To leave work on time?!!

[skyblueeee]

I find working full time (9-5:30) quite hard, I feel tired and restricted, which is why I can't wait for the clock to strike 5:30 and I can walk out the office, drive home, eat dinner and relax....

But the problem is, no one ever leaves at 5:30 I look around and everyone is still working while I walk out the door, I even get a few judgemental looks from colleagues. I'm usually the first one out, if not I'm one of the first.

Does it look bad to leave work on time? Obviously if I had something urgent to do I would finish it, but I don't want to stay just to look good. I already get home about 6:20pm depending on traffic and not keen to have an even longer day....

@kittymamma

Yes, I have a direct and blunt posting style. That doesn't make me a troll. A troll makes things up and/or tries to defend outrageous positions. I never post something I don't honestly believe.

CalF123 urgh your place sounds awful. I wonder if you work for the sort of employer that times staff loo breaks and will bollock staff if they have too many?

I hated working in an environment like that.

My contract stipulated that I finish work at 5pm, and I wasn't going to be paid beyond that time (salary), so there was no chance I was going to stay around after 5pm.

Where I work now, everyone leaves on time. It's much better. No guilt associated with only doing what you're being paid to do.

Go and don't feel bad about it. No one will ever thank you for sitting there for another hour and life is bad enough without wasting your time for nothing.

I have to leave work bang on time, I get charged £10 for every 5 mins I am late picking my DS up from nursery, and a bad traffic cue could harm that ... no one has said anything to me or even looks at me funny

@Calf123 You sound like a right misery!

CalF123, what if someone has a medical appointment during the working day? Are they allowed to ask for the door to be unlocked or so they have to go out of the window?

Also Calf, I don't think I've ever read a post of yours on any thread where you agree with the op 🤔

@HettySunshine

Arrangements would be made for a member of senior management to open the door if the request had been made in the proper manner.

If your paid till 5.30 then leave at 5.30! After 30 years of working you realise the more you do the more it becomes expected and employers are never grateful. I worked for a major supermarket and if you were 1 min late they would dock your wages but if you clocked out late you never got paid overtime.

Now I can see why you don't want employees who have done DofE Calf

😂😂😂

My hours are 8-5, normal office job

No one click watches. Some people get in early and leave early, some arrive late and will end up leaving late too.

I had a run of tight deadlines once which meant I was working until 7 most days in one week.
Overtime is unpaid.
However, my bosses have always appreciated the effort I've put in and I've been awarded considerably large bonuses as a result.

It's not something I would do regularly though and make the effort to leave on time whenever possible

I'm bloody glad I don't work for Calf! I am lucky enough to have flexi time, and as I live in a country where people tend to start work very early, I usually work 630-330 four days a week and finish at 12 on Fridays. I love finishing early, and especially value my Friday afternoons off. I wouldn't work in a prison camp like Calfs for double my salary! I appreciate the fact that my employer trusts me to work my hours, and often work more if required. Similarly if I need to leave early for whatever reason, its not as issue.

Calf what if someone wants to quit and just walk out? Legally I don't think you can stop them!
Or what if there was a family emergency? Who has time to faff on with protocol and procedures in those circumstances? You just grab you stuff and go!

We are expected to be ready to start on time (so be in the office 5/10 minutes before shift) and to leave as soon as your last piece of work is done. it is up to me to time it correctly so that I am done at my finish time. We clock in and out and it is frowned upon to be packing up early (though I do tidy any lesser used items away on my last break and just leave out my essentials) so I probably leave the office 3/4 minutes after official leaving time.

I think that's just good practice. staying for hours after finish to prove some sort of point is just stupid though.

I also work somewhere which expects you to come in early, work through lunch, stay late and take work home with you....yet I am barely paid above minimum wage (under £18k) and don't get overtime.
I refuse. I come in 5 mins before I'm due to start, I will work through lunch but I'm out the door at home time because I have a life!

It works the opposite way too. My DH preferred coming in late ( he helped get the kids sorted as I started work a lot earlier and isn't a morning person) and working late - a lot of his work was international and client calls could often only be made later. He was always the last to leave and lock up when the more admin type people shot out the door at 5:30. He was also always doing work in the evenings at home. He got constant snippy comments about coming in late, like it was the only thing that mattered - never mind that he brought in the lions share of the money for the business!!
He works for himself now, and is a lot happier ( and the money he brings in is just for himself as che isn’t supporting those leeches any more!!!!!).

@SharronNeedles

There is always a member of senior management on the premises throughout the day. Family emergencies can be logged by staff on the internal communication system, and a member of senior management with access to a key will then review the request and open the door at their discretion.

I am genuinely mystified by your office Calf. I had a bleed at 23 weeks pregnant while at work and literally ran out of the toilet straight out of the office and went to the hospital.

How long would it have taken to find a senior manger, explained the situation (in my panic) and get out of the door?

Or what if a dependent were injured or a sudden emergency cropped up?

You simply cannot keep people penned in like cattle. Is the job so awful that they'd all runaway if not locked up?

Love the way Calf keeps writing "senior" management, so not any old management can unlock the door, the big bosses have to come away from their strategy meetings or whatever to unlock the door. I suspect calf likes to call herself a senior manager but is in fact a call centre team leader. The one that everyone hates.

'A member of senior management with access to a key will then review the request and open the door at their discretion'

So they might refuse to allow someone to leave? Isn't that illegal? What country are you in?

Keeping people locked up against their will is kidnap isn't it?

I like my job and am a hard worker. I usually arrive 30 mins early every day but as soon as my time is up (I get paid by the hour) I am straight out of the door. If someone else chooses to stay late, that is their choice!

@PlumsGalore

About 10% of the staff are employed in 'call centre like' roles but the rest aren't. It's not a call centre.

The sad thing is I 100% believe them. I've worked under people like Cal, there are an abundance of Cals in positions of authority all over the place.

Usually unskilled, rose up the 'ranks' by being the shittiest human being they could possibly be and throwing their colleagues to the wolves in the process. They take whatever power, pathetic though it is and run with it.

I worked as a clerk in a well-known supermarket distribution warehouse for £8 an hour and these little Hitlers ran rampant. They all believed they were Tony Soprano. They earned a quid more than me.