The viral craze sees lazy office workers told to log on and do the bare minimum but make sure they don’t get caught swinging the lead by colleagues and bosses
Influencers are coaching workshy Brits on how to take it easy while working from home.
The trend known as taking a “soft off day” sees online followers encouraged to relax on company time while working remotely.
The viral craze sees lazy office workers told to log on and do the bare minimum but make sure they don’t get caught swinging the lead by colleagues and bosses. In a video posted on Instagram and TikTok attracting more than three million viewers an influencer called Jacqueline, said: “You’re going to work, but you’re not really doing anything, but you’re not taking [time off].”
The skiving coach also gives her followers advice on working from home and promotes as AI-note-taking app, advising viewers there was “an art” to avoiding detection. Her recommendations included answering emails in the morning to “show face”.
Similarly, Denise Leigh, an American blogger who advises teachers, also encourages her readers to do “substitute-level” soft off days, particularly on Mondays, to prevent burnout. She explains: “This isn’t laziness. It’s professional self-care. We’ve given students brain breaks for years.”
While “Ash”, a content creator on TikTok, said in a video with half a million views: “A soft off day is basically when you’re working but you’re not really working. Doing this once a week minimum.”
Online followers are loving the graft-dodging tips. One wrote: “This is literally a life saver.”
But others were more sceptical. “Please don’t,” one commented. “This is why companies are forcing people back into office.”
Almost six years on from the birth of mass working from home, bosses are taking a harder line on “work from wherever”. London is running out of office space, property boffins have warned, as businesses bring their employees back in person.
Britain is Europe’s hybrid work capital, with the average worker at home 1.8 days per week. Four in 10 job adverts allow flexible working and 17% are for fully remote roles, the networking platform LinkedIn found.
People aged 30 to 49 are the most likely to work from home, and those with children are much more likely to do hybrid work than non-parents.
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