Do you finish work 'on the dot'?

[BananasAreForever]

Most people I know (including me) are regularly working outside of their working hours (weekends and evenings), even without being in particularly high paid roles or being paid overtime. This seems to be a more accepted part of the world of work now but I don't feel this was the case 20 years ago when I started my career.

The expectations put on employees all feels a bit grim, especially as we don't have a huge amount of free time anyway.

Are you lucky enough to have a job where you are able to leave at the exact time your hours finish without the expectation you will be putting in extra hours? If yes, what do you do?

I work to my allotted times. If it’s not done it’s not done. Work do not own my own (unpaid) time, no matter what they think.
Had they treated all the staff equally and like humans with brains, there would be more leeway on that extra bit of time and indeed on accepting overtime - which we currently all refuse to do.

Nope. I did in my previous job and I was miserable and it wasn't even appreciated or even mentioned.

Changed jobs and have never worked a minute over. And never will.

This. I’m in mid-management and I rarely work outside my hours. I have three children and it’s important to me that work remains work and home is home. I’m very efficient in my working hours and otherwise, promote a good work life balance for myself and my teams.

Luckily where I work it's expected to leave on time. I wouldn't mind staying later if needed but only because it's a give and take situation, I know that I can leave early if something comes up eg. children and they know I can stay late if there is some sort of emergency.

In my previous job it was 9-5 and I was at 8:59:30 ready to open the shop and 16:59:30 key in my hand to close. I worked "overtime" handful of time but always took those minutes back.

Current job is flexible so my hours vary based on days. Sometimes I work 12h days and sometimes 5h days. Sometimes I do an hour on Saturday and the have a longer lunch on Monday etc.

Yes
Employers take more than enough
I arrtive on time.. leave on time
Take my breaks ..
And my work gets done
I've worked with people through the years who are very good at preseteeism but faff about something ridiculous and take all day to do a task that should last an hour

I’ve never stayed more than a few minutes over unless there was a real emergency and I was to be reimbursed (money or lieu time). Staying late is a strange martyrdom where it makes every else feel like they should too. You’re reducing your worth at work and stopping management identifying real gaps in the workload.

I got sacked from a senior job last year. Leave on time every day now. I do like to arrive a bit early, cup of tea, browse headlines etc

Heavens no! Long retired but when working was on "proper" flexi. Loved it. Frequent whole days off. At one time worked ~ 4 ten hour days with Friday and Monday off to compensate every other weekend

Travel for work outside normal hours [London to Bath] for example and on one occasion in office till 1130pm! Taxi home authorised - £60! A boss who appreciated us and treated us accordingly.

I don't think I could enjoy a job which was absolutely fixed hours

@BananasAreForever

I work in a school so no i very rarely get out the door on time lol. There's often a cut knee to deal with or a squabble to sort out or like today paperwork I needed to update (could have been done tomorrow but I'd have potentially been leaving someone else wondering where it was).

This! I work in Local Goverment.
I report write into the early hours of the morning as we are understaffed and have court deadlines to meet well as visits ! So we have to work extra !! TOIL hours rack up but indont always get time to take them however I will try and take a day of toil when I can for it in my calendar.

I’ve never worked overtime in the whole time I was employed. I did have flexible
working tho and hours varied.

im self employed now and do go a little extra for my clients / to do a good job!

I'm not "lucky enough" to have a job where I finish on time, I choose to finish at my finish time. Never log on at night or weekends unless it benefits me to do so or it is specifically requested on and agreed in advance. Also don't have teams or any work content on my phone. These boundaries are v important to me. I am at the end of my career though so can afford to do it with not much impact.

I wish more people would though as it seems to be considered the norm now and that is just madness!

i usually arrive slightly late and leave slightly early due to train times. my work are really flexible about this as i set my own tasks and get them done.

The only time I finish late is if there is an incident that I have to act on immediately and that goes over my finish time. I work in children's safeguarding so it does happen from time to time but usually I finish on time.

I don't have set hours, if I want to start at 8am and finish at 4pm or do 10am to 6pm another day that's fine. I do my contracted hours and no more, and don't check emails in the evening or weekends unless something is genuinely urgent.

Of course, if something important comes up that means I have to stay late then I will work more hours but it's quite rare that happens.

It hasn't affected my opportunities at work at all, I've still been promoted. I turn up, am a good employee and I do my work to a good standard. That's all they need from me.

I'm providing a service for them and they're paying me for it, but martyring myself won't get me any brownie points. I prefer to protect my home life and personal time and be a good employee during the hours they pay me for.

I worked much more out of hours early in my career. The balance has shifted as I’ve had other priorities outside work and became more established in my career. At the moment my work is very flexible in enabling me to deal with some tricky personal circumstances which is a key reason I stay with my current employer.

I don't have exact hours or anyone checking particularly other than that we have a signing in book in the office and people could see when I was last on Teams if they wanted to. Core hours are 10 - 4pm and we can do what we like around those. I don't work long hours and try to stick to 7 hours a day.

In my current job I never finish on the dot, because we have too much work and we all pull together as a team.

Previous firm, very toxic, abusive, disgusting behaviour by seniors to juniors.... it was not unusual to see staff literally sprinting for the door at 5 pm after clock watching for a good 20 minutes.

DH was once waiting outside for me in the car. He said that a workplace where people literally RAN from is not a good place to work. It wasn't. I lasted 4 years and had a nervous breakdown.

I have a job where I finish after eight hours and tbh I always have. I'd hate to be in a career where the expectation was that you would work for hours that you aren't being paid. Fuck that! Pay me for the hours I do and if regular overtime is expected you need to hire more people or pay for those hours of work. I work to live, not the other way around.

There’s a partner at my firm who expects you to be ‘on’ 24/7, literally. I was on holiday, +6 hours ahead, and she got pissed off that I wasn’t working until 5am and ruining my holiday for her stupid deal. She’s a cunt and I have since avoided working with her. Two people have cited MH issues to avoid working with her too.

So I would say in my job, how much ‘overtime’ I work depends on who I am working with on any given project.

No, I'm paid a lot and it is give and take

Not to bad they probably get an extra 10 minutes out of me a day

I run my own business and never work more than 30 hours a week.

When I was employed I only did extra if I was being paid for it.

I never work more than my hours. I might come in a little later or earlier, and then adjust my finish time accordingly. If I have urgent work (I'm a senior manager in a small charity so occasionally things crop up and deadlines have to be met) I will work on a day off or in the evening, but I take my time back within that working week. I do my job thoroughly and to a high standard, but I'm very much a 'work to live' person and have recently gone part time to have a better work/life balance.