So how many of you are just straight-up playing video games when you're supposed to be WFH?

[Skel1ingt0n]

I keep my work computer and my personal computer plugged into the same ultrawide monitor, and try to keep my programs and data as separate as possible; usually only using my gaming personal machine during the workday when I need to get ahead of a download or something.

A couple weeks ago I logged into Steam on my work computer for the first time in a while to check the details of my Deck order. For whatever reason, this triggered the application to now launch at boot and I haven't bothered to remove it from my login items. Whatever.

But I've started to notice literally dozens of those on my friends list - some my IRL friends, many just folks I've played games online with over the last 15 years - are regularly starting up video games during the work day. Now, I'm aware that not everyone works a straight 9-5, but I know for a fact many of these folks have a white collar, 8am to 5pm office job that is currently WFH - and they'll be in games for literal hours. Not 45 minutes over lunch - but Elden Ring or Halo Infinite or Tunic or Ark or whatever else for a couple hours at a time, often in multiple blocks.

And so I won't lie, I started paying attention... maybe they're on PTO, maybe easy week - nope, some do it every single day almost, lol.

Look, I don't really give a shit. Collect that bag! Enjoy life! If you can get away with it, great! But it's crazy to me how common(?) it seems to be that folks can just.... disconnect enough from work to literally play games for hours every day.

But maybe I'm in the minority?

 

[Deleted member 56266]

Between meetings and when I have no work to currently do what else am I supposed to do

 

[Teggy]

It's a trap

 

[Raigor]

No, i care more about the quality of my work than playing some videogames during work-hours.

 

[ManNR]

You a snitch?

 

[Serule]

There may have been some long meetings where my Switch turned on

No, i care more about the quality of my work than playing some videogames during work-hours.

Click to shrink...

lol, good one

 

[Anustart]

Guilty as charged.

 

[slothrop]

Just a little bit. I don't like pull out the controller, but I'll sometimes have some turn-based/card games running on my personal computer that I can dip in and out of. I sure shitpost on forums and twitter during work much more than I did back in the office days though. I need to keep my eyes on slack, I can't just play a game that requires continuous attention.

 

[mute]

I'm allowed breaks, thems the rules.

 

[KINGofCRA5H]

as someone with a nice job that I enjoy that requires me to be in the office, I am envious of those who do.

You bet your ass I would.

 

[Aeana]

It's just not a possibility for me. I am in meetings and get interrupted pretty randomly throughout the day. I wouldn't have any qualms with doing it if I had the time, but I don't.

 

[dodo]

no officer

 

[TheCrackedJack]

I would be fired in under 24 hours if I tried that, so no.

 

[Caeda]

Running Prae is 0 braincells.

 

[StereoVSN]

My work Laptop and monitor are on same desk as my gaming setup. I'll sometimes fire up a strategy game of some sort like Civ or Paradox fare in the background, but usually I am kind of buried with work so its a rare occasion.

Now... I do keep my status hidden in Steam just in case :).

 

[OGlol]

Can't speak on others obviously but in my case (and many others i've seen) salary WFH is more of a get the work done in a timely manner kind of thing and not just doing busy work for 8 hours straight every day. As long as my shit is done and not late it doesn't really matter how I fill the gaps in my day because my job, the thing I am being paid for, is getting done and there's no drop in my quality of work.

 

[Raigor]

lol, good one

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Yes good one, it's crazy that people care more about work right?

 

[Serule]

Yes good one, it's crazy that people care more about work right?

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Hey whatever floats your boat

 

[PspLikeANut]

I don't work a privileged white-collar job.

 

[AImalexia]

If they want me to care enough to not play they should pay me more

 

[Raigor]

Hey whatever floats your boat

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It's kinda funny how you needed to reply to my comment and now you are ending with this...because apparently not playing instead of working is something abnormal. Get lost.

 

[Garrison]

 

[StereoVSN]

Can't speak on others obviously but in my case (and many others i've seen) salary WFH is more of a get the work done in a timely manner kind of thing and not just doing busy work for 8 hours straight every day. As long as my shit is done and not late it doesn't really matter how I fill the gaps in my day because my job, the thing I am being paid for, is getting done and there's no drop in my quality of work.

Click to shrink...

Yep, that's the main thing, getting work done. I am not "on a clock" and I sure as hell work more then 40 hours a week. Nobody gives a damn if I take 30 min to let my brain decompress between the meetings taking another few turns in Civ. Even that's rare though due to all the conf calls and just sheer amount of work.

 

[Dest]

I play OSRS all day long.

 

[Lotus]

Mind ya business

 

[Nightfall]

I work from home and have an arcade cabinet. What I sometimes do is play some SF3 or MVC during my lunch break.
But not during normal work hours, nope.

 

[Tora]

Usually a quick game of Fifa with a friend or my sibling

 

[noffles]

I don't WFH anymore, but I did work for a call centre last year while playing videogames in my office. They were desperate to get us back into the call centre, but they were trying to keep appearances up by having a certain percentage of us working from home.

I don't miss that job though.

 

[digitalrelic]

What I've learned with WFH vs being in the office is that while you're at the office you're just finding different ways to pass the day/waste your time compared to WFH.

