Before I retired, for the last 30 years there was work to be finished at home every day, including 3 - 5 hours over the weekend. Teaching is not a 40 hour week, more like 50+. But then there was the compensation of holidays and summer vacation which made it pretty much even out.
I never take work home, but I do have pager duty once every 5 weeks. I have to cover all unstaffed hours for the week, which is 0030-0700 Monday thru Friday and 24hrs on the weekend. I get $100/wk just for having the pager, and 3 hours minimum for any call out. Haven’t had to come in for a page yet this year, which is just fine by me.
I don’t see that as “bring work home” but as “working from home”.
Bring work home:
- you’re working when you should be relaxing
- you’re working overtime but not getting compensated for it
- you’re not getting your beauty sleep
- and in general, Bad for you and Bad for the company because in total terms you’re less efficient and in worse shape
Work from home:
- you’re working more efficiently because you have a lot less interruptions
- if the work is “chugga work”, the kind where you set the computer to do something and wait while it’s in “graybar land”, you can do your laundry instead of staring at the screen trying to look busy when you know that even checking on your email will slow the gray bar down. Rising from your seat and hoping over to the washer/dryer is not great exercise, but it’s a lot healthier than getting a cramped back from The Look Busy Crouch.
- once the work is done, it’s done. It stays in its computer/folder/whatever, same as if you’d left it in the office.
- and in general, Good for you and Good for the company because you’re more efficient and relaxed
Ditto. I say the school system gets about 60 hours out of me each week during the school year. I try to stay late at school, but I find I need the drive home to clear my head a bit, then I can get to grading once I’m in a better mood. It doesn’t hurt that my husband’s job requires him to do a lot of work from home as well.