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.

Yab a CF!

Ps, any jobs going?

Yabu if it’s 2pm and you’re 5 mins from the office. I can’t really think of any justification for not going back.

Ask your boss if ir is okay. Then you'll know for sure.

what does your contract say?

I think you should walk back to the office even if slowly and with a coffee. Just going home seems a bit of a mick take.

Yeah, surely the answer is that you should ask your boss? Then you’ll have your answer.

I think it depends if you are a salary as opposed to hourly worker. If you are salary and expected to pick up the crunch and do overtime in busy periods without pay, then you should be allowed to go home when the work is done in less busy periods. Flexibility should go both ways.

If we had a team meeting in my area, in my base, and it finished at 14 and everyone travelled back I would likely go home rather than back to the office. Exception being if I was very busy and had urgent work.
Day to day nobody cares..as long as you work well and put extra in, when required, and as my job involves a lot of travel it's a lot.

You would be a CF to go home after the meeting finished at 2pm, especially if it took place five minutes from your office. If I were your manager I would be very unimpressed and would dock your salary for those three hours.

Your drip feeds change nothing - you say you work hard, no doubt other staff work as hard without taking the piss and going home at 2pm.

OP you know you are being a CF as you wouldn't need to post this.

I would be skipping out of there and all the way home

CasFu*k I reckon if I can get back to the office for 45 mins+ I would, much less probably not worth it. But if you’re not sure ask your boss, they’ll tell you. If you don’t want to ask then in your heart of hearts you know.

I can’t believe you are working hard and that they’re getting their money’s worth if you’re skivving off one afternoon a week. Very bad practice.

If you were to actually discuss these arrangements with your line manager it would be fine. A little bit of flex is beneficial for both employer and employee. But you just do this and you suspect everyone else does it too takes the piss.

OP you are clearly neither professional or hard working if you think this is OK. I'm utterly gobsmacked! Your attitude is awful and I sincerely hope you get found out.

It's irrelevant how hard you work when you're there! You are not doing the hours you are paid for. That's unacceptable.

It's fraud really. You could be sacked for it if they felt like it. If it was monthly I'd think less of it, but weekly? That's a lot of hours to miss.

I'm baffled, what kind of meeting finishes early and with you coming away without a list of urgent actions? Do you only do meetings and no actual other work?

I would consider myself an average worker. I'm at my desk between 08:00 - 16:45 (officially 9-5 but work know about me being in an hour early every day so happy for me to go fifteen mins early), often eat lunch at my desk checking emails and taking phone calls between browsing the internet. Occasionally I will do a late night to get stuff done, but this is rare. If I have a site meeting I will try to arrange it so I can have a lie in or beat the traffic. But I appreciate that freedom so much that I would never, ever jeopardise it by taking one afternoon off a week. It's give and take, and by you turning up twenty minutes early (that's just being an adult with a job btw) they're hardly "getting their money's worth" are they? .

Your boss might think you're a hard worker, but I wonder what their opinion of you would be if they knew you were doing this. Honestly, buck up or you'll get found out.

Turning up at 8:40 and leaving by 5:15 is working to rule isn't it? I wouldn't call that above & beyond and as a manager would be pretty pissed off it I found out that every other week you went home at 2pm when you're only 5 mins from the office.

I can work from home and if I happen to leave a meeting early I absolutely log on from home and finish my day. If I was office based I would be heading back there. That's still a good 3hours worth of work you could be doing. What would happen if someone needed to get hold of you?

You say that We are pretty much flexible but as you don’t stay late and often finish early, where does the flexibility come in?

Nope, sorry. If it's going to take you a while to get back and you can't work on site then any time after 3.30pm is ok to go home imo.

2pm finish and 5 mins back to the office is skiving.

I don’t think this is very professional unless you are in sales or Business Development and that’s the nature of your role due to other outside core hours expectations.
If i travel to meetings and they finish early I’d carry on working afterwards, usually following up action points or if I got home early I would log back on?

Are you contracted to work specific times (ie between 9 and 5 daily?) Or specific total hours (eg 37 hours a week). If the former you're definitely taking the mick as your meeting ending at 4 an hour away from office means with travel time you end at 5pm. The meeting ending at 2 only 5 mins from office means you have almost 3 hours of work you're contracted to stay for.

If it's total hours per week then I would suggest you keep a timesheet and just make sure your hours worked equals 37 per week. If you accrue extra then it justifies going home after meeting and you can evidence it if challenged at a layer date

*later not layer