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WFH Experience 2020-2021
- Thread starter gagarin04
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I’d rather not say on an open forum, but let’s just say I’m not complaining!
I have a day job, standard hours are 35 hours each week I do between 35/50 hours as needed to get the job done. Technically that is up to 15 hours each week unpaid but I get an annual bonus that more than makes up for that along with many other benefits such as significant pension contributions, stock and so on.
Also, run my own web hosting company for 20 years which I do during the other hours. I don't mix the two or 'steal time' from one to serve the other.
Worked from home since March 2020, if anything it has increased the hours I do in both roles as I have far greater flexibility and no travelling requirement. The plan is to return to the office in Jan 2022 but only required to be there two days each week which I am grateful for the continued flexibility.
Also, run my own web hosting company for 20 years which I do during the other hours. I don't mix the two or 'steal time' from one to serve the other.
Worked from home since March 2020, if anything it has increased the hours I do in both roles as I have far greater flexibility and no travelling requirement. The plan is to return to the office in Jan 2022 but only required to be there two days each week which I am grateful for the continued flexibility.
So when it is obvious (as in your case and in many others) to the company that the work they expect you to accomplish to the standard they want cannot be done in the 35 hours they pay you, why not have your paid work week be 45 hours? Is it illegal to do so? The way the system is currently, it is a charade that is fooling no one.
To be fair there is no actual requirement for me to work more than 35 hours. I do it out of choice. Work-life balance is heavily promoted within the firm.
I feel that the rewards are however high when demonstrating you go above and beyond. As mentioned, the bonus I get each year reflects the additional commitment offered. I know that I get more than some others as a direct reflection of the additional hours as one element which is in the xx,xxx value.
Salary
Annual bonus
Pension, life, accident, dental, and others
35 days annual leave
Annual Free stock
Discounted stock
and more.
It all adds up. I give more because I chose not because I am forced.
Exactly. Sadly to many subscribe to the bare minimum in life. They think that that’s enough and that when they get promoted or a pay rise they’ll do more. They don’t understand it works the other way around. Take my team. The ones that take excessive sick and finish on time every day will get the minimum annual pay rise. The others will get more. So the gap between them widens. But you reward your best workers, not those that do the minimum.
To take this back on track before the pandemic most people could work from home a couple of days per week. But those that didn’t show the right work ethic were not allowed.
Sadly, some employers don't follow this policy and expect hard work for no extra reward.
That has been my experience.
Small businesses are the worst offenders.
Hidden incompetence, family issues, greed and financial jeopardy at the top (the bosses) drive most of it.
There was one time where my paycheck bounced - which caused a mess because I had made bill payments. My boss at the time blamed his brother, the 'business manager'.
Not my current employer. I once had to pay the company phone bill as we were cut off on my debit card.
Love working from home and don't miss the commute..even though mine isn't as bad as some other persons. Unfortunately the extra work I can cram into a day is offset by the loss of productivity of not being able to collaborate in person work associates. Personally I don't want to go back to the office, but when and if I'm told to do so, I will "man-up" and restart a now unfamiliar routine.
My boss lost the domain names once. He assumed the phone company was taking care of it. It took a week to prove he was the owner and get them back. Until then all company email got handled by the private email accounts of us employees.
Also not my current employer.
I worked from home briefly at the beginning of the pandemic, and not being face-to-face with customers when they requested an order was actually quite frustrating and lead to some extra communication being required during production that usually would've been taken care of at the start. Orders as a whole dropped enough to make the job untenable.
At the same time in March 2020 all taxi drivers quit and few have come back, but I was able to return. No social distancing to speak of and masks have not been required in the cab since the beginning of July. Things were really rough for me in the winter, I was making average $100 a night for 12 hours of being on the road. With how high rent is I was barely scraping by. Now things are so busy I've been taking time off... Still few drivers on the road so we are swamped with business, making good money but at the cost of my sanity. I could quit now but will not until I am 65 at least.
At the same time in March 2020 all taxi drivers quit and few have come back, but I was able to return. No social distancing to speak of and masks have not been required in the cab since the beginning of July. Things were really rough for me in the winter, I was making average $100 a night for 12 hours of being on the road. With how high rent is I was barely scraping by. Now things are so busy I've been taking time off... Still few drivers on the road so we are swamped with business, making good money but at the cost of my sanity. I could quit now but will not until I am 65 at least.
never understood the "I work 50/60/70/80/100hr weeks" boasts like it's some sort of badge of honor or some sense of indicator of "work ethic".
I have lived it. Never again.
It's not the flex you think it is.
In fact, I feel bad for you. Life is not meant to be slaving away for a job where you are a constant 2 words from being let go and replaced the next day.
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Trust me I’m not about to be replaced. That’s not my role. And as for boasting about the hours I do. It was a response to the OP stating he just works for two hours a day. The reality is if people do that, someone somewhere is filling in for them.
Sadly too many (mostly young) people in my experience don’t do nearly enough work or don’t have the skills to work unchecked or supervised.
Some people just don’t get it though. They would rather be at work excessively underpaid, in addition to not being paid for hours worked, because it makes them ‘feel like they contributed’. Employers just love people that put in extra time without having to pay out. The employee would rather put in all these extra hours that are _not_ compensated for the sake of taking away their personal life, precious hours you never get back, ever. Why somebody would knowingly putting in a substantial amount of hours a year unpaid when they know that they should be paid for those extended hours, is beyond me.
Again, work smarter, not harder.
Any idea what I get paid? Nope you don’t. I’m doing okay thanks
Here in America, at least, I think some (if not most) of this is because work is tied into your identity. People ask what you do for a living because that's a big factor in how they figure out who you are.
