Oh no, people are completing their work to a satisfactory standard in a reasonable time frame rather than scrabbling to overachieve and burn themselves out…
Doing this myself right now, my department has been just gutted and fucked in the arse due to shit management, with it getting so bad it got to ME getting a 1st written warning just because I had to use a sick note due to stress caused by them.
Now I’ve basically set myself on doing the absoloute bare minimum whilst in the office, and using my downtime to apply for other jobs. Everyones doing it, why should we the worker treat the employer with any respect when they **refuse** to respect us?
We were literally set a goal that is mathmatically and realistically impossible just two weeks ago, Ive stopped even putting any numbers onto our system. If they want to sack me they can but the moment they even dare pull me in for a meeting I’m publishing a massive document I’ve wrote up detailing just how shady our mangement have been and how much they have bullied staff.
They expect us in at 8:30 officially but management are furious if you’re not in at exactly 8:00. But no, you cant take that time back at all to leave early. Fuck them, we’ve all just been sneaking out at 4.
This is not a new thing, and it’s not just because of home working, every large organization I’ve worked at has people doing the bare minimum and not being invested in their job.
I even did it myself for a while when I had a particularly awkward manager who was more interested in her increasingly petty and pointless rules and imaginary company policies be followed that any actual real work being done.
While I can’t know for sure I don’t feel that the basic level of slacking off has increased but with the ‘skills shortage’ after Brexit, the pandemic, etc. Maybe people are no longer hiding it as much.
Something I remember wishing since my very first job- that pay was tied to achievement rather than time expenditure.
Sometimes I feel super productive and doing want to work. It would be nice to hammer out my responsibilities then channel that productivity how I want.
Other times I’m happy to be a lazy bastard and take my time as I don’t feel like doing anything else.
We should really get past the idea that work is innately satisfying. I’m not saying everyone should half arsed their jobs, but I am saying when I see staff stood around chatting or relaxing I’m not bothered by it. Likewise if I need help I don’t expect a big show about it.
To me a job has always been the way I finance the things I actually like doing. I’m lucky I’ve got some natural talents I’ve been able to polish and parley into well paying work- but I get zero satisfaction from it.
I do everything to the best of my ability to deadline. I want to learn and improve and make sure im thought of as proactive and happy and helpful.
Right now im watching tv on my pc behind my laptop with my feet up after blasting out a load of work this am with no deadline due today.
The last 2 years have shown loyalty from the org doesnt exist.
Play the game dont burn yourself out. Don’t do the minimum, do whats required of you and do it as well as you can. Build that “credit” and the story that youre productive.
The attitude will be just as important as the results.
I pride myself on my ability to get shit done in a timely and efficient manner. I can’t properly relax until I’ve ticked off everything on my to do list. Unfortunately, in my last job this meant that my manager would give me more and more responsibilities to the point where I became completely burnt out.
A remote job in which I can coast would be the absolute dream for me. I’m not particularly ambitious and have absolutely no desire to dedicate my life to work. I would much rather be comfortable and stress-free than be well-off and stressed out. It would end up killing me.
There’s more to life than work, unless you really love what you do – in which case congratulations, you’ve won the karmic lottery.
I love the suggestion of raising issues instead of coasting. They’ve clearly never worked for a company and manager who couldn’t care less before!
Burning out for a company that treats you as disposable isn’t worth it. Look at the people progressing in big companies and they’re not the ones working to the bones, they’re the ones who present other peoples work as their own and taking hour long coffee breaks to suck up the managers. How that’s not considered coasting or time wasting is beyond me.
So thank you for the suggestion, but I’ll keep going at my pace doing my job to a good standard and adding value to my team, instead of running at 100mph and burning myself out for no good reason.
There is something seriously fucked up about this article when it is presenting someone not treating a job as the main focus of their existence as being a bad thing.
