Despite being so normalized, the eight-hour workday still covers a lot of time. Some folks, if not constantly supervised, will find their own ways to get stuff done in this time span that are not at all related to work. 

Employees shared the brashest, most clever, and most hilarious things they or someone they know did on the job and got away with, all while pretending to work. People gave examples ranging from overlooking a shoplifter all the way to full-blown visits to the gym. So if you are reading this at work, you are in good company, get comfortable, upvote your favorite examples, and comment your thoughts below. 

#1

If I get sent to a shoplifting where the person is lifting one single sandwich or a pregnancy test or something like that I make it go away by helping the person “find” a couple quid in their pocket to pay for it and writing the call off as a misunderstanding.

Image credits: CliffyGiro

#2

I used to work in Tesco and my manager was an absolute legend. End of shift he would tell us to help ourselves to anything that was out of or just about to go out of date. Anything that was left (which was a lot) he would take with him and hand it out to the homeless.
His attitude to the upper management was “f**k them, none of us get paid enough to give a f**k”.
RIP big John……

Image credits: Dangerous-Chip3626

20th-century workers often had to deal with workloads even higher than ours. Ten and nine-hour days were standard in many factories. Workers and unions would often strike over it, demanding fewer hours, but it wasn’t until 1914 that major companies started to decrease the length of the workday. Henry Ford, the most unlikely ally to workers, was instrumental in this time span becoming standardized. 

Two years later, the Adamson Act saw a Federally mandated workday length specifically for railway workers. Once this precedent had been set, it became more normal, all the way up to this day. We still use “a 9 to 5” as a quick way to refer to any given workday, despite the fact that remote workers have very mixed schedules and service workers tend to have other kinds of shifts. 

#3

Everyone thinks I’m being helpful and cleaning up when I carry the pallets outside…nah, I’m fussing the cat that lives out there.

Image credits: Duxsta

#4

I'm sticking googly eyes on everything. Plant pots, monitors, the tea tin, the milk. Everything. I do it openly, I don't hide it, and yet no one has noticed it's me. Just constant "where are the googly eyes coming from?" when suddenly there's one on the outside of someone's lunch box in the fridge. I started an entire year ago and convinced the cleaner not to pick them off.

Image credits: Previously-Tea

#5

Walking my dog.

On my at home days I take my dogs out up to 2 hours to the fields and the woods. I manage to get good signal, so I’ve replied to messages, and emails whilst sat on a log watching them eat mud.

Image credits: Historical_Cobbler

Modern managers, despite their best efforts, need to realize that just because a workday is eight hours, doesn’t mean an employee will actually spend every last second working. This is not to say that they aren’t productive, but some organizational research suggests that Office workers might spend as little as half their time directly engaged in doing tasks. 

#6

On site plumber on a very large industrial site. I keep all the scrap organise it and weigh it in every 3 months. Make around £200-300 each time. No one’s knows been doing this for at least 5 years now. My way of sticking it to the man and also helping out the planet slightly.

Image credits: NTK421

#7

I join every zoom meeting a few minutes late to avoid the awkward small talk

Image credits: Cfro199

#8

I constantly turn a blind eye to shoplifting because I can’t possibly justify humiliating or punishing someone for having little to no choice but to steal something they need ( band aids, tampons, etc) that they obviously can’t afford

Image credits: hokkpin

As much as it might annoy higher-ups, even a productive worker needs to take little breaks to wind down. Just checking one’s email or taking a five-minute walk can help the brain reset and actually make the employee more productive in the long run. Some in this list have mentioned going to the gym, which is time-consuming but could be a great stress reliever if done correctly. But it seems that most managers aren't ready to have that conversation yet. 

#9

I wrote a novel during my probation period at the most recent job.

Image credits: partaylikearussian

#10

My wages have been wrong for the past 6 years I'm supposed to be on a lower wage band instead I've been getting £167 more every week for the past 6 years!! Woop woop

Image credits: TheBigUn77

#11

I'm in the office 3 days a week. Because home working is so widespread now, I'd say 75% of the time there's nobody in who I have anything to do with. So I've realised nobody is aware what time I leave. I've started leaving at like 4:15. It's great.

Image credits: imminentmailing463

And it’s important to remember that not all work is created equal. Many jobs burden people with unnecessary busy work, perhaps to create the appearance of productivity, even when all it does is tire people out without any benefits. Business analysts believe that in many companies, up to 40% of work is really just busy work that could be delegated or left until later. 

