I once spent a solid work week doing nothing but read webcomics, keep colleagues from working by walking around to chat with them and go to lunch. People are so much more productive in the office, right?
I’m sure you know this but it’s about control and the middle manager emotional validation of seeing a bunch of people “working” at their stations.
I also do only the minimum required to keep my job, just like how they pay the absolute minimum to prevent me from quitting. It’s just business. It’s not like there’s a reward for working harder.
It really does depend on the job and office environment. Personally I go to the office every day (even when nobody else from my project is there), why wouldn’t I? Its a place where I can talk with people that have similar interests, play with colleagues on a footballtable and play chess against the managing director during work hours. Not to mention that working together does in fact go a lot easier if you can pull the relevant people into a meeting room together and hash something out.
Of course that doesn’t apply to every job everywhere, heck out of all jobs I’ve had so far only about half were anywhere close to being like the environment I have now.
And more factors are in play ofcourse, like if you have to drive an hour each way thats a lot of wasted time.
I had a job where I was made to “look busy” by carrying around a clipboard. I pretended to look at shelves as if I were writing down product information, but I was actually doodling and writing down story ideas.
Prior to that, I would legit look up product information, so that I could better inform the customers who asked me questions. But management didn’t like seeing me standing at a computer and told me to stop. Ah well, malicious compliance it is.
I once spent a solid work week doing nothing but read webcomics, keep colleagues from working by walking around to chat with them and go to lunch. People are so much more productive in the office, right?
I’m sure you know this but it’s about control and the middle manager emotional validation of seeing a bunch of people “working” at their stations.
I also do only the minimum required to keep my job, just like how they pay the absolute minimum to prevent me from quitting. It’s just business. It’s not like there’s a reward for working harder.
It really does depend on the job and office environment. Personally I go to the office every day (even when nobody else from my project is there), why wouldn’t I? Its a place where I can talk with people that have similar interests, play with colleagues on a footballtable and play chess against the managing director during work hours. Not to mention that working together does in fact go a lot easier if you can pull the relevant people into a meeting room together and hash something out.
Of course that doesn’t apply to every job everywhere, heck out of all jobs I’ve had so far only about half were anywhere close to being like the environment I have now.
And more factors are in play ofcourse, like if you have to drive an hour each way thats a lot of wasted time.
Oh, I know. Control, keeping the expensive real estate full, and other bullshit reasons.
I had a job where I was made to “look busy” by carrying around a clipboard. I pretended to look at shelves as if I were writing down product information, but I was actually doodling and writing down story ideas.
Prior to that, I would legit look up product information, so that I could better inform the customers who asked me questions. But management didn’t like seeing me standing at a computer and told me to stop. Ah well, malicious compliance it is.