How to stay motivated when working from home
Stay motivated at home with this simple trick.
Problem solved, USA TODAY
What do remote and hybrid workers do all day?
They often boast about how productive they are when they are neither distracted by gossiping colleagues nor wasting time on long commutes.
But a new survey offers new insights into how telecommuters actually spend their time. Spoiler alert: It’s not all about white papers and PowerPoint presentations.
While in-office workers pass the time messaging friends or scrolling through TikTok, remote workers are taking advantage of the opportunity to be away from the watchful eyes of their bosses to work through their personal to-do lists or fool around.
Nearly half of telecommuters multitask while taking work calls or doing household chores like unloading the dishwasher or doing a load of laundry, according to a SurveyMonkey survey of 3,117 full-time workers in the U.S.
A third use the flexibility of remote work to run errands, whether it’s a quick trip to the grocery store or picking up items from the dry cleaners.
Do you sleep on the job? It happens more often than you might think. One in five telecommuters admitted to taking a nap.
About 17% of teleworkers said they worked from another location without telling anyone, or watched TV or played video games. A small percentage – 4% – admitted to having another job.
Multitasking during Zoom calls is another popular pastime.
Nearly a third of remote and hybrid workers reported using the bathroom while on phone calls, 21% said they browsed social media, 14% went on online shopping trips, 12% did laundry, and 9% cleaned the kitchen.
The result may be surprising to some: 4% admit to falling asleep and 3% take a shower.
“Employees create their own rules to meet the demands of a high-pressure work environment,” said Wendy Smith, senior manager of research science at SurveyMonkey. “One of the things we’ve found is that what might be called ‘off-the-record behavior’ is widespread.”
And it’s not just rank-and-file employees who are struggling. More than half of managers and 49 percent of executives are also multitasking while on work calls, Smith says.
When asked, “Have you ever browsed social media while on a video or conference call at work?”, responses from managers, executives and individual non-supervisory employees were about the same (22%, 20% and 21%), she said.
However, managers and senior executives were more likely to shop online than individuals (16% and 14%, respectively, compared to 12% of individuals), Smith said.
Different generations also have different working habits:
- 26% of Millennials admit to taking naps during the workday, compared to 16% of Generation X.
- 18% of Generation Z have had another job, compared to 2% of Generation X and 1% of Baby Boomers.
- 31% of Generation Z have worked remotely without telling anyone, compared to 16% of Generation X.