#12

I once had a temporary agency warehouse job. I reported to all the right people but wasnt on anyones list. I still got paid. I spent the next 6 months wandering around with an empty cardboard box doing bugger all & still getting paid!

Image credits: Ssscrudddy

#13

Using cleaning chemicals to actually perform my job properly, despite being a water only job. Like f**k are you getting grease and grime off a floor with just hot water.

£5 bottle of 5L degreaser, makes a 1 hour job 20 mins.

Image credits: DutchOfBurdock

#14

Three times a week, on my WFH days, I go to the gym mid-day. I couple these sessions with lunch - because I've noticed lunch time varies for everyone in my company from 12:00 to 14:30ish, so it gets quiet. This gives me enough time to go to the gym, workout, get back home and then have a quick pre-made lunch.


Honestly because of this I am also much more productive - I come back relaxed, energized and I feel that dividing my day in two distinct parts is more manageable. Also my workouts have benefited, I go the gym at my peak and I'm no longer tired and cranky and this translates into my performance. There's also less slacking off cause I know I'm on the clock. And with the workout out of the way, I can enjoy evenings more - without having to wake up at the crack of dawn and go to the gym then.

Image credits: queen__crimson

Of course, for every worker just doing their own thing while on the clock, there is a manager making time and effort to self-sabotage by overloading their best employees and just creating difficulties. If you want to hear more about one such case, Bored Panda has got you covered, check out our article on a woman who ended up maliciously complying with her manager's demand to “do more.” 

#15

I leave an hour early every day - as does my manager. If they can’t be arsed, why should I?

Image credits: AriasCryingFace

#16

One job I had, I got annoyed at the smokers taking so many extra breaks on night shifts, so I just started tools downing whenever they went out, and sneaking off for a shower during one of their smoke breaks near the end of the shift.

Wasn’t any team leaders on nights, and while the group leader in the office definitely noticed the clean/slightly damp hair a couple of times, he knew he couldn’t say anything without me calling out his fellow smokers.

#17

Farting.

I’m really, really good at silent farts and weirdly, no one ever suspects me. They blame it on Janice every time

Image credits: No-Reservations_

#18

I work outside, often away, or at home unsupervised. 8 hour days.

There have been days I've got up, made a couple of phone calls, then gone back to bed.

Other days, like today, I'll be out on site for an hour, then I might head into town for a mooch around.

I was working with my boss a couple of weeks ago. We were done by 11am. We went on a bar crawl for the rest of the day. He's just as bad. Runs his own fishing guide business on the side.

Image credits: filthythedog

#19

We went fully remote over covid. I get a solid 3 hours of work done a day. The rest of the time is side project, gaming, browsing the web, etc.

I stopped feeling guilty ages ago as I get FAR more done now than I ever did in the office and get a ton of praise for it so everyone wins.

Image credits: PurpleEsskay

#20

My previous employer was lax as f**k with IT equipment, every year my team would put a requisition request in for new laptops and every year IT would send us each out a brand new, top spec Dell XPS.

Not once did they ask for the old machine back and the department manager was completely uninterested so we kept them.

I must have had upwards of £10k in laptops from that place in the handful of years I worked there.

Image credits: All_within_my_hands

#21

I wfh, I take my lunch break then after eat my lunch at my desk.
I still do work, but I have double the break.

Image credits: worldworn

#22

I had a friend my years ago who went on a skiing holiday, but still took calls and emails at the top of the mountain cause they didn't have annual leave

Image credits: Loquis

#23

I've been moving from a flat to a house over the past couple months. Pretty much all of my house hunting, bill redirects, notifying the bank of change of address etc etc gets done during work time. I basically never do "life admin" off the clock.

Image credits: Extreme_Warthog_6636

#24

I have 4 screens in my home office. I only need 3 to do my job properly.

The 4th screen is spent watching YouTube, playing games and f*****g about on Reddit.

#25

Very rare, but sometimes, I get my full breaks.

Cries in NHS.

#26

About once a week me and a colleague take the opportunity to sneak away for a few mins to make out. We haven't been caught (yet).

