re: Forbes Piece: Flexible Work Was The Promise. The Infinite Workday Is The Reality

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Dealing with staff member who has made WFH a lifestyle (slipping in work around trips, exercise, and side hustles).

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This guy gets it.

Happy pride month to all the work from homers out there

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And yes, it can help. AI can handle the clutter: drafting emails, summarizing notes, scheduling meetings. But if we treat that freed-up time as space to do even more, we’re not fixing the problem—we’re accelerating it.

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I think a not often mentioned psychological aspect of this too is that we expect things from our co-workers much faster than in the past, and they expect the same from us. So if you have really... lets call them 'intense'... people in the office, they freak the frick out if they don't have whatever they want right when they want it. And with AI its only going to get worse.

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Yeah, that's the thing about WFH. If you're doing things right, you're just as productive work-wise, and then you're using those free times between meetings or when you don't have any scheduled task to either truly relax where you're not being watched or be productive in your home-life. That beats just sitting there at a desk all day, five days a week, rotting and trying to make small-talk with colleagues when you've run out of small-talk talking points by Wednesday hahaha

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I can’t upvote this enough. My line of work has ebbs and flows with how busy we are based on various things. Now instead of mindlessly browsing the internet for 8 hours in an office during the slow times, I can game, exercise, house stuff, yard work, etc.

Most importantly I get to spend a TON of more time with my two kids that are under 4

Everyone is a teacher now?

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Like I always have, I decline the shite out of meeting invitations. No agenda? Declined. No clear need for me to be there? Declined. No idea what this is about? Declined. Internal only when I have customer work to do? Declined.

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100%.

At least in my experience, the only people who invite me to way too many meetings that don’t need to be meetings are folks several generations above me. I’ve learned to just politely say I don’t think I need to be on something and ignore the request when it’s a situation like that. I think some people just feel like they’re being more productive when they have more eyes and ears on a meeting, but it’s the opposite. It pulls everyone away from their actual work.

Our team seems to have a clear divide between people who are “conceptual” employees (on calls all day long with clients and internal staff) versus employees who avoid pointless calls in order to get actual projects done. The people in the former group have value/function, in that they usually build close relationships with clients, potential clients, and outside companies we work alongside for clients. But without the people in the latter group, nothing would get done work wise that we promise to do.

Just a personality difference, but I will never understand the type of person who likes to sit on unnecessary calls all day long.

Don’t even get me started on people who have access to my calendar and put calls on it without asking. Phew. Drives me wild.

Do people know they can turn these message alerts off? I check when I have the ability throughout my day. I'd highly suggest the course "Working Smart with Outlook" by Priority Management, I make sure all my direct reports go through it. It really has helped prioritize my day.

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I’ve learned to just politely say I don’t think I need to be on something and ignore the request when it’s a situation like that

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I'm aggressive about it now. I edit the response and put in why I am declining it (no agenda, too many people involved already, etc). It's dramatically cut down on the invitations I get, for the most part the ones I get now are ones I actually need to contribute to.

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Just a personality difference, but I will never understand the type of person who likes to sit on unnecessary calls all day long.

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Lots of people accept any meeting invitation that has anyone important on it. It's hilarious to note the attendance and participation in meetings and how it varies based on how much upper management is in it. The world is full of professional arse kissers, and it seems to work well for them.

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I work in the oilfield and am constantly working after hours. It’s 24hr support in our contract so 2am they have an issue I get up and login

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Kind of similar for us. Don’t have a contract that requires picking the phone at 2am (wouldn’t do much good anyway for what we do), but if the cell rings on a Saturday or Sunday and it’s the field, you probably need to pick up. It’s why I don’t really monitor PTO hours for my crew and also give them flexibility to WFH periodically on “office” days, because we do have to handle shite on the weekends, unlike many other coworkers.

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In my experience, I've found that the people in my office want to work from home moreso because of the freedom that it gives you to sort of do whatever you want rather than them "being more productive" at home.

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This is part of it but the number one reason is commuting sucks. Why would anyone want to waste two hours of their day stuck in traffic?