Is it unprofessional of me to play games before and after work, whilst at the office?

Question

I'm a junior software developer in a small company(20-25 employees).

I get into work an hour early each day and leave a half hour later to avoid traffic however this leaves me with a conundrum, because I could work that extra hour and not get paid. I can browse websites like Facebook, Twitter or the Workplace Stack but I would rather be playing games on my phone or on my DS.

So my main question is, would this be considered unprofessional?

Edit - This is not similar to the other questions I found as I'm asking about professionalism before and after work as opposed to the ethics of doing it.

Answer 1

As long as people are aware you are not currently working, then there is no issue. You may not want to do this at your desk, but instead in a break room. This way people will not mistake you for thinking you're playing whilst you are supposed to be working.

After all, you're not on the clock, what you do during your time is up to you and not for someone else to judge. Just make it clear you are not currently on the clock.

Answer 2

This really depends on the company and policies. Some companies have strict policies about what you can do in their space. I know this sounds harsh, but keep in mind that you are using a space rented by the company you are working for.

I have worked in companies where 70% of the employees would do what you are doing, together with the manager and they even organized gaming nights without any issue at all. This was due to the fact that the manager was open and wanted to make a good working space (and not only) for the employees.

You need to ask your superior (even in writing) for the permission if this type of activity is not something that others do freely.

Answer 3

This is about image management. If you habitually play games at the office, you'll probably be labeled in various ways. None of them are positive.

When you miss a deadline, they will say, "Maybe if he worked instead of playing games..."

When you code a bug... "Maybe if he thought about something other than playing games..."

When someone can't remember your name - "You know, that guy who plays games all the time..."

These people may not really understand that you're doing this on your own time (if on company equipment and property...)

I once worked with a guy known as "The guy who is outside smoking all the time". The quality, completeness, and timeliness of his work wasn't mentioned by the label, only that he wasn't at his desk.

So manage your image while you are at work. Do not give haters and detractors ammunition. A damaged image can cause you to lose tie-breakers. When employees are stack-ranked, bonuses are allocated depending on rank. You'll lose when all else is equal. When someone complains to your boss, using the "playing games all the time" argument (regardless of the accuracy), your boss is on the defensive, at best. Your boss doesn't want to have to defend the perception that he thinks it is OK for the staff to play games at work. Don't put your boss into this position.

I knew one programmer who would work on electronics projects over lunch. While a completely constructive (and fun!) activity, it made it look like he wanted to be somewhere else. This is a negative and is a tie-breaker.

I have personally seen cases where one staffer was deemed "not yet ready" for a plum assignment. Tie-breakers did him in.

And I know this view people might have of you is not fair. And how they might use it against you is not fair. What's that got to do with anything?

Answer 4

this leaves me with a conundrum, because I could work that extra hour and not get paid. I can browse websites like Facebook, Twitter or the Workplace Stack but I would rather be playing games on my phone or on my DS.

So my main question is, would this be considered unprofessional?

You have an extra hour on your hands and you have already decided that you will stay at work that hour.

Here's what I think of the options, ranked in order of perceived professionalism:

• Working an extra hour can show dedication, extra effort, and the desire to get ahead.
• Browsing websites shows a bit less dedication, but can convey a learning attitude, particularly if you stick to websites related to your profession
• Playing games shows that you work to the clock and play games on your off time

If professionalism is your concern here (as you specifically stated, rather than health or work/life balance for example), I'd suggest either working or going somewhere else where your management won't see you to play your games.

Imagine you are the boss. You walk around the office and can't help but notice who is around before or after hours, and if people are working or playing games. What do you imagine would make the most professional or the least professional impression? I suspect the answer is pretty clear. Now as the employee, you get to decide if you care what your boss thinks or not and what kind of impression you would prefer to make.

Answer 5

The existing answers look at the narrow issue of the effect on others of seeing you playing games. This answer goes to the broader issue of life as a software professional.

You have embarked on a career that requires life long learning. Maybe you already know everything that would be in any way useful for your current job, but do you know everything you are going to need next year? In two years?

As an alternative to playing games, use the time to study. Bring in technical books to read. Have a laptop loaded up with a development environment for the next programming language, framework, or development strategy you are going to learn.

You could learn a lot in 90 minutes per working day of study and practice.

When I was a project leader, I several times saw one of my junior developers studying a textbook at lunch time. That made a strong positive impression, when playing games would have been neutral, since I knew it was a break time.