Image credits: nightjar_song

#27

Work in tech and so much stuff can be automated. You occasionally get one of those horrible repetitive jobs for an audit or some such. Oh, you want me to spend 3 days gathering all this data, sure! I spend an hour or two writing the automation script. Enjoy some downtime for a couple of days then run the script that spits out the results in less than 5 minutes. Boss thanks me profusely for my hard work on this laborious task whilst I sit there laughing!

#28

My day is so boring- I hate it.

I work in an office with another person (second person is my director who is hardly in the office maybe visits me once a week for a few hours).

I have quite a good role, but my god is my day boring. I spend most of my day on reddit/google, sometimes reading an online book and work for around two a hours a day at split intervals lol.

You see, I know she watches the cameras so I literally spend all day on monitor searching stuff (so it looks like I am working lol). I also eat my lunch before lunch and then lock up the office and go on a half an hour walk lol.

#29

Built dozens of kayaks using company resources. I donated the local scout group ten and built myself a grp river shooter with a layer of Aramid.

#30

I'm literally sat here on my forklift waiting for 4 o' clock. Its not fun having nothing to do by the way.

#31

I use my Monday morning to clean my house and do my laundry. On a Tuesday mid morning I go do my weekly shop. On a Friday I take a nice long lunch break. Then throughout the week I like to watch YouTube or TV shows while I’m working. I’ll also do home admin stuff during the week as well if needed. I’m meant to work hybrid but gradually reduced the days I went into the office, no one said anything so now I WFH full time.

The key to getting away with it is hitting deadlines, making sure you don’t miss meetings and being helpful if someone messages you. All the ‘being away’ goes very much unnoticed and no one really cares. Also use the, my internet dropped out excuse sparingly when you’re late to reply.

Image credits: always-_-hungry

#32

I was forced to sit through a particularly boring training session over Teams not too long back, on a system I wouldn't be using. I spent most of it on mute with my camera off playing Zelda.

#33

I'm a home worker. I roll out of bed 5 minutes before my shift starts, pop on a presentable shirt in case I'm about to head into a meeting, and then boot the laptop up. After 30 minutes, when I know where I stand with the workday, I head off to brush my teeth, and get showered and dressed.

Not much of a difference, but it's 20-30 minutes of my life saved every day. It has lead to some awkward situations when I come into an emergency at 9, and I'm still sitting in meetings by midday in my pyjama bottoms.

#34

Working at fiveguys which is infamously expensive. The refill cups are £4.15 and I (9 times out of 10) don’t charge people for them, or if a family comes in I will normally just charge for 1 or 2 instead of 4. I give out so much free food, but cups are the main one

Image credits: arob34

#35

I was running my own business, in a different field to the one I was employed in, from my work desk. Ordering stock, talking with clients, you name it I used my employers time whenever I could to get my business up, running and into the black.

Edited to add, as some are interested, the following

I was employed in a 'highly demanding technical position' that took at most an hour a day, when I was busy, which wasn't very often. I seriously had trouble making it look like I was doing anything at all most days so...

Why not use that spare time productivity, I asked myself, whilst playing tetris...

I was so busy at times with the hussle that I was genuinely stressed by it. After all, ***I was doing it all on my own! :)***

Did that for just over three years. Was a sad sad day when I had to quit the real job to concentrate on the business.

Image credits: NGC6753

#36

Worked in mcdonalds when I was 18, at close, before we turned the grills off and cleaned them down, we'd cook a load of sausage patties and have breakfast at midnight.

Probably the worst thing I've ever done tbf

#37

I worked nights alone at a warehouse in the office and the first few hours were always busy and I would do everything but after about 11pm, nothing at all needed doing so I’d just do no work for 8 hours every day. The managers left at 10pm so they only ever saw me rushed off my feet and they didn’t suspect the nights were so slow they didn’t need anyone in the office. I made sure to use the computer facing the wall so they couldn’t see I was watching films and tv shows all night and scrolling Reddit. Best job I ever had.

#38

Not strictly work, as I'm self employed, but for months I've been using my bank's car park. It's 20 seconds from my workplace, completely unmonitored, barely anyone uses it and the bank staff are all middle aged women who couldn't give a shite. I'm sure the day will come when they tighten up and crack down, but till then I'll push my luck.

#39

I've read the entire horus heresy series (50+ novels) on my kindle over the last couple of years while 'working'. Quiet quitting rules

#40

On my lunch break I go off and smoke weed when I'm on my walk on the days I'm in the office.