Americans equate their volume of work with their sense of worth. If you aren't doing gonzo hours you aren't worth very much. Never mind the quality of your work during the time you work. That isn't relevant.
Now working hard where compensation go hand in hand (and not necessarily monetarily) and the quality of your work brings tangible benefits, such as what @Apple fanboy is trying to indicate is a different thing. He's getting what he's worth. It just may not all be reflected in his paycheck. It's when we value our self worth by how much we do and DON'T get compensated for it that there are problems.
That's something I reject, have long rejected and I feel is starting to be acknowledged more now. My self worth is not tied up in the constant bailing out of employers who shouldn't ever have opened a business to begin with.
I can’t say I agree with this sentiment totally. It probably depends on the type of industry you’re in that would actually determine your ‘sense of worth’ and how successful you really are based off what you contribute.
But more to the topic on point of the actual thread, nobody can determine somebody’s sense of worth when they work from home solely. When you’re working from home, nobody really knows what you accomplish [With the exception of your employer], hours contributed, what time you start/finish, projects completed, etc. The latest studies in my area are showing that people are actually more productive working from home then they are in the workplace. Now why would that be? I suspect that there is less of a stress level working at home, and in some respects, less distractions if you’re somebody that’s actually focused on your task(s).
Regardless, I think success should be based off your continued accomplishments with your employer, when you accrue continued growth, for some people, they start at the bottom, and then eventually own XYZ company. Also, level of education is also really important here, that nobody really touched on. In order to grow and be successful, there has to be continued education where the company invests to expand your knowledge.
Well, things are changing and that's good. I think it accelerated with WFH because of the pandemic.
As always, it depends.
Sometimes I work long hours as we are a department that has peaks and troughs. The peaks require more hours, the troughs give me time back.
Ultimately (fortunately) though I work for a company that both recognises and rewards going above and beyond the contracted terms.
At the end of the day, I am an employee, I know I can be replaced or dispensed with. But, I look at my updated compensation package at the start of each year and for at least the last 10 years I can honestly say to myself "Yup, they appreciate my effort and for the reward, I am willing to give that effort".
On the other hand, I agree, there are many who wear 100 hour weeks as a badge of honour, fair play to them if that is a badge they want to wear.
But there are also people who struggle to find/keep themselves in work for a variety of reasons so I can understand their effort is to put food on the table and that can sometimes come at a heavy cost. I respect their effort simply to provide for themselves and family.
So many different reasons why, it is not always black and white.
And we all do things for different reasons. I just turned 49 this week, own my own house, not a penny of debt, strong retirement fund already and good savings. That is what I have achieved and put in all the effort for thus far.
From 50 onwards I will be slowing it down, looking at reducing my contracted hours and spending more time enjoying life. That may not seem like much of an achievement but when I look at others who will have to work until their last day it feels like an achievement to me
Congratulations on owning your own house and living debt free. Sounds like an achievement to me as well.As always, it depends.
Sometimes I work long hours as we are a department that has peaks and troughs. The peaks require more hours, the troughs give me time back.
Ultimately (fortunately) though I work for a company that both recognises and rewards going above and beyond the contracted terms.
At the end of the day, I am an employee, I know I can be replaced or dispensed with. But, I look at my updated compensation package at the start of each year and for at least the last 10 years I can honestly say to myself "Yup, they appreciate my effort and for the reward, I am willing to give that effort".
On the other hand, I agree, there are many who wear 100 hour weeks as a badge of honour, fair play to them if that is a badge they want to wear.
But there are also people who struggle to find/keep themselves in work for a variety of reasons so I can understand their effort is to put food on the table and that can sometimes come at a heavy cost. I respect their effort simply to provide for themselves and family.
So many different reasons why, it is not always black and white.
And we all do things for different reasons. I just turned 49 this week, own my own house, not a penny of debt, strong retirement fund already and good savings. That is what I have achieved and put in all the effort for thus far.
From 50 onwards I will be slowing it down, looking at reducing my contracted hours and spending more time enjoying life. That may not seem like much of an achievement but when I look at others who will have to work until their last day it feels like an achievement to me
It sounds like you have a very poor work ethic from what you are admitting here.
I am all for hybrid working and still work on average 1 day at home every week. I actually get more work done as less people disturb me. I do enjoy being in the office too as no amount of video calls replacement face to face communication in my view. It’s a nice alternative, but collaboratively I think working in person can be much more beneficial.
People like yourself that take advantage of being out of sight and employ a more lazy approach, don’t really deserve the WFH perk. I hope people like that get found out as it’s not good for your colleagues or the business.
Absolutely. In my experience going the extra mile does get you further and it’s noticed. I work more than my required hours but my projects go over the line on time. A fellow mechanical engineer that works in my department goes home on the dot every single day and is often less motivated during the day. He moans about not getting a pay rise but has never pushed himself. He has no idea I earn £8k more a year than him and I’d never admit that, but it’s because I deliver and he doesn’t. Some people just have an appalling work ethic and expect progression just for turning up and doing their job, not exceeding expectations.
This is exactly right. I can't tell you how many employees I have had to deal with that are interested in doing the absolute bare minimum only. I wish people would realize that employers really do struggle to get capable and talented people who are willing to put in the work. It's hard. So, when we get people who go over and above expectations, those people stand out in a very good way. It's not about working for nothing, it's about standing out in an effort to get recognized and to help your organization.
This also explains why some employers are weary about WFH. The latitude to do the bare minimum is just too tempting for many employees -- even allowing some to slack off sometimes -- and it's harder to gauge those who really wants to excel and grow in the organization.