Whether it’s a private phone call or a cigarette in the smokers’ corner – what is acceptable during working hours and what is not has become common practice in most companies over the years. But now many office workers are largely working from home. And at home, the boundaries between private and business can blur again in a completely different way.
On the one hand, there is the danger that you don’t really switch off after work because you are theoretically always available and feel obliged to do this and that for the job quickly. On the other hand, your own four walls offer completely new incentives to deal with private things during working hours. But which private things can you do during working hours and what goes too far?
In principle, the Working Hours Act also applies in the home office, says labor law specialist Sabine Reichert-Hafemeister in an interview with the magazine “Finanztest”. This provides for a maximum daily working time of eight hours, and up to ten hours are also permitted if this is compensated for over a longer period of time. But you also have to work during this time. And: “Everything that does not belong to work is also not working time,” says Reichert-Hafemeister. The photo series shows what that means in detail and what applies in gray areas.
There is more information on the subject of working hours and private matters www.test.de