To leave my 9-5 job at 2pm if I finish my final meeting of the day early

[lindoee]

I've never given this much thought. I've got a decent job. I earn 36k a year. I often have to attend meetings. I never have to stay at work later than 15 mins past 5 but usually you are expected not to leave the building any earlier than 5.

I have two meetings a week that have an estimated end time of 5pm. One usually finishes around 4pm and I head home after that (by the time I got back to the office it would already be 5 anyway).

The other can finish any time from 2-4pm. I have always understood that after the final meeting of the day, I can finish for the day. Everyone else does and it seems to be the norm around here. We are pretty much flexible workers but I am wondering if the expectation is to work the final hours from home.

I live just with my son so I have never discussed this with anyone before but I told my parents today and they were shocked I left at 2pm. A full 3 hours earlier than I am paid for. I don't work from home after the meeting.

AIBU to not return to my office after this meeting? This particular meeting is a 5 minute walk away from my office. The meeting that finishes around 4pm is almost an hour drive away from the office.

I also go to meetings every week and work flexibly but we have to work core hours so finishing before 4 pm would require a manager's approval so finishing for the day at 2 pm without permission would definitely not be OK.

We also have reports, emails, phone calls, CPD and all other typical 'office professional' stuff to deal with so an unexpected 3 hours in the office would be a good opportunity to catch up with that sort of work.

Thus would be fine in my job, but mine is very much 'do the hours it takes to get your job done' type job. I do sometimes find myself working during a weekend or at night, so it's swings and roundabouts for me.

I'd go straight home. As a professional it's more about getting the job done than clock watching. I answer emails,

Which is fair enough, as long as you are transparent and your boss knows. Op speak to your boss. A simple what do I do if the meeting finished earlier, should I make it back to work for the last 30 mins of my day or is it OK to go/work from home. If you dont get it agreed you risk disciplinary if discovered. What the others do is their look outs.

I think you should have either worked from home or gone back to the office. Whether your manager knew or not is irrelevant, you’re not an office junior. You should be trusted to work without supervision. You can’t be very busy at work if you can go home and not think about doing anything. I am based from home and work all hours to complete work.

@sussexman this happened for a prolonged period of time (maybe 9 months) until the workload decreased again, but it's not uncommon to have to work those hours even now. The expectation is that everyone pitches in at busy times, but the vast majority of my colleagues think they're above that and don't bother. So the mugs like me are left to do it all to keep the department afloat. So no I shouldn't need to do it regularly, but until everyone else gets off their arses I'm stuck with it. Got 2 promotions out of it though so whatever.

So many posts lately where the OP just disappears.

Obviously feels bad for skiiiiving lol

To put it in monetary terms, if the OP is on £36k, 40 hours a week, three hours work is £51!

Reading all the comments, I’m amazed - but not surprised - at how obsessed people are about hours and the idea that you must work a set number to be productive. Obviously there are many exceptions to this, but for office-type roles I’ve worked in so many places where people just sit at their desks counting down the clock without doing much

I agree with this. I guess the employer's argument would be that there is always something to do. But yes in a lot of jobs it should be about output and results not time at your desk.

Except that lots of jobs do actually pay you for a contracted number of hours and it sounds like that's what the OP has. So if she doesn't do the contracted hours she's not doing as much work as they are expecting.

Yes it should be about output and not hours at your desk. But if you’re leaving at 2pm you’re not even giving yourself the chance to create some output..!!!