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“It’s About Not Going Mental”: 20 People Share How Much Work They Actually Do At Their Office Job
Article created by: Ieva Pečiulytė
There’s something deeply wrong with office work culture, and it’s not the low-quality free coffee in the kitchen. There is a disconnect between how much employees work and how long the workday lasts. Though a lot depends on the industry, many honest office workers will tell you that unless there’s a super important deadline looming, they’ll have tons of time every single day when they’re left doing nothing.
For one, there’s a limit to how much deep, focused work people can do until they’re mentally drained. Not only that, if someone’s diligent, they’ll get their tasks done very quickly and end up warming their seats. Redditor u/dogvillager, who is fairly new to office life, asked the internet whether it’s normal to have “absolutely nothing” to do after just a couple of hours of real work. The Reddit community was happy to share their thoughts on this. Check out their thoughts below.
- Read More: "It's About Not Going Mental": 20 People Share How Much Work They Actually Do At Their Office Job
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#1
As an IT guy, this is so painful to read. I'm literally busy from the moment I sit at my desk till the minute I leave, with a queue of jobs fighting for my attention, and a line of people following me up because they have nothing better to do.
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#3
I’m going to tell you something I wish someone would have told me when I was 25, playing Minesweeper for hours at a time at work—spend the down time to learn a new skill or to become a specialist at something that will improve your career prospects.
#4
Yes. It's called winning capitalism. The ultimate victory is working from home with one of those jobs. You're paid for your skills to do a specific type of work and you have the rest of the day for yourself
#5
It's also normal to have people with literally nothing to do while other people (sometimes in the same team) are stressed and overworked beyond redemption
#6
Remember this: the movie "Office Space" is a documentary and should be required viewing for anyone entering the office workforce.
#7
I work for Geico (claims) and they literally time our bathroom breaks. We are given more work than can be done in 8-9 hours a day and constantly being given more. It just snowballs. If you happen to look like you are caught up or not drowning, they will not stand for that. They will assign you someone else's work. They'd go crazy knowing someone wasn't productive for a full minute. So yea, your gig sounds pretty rad haha. Are they hiring? 😬 ETA: check out r/Geico. Tell everyone.
#8
Sometimes it can be super busy. But most of the time all my tasks can be done in just a few hours. I also work an “office job” and I spend a lot of my time finding things to do and making my spreadsheets look pretty.
#9
These are bad jobs if they force you to sit onsite all day, warming a chair and trying to look busy. But if you get one where you can work from home most of the time, you have it made. Clean your house, do your chores, and then you truly have your evenings and weekends free.
#10
Research suggests that in an eight-hour day, the average worker is only productive for two hours and 53 minutes.
https://www.inc.com/melanie-curtin/in-an-8-hour-day-the-average-worker-is-productive-for-this-many-hours.html
#11
I have never done less at a job and got paid as much. I do actually use the downtime to study for more certs so I can get more money for even less work! That's actually not a joke.
#12
Do NOT BRING IT UP to anyone unless you want more work. Just do what is on your task list and chill.
#13
Yes.
Typically I only have about three hours of actual work on any given day. The rest of the time is spent, well, on here with you fine AntiWorkers.
#14
The hardest—and most necessary / common—part of any office job is looking busy.
God bless those cubicles with high walls.
#15
It can happen. Last year, I finished a project right before thanksgiving. Obviously, nothing new started before the Thanksgiving holiday, but then nothing new started afterward because of end of year and Christmas coming up. I didn’t start a new project until sometime in the middle of January, so I had almost 2 months where I barely did anything. use that time to your advantage. I finished editing my book. Take an online class. Work on a certificate or something. Or just watch YouTube videos. As long as you do what they are requiring, you’re good. Don’t overthink it.
Mike Goslin 8 months ago
unless you want a promotion or a raise. then you'd better figure out what to do with that extra time that makes your manager look good.
#16
Well depends really. In my last job I only work 1 hour a day. In my current job I don't do anything that's why I'm on reddit. My day consist of drinking coffee and checking on my social media.
#18
Absolutely. I realistically put in 3 hours of work a day, and then I’m finished all my tasks. I just wait around for an emergency and spend the rest of my day playing Yakuza 0 lmao
#20
Yes, sometimes you just sit and watch youtube all day and sometimes days are uber busy. I had an option from wfh and office and my office work was super easy after a year ort so and so what i started doing in my job is coming into the office and staying there for 2 hours and finishing all the office work and then went home for the rest of the day and do whatever was necessary. Relax you are getting paid, i'm 100% certain yours is like any office job. This is the way.
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