I edit my photographs when things are loading.
Spend time with my new born.

I practice yoga during meetings and work out.
I rarely have anything to say in meetings, but I like keeping in touch with what's happening.

#41

In my previous job where I had f**k all to do to begin with, except a few things which mattered so little that nobody checked or cared if it was done: I downloaded Unity and an online course for it, and spent all day every day training in it, before eventually quitting to do game dev programming full time.

#42

Haven't bought a battery in years.

Image credits: aredditusername69

#43

Recently I worked a handyman sort of guy for a shopping centre, basically doing stuff like replacing lightbulbs, doing various generator tests and so on. I spent like 90% of the time in the basement of the place waiting for calls to come through because otherwise there wasn't really anything to do. Cause there were no cameras or anything I ended up just watching films in my office and eat sweets most of my shifts. No joke. The person who trained me even told me the skiving potential was through the roof and gave me tips

#44

Personal admin. Bills, flights, car insurance claim, food shopping. All on the clock

Image credits: melanie110

#45

Watching whole seasons of tv shows on my phone at my desk. I’m one of a handful of people who works in the office. It’s sleepy valley and no one cares.

#46

I make a component for air con units. Make 300 a night on my own.
When there is someone else working with me, I get them to build half of it, and I do the rest.
Still only make 300 components, and nobody has noticed.
Done this for the last 4 years.

#47

I work from home

And my boss has no way to track if I’m online

Here I am, I started at 9am

I’m still in my bed

It’s 2.30

Image credits: Whole-Item-8625

#48

I'm not meeting the mandatory minimum amount of time we're supposed to spend in the office. Nobody checks and they made the mistake of admitting they're too short staffed to sack anybody for not going in if they're doing work at home.

#49

My (genuine) appointments at the doctor and dentist can take up to 2 hours. But you know how busy they are wink wink

Image credits: electric-harmonica

#50

I used to arrive 5 mins before my old boss to open up the factory ready for the staff to arrive and book half an hour overtime every day for those 5 mins,
This went on for about 5 years until they had cameras installed.

#51

I don’t have anyone looking for what I do.
My deliverables are through the work of my team.
I have a coffee break every hour.
When I’m bored, I go about and distract others.
I go through Reddit.
I see what jobs are going around and do some interviews to keep the skills sharpened.
I go for 2 hour lunches.
Sometimes, I attend site but get so bored that I come home (any time really) and smoke a join to chill.
Most of my calendar is full of meetings that I don’t attend but keeps me ‘busy’. I also block focus hours for myself and do some meditation.
No one can read what my meetings are so they just assume I’m always busy.

Pretty efficient!

#52

Im an HGV driver doing store deliveries on 10 hour shifts. If I’m near the end of my shift and I’m finished at a shop a little earlier than I expected, early enough where if I go back immediately I’ll be given something else to do that’ll take me over my time, I’ll park outside and go in for my weekly shop on the clock. Reason being, my tracker will show I’m still at the shop if anyone bothers to check.

Then I’ll take an absolute pisstake of a detour back. If I can’t take a detour, I’ll join the long queue at the fuel pumps. If they’re both empty, I’ll fill the ad blue, take my time dropping the trailer, drive round, fuel up again, then go through the truck wash. Then tidy up the cab. Then tidy my air lines. Then quadruple check my paper work. Then pop into the canteen for a coffee.

No one has said a thing about it and I’ve been doing it for weeks. But i think everyone does their own form of time wasting so it’s expected in a way

#53

I work in a restaurant. If I'm on a long shift I eat 2 meals for free, unlimited free drinks etc. Sometimes bring my family in for free breakfasts. This is all 100% okay by management as they all do the same.

I also take home any over ripe bananas to make banana bread instead of binning them.

The thing I do that I am not supposed to do is steal cutlery/ plates/ glassware. Just the odd pint glass or a pack of teaspoons or a few ramekins. Recently got a few egg cups as well. Just the odd thing that I really need here and there.

#54

I have an hour for lunch, but I'm flexible on when I take it.. So it's more like an hour and fifteen in practice. An hour and a half depending on how busy we are and how many people I'm chatting with.

#55

I used to leave work early, go to the pub next door and come back to work an hour or so later to clock out. Loads of people did it, even supervisors and at least one of the managers and no one seemed to care.