This continuously bothers me, wanted a rant and I feel like it belongs here so hopefully, it stays. Anyways…
What I will say upfront, I am in the UK so that's the minimum wage situation (mentioned later), and that I have worked hospitality and am now an aerospace engineer, so I don't do the typical “office 9-5 job”, but I feel this could still apply to working from home, etc. To the rant… (it's a pretty long one)
I AM SICK TO DEATH of employers having issues even when all the required work is being done. If I'm a waiter, and the restaurant is absolutely dead then it is (or should be) completely understandable that myself and the other staff will have a lot of downtime because… well there's no one to serve, so why does every 'part time' employer (I would class that as typical retail/hospitality, etc) insist on making shit up or finding random stuff to do because were standing round ? We're doing the thing you pay us to do stop making me clean the fucking skirting boards! And if the argument is “Well we can't have you doing nothing”, my counter to that would be “if the choice is either do nothing because there isn't anything to do, or we (management) will find some menial job to do that was basically just making up”… then just send me home! I'm clearly not needed here and you'll save on labor costs (over £7 for 19-20yo and £9+ an hour minimum wage for 21 year olds and over). Like you hired a waiter, not a cleaner so why am I cleaning the walls or the locker room or wiping down the wood surfaces? Likewise, if I'm near the restaurant (in a shopping centre) and I pop in and I'm talking to some people I work with (my girlfriend included) because it's dead, then what is the problem? I'm not distracting anyone from their job, which is to clean the tables that leave, which turns out to be clean 1 table every 10 minutes, because it's like 3pm on a Tuesday, which they ARE doing.
Going to office jobs as I said earlier, I really REALLY fail to see what anyone's issue is with a job working from home, as long as it can be fully completed at home. With a few exceptions, IMO if everything for your job is done using a computer, it can 100% then be done at home. If you struggle with something then sure, go to the office, get someone's opinion, etc, but it's not like you couldn't just set something up on Teams, or Zoom… or Skype… or Discord… or Slack… or a phone call for fuck sake, there's so many options. Even if they do let you work from home it feels like most companies have some sort of software they want you to have so they can “make sure you're working”. And companies (and the suck-ups in management) are usually worried about “oh people will just work from their bed” or “people will slack off”…No they won't. And besides… are you telling me people don't slack off in the office? Your numbers will tell you that much whether they're in the office or at home, and with that, if someone is hitting all their numbers or even exceeding any quotas then good for them! Let them do it from their bed it's clearly fucking working isn't it? Or if someone does 8 hours work in 4 hours…let's say someone hits their daily target of a 9-5 job by 1 o clock, why not let them go shopping if they need? Play games or an instrument? They've done their job they can do what they want. It's absolutely mental that you can literally do the job you were hired and are paid to do, even exceeding the standards that are expected and you get ridiculed because what? You're too comfortable? Too relaxed?
Again going to what I'm now used to, Aerospace engineering, obviously in an industry like this or similar for example I understand the need for specifics, very tight tolerances, and an attitude of “Being too relaxed or complacent will get people killed” kind of thing…ok fair enough. But I don't want to sound like some elitist or like I have a superiority complex, but I feel it's safe to say most jobs or a vast majority of jobs do not fall under this category. There's a need for excessive checking/supervision etc in some places but… not like this. Not making menial jobs up just to feel like you're managing something, not feeling like everyone needs to be checked because “if they're at home they won't do anything” like give us a break, our wages are already basically the lowest they've been in history at least just let us like…exist for two minutes without breathing down our neck or complaining you're getting minimum effort when you pay us minimum wage.