What they describe is not “coasting”. It’s an absence of presenteeism, and a moving away from time as a measure of productivity towards results. It also assumes that doing things for one’s self in “work time” is less productive than being in the office. It’s simply replacing one type of “down” time with another. You don’t have a commute, you have a longer shower and make yourself a better breakfast. You don’t have to stop what you’re doing to listen to Mildred rant about a client, you can go and post a letter. The difference is, at home that down time is *yours*, and it’s so much better for your mental well-being.
Its funny how if the workers don’t see the benefits of increased profits then they don’t feel very connected and inclined to work hard. All the incentives have been taken away so why should people work “hard” when there isn’t a share in the gains from it? This is capitalism 101, if you don’t share the wealth with the people generating it they are not inclined to help you gain more. Excessive greed at the top will lead to severe inefficiencies in companies really quickly.
I work to live, not live to work.
I will work my contracted hours and I will only work outside those hours if I know I am compensated.
I won’t think for a single second about work while outside of those four walls.
Most employers treat their employees like utter shit but expect us to all bend over backwards for them. They can get fucked.
People have realised that “if you work hard, you can have it all” is a lie.
I wonder how many of us are reading this while on company time? 🙂
What is with the negative phrasing in this article? They describe coasting as a problem and the writer is trying their hardest to imply that people are skiving off work at home or being lazy, yet they also admit at the start that these “coasting” workers are doing their job just fine and meeting any/all requirements asked of them.
So apparently it’s not enough these days to do your job as described on paper and get paid in return, we’re expected to push & sacrifice for companies who’d fire us at the drop of a hat like P&O, or we should put up with sub-inflation pay rises while executives cream off record profits?
This attitude combined with the unaffordable housing & rental market really makes me worry for the future of the UK as the people who should be doing something about it (political & business leaders, media) seem complicit in the whole thing, where is the off ramp to avoid serfdom?!
When work doesn’t love us back why should we love work? I coast, come and get me!
Growth has stagnated, as have wages. The people at the top don’t want to cough up for skills like Nurses or Lab staff. Responsible for our health system and the latter in many other areas, some as important as Justice/Forensics and others ensuring the safety of Water quality. Pay is peanuts.
But premiere league footballers? Hundreds of thousands no problem.
It’s an utterly disgusting situation.
Freelance writer writing articles about how people who work from home are lazy and the last 7+ articles he’s re-tweeted are about office working/people resigning etc.
Like basically all articles on this subject, he’s either a landlord, or has been paid by a landlord to write the story
Most office jobs I’ve had could be done in half the time by someone four times as incompetent as me. Used to spend a lot of time laughing out loud at colleagues who shammed being “ever so busy” when I knew full well they did even less than me.
Contrast that with retail/factory/call centre etc. work where every second has to be accounted for and your expected to go like the clappers.
Jesus Christ. People aren’t going above and beyond any more? Well do they get bonuses? Or do they just get lots of extra work to fill their day?
Shite managers, especially middle managers are rife. Invariably a promotion comes with line management responsibilities so you get people who are really good at their jobs get lumped with line management and they are shite at it and just want to do their day job instead.
So no wonder folk just do the minimum and get on.
This idea that people primarily coast from home is ridiculous.
Has the article writer ever frequented an office? All you need is your computer screen facing away from eyeballs and/or a manager who just doesn’t care. Taking on more work may not be possible and usually doesn’t pay anyway. I’ve spent hours upon hours upon hours on the internet reading about celebrity gossip and the royal family because I ran out of more interesting news and material. Eventually I started reading Wikipedia. Arrrgghh
The only difference is that if you coast from home you can actually choose what to do as opposed to being stuck at your desk forced to browse the internet all day. I hate the internet in large doses, in addition a lot of sites are blocked at work.
I’ll never work full time in an office ever again in my life unless I’m forced to.
How much is also because we have low level depression after the last two years and can’t bring ourselves to care more when the world can stop and all the joys of life with it at any minute?
Yet another article just focusing on office workers
Yep. I work to live, not live to work. As soon as it hits 4 I’m off, I have better things to do
I spent years chasing the carrot on a stick. All it got me was stress, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts.
If you want this donkey to run, he gets the carrot first.
