“No One Noticed I Was Gone”: One Employee’s Life Hack With A Laptop Inspires Others To Share Theirs, Here Are 14 Of The Best Ones
What would you say if I told you that you could keep the same job you’re currently doing for the same salary but cut down your hours to 30 a week instead of 40? Sounds like a pretty sweet deal, right? As long as you finish all of your responsibilities on time, there’s no need to be in the office longer than necessary. There’s just one catch: you have to be clever about how and when you skip hours of work, or you might be fired…
4 days ago, Reddit user Reaching-there posted a screenshot on the Antiwork subreddit of someone sharing that they only ever take their laptop into the office, without a backpack. They explained that this is an easy way to arrive late or leave early because they never look like they’re coming or going. This post sparked a conversation with thousands of comments, including many more creative ways employees have discovered to skip work without raising any suspicions.
Below, you can read some of the most genius tactics that were shared, as well as some of the replies discussing modern office culture. I cannot personally endorse any of these methods, but if you’re savvy enough, you might be able to shrink your work week by using them. Let us know in the comments if you have any other sneaky tactics you’ve personally tested, and if you’re on the clock right now, enjoy this “meeting” for the next few minutes. (If you really want to put on a show for your colleagues, it might even help to take notes and look at the screen with a puzzled expression.)
Recently, a post of one employee’s brilliant tactic for reducing their hours in the office has gone viral
Image credits: Arina Krasnikova (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Arina Krasnikova (not the actual photo)
The employee explained that by only carrying a laptop to and from work, they always appear to be on their way in or out of meetings
Image credits: reaching-there
Typically, any job includes an expectation of showing up on time in the morning and staying in the office for about eight hours. But as long as deadlines are always met, is it really necessary to sit there all day? The traditional 9-5 work model has already seen disruption from the introduction of remote work and flexible positions by many companies during the pandemic. So it would make sense for employers to adapt to the changing times, rather than cling to outdated norms. In fact, last year, The Wall Street Journal published a piece featuring six remote workers who actually balance two full-time jobs because neither position requires forty hours of their week. Of course, their employers are unaware that this is happening, but it is possible when a job requires very little time. One software engineer featured in the article mentioned that he was only logging three to ten hours a week of actual work from one position, while the rest of his time was filled with meetings and busywork.
The post inspired some readers to share more methods for sneaking in and out of work that they have used themselves or witnessed
There is also much debate around the globe about whether or not the 40-hour work week should be abolished. One survey of Americans found that 90% believed a five-day work week is outdated, and 98% believed that shifting to a four-day work week would positively impact their mental health. While it’s still gaining traction, the four-day work model has been trialed in various places around the world and has seen great results. Microsoft Japan tested a shorter work week in 2019 and found a 40% increase in productivity. Researchers in Iceland also conducted a four-year-long study tracking employees who cut their work week down to about 35 hours. These workers reported a dramatic increase in well-being “across a range of indicators, from perceived stress and burnout to health and work-life balance”.
I’m not suggesting that anyone makes drastic changes to their work schedule without receiving approval from their supervisors, but I understand why employees want to avoid working more hours than necessary. Today’s culture is so focused on our careers that it can be challenging to squeeze any enjoyment into our days. If the only time you can make a leisurely coffee date happen is while you’re on the clock, I promise I won’t tell anyone. We would love to hear your thoughts on these tactics in the comments below. Have you ever tried any of them, or do you abide by your company’s rules to a T?
Other commenters shared their thoughts about modern office culture
Hey, remember the recent article about stupid work rules that were made because of one annoying person? It's guys like this that ruin good workplaces for their coworkers. It must be a very relaxed enviornment if no one notices this dude walking out of work in the early afternoon, but you can bet that is going to change once they catch him.
Doesn't it just mean that the others will have to do the job of the guys that leave early?
Unless the people that leave early are actually just efficient, which is quite possible.
Load More Replies...These are awful! Do the job you are paid to do, and stop trying to get paid for doing nothing!
They likely do the job, but they're efficient and doesn't take as long as you're required to be at work.
Load More Replies...I don’t understand this childish truant mentality? Do what you are being paid to do??
They probably do, being required to be at work for x number of hrs has never made sense, especially since at most jobs your duties are outlined pretty clearly, if I finish what I am paid to do, why wouldn't I enjoy my free time?
Load More Replies...I'm immensely grateful that I never had to work with the as***le. How freaking juvenile can you get?
This certainly exacerbates the opinion of the people who actually do the work. You have perpetuated the "myth" of young people not caring, getting by with the absolute easiest way of doing anything and creating what you hate, a hostile work environment. Congratulations laziness, you've created more work for others and made thier lives even more troublesome. Hmm, some times your actions affect others, selfish one.
