Working on the workplace all day was a battle for Nicola Sura. She’d seen the toll that working a company job had taken on her mother’s bodily and psychological well being, and she or he by no means needed the identical factor to occur to her.
Round six months into Sura’s first full-time function in 2019, she began questioning her life decisions, in addition to these of everybody round her.
“I used to be, like, how are individuals doing this? Everybody appears utterly nice. Everybody’s simply going about their day,” Sura, who works in company retail, tells Quick Firm. “It was killing me to simply be there for eight hours at my desk.”
The transfer to working from house through the COVID-19 pandemic was when Sura realized a trick that will change every little thing: time theft.
She began taking lengthy lunches and watching TV whereas on the clock as a result of no person was monitoring her, and she or he lastly discovered time to do her chores.
“I began feeling, like, okay, that is how I’m going to get via company America,” Sura says. “For me, it was all the time a way to survival.”
Time thievery is outlined as stealing again moments within the workday to run errands, placed on the laundry, take a nap, and do anything else that isn’t in your job description, with out taking official breaks.
Sura now runs a TikTok account the place she helps her 57,000 followers grow to be higher time thieves. Her primary rule: It’s important to be good at your job to get away with it.
“If you’re very clearly a slacker or very clearly struggling, then it received’t work,” she says. “That’s the basis it’s a must to begin from, or else you’ll get fired.”
A productiveness hack, or a dangerous coping mechanism?
Time theft has grow to be extra widespread for the reason that working-from-home period.
One recent survey of over 5,000 individuals throughout Europe by the market analysis agency YouGov Switzerland discovered that 80% of work-from-homers admitted to doing nonwork duties throughout paid hours. A 2025 study, printed within the journal Behavioral Sciences, discovered that working circumstances which have grow to be extra commonplace since COVID—comparable to an absence of supervision for these working from house—correlated with staff taking prolonged private breaks and sending private messages throughout paid work time.
Productivity consultants and organizational psychologists have combined views on time thievery. Some see it as dangerous, or as an unhealthy coping mechanism that masks deeper dissatisfaction. Others see it as a pure development towards a extra versatile manner of working. Circa 2020 or earlier, some distant employees may need felt responsible tending to the laundry throughout a lull within the day—however given the character of distant work, why really feel responsible about juggling chores in any respect, as long as the work will get executed?
Selda Seyfi, a administration guide who writes about productiveness on her Substack referred to as “Maximize Your Minutes,” views time theft as “power administration and an intentional integration of what you wish to do versus what it’s a must to do.”
“The entire idea assumes we nonetheless work in a Nineteen Forties manufacturing unit mannequin the place your employer owns your mind for eight hours,” she says. “Any deviation from that’s seen as stealing, which feels outdated.”
Seyfi additionally argues that it’s unrealistic for workplaces to not anticipate staff to do obligatory life admin, particularly when banks and submit places of work are solely open throughout work hours. “Everybody talks about defending weekends, however nobody questions you while you’re checking emails at 9 p.m.,” she says. “The boundary all the time appears to go a method.”
How reclaiming time adjustments office dynamics
From an organizational perspective, when used often, time theft can cut back absenteeism and presenteeism, says Amanda Tobe, an organizational psychologist who makes a speciality of career progression. She says it could possibly cut back anxiousness and psychological fatigue when used inside purpose, supporting “emotional regulation and cognitive functioning, which can not directly enhance focus and work high quality.”
Anita Williams Woolley, affiliate professor of organizational habits at Carnegie Mellon College’s Tepper Faculty of Enterprise, notes that many roles are “lumpy”: Some days are overloaded, others slower.
“Individuals use lighter durations for errands, as a result of work isn’t completely matched to a 9-to-5 grid,” she says. “Employers who don’t acknowledge that pressure employees to do that with out being clear.”
Williams Woolley provides that errands can provide stress aid and a way of autonomy, particularly when work feels rigid or surveilled. However she warns that there could also be prices: “Secrecy can push individuals right into a extra transactional relationship with work, eroding belief and belonging,” she says. “Even when efficiency is powerful, unreliability can stick.”
There’s additionally the danger of self-discipline for time thieves who push their luck. Employers who suspect employees of being absent for lengthy swaths of the day might implement insurance policies comparable to monitoring laptop computer exercise, and even allotting punishments like fines. In 2023, for instance, a distant accountant was dismissed and fined round $1,000 for “time theft” after monitoring software program was uploaded to her work laptop computer.
Profession happiness coach Jenny Holliday warns that even in the event you get away with it, time thievery may go within the brief time period however grow to be expensive over time. She says it could possibly masks deeper emotions of resentment or disengagement, and even be a way of revenge.
“For those who’ve been handed over for a promotion or a pay elevate, why not spend half your day on different issues?” she says.
Productiveness doesn’t look the identical for everybody
Sura isn’t satisfied by the criticisms, particularly as extra corporations push staff again into the workplace full time. She doesn’t see time theft as quiet quitting or coasting. Whereas she might often reframe the reality—like saying her web is down so she will compensate for sleep or watch a film—she says she’s something however unproductive.
Sura has since moved on from the job the place she realized that it pays to be a time thief, and has held a few company roles since. She now juggles contract work with being a full-time content material creator. In her earlier roles, she was constantly promoted and obtained constructive suggestions from managers and colleagues, so she is aware of firsthand that productiveness doesn’t look the identical for everybody.
“Your work speaks for itself,” she says. “You are able to do good work with out working at a 100% capability on a regular basis. Slowing down and dealing at a sustainable tempo issues.”
One other criticism Sura typically hears is that point thieves depart others to select up the slack. She rejects that, too.
“No one is telling you to work tougher,” she says. “Go forward and likewise be a time thief. We must always all be present this manner.”