Answer 6

I would say this also hinges upon the work environment itself. There are companies out in the Tech sector that do not frown on these activities when off the clock.

Now, if I were working at, lets say an investment firm or a law enforcement call center, I would not be gaming off the clock, at least not while at my desk.

Maybe in the break room on a personal device that was geared towards that purpose, if company policy allowed for it.

Answer 7

You should ask your supervisor if it's okay for you to do it. Don't ask us at the Workplace, we don't set policy at your workplace and we can't interpret policy at your workplace that we don't know about. Your question is workplace-specific by the way: what's okay at one workplace would get you written up at another that's much more conservative and corporate. Or run by pointy headed management.

I used to work for a consulting company. I was eating a quick lunch at the desk that the client had assigned to me and reading a magazine from a magazine rack that the client had provided for the employees' reading. One of the client's managers saw me making myself at home, badgered me and complained to my management. My management followed up and harassed the hell out of me. At any other workplace but this one, I think nobody would have cared.

If you are in doubt about a company policy, ask. And ask the company, not us.

Answer 8

"Is it professional of me to play games" This alone results in a "no". However, whatever you do in your own time is up to you.

However when you use your free time at work, it might get complicated. It depends on the company. you'd need to ask yourself several questions.

1. Do customers walk around the company in the hours you're playing games?
2. Do other employees know of your hours? Does it matter?
3. How strict is the business culture?

If customers walk around the company and see you playing games, that leaves a bad image to the company. While the customer may/may not care, your superiors absolutely will. At this point they wont care if you were on break or off work ot not. Of-course the break room is an exception.

In a more strict 9 to 5 company they will not enjoy having their employees making weird hours or doing non-working activities. In those cultures other employees will often try to copy such behaviour and possibly lower productivity.

In a less strict company, employees coudln't care less what you do during and outside of your working time. Mainly because it doesn't affect them. In such a culture you'd be able to play games whenever you want, for as long as you end up making the hours. (I doubt this is the care for your company)

As suggested before, going for the break room would be the 100% safe solution. I've only seen a few companies that have an xbox in the break-room but whenever anyone were to play on it on their break, all managers and other employees would give you weird looks. Again, it depends on the company's culture.

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If you end up being unable to figure this out on your own, talk to your manager. Most managers tend to have weekly or bi-weekly 1-on-1 conversations with their employees, if you dont have one, ask for one. or simply walk by his office if he has one.

If your manager doesn't have either of these. As in no weekly conversations or personal office. Then I'd still try to catch him somewhere in private. I wouldn't feel comfortable having other employees weighing in on this topic.

Furthermore, While you might be in off-hours. You're still available at work. This in itself is quite valuable for the company. They dont need to pay you for being available, which is in their own benefit. You know, in case they need to ask you a small question.

Answer 9

While it isn't unprofessional, it is pretty much guaranteed to create a negative impression to some of the employees and customers.

Unfortunately, people have a tendency to judge and condemn without having complete and accurate information. Some will assume you're gaming instead of working, and some others will assume you're childish and irresponsible because you play games.

It will be better for your career to play games some distance away from the workplace, like the coffee shop down the road. Ironically it's the unprofessional prejudices of some people that lead to this advice - it's not about gaming being professional or not, but about unprofessional people judging you.

Answer 10

I would say that it wouldn't look so good to play games.

I would say that instead, use that time to do some work, and then take some time off in the middle of the day to go for a run or the gym.

Just an idea, and it might be suitable in your situation, but the benefits are multiple, and you would look more professional.

Answer 11

I would mention that besides being clocked in or not that you need to consider the equipment and data lines. If you are using your data and your network then you might have a case to compare to playing cards. But if you are using the company equipment in any way for leisurely access to the machine or networking you are out of line and may be putting your company at unnecessary security risk. Then the question of image comes in after that.

We played internally network games over lunch hour and it affected those who worked over the lunch hour. And of course once we accessed externally they went berserk. Thinking of recent dDos attacks in USA those who work on that part of the business would not appreciate having to track down extra traffic.

Answer 12

Others may not know that you are not "clocked in" while doing obviously not work-relevant things at work. Even if you document your working hours somewhere, they probably do not have access to this information.

So they may assign the negative image of you that may initially look for them deserved but also stick for later, even after you have clarified the situation. The bigger the company, the bigger this problem is.

Additionally, the company may not like you using your workstation, network and office space for personal things, even if this does not cost them much in addition to that they already pay.