To expect to work only my contracted hours

[Meandacat]

Just started a new job. Everyone is very nice. Contracted hours are 35hrs pw, so a 7 hour day. My commute is about an hour and 20 mins and I accepted the job having carefully worked out options for trains/buses etc and being able to get home in time to pick up my LO from childcare. What has become apparent, however, is that no-one in my immediate team just does their standard hours. Its a small team and they all seems to work through lunch and an extra hour on top. I know this is not unusual in many places of work, but my line of work is not a particularly high-pressured/performance related sector so I'm surprised to find it here. It's not been my experience elsewhere. Everything else about it (dress code etc) is pretty relaxed.

Anyway, I don't know what to do? Part of the issue is that no one else in my small team has children. My new line manager has said she understands I have responsibilities and the woman I'll be reporting to just said "so long as the work gets done". But a few days in, I already feel terrible at being the first one to scuttle out the door. AIBU? Do I follow my colleagues' example (though I don't really know how I can) or should I just brazen it out? Anyone else been in this position?

I had a job share partner that had to come in later and often leave a bit earlier than the rest of us because of her family comittments. She was great at her job and lovely to work with. No one felt even slightly resentful of her. I really hope your team turn out to be the same.

Depends what you want from the job. If it's simply to do a reasonable job at your level, then YANBU to leave on time.

If you want progression and promotion, you might want to think very hard about whether you can match/exceed your colleague's performances in the hours you are doing.

I work in an industry where contracted hours mean fuck all. Expectations are high, flexibility essential. My contract is full of 'outs'. Mumsnet will tell you that those who stay late only do so because they are gabbling at the water cooler and shopping online. Utter horseshit in my experience. Those staying later are in the main getting more done and bringing in more money. Who do they promote in the end?

But you make your choices according to your priorities. By all means cultivate efficiency. But most importantly, be clear about what you want from the job and realistic about how to attain that.

And be careful not to confuse relaxed workplace codes/dress/behaviours/interaction with relaxed attitude to the work. My last job was relaxed to the point of being horizontal about the former. And utterly anal about the latter.

Don't feel guilty about leaving on time. I hate the extra hours culture that exists in many companies. It's different if there are lives at stake or an important deadline once in a while. But regularly exceeding your official hours in a standard office job is not a good habit to get into. As we see here, it puts pressure on your colleagues to do the same.

In Germany it is actually frowned upon to work late. Their attitude is test if you can't get your work dine in your contracted hours then you are not working efficiently. But they work very hard in those hours, no popping on Facebook during the working day.

Just to add, I'm not saying that everyone who works over their hours is inefficient, but I do like this German way of seeing/doing things.

It sounds as though you are not in a very high paid job with lovely promotion prospects and you have been told you can leave on time at 4 so just go. If you were trying to fight your way with others for promotions then of course you need to stay in many jobs however unfair that is. You could deal with a few things by email once you are home in emergency situations too though as it does no harm to email someone at 5 saying I will get back to you by 10am tomorrow for example so you manage their expectations and they know you have had their email on the day.

As I said above those without children sometimes work late as they are going on to something else near work socially later on and just need to hang out somewhere. Others find - most of us - that during the day you have a constant barrage of phone calls and emails and only when it quietens down can you get real work done on some days although even there for me I prefer working early on in the day as my work is a better quality as I am a morning person - lark not owl. My poor other daughter had to work 43 hours without a single break one Christmas (law firm) and I've certainly worked all night myself as a lawyer - no over time but you get paid a lot so it's part of the deal. It is not something you'd expect those earning less to have to do.

I used to work in an office where the least productive person was the last to leave each day. He fannied about all day and then did his work when everyone else had left.

That used to be me. I should have just started at 10 and accepted that I took a while to get going

Hi all. I was wondering if anyone sent an e-mail to their managers after returning to work from mat leave saying that they cannot do regular overtime anymore and can mainly work contracted hours only due to their childcare responsibilities. Is it possible to be dismissed on the basis of such e-mail or are employers obliged to try and make your work fit only in your contracted hours? I work in an environment where one's job can simply not be done within the contracted hours and regular overtime is the norm so I am also wondering what are the employer's obligation for that.

Ella you're probably better off starting a new thread than resurrecting an old one.

Do the hours you're pod for. You get no more money for doing more and no-one else has DC, so YANBU. So many workplaces expect more without saying it, it bugs the crap out of me.

I get wageslips that say Hours worked: 25, which is hilarious, given I get in an hour early, usually work through lunch, always stay after hours and have regular meetings, Parents' Evenings til 8pm, meetings in my free lessons, went in this week, although it's half term.

Don't be sucked into the whole 'must stay til the cleaner kicks me out' crap. You aren't paid the massive money that managers are.

I am absolutely ruthless in working my hours and getting them back when I do more. I'm known at work for being extremely effective and having a really high output BUT I tear through work and rarely waste time. I have a colleague on my team who takes at least twice as long to do the same amount of work and is there every evening until way past 8. That's fine if she wants to do that. I'd rather be at home with the family.

I find if you are effective and beyond criticism then no-one bats an eyelid about your hours. My boss certainly doesn't. I have just finished a project which took up far too much of my time off at home and will be taking next Friday off as compensation. I always say at interviews "I work really effectively and Iove my job. But I work, and then I go home at a decent time, unless there is a very, very good reason." It sets the scene. I doubt anyone that I work with would suggest that I'm skiving. I regularly have two (or three) projects in the go at any time which is unique in my team so they'd have a hard time suggesting that I'm lazy.

Work well, work effectively, go home on time. No one lay on their death bed wishing they had worked more hours.