Some context: I’m 22m first full time job outta college, very white collar cubicle job, about 9 months into it. It’s a mostly on site job but also remote with 4 other people on my team. Work has been slow and our whole team knows it; we have each fully worked remote or half/half two or three days a week with not much to do (big company, waiting for other teams/red tape before we can start).
All this time my boss has given me no direct instruction or corrections; we meet as a team once a week and put stuff to do on the board. I have done everything I’ve been told to do and even volunteered a couple times for some light tasks. Today I told my boss I was headed home after lunch to finish the day remote (as I’ve done several times before) and on the highway my tire blew. Texted boss immediately I would be late getting online, and after about 2 hrs since I left the office I finally get back home and this conversation plays out: (To be clear, I’m not mad or anything, this just felt weird to me given the atmosphere of the team/work so far:)
Me: just got back online after car fiasco, is it ok to still record today like normal? ive finished everything I was planning to do today anyways but the car thing took about 2 hours to resolve
Boss: record what you actually work
M: should i stay online till 7 then? Or just record the morning/skip today and work longer hours rest of the week
B: so, its not about just sitting online, and then recording time. make sure you are working something productive. if you dont have anything to work, check the board, check the work in progress list
M: as far as I know Im wating for updates from (Coworkers, project) but I havent heard anything new from there.. not sure how I can help (Different team) more since it’s (Name of different team) stuff
B: so, that is why the job is an on site job. unless you have a legitimate need to be at home, and work to do from there, you should be here.
M: so I should Uber in tmrw? and just record the morning for today?
B: If you dont have work to do from home, then you need to be in here or taking PTO. If you dont want to take the PTO, and Uber is your only option to get in here, then that sounds like the best plan you have
M: understood. what about my 2nd q: what do you want me to record for today?
B: the time that you worked.