I see all kinds of people at the office just sitting around talking, or browsing the internet, or staring at their computer screen pretending they're busy, or taking long lunches, or sitting in the lunch area socializing, etc.. etc.. literally endless ways people are avoiding work.

The difference is that with WFH, those methods of passing the day are different. Same amount of work gets done.

 

[Cenauru]

Some of my FFXIV raid team members play here and there during WFH. Wish I could have a similar job where I just, do what needs to get done, rather than being at the workplace being a lackey. Would help my productivity too if I knew I just had to get things done rather than figure out how to make time fly by as much as possible.

 

[MagicPhone]

I started a new job during the pandemic and it is fully remote. I've struggled with this a bit, but it is salaried and I've recognized that some days I actually get more work done if I take a break and play an hour of games than if I just hit my head against the wall waiting for the clock to tick down.

I strongly believe that all work should be more chill, managers shouldn't be babysitters, and sometimes three hours of good work is better than 8 hours of staring at a screen pretending to work.

I'll let you know if I get fired after I get my Steamdeck, tho.

 

[cosmickosm]

Voted yes, often. But that's really only during my lunch break. It's supposed to be 30 min but it usually ends up going to maybe 45-60 min.

BUT

I was at a job from May 2021-Nov 2021, I wasn't being given much work, direction, or much of anything. So the 3 days I was able to work from home I pretty much just gamed for a good chunk of my shift.

 

[Waggles]

Of course not. I don't play on my phone all day at the office, either.

 

[Khasim]

My current boss straight up told me that he always expects that people work for 4 hours and fuck around for 4 hours in any office. I try to go above his expectations and I sometimes work for 4,5 hours, but the nature of my work is that sometimes I need to be available quickly, so I don't play games, but I do browse a lot of internet on my laptop.

 

[Helix]

can you maybe keep it on the down-low? I don't want people to actually find out, thank you very much

 

[ArcLyte]

I could never enjoy playing a game knowing there's work I need to do. It would just be weighing on my thoughts the whole time.

 

[ShinUltramanJ]

Must be kinda nice to work from home.

 

[Allietraa]

seems fine to play games during mandatory meetings that dont actually involve me at all

 

[LegalEagleMike]

tons of wanking

 

[MegaSackman]

I would if my downtimes were more pronnounced, but these last two years I've had enough work and even if I do have enough downtime to play a bit, I never really know when I'm gonna be required so, I prefer to do other stuff.

What I do is take a nap during lunch break. I wouldn't trade that for anything.

 

[Spinluck]

I did on the slow days, everything is picking back up so if I did this they'd be able to tell and I'd probably get fired.

 

[No Depth]

Only during lunch and breaks. But rarely as I'm often too busy.

 

[Lukar]

Me? Never.

 

[KingFrost92]

I work in video, and some renders take a long time (30+ minutes) but have a probability of failing on occasion, so you need to be present at the machine. However, rendering video usually takes up all the resources of my computer so other work is not possible. I have my switch and will occasionally play a day or two of Stardew Valley or pick up a level here and there of other games while listening for alerts and such.

Back when I worked for a more corporate marketing firm and had my tasks to do during the week and no accountability for billable hour logging, absolutely I'd just play games during the day. I could generally finish my tasks about 2x faster than others in my department and would blow through my daily commitments in the morning and keep Slack up for alerts if I was needed. Sometimes I miss that, but I certainly didn't care about my work and I was in a way worse place mentally.

In my current job, that'd never fly though. Way too much responsibility to slack off, I have to make a notated log of 8 hours of work a day on average so we can accurately bill clients, and working for a smaller business means people wear many hats + there's always something to do. I've also grown up a lot and actually care about my work now.

 

[Cenauru]

I started a new job during the pandemic and it is fully remote. I've struggled with this a bit, but it is salaried and I've recognized that some days I actually get more work done if I take a break and play an hour of games than if I just hit my head against the wall waiting for the clock to tick down.

I strongly believe that all work should be more chill, managers shouldn't be babysitters, and sometimes three hours of good work is better than 8 hours of staring at a screen pretending to work.

I'll let you know if I get fired after I get my Steamdeck, tho.

Click to shrink...

I bet productivity would be through the goddamn roof if companies were alot more lax and actually treated work as "family" and let people actually just hang out between their work. I have to hide away at work every day to get time to cool off cause we're officially only given a tiny 10 minute break every 2-3 hours, and my work isn't involved with others so no one really misses me when I'm taking an extended break. I can't imagine being "on" for that long without any time to recharge, my motivation and energy tanks after 2 hours.

 

[NuclearCake]

Playing games: 80%

Actual work: 20%

 

[GlitchyDegree]

I do that sometimes. My consoles and TV are next to my work station, so I can get in a quick game or two during downtime. I won't let work get backed up to play however.

 

[Kalor]

Mostly only during my lunch breaks. Sometimes during long meetings that I don't have direct involvement in, and I don't have something more immediate to be doing in the background.

 

[Aumann]

It depends on my work load for the week. If I know I can get the work out by the end of the week, Ill play a few hours during the work day. I dont have to be clocked in anywhere and my employer only cares if the work is turned in when its due.

Plot twist: Threads a honeypot. GOTTEM /s

 

[digitalrelic]

tons of wanking

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