In my workplace, people clock out and continue working so they’re not reprimanded for missing deadlines or for working overtime. These people are dead weights, whose work is probably being picked up by their colleagues.
Ew, you are bragging about working for free? How is that admirable? Good on you for being a willing slave i guess, I wonder how many new cars your free labor has earned the bosses
Load More Replies...I've never seen someone work so hard to not work as George Costanza. He is by far my favorite part of the show.
Load More Replies...I have now been in a corporate job for almost 5 years. I have changed 4 processes /job roles (+1 change in job role due to promotion). Process 1: fixed targets that required 2 hours of work. Rest 6 hours I would play TT (pingpong) in office recreation area, and have food and snacks 2-3 times in office cafeteria. Process 2: Fixed targets which required 1-1.5 hours per day. Rest 6 hours+ gaain same routine as previous. Process 3: Fixed target; Fixed time. 6 hour work. 1 hour work related / meetings. 1 hour break (split into 30 min . + 15 min. + 15 min.). *POST COVID* Process 4 (CURRENT): Fixed weekly work. Total time required is around 15 hours per week. Work from home. Everyday I work for around 30 min., and 2-3 hours in total go into meetings each week. I complete the pending work starting Sunday 7 PM until it is finished (often stretches till early morning on Monday).
Back when I was a Lieutenant in the Italian Army, my magic talisman was carrying a Manila Folder with some papers. There were weeks where all of my soldiers were either on leave, on duty or otherwise occupied, so we could not train on our weapon system (Missiles) and I had nothing to do aside from my own duties (mess officer once a week, door officer every two weeks), but I couldn't just spend the day at the Officer's club or some busybody would find me something obnoxious to do. So I'd carry around paperwork to go from the Officer's club to the vehicle depot, find a nice APC (tracked troop transport, likely an M113) to sit in and read a book or nap. More than once I'd find a Captain or a Major doing the very same thing and we'd spend the day chatting, going to lunch, back to the APC until 5:30 when we both went off duty. We were each other's excuse, so no manila folder needed.
The jacket on the chair thing reminded me of this silliness: A man gets dressed in the morning, and just before leaving home he puts on his suit coat, goes to his car, take off the coat, drapes it over the passenger seat, drives to the office, gets out of the car, puts on his coat, walks into the building and into his office, removes his coat and hangs it up, does some work, puts on his coat, walks to the car, removes the coat, drives to a meeting, puts on his coat, goes into the meeting, removes his coat, finishes the meeting, puts on his coat, walks to the car, removes his coat, drives back to the office, puts on his coat, walks into the office, removes his coat, does some work, puts on his coat, walks to the car, removes his coat, drives home, puts on his coat, walks into the house, removes his coat. So (at least where I worked) a full suit is only for when you're moving from spot to spot. I was so glad people in my department didn't need to wear suits.
Looking at a lot of the comments, I see plenty of corporate bootlickers. I've never worked a job where there wasn't tons of downtime on a daily basis. When I was salaried and exempt, it made no sense for me to be in the office looking for busy work to do simply to make it look like I was doing something. Some of these commentors show an old fashioned way of thinking that isn't in keeping with the times as employers these days are all about profits and shareholders and could care less about employees. If your work gets done - screw em...
We had a flood at my workplace so no clients could come in but we had to stay on site. I attended a meeting then drove home. 2 hours later my boss messages me to come see her in her office. I put my work clothes back on, drive the 10 minutes to work and walk into her office looking flustered. She just needed me to sign some forms, so I did it and went back home.
I had a colleague who worked in AI image analysis in the same building as me but his boss and the rest of his team lived in other states/countries. Although all of their work could be done remotely, the boss wanted him in the office every day. The colleague used the very software he supported and a camera to produce a green screen background looking out his office window for conference calls. He lived a couple blocks from the office so he'd go in every morning and have his badge reader log him entering the building, move something in his office (ie coat on coat rack),take the daily huddle call, then head back home and finish work from there. When I left, he'd been doing it for nearly a year.
Hey, remember the recent article about stupid work rules that were made because of one annoying person? It's guys like this that ruin good workplaces for their coworkers. It must be a very relaxed enviornment if no one notices this dude walking out of work in the early afternoon, but you can bet that is going to change once they catch him.
Doesn't it just mean that the others will have to do the job of the guys that leave early?
Unless the people that leave early are actually just efficient, which is quite possible.
Load More Replies...These are awful! Do the job you are paid to do, and stop trying to get paid for doing nothing!
They likely do the job, but they're efficient and doesn't take as long as you're required to be at work.
