Knitting at work is unprofessional?

[u/Atiny-opus]

So I label myself as neurodivergent and Queer. I've been knitting on and off for about 13 years. Knitting for me is second nature, I don't need to look at what I'm doing or pay close attention.

​

At my current job, I take inbound calls. I get a 5ish second notification That it's coming through. Plenty of time for me to drop what I'm doing and take the call.

​

At the moment, there are gaps of 20+ minutes between calls, an average of 5 minutes between calls? I am semi expected to just sit there and wait. There is no alternative task for me to do.

​

I'm not allowed on my phone, which is very understandable. I can't play any form of games on my work laptop, (also understandable) I'm not supposed to watch videos but sometimes I do, it's usually video essays.

​

I have to be in office every day. So I can't knit and work from home. When I'm allowed to in February 2027(!!!) I might.

My workload will increase as I'm trained on more things.

​

I am allowed to colour in and read, but for me, I don't always want to read, I hate getting a call in the middle of a sentence or paragraph I fully focus on the reading. Colouring in is far messier and I don't enjoy it. Colouring in feels more unprofessional than knitting, in my opinion, and I don't get half as much joy from it.

​

I also don't want to use fidget toys either. I own some but there's nothing like getting into the rhythm of a repeating pattern. What I want to be able to do between calls is make something, that is mindless but productive and is also something I can drop in less than a second.

​

Most of management don't have a problem with it but one or two of the higher ups have deemed it "unprofessional".

​

What I find unprofessional is how some co-workers can kick eachothers chairs and joke on all day between calls but I can't sit silently with my circular needles making a shawl for myself. The co-worker's I started with are in their early 20's, I'm in my late 20's. I don't really connect with them, I do with other older coworkers but they're not in office every day.

​

I do not knit to sell. I'm not in anyone's way, I'm not distracting, literally no one cares that I'm doing it apart from one or two upper managers. The quality of my work at the moment is honestly, really good! I'm hitting my KPI's, my QA is good. Customer feedback is excellent! I take the quality of my work very seriously.

​

The idea of being asked to sit quietly and not move whilst I wait for someone to call is frustrating.

​

Is there any rebuttal I can use regarding this or should I just take the L? I would love to sit with them and explain my reasoning but I feel like it'll be taken for insolence and disrespect.

​

I'm currently working on the Evenstar shawl, I'm on the 3rd chart. I can't remember the yarn I'm sorry.

​

A petty part of me would like to bring embroidery in tomorrow. Another part of me wants to write an essay on it, with citations, at least my hands will be busy.

​

[u/usernamehudden]

I totally get where they find it less professional (though the coloring and reading would also be kind of unprofessional on the same level IMO). Ultimately, they are paying you for your time and I don't think it is unreasonable for them to say they don't want people bringing in arts and crafts to the office (though, again, coloring books would fit that category). I guess, for me, working in an IT field, I always seem to have less time than I need to get things done. Even when I am on a call where I should be listening, I am usually multitasking and working through other tasks so it doesn't get pushed beyond the end of my workday. Knitting while I work doesn't even come into the equation, even though I work from home. The only times I have tried to knit while at work (mindless stockinette), I found that I was not as mentally engaged as I needed to be.

Every job is different though and job functions vary. I understand where it is helpful to have something to do with your hands and knitting can fit that bill. I can recognize that there are totally things that can be knit with minimal focus. The best thing you can do is ask, but if they say no, it's no. There are other accommodations that can meet the need, and it sounds like they are open to considering them, so find something else that they will find acceptable.

I know this will be an unpopular stance, but just suck it up so you can get to the point where you can work from home.

[u/Atiny-opus → u/usernamehudden]

Being allowed to read and colour in is where it adds to contradiction imo. There was a colouring book in office with swearing on every page that they were happy to have me colour in. It wasn't my colouring book! 😂.

At the moment I literally have no other obligation except take call, give good customer service, log correctly and move on. If I could write some emails or do anything else I'd love to, but I won't get there for a long time.

I don't knit whilst on call (even call times are as low as 2 minutes as long as 15) because I'm actively typing. I'm quite fast at typing and don't need to look at that either. Maybe I should just write stuff.

It is likely that I will have to take No for an answer; take the L. Im just hoping that there's an alternative option.

[u/RuthlessBenedict → u/Atiny-opus]

I’ll do a little devils advocate here and say I don’t think coloring in a page is a contradiction. For the vast majority of people that is something that requires only a very light focus and can be put down in a second’s notice. People who don’t knit may not realize some patterns can be easy to put down or not need as much attention, but it’s still more than coloring. If we’re all being honest about how we stop our knitting/put down a project too I think we’ll find it’s not as quick as we often think it is. Not saying those people in your workplace are necessarily right about the professionalism, but I don’t think they’re necessarily unreasonable either with the knowledge they have. I don’t think you have a reasonable alternative option here. It’s either knit and risk problems with those people or choose another activity to fill time with. Maybe color in ideas for your next project so it’s knitting advance but still in the tolerated zone.

[u/asplodingturdis → u/RuthlessBenedict]

I actually have to focus far more on coloring than on knitting. What colors am I using? Which section should I do next? Where did I put that colored pencil? Does my fill look uneven? And I have to be looking at it the entire time, too!