words matter and you’d expect journalist to know this

          • @leftytighty@slrpnk.net
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            25 hours ago

            I still think it’s overly cynical and not likely to be a conspiracy in this case but I do agree that it’s a general concern, highlighted especially now with the genocide in Gaza, so I don’t think you’re wrong to feel that way. I’m still choosing to be charitable in this case, however.

            • @exanime@lemmy.world
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              34 hours ago

              I still think it’s overly cynical

              Definitely could be… I know this of myself and I have been working on it

              • @leftytighty@slrpnk.net
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                23 hours ago

                I think many of us feel that way, given how the world has evolved in my adult life I don’t blame anyone.

  • @kat_angstrom@lemmy.world
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    748 hours ago

    And in the office there are people who literally hang out at the coffee machine for 30-60 minutes at a time, talking to everyone who comes by under the guise of “networking”.

    The media gotta stop reporting on the laundry like it’s the equivalent of stealing from the company.

    • @frog_brawler@lemmy.world
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      357 hours ago

      It’d be cool if the media did a piece about how companies are stealing the excess labor of their employees. It will never happen though because “the media” also steals the excess labor from it’s employees.

      • @WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
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        54 hours ago

        Maybe the solution to return-to-work is manufacturing a bunch of fake news about remote workers being significantly less likely to unionize and more likely to take an ass pounding from corporate overlords?

    • @menemen@lemmy.ml
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      177 hours ago

      We have people here working maximum 1 hour per day, in the home office they can at least not stop others from working.

  • @Showroom7561@lemmy.ca
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    408 hours ago

    Sounds like they take micro breaks, which is not only healthy, but can help with productivity.

    Is anyone complaining about this?

      • sunzu2
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        35 hours ago

        Those refis gonna have to happen but fed lowered the interest rates for them… These clowns never lose as we are always there to bail them with policy or straight hand outs of cash lol

  • Sabata
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    55 hours ago

    While employees in the office might kill time messaging friends or flipping through TikTok, remote workers take advantage of being far from the watchful gaze of bosses to chip away at personal to-do lists or to goof off

    I could be at home rubbing one, trying to do a push up, or taking a nap in between calls. I’m stuck here pretending to look busy while shit posting or watching Youtube since everything is working. Think I’ll play Minecraft after my smoke break. I miss work from home…

  • @Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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    146 hours ago

    Production went up 15% in my department by going from 2 days in office to fully remote. Some employees still have to go to the office for disciplinary reasons, but that’s a manager’s job to make it happen, if managers are too dumb to realize some employees aren’t working then it’s a management issue, not a remote work issue.

    • sunzu2
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      35 hours ago

      if managers are too dumb to realize some employees aren’t working then it’s a management issue

      Well Amazon management made it a slave issue now lol

  • @2pt_perversion@lemmy.world
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    168 hours ago

    I can admit I delay work more from home than I did when I was at the office. I do about the same amount overall I just don’t get around to it as quickly.

    But the company I’m with would also have to pay me 20-30% more to go into the office as I have better offers for that already and I’d still probably just hop to another company that lets me work from home for a similar salary.

    • @vividspecter@lemm.ee
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      108 hours ago

      I do about the same amount overall I just don’t get around to it as quickly.

      That’s the important part. Who gives a fuck when and how you finish your work, as long as you do. We can only be productive for so many hours a day anyway.

  • @SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world
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    10112 hours ago

    The first hour in the office was spent staring at the screen wiggling the mouse from time to time when the screen saver came on because too tired from commuting every day. But, it was at the office so it was productive staring I guess.

    • @coyootje@lemmy.world
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      5312 hours ago

      Haha it’s so ridiculous that these articles never take into consideration that people in the office don’t have a lot of productive time.

      I had the same, I would have a somewhat easy first hour, then spend 2 to 3 hours really focusing and then I’d basically be done for the day and would spend some time idling after lunch until I deemed it was an appropriate time to leave and “work some more from home”.

      My best year billability wise was the first year of the covid lockdowns, I managed to generate something like 25% more just because of being able to work from home and cutting back on the travel time to customers and being able to multi-task occasionally when I had a quiet day for a customer. I’m glad I live in the Netherlands, hybrid/remote working seems like it’ll remain over here at least.

      • @SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world
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        2711 hours ago

        And they they go on about the free flow of ideas, innovations and cooperation. Please, we were all sitting there with headphones trying to isolate ourselves to get anything done because some manager would always be on a loud phone call and using a meeting space to work was forbidden.

        Driving to customers or flying to the other side of the world for a meeting was such a big time sink.

        It also reminds me of the story of Rotterdam harbour where they just couldn’t find any people anymore. Turns out that the cost of commuting was so high, people made more money doing lower paid work closer to home.

        • @captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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          24 hours ago

          Ah the bullshit justifications of open office plans. If I want free communication with my coworkers I’ll go communicate with them. If I need to be left alone to focus let me

        • @Cephalotrocity@biglemmowski.win
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          1310 hours ago

          Turns out that the cost of commuting was so high, people made more money doing lower paid work closer to home.

          This is true for a lot of people everywhere. It’s often ridiculous the amount of time and money lost from commutes that gets forgotten about.

          For me commuting outside the city costs at least an hour of time every day, and $1+/hour in fuel weekly that I don’t get paid. For me WFH is like a $1.50+/hr raise that is far more convenient and stress reducing than a better paying job.

  • @superkret@feddit.org
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    12412 hours ago

    A good boss doesn’t give a shit about whether the workers do other things during work time, as long as the work is done satisfactorily.

    • @Fester@lemm.ee
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      2310 hours ago

      At my last office job, years ago when I was young and lived with my parents and had very few financial obligations, I would always ask to clock out and leave whenever I ran out of work to do for the day. It was always busy mornings and slow afternoons. My boss thought I was insane for not wanting to get paid to sit there and fuck around on Facebook (her exact words.) But to me it was worth losing $30-60 to gain back 3-6 hours of my personal life every week.

      The boss and most co-workers were great, and the work wasn’t even bad when it was busy, but just physically being present there was soul-crushing.

    • @Valmond@lemmy.world
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      1010 hours ago

      Most bosses: hmm but if you worked instead of doing small important things for your family you could four double your productivity instead of only triple it!

      • @SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world
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        259 hours ago

        Most bosses equate having fun with not working and so not having fun with being productive. However, most workers are in a twilight state of not having fun and not being productive.

        • LiveLM
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          9 hours ago

          twilight state of not having fun and not being productive.

          Stop putting me on blast, man

  • Diplomjodler
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    2210 hours ago

    My coworkers recounting the oh so cute exploits of their oh so cute grandchildren in excruciating detail is very productive, I’m sure. Definitely makes the extra long commute worthwhile for me.