> I've dealt with the stress by discreetly working less.
I have debated this myself. Some other replies said the same thing. It would definitely help me in other parts of my life. How do you handle people messaging you over slack / teams and not responding for hours?
Precisely; and that's a big reason I would disagree with the OP and say that the method of "do in 2 hours what takes someone else 8 then take the day off" is actually a bad strategy for managing stress.
First; you're gonna become an SME on something. SMEs get Pings. If you're in your "not work" time at 3pm, playing Valorant or whatever, and get a ping; that's going to be annoying. That annoyance isn't justified; its not Right; but that is what you'll feel.
The more important thing is really to set and communicate boundaries. The standard boundary is 9 to 5; so set that, 9am you're on and giving it everything, 5pm you're off and giving it nothing (outside of on-call and whathaveyou, which is a separate problem).
It doesn't matter if you can do in two hours what takes others eight; you can't set a 10 to noon boundary. So; you'd have to lie. And its not just a lie to the company; its a lie to yourself. It'll start with "oh yeah im work from home, I'll still keep slack open and respond to pings but this will be me time". Then that me time turns into personal time, which turns into "yeah I can grab drinks at 2pm on a thursday" time, and it legitimately can spiral.
The weird part for me, and I assume some others is: you can't set boundaries in this environment. Maybe its guilt, I don't know. But if you're only on-on for two hours, then kinda-on for... how long? All day? If the 2pm ping induces the same feeling of annoyance as an 8pm ping would, they're not different; and you may become the person to go to if someone needs help at 8pm. Resentment follows: "I'm out with friends, why are they pinging me this late"; but do you not respond? Do you respond "my working hours are 9 to 5 so expect a response then?" Do you believe that when you say it (that's the ironic part; a part of me would).
> Precisely; and that's a big reason I would disagree with the OP and say that the method of "do in 2 hours what takes someone else 8 then take the day off" is actually a bad strategy for managing stress.
I can see why you would think this, but I have made it work for me. If I put in enough work in two hours to be slightly ahead of colleagues who need the full eight hour day, I don't regard the other six hours as purely "me time". I regard it as standby/on call time. If a ping comes between 0900 and 1700, I'm there to answer it. That's actually part of the strategy. As long as I'm hitting my deadlines, doing a little better than the other guys, putting cover sheets on my TPS reports, and being responsive during working hours none of my eight different bosses know anything's amiss. They get what they want, and I get more time to exercise, read, play my violin, chat with my wife, tinker, etc.
I don't make anybody wait more than 15 minutes unless the only thing they say in chat is "hello"[0], because they're wasting their time and mine.
I don't mentally clock out at 1100 or 1200 and spend the rest of the day playing video games and resenting every ping. I sure as hell don't start drinking at 2pm. Hell, I don't even keep booze in the house; I only drink if I'm at somebody else's house and they offer me a drink. (I'll have one drink for politeness' sake, but that's it.)
> Maybe its guilt, I don't know. But if you're only on-on for two hours, then kinda-on for... how long? All day?
I feel no guilt whatsoever. I've rationalized the guilt away. If getting paid a salary means I get paid the same whether the work takes 40 hours a week or 80, then it ought to mean I get paid the same whether the work takes 10 hours a week or 40 because I think getting paid a salary rather than an hourly wage should imply that I'm being paid for results, not time spent.
The problem, at least in my situation, is that the company has me on a salary but bills their clients by the hour. This obliges them to track "utilization", so being your kind of honest and outright clocking out when I've finished a reasonable amount of work for the day would foul up my metrics. So I've unilaterally imposed a compromise that works for me: I get my work done in the morning, and spend the rest of the workday "on call" and responsive if something comes up. I make a point of participating in company tech/culture groups so that people see I'm not just focused entirely on client work.
I play the game, but I play it my way because playing it their way is playing to lose.
Remember: boss makes a dollar, you make a dime. That's why you shit on the company's time. I might not be a card-carrying IWW[1] member, but I come from a long line of Wobblies.
I have debated this myself. Some other replies said the same thing. It would definitely help me in other parts of my life. How do you handle people messaging you over slack / teams and not responding for hours?
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