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12 Comments · by Kat

Personal Tasks During Work Hours: Yea or Nay?

Work-Life Balance | posts

Do you ever find yourself pulled to do personal tasks during work hours?

We talked about homing from work over at Corporette a few years ago, but we haven’t talked about that over here. DO you ever find yourself “homing from work,” maybe particularly during the holiday season, when it feels like there are a million different gift ideas to research? (And holiday recipes! And year-end financial tasks! And more!)

Do you have a great system to keep yourself from doing personal tasks during working hours (such as, say, keeping Amazon blocked on your work computer, or keeping a written list of things to look into “later”)? Or is your office culture laid-back enough that no one seems to mind and it’s quieter during the month of December anyway? 

In our post on Corporette, we considered a list of “productive personal things” that kind of had to be done during working hours, including: 

  • doctors’ appointments (no other time to do them, really)

  • anything that can be accomplished within 60 minutes between the hours of 11–2 (your “lunch hour”), e.g., a midday workout, a walk or lunch date with friends, a trip to the drugstore to pick things up, a manicure, a blowout

  • anything that can be confined to a 10-minute period at any point in the day (reading a news story or blog or two, checking Facebook, shopping an online sale, doing personal research, etc. — the problem is getting sucked into something longer than 10 minutes!)

I think it’s the last problem that I struggle with the most as a working mom — getting sucked into something longer than 10 minutes.

I may THINK “Ooh, let’s quickly add that list of books to my son’s wishlist on Amazon so the grandparents have something to buy,” and then you look up and 45 minutes have passed and you’ve gone down three different rabbitholes.

(This was one of the main benefits when I tried using virtual assistants to delegate family tasks!)

How about you guys? As far as work/life boundaries go, do you consider yourself “guilty” of doing personal tasks during work hours — or does it make you more efficient and productive as a worker because you and your boss both know you’ll get done what you need to get done?

What are your personal limits for what personal tasks are acceptable to do at work? If you’re supervising others at work, where do you advise them to draw the line?

Pictured above, 5 great books for working mothers, L-R: one / two / three / four / five 

This post contains affiliate links and CorporetteMoms may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. For more details see here. Thank you so much for your support!

Stock photo via Stencil.

Where is the line on doing personal tasks during work hours -- and does the line change during the holiday season, whether intentionally or unintentionally? Working moms discuss what kind of personal tasks during work hours are acceptable -- and which are not!
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Comments

  1. Cb says

    12/18/2018 at 1:48 pm

    Homing for work is the only way we get life admin done. I often have a running list of all things that need doing and will knock them out over lunchtime or on a Friday afternoon when I’m feeling otherwise unmotivated. I go to conferences on weekends, answer emails in the evening, mark essays on a Sunday am so I think it’s a fair trade.

    • anon says

      12/18/2018 at 2:26 pm

      Yep, agreed. I also think this goes in spurts. Some weeks I have a lot of life admin to get done; other weeks, not much at all (or nothing that can realistically get done at work, anyway). I also take advantage of those slower periods to get ahead, knowing that work stuff will pick up soon and I’ll be doing more off-the-clock. Work-life integration, FTW! (I actually really hate that term and all it implies, but it does fit for this.)

    • Anon says

      12/18/2018 at 2:39 pm

      Yes. This.

  2. CHL says

    12/18/2018 at 2:23 pm

    100% Agree and I use that term too. I have a global team – if you want me working at 6:30 am or 9 pm, I’m going to be buying my plane tickets or running to the store at 3 pm when I need a mental break.

  3. Anon says

    12/18/2018 at 2:41 pm

    I feel zero guilt about doing home tasks at work, and I don’t feel the need to put a 10 minute limit on it or anything like that. I do have to bill my time, though, so I feel like that prevents abuse.

  4. ABA says

    12/18/2018 at 2:59 pm

    Absolutely have to do home tasks during work hours. I see no way around it – if I need to make medical appointments or such those usually need to be made during regular 8-5 business hours. There’s only so much that you can do at night or on weekends!

  5. Artemis says

    12/18/2018 at 3:18 pm

    Zero guilt, absolutely. I am a manager; I supervise 8 people. I home from work all the time and I know my employees do it too. I get my work done, and they are getting their work done. As long as that’s happening, I want to be treated like a grown-up and treat others like grownups too.

    • Myrna says

      12/19/2018 at 2:52 pm

      You rock. I wish all managers were this sensible!

  6. EB0220 says

    12/18/2018 at 3:21 pm

    OK. Yes, of course I do. There is a ton of “personal” business that must happen during the workday. I don’t think this is surprising for anyone who has a desk job. Of course, if you’re a teacher or customer service person that’s a whole different thing.

  7. Mama Llama says

    12/18/2018 at 3:25 pm

    My household would not function if I didn’t home from work.

  8. AnotherAnon says

    12/18/2018 at 4:58 pm

    I think anyone who says they don’t do personal business during work hours is not being truthful.

    • Anonymous says

      12/18/2018 at 5:07 pm

      or they have a stay-at-home partner who manages all the household stuff.

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