23 comments
Oh no, people are completing their work to a satisfactory standard in a reasonable time frame rather than scrabbling to overachieve and burn themselves out…
Doing this myself right now, my department has been just gutted and fucked in the arse due to shit management, with it getting so bad it got to ME getting a 1st written warning just because I had to use a sick note due to stress caused by them.
Now I’ve basically set myself on doing the absoloute bare minimum whilst in the office, and using my downtime to apply for other jobs. Everyones doing it, why should we the worker treat the employer with any respect when they **refuse** to respect us?
We were literally set a goal that is mathmatically and realistically impossible just two weeks ago, Ive stopped even putting any numbers onto our system. If they want to sack me they can but the moment they even dare pull me in for a meeting I’m publishing a massive document I’ve wrote up detailing just how shady our mangement have been and how much they have bullied staff.
They expect us in at 8:30 officially but management are furious if you’re not in at exactly 8:00. But no, you cant take that time back at all to leave early. Fuck them, we’ve all just been sneaking out at 4.
This is not a new thing, and it’s not just because of home working, every large organization I’ve worked at has people doing the bare minimum and not being invested in their job.
I even did it myself for a while when I had a particularly awkward manager who was more interested in her increasingly petty and pointless rules and imaginary company policies be followed that any actual real work being done.
While I can’t know for sure I don’t feel that the basic level of slacking off has increased but with the ‘skills shortage’ after Brexit, the pandemic, etc. Maybe people are no longer hiding it as much.
Something I remember wishing since my very first job- that pay was tied to achievement rather than time expenditure.
Sometimes I feel super productive and doing want to work. It would be nice to hammer out my responsibilities then channel that productivity how I want.
Other times I’m happy to be a lazy bastard and take my time as I don’t feel like doing anything else.
We should really get past the idea that work is innately satisfying. I’m not saying everyone should half arsed their jobs, but I am saying when I see staff stood around chatting or relaxing I’m not bothered by it. Likewise if I need help I don’t expect a big show about it.
To me a job has always been the way I finance the things I actually like doing. I’m lucky I’ve got some natural talents I’ve been able to polish and parley into well paying work- but I get zero satisfaction from it.
I do everything to the best of my ability to deadline. I want to learn and improve and make sure im thought of as proactive and happy and helpful.
Right now im watching tv on my pc behind my laptop with my feet up after blasting out a load of work this am with no deadline due today.
The last 2 years have shown loyalty from the org doesnt exist.
Play the game dont burn yourself out. Don’t do the minimum, do whats required of you and do it as well as you can. Build that “credit” and the story that youre productive.
The attitude will be just as important as the results.
I pride myself on my ability to get shit done in a timely and efficient manner. I can’t properly relax until I’ve ticked off everything on my to do list. Unfortunately, in my last job this meant that my manager would give me more and more responsibilities to the point where I became completely burnt out.
A remote job in which I can coast would be the absolute dream for me. I’m not particularly ambitious and have absolutely no desire to dedicate my life to work. I would much rather be comfortable and stress-free than be well-off and stressed out. It would end up killing me.
There’s more to life than work, unless you really love what you do – in which case congratulations, you’ve won the karmic lottery.
I love the suggestion of raising issues instead of coasting. They’ve clearly never worked for a company and manager who couldn’t care less before!
Burning out for a company that treats you as disposable isn’t worth it. Look at the people progressing in big companies and they’re not the ones working to the bones, they’re the ones who present other peoples work as their own and taking hour long coffee breaks to suck up the managers. How that’s not considered coasting or time wasting is beyond me.
So thank you for the suggestion, but I’ll keep going at my pace doing my job to a good standard and adding value to my team, instead of running at 100mph and burning myself out for no good reason.
There is something seriously fucked up about this article when it is presenting someone not treating a job as the main focus of their existence as being a bad thing.