Load More Replies...I don’t understand this childish truant mentality? Do what you are being paid to do??
They probably do, being required to be at work for x number of hrs has never made sense, especially since at most jobs your duties are outlined pretty clearly, if I finish what I am paid to do, why wouldn't I enjoy my free time?
Load More Replies...I'm immensely grateful that I never had to work with the as***le. How freaking juvenile can you get?
This certainly exacerbates the opinion of the people who actually do the work. You have perpetuated the "myth" of young people not caring, getting by with the absolute easiest way of doing anything and creating what you hate, a hostile work environment. Congratulations laziness, you've created more work for others and made thier lives even more troublesome. Hmm, some times your actions affect others, selfish one.
In my workplace, people clock out and continue working so they’re not reprimanded for missing deadlines or for working overtime. These people are dead weights, whose work is probably being picked up by their colleagues.
Ew, you are bragging about working for free? How is that admirable? Good on you for being a willing slave i guess, I wonder how many new cars your free labor has earned the bosses
Load More Replies...I've never seen someone work so hard to not work as George Costanza. He is by far my favorite part of the show.
Load More Replies...I have now been in a corporate job for almost 5 years. I have changed 4 processes /job roles (+1 change in job role due to promotion). Process 1: fixed targets that required 2 hours of work. Rest 6 hours I would play TT (pingpong) in office recreation area, and have food and snacks 2-3 times in office cafeteria. Process 2: Fixed targets which required 1-1.5 hours per day. Rest 6 hours+ gaain same routine as previous. Process 3: Fixed target; Fixed time. 6 hour work. 1 hour work related / meetings. 1 hour break (split into 30 min . + 15 min. + 15 min.). *POST COVID* Process 4 (CURRENT): Fixed weekly work. Total time required is around 15 hours per week. Work from home. Everyday I work for around 30 min., and 2-3 hours in total go into meetings each week. I complete the pending work starting Sunday 7 PM until it is finished (often stretches till early morning on Monday).
Back when I was a Lieutenant in the Italian Army, my magic talisman was carrying a Manila Folder with some papers. There were weeks where all of my soldiers were either on leave, on duty or otherwise occupied, so we could not train on our weapon system (Missiles) and I had nothing to do aside from my own duties (mess officer once a week, door officer every two weeks), but I couldn't just spend the day at the Officer's club or some busybody would find me something obnoxious to do. So I'd carry around paperwork to go from the Officer's club to the vehicle depot, find a nice APC (tracked troop transport, likely an M113) to sit in and read a book or nap. More than once I'd find a Captain or a Major doing the very same thing and we'd spend the day chatting, going to lunch, back to the APC until 5:30 when we both went off duty. We were each other's excuse, so no manila folder needed.
The jacket on the chair thing reminded me of this silliness: A man gets dressed in the morning, and just before leaving home he puts on his suit coat, goes to his car, take off the coat, drapes it over the passenger seat, drives to the office, gets out of the car, puts on his coat, walks into the building and into his office, removes his coat and hangs it up, does some work, puts on his coat, walks to the car, removes the coat, drives to a meeting, puts on his coat, goes into the meeting, removes his coat, finishes the meeting, puts on his coat, walks to the car, removes his coat, drives back to the office, puts on his coat, walks into the office, removes his coat, does some work, puts on his coat, walks to the car, removes his coat, drives home, puts on his coat, walks into the house, removes his coat. So (at least where I worked) a full suit is only for when you're moving from spot to spot. I was so glad people in my department didn't need to wear suits.
Looking at a lot of the comments, I see plenty of corporate bootlickers. I've never worked a job where there wasn't tons of downtime on a daily basis. When I was salaried and exempt, it made no sense for me to be in the office looking for busy work to do simply to make it look like I was doing something. Some of these commentors show an old fashioned way of thinking that isn't in keeping with the times as employers these days are all about profits and shareholders and could care less about employees. If your work gets done - screw em...
We had a flood at my workplace so no clients could come in but we had to stay on site. I attended a meeting then drove home. 2 hours later my boss messages me to come see her in her office. I put my work clothes back on, drive the 10 minutes to work and walk into her office looking flustered. She just needed me to sign some forms, so I did it and went back home.
I had a colleague who worked in AI image analysis in the same building as me but his boss and the rest of his team lived in other states/countries. Although all of their work could be done remotely, the boss wanted him in the office every day. The colleague used the very software he supported and a camera to produce a green screen background looking out his office window for conference calls. He lived a couple blocks from the office so he'd go in every morning and have his badge reader log him entering the building, move something in his office (ie coat on coat rack),take the daily huddle call, then head back home and finish work from there. When I left, he'd been doing it for nearly a year.
53
35