WFH Tactics 1

Disclaimer: If practicing these tricks gets you put on a PIP (performance improvement plan), I take no responsibility. 🐱

1. Disappearing Act

While WFH, block out your calendar with excuses to create private slacking time:

• Doctor/Dentist appointment

• Personal errands

• Daycare pickup

• Apartment maintenance

Advanced version:
As long as no meetings are scheduled and no one pings you, vanish.
If someone does ping, say you’re busy with a “high priority task” or “in the middle of focus time” and ask them to schedule a meeting for tomorrow or the next day. Then move on to Trick #2: “Legitimizing It.”

2. Legitimizing It

If someone asks you something on chat, don’t just answer. Instead, schedule a 30-minute meeting.

• Spend 10 minutes answering their question.

• Spend the other 20 minutes slacking.

Advanced version:
If someone wants to discuss project details, set up a weekly meeting called something like “XYZ Sync” or just a 1:1.

This way, not only do you carve out slacking time every week, but later during performance review, you can pull out months of meeting notes to prove you’re the de facto project lead or an unofficial mentor.

3. Shameless Google

When facing a technical problem:

• First, see if someone in the team has solved something similar before and copy their work.

• If not, ask a colleague with experience—preferably by scheduling a meeting.

You can send them a peer bonus afterward to keep goodwill, but avoid listing them as a contributor.

4. Many Arrows, One Target

Send the same question to multiple teammates. You only need one person to give the right direction. Summarize their answers into a “final solution.”

Advanced version:
Write a proposal with multiple alternatives. For the sake of slacking, don’t bother deeply weighing pros/cons.
Send it out for review, and merge people’s comments and suggestions into your “own” finished proposal.
If you don’t want to look too shameless, list reviewers as co-authors or toss them a peer bonus.

5. Passing the Buck (Empty-Handed Wolf)

If someone asks you a question you don’t know, write an email to people who might know.

• Restate the problem.

• Exaggerate how important it is (“blocking the project!”).

Then sit back and watch the asker and the expert debate.
Once they reach a conclusion, swoop in and send a summary email.

With enough of these emails, you can claim to have driven cross-team collaboration and effectively unblocked projects as the “responsible owner.”

6. Gathering the Heroes

When asked a high-level design question you don’t know, call a meeting and invite:

• The asker

• People who might know the answer

• TLs or managers

Even though the real discussion is between asker and answerer, make sure to:

• Add extra questions from the asker’s perspective.

• Later, point out risks in the proposed solution.

Finally, send a meeting summary to senior leaders, branding it as “resolving conflicts and driving alignment.”

7. Riding the Wind (Piggybacking)

If you and a teammate are working on overlapping tasks (e.g., shared helpers or unit test stubs):

• Ask their thoughts and praise their ideas.

• Suggest letting them implement first so you can reuse their work.

Even if the conclusion is that you do it first, mention during standup that you proactively identified potential conflicts and streamlined workflow—earning credit as a productivity booster.

8. Eating for Free (Doing Nothing but Leading)

When leading a cross-team project (integration, migration) but lacking domain knowledge:

• Host meetings as the “organizer.”

• Keep asking questions and let others supply the answers.

• Turn their responses into proposals.

Keep them happy with occasional peer bonuses, but don’t add them as co-authors unless absolutely necessary.

I should clarify – these credit-stealing tactics are all things I’ve personally seen happen among teammates. I wrote them down so others won’t get trapped. As for myself, heaven knows I’ve only ever used Trick #1!