What they describe is not “coasting”. It’s an absence of presenteeism, and a moving away from time as a measure of productivity towards results. It also assumes that doing things for one’s self in “work time” is less productive than being in the office. It’s simply replacing one type of “down” time with another. You don’t have a commute, you have a longer shower and make yourself a better breakfast. You don’t have to stop what you’re doing to listen to Mildred rant about a client, you can go and post a letter. The difference is, at home that down time is *yours*, and it’s so much better for your mental well-being.
Its funny how if the workers don’t see the benefits of increased profits then they don’t feel very connected and inclined to work hard. All the incentives have been taken away so why should people work “hard” when there isn’t a share in the gains from it? This is capitalism 101, if you don’t share the wealth with the people generating it they are not inclined to help you gain more. Excessive greed at the top will lead to severe inefficiencies in companies really quickly.
I work to live, not live to work.
I will work my contracted hours and I will only work outside those hours if I know I am compensated.
I won’t think for a single second about work while outside of those four walls.
Most employers treat their employees like utter shit but expect us to all bend over backwards for them. They can get fucked.
People have realised that “if you work hard, you can have it all” is a lie.
I wonder how many of us are reading this while on company time? 🙂
What is with the negative phrasing in this article? They describe coasting as a problem and the writer is trying their hardest to imply that people are skiving off work at home or being lazy, yet they also admit at the start that these “coasting” workers are doing their job just fine and meeting any/all requirements asked of them.
So apparently it’s not enough these days to do your job as described on paper and get paid in return, we’re expected to push & sacrifice for companies who’d fire us at the drop of a hat like P&O, or we should put up with sub-inflation pay rises while executives cream off record profits?
This attitude combined with the unaffordable housing & rental market really makes me worry for the future of the UK as the people who should be doing something about it (political & business leaders, media) seem complicit in the whole thing, where is the off ramp to avoid serfdom?!
When work doesn’t love us back why should we love work? I coast, come and get me!
Growth has stagnated, as have wages. The people at the top don’t want to cough up for skills like Nurses or Lab staff. Responsible for our health system and the latter in many other areas, some as important as Justice/Forensics and others ensuring the safety of Water quality. Pay is peanuts.
But premiere league footballers? Hundreds of thousands no problem.
It’s an utterly disgusting situation.
Freelance writer writing articles about how people who work from home are lazy and the last 7+ articles he’s re-tweeted are about office working/people resigning etc.
Like basically all articles on this subject, he’s either a landlord, or has been paid by a landlord to write the story
Most office jobs I’ve had could be done in half the time by someone four times as incompetent as me. Used to spend a lot of time laughing out loud at colleagues who shammed being “ever so busy” when I knew full well they did even less than me.
Contrast that with retail/factory/call centre etc. work where every second has to be accounted for and your expected to go like the clappers.
Jesus Christ. People aren’t going above and beyond any more? Well do they get bonuses? Or do they just get lots of extra work to fill their day?
Shite managers, especially middle managers are rife. Invariably a promotion comes with line management responsibilities so you get people who are really good at their jobs get lumped with line management and they are shite at it and just want to do their day job instead.
So no wonder folk just do the minimum and get on.
This idea that people primarily coast from home is ridiculous.
Has the article writer ever frequented an office? All you need is your computer screen facing away from eyeballs and/or a manager who just doesn’t care. Taking on more work may not be possible and usually doesn’t pay anyway. I’ve spent hours upon hours upon hours on the internet reading about celebrity gossip and the royal family because I ran out of more interesting news and material. Eventually I started reading Wikipedia. Arrrgghh
The only difference is that if you coast from home you can actually choose what to do as opposed to being stuck at your desk forced to browse the internet all day. I hate the internet in large doses, in addition a lot of sites are blocked at work.
I’ll never work full time in an office ever again in my life unless I’m forced to.
How much is also because we have low level depression after the last two years and can’t bring ourselves to care more when the world can stop and all the joys of life with it at any minute?
Yet another article just focusing on office workers
Yep. I work to live, not live to work. As soon as it hits 4 I’m off, I have better things to do
I spent years chasing the carrot on a stick. All it got me was stress, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts.
If you want this donkey to run, he gets the carrot first.