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.

Just read that it's a 5 minute walk away, in that case I would go back to work. I only work until 4pm too.

I would go home only if I knew there was no chance of being caught out.

This would be totally alien in my work culture as we are often expected to work extra hours and long hours are the norm, therefore the occasional (and I mean once every couple of months) early finish is fine as the hours balance out.

You never work late so there's no balance and I would totally see that as shirking.

However I may be in the minority as I can't imagine finishing at 5pm on the dot every day!

It totally, totally depends on your job.

People in Jobs where the hours absolutely must be put in won’t understand.

But I wouldn’t worry about it being this once, just say you felt a bit green and leave it at that. If it usually finishes at 5 you probably don’t have to worry again.

I always go home early if a meeting finishes early
Sometimes if an outside meeting starts at 10 I go straight there too
However I do lots of unpaid extra hours at other times and work from home sometimes on a weekend or evening - so it more than balances out
If any of my staff went home at 2 I would expect them to be taking work with them or do extra hours at another time to make the time up

If the meeting was 5 minutes from the office, I would expect you back. It's taking the piss really. Had you spoken to me about it, I would probably weigh it up and decide but if you're all out the door at 5pm, never give back any time and skive off at 4pm anyway most days, I'd be inclined to say no or ask you to work from home. 3 hours is more than a bit early. It's almost a half day!

YABU. If I discovered that anyone who works for me did this (occasionally is fine but not every week!) I would a) be annoyed and b) think they were lazy and not committed. So if promotions were ever part of the equation they would most likely be overlooked in favour of somebody more deserving/hardworking.

What would your boss say, or other colleagues?

5 mins from the office? Yes, yabu to go home at 2pm if your office is 5 minutes away.

I don’t see the problem if you are diligent the rest of the time.

Op if you worked for me I would fire you for gross misconduct. You are stealing wages from your company by failing to work the hours you are paid, and I assume contacted, for.

Wow, you really need to ask this question. Of course you should go back to the office if the meeting finishes at 2pm and you're 5 mins from the office.

I wouldn't finish at 2pm regularly if i wasnt making the time up but then again it would definitely be frowned upon in my workplace. I had a dental appointment at 3 pm today and went home afterwards but have just done about an hour and a half of work at home.

You mention several times that you work hard when at work. The thing is, your job sounds like one where you are expected to work the hours your contract states - it doesn't matter if you've worked hard for some of them, you are still expected to work all of them. Given that you never really work beyond your hours, it's not the kind of professional job where you have a range of tasks to do and just have to keep working until they are done - this usually means that sometimes you will need to work far in excess of your contracted hours, but that also means that there are occasions where you complete a task before the end of the working day and so can nip off if you need to do something else, or are away from the office, or have flexibility to go and work at home. Given you don't work at home and don't work late ever, actually the job isn't a flexibile and so to take time off (several hours rather than a few minutes, or the thing with the 4pm finish an hour from the office) is really to take advantage.

I don't work where you work, but even if I was in a meeting local to my office and would be back half an hour before my finish time, I would still go back to the office.
3 hours is taking the rise

You know that your doing the wrong thing .Your parents must be horrified.Stop it .

One of my bosses once said he didn't really care about the number of hours we worked but how well we did the job. I often had meetings that finished early and usually went straight home, however I often worked at home during the evenings /weekends. Swings and roundabouts. I was paid for what I knew and delivered rather than the number of hours I was sat in the office. Having said this, be careful OP that this is never used against you.

What time does the meeting start? Does it go through lunch?

If it finishes at 2 and you haven’t had a lunch break (presumably one hour), then actually it’s the equivalent of the meeting finishing at 3. And I don’t think finishing at 3 on a Friday is so bad.

Ask your boss and get permission. Noone here knows if if is ok in your company. In some companies it would be gross misconduct in others ok.

Honestly, it depends on the culture in your office. I've worked in posts where this would have been fine. The only condition was you marked in the sign-in book that you wouldn't be back so reception knew (and it was accurate for fire records).

Aaaaaaand I give you the 'gender pay gap', ladies and gentlemen...

I'd go straight home. As a professional it's more about getting the job done than clock watching. I answer emails, take calls in the evening/morning outside of work if I need to, so it's quid pro quo.

Yes - but the OP doesn’t...

Perfectly acceptable as long as you don’t mind working until 6pm ifvthe ovcasion ever requires it

I used to work for a couple of total tossers who would say at 5.35pm when you put your coat on ‘oh are you leaving early today?’ Even though contracted hours were 9am till 5.30pm but never questioned when I got in by 8.30am every day. Daddy handed them his company on a plate when he retired, within 5 years they’d run up hundreds of thousands of pounds of debt and closed the company when someone made them a better offer.

Anyway, don’t take the piss , give and take but don’t feel bad

Yes. I would consider that massively skiving off. But basically what does your manager say? If they are ok with it then don’t worry about it.
If my team members did this without checking with me I would be very cross.

Depends if you go the extra mile in other instances... but the bosses may not see it that way.
Friend of mine kept staying late after work thinking that would make her boss flexible over her looong shopping lunchbreaks.
It didn't. he hit the roof.She had come from a business background into education, and in schools and colleges everyone does MORE not less.