To leave work at 5pm?

[sunshineandrainbowz]

My work hours are 9-5 but it seems all my colleagues stay later than that (I come to work on a morning to emails sent at 8/9pm!) and it gets commented on a lot that I shoot out the door at 5pm.

I don't particularly enjoy my job but I do it well and everything is done by 5pm but I get snarky comments that I leave at 5 and don't stay longer. I don't care for overtime pay etc. and just want to get home. (I've been here a year and the comments have been consistent)

Am I coming across as unprofessonal/is it making it obvious I don't absolutely love my job? My boss has never called me up on it it's just side eye and comments from coworkers but it's making me uncomfortable

AIBU/rude? (I have anxiety so I'm probably overthinking this)

[Tappering]

And that's fine @bumblingbovine49 because that's your working style. But the majority of people want to leave on time and those that don't, are often only lingering because of a culture of presenteeism - which is pointless, counterproductive and harmful.

I have one person in my department like you. She takes a while to 'warm up' and works better in the later afternoon and evening. We've adjusted her working hours and start/finish times to reflect that.

[bumblingbovine49]

Good grief. I'd hate a manager to be telling me I have to go home. I do tend to work past my finish time at work. This is because I am not the most efficient person, I do tend to procrastinate and work much better in the afternoon than in the morning. I do a good job and have been promoted a few times. I am an excellent employee and colleague. I know this as I have been told in several of my reviews .

As I have got older I realised I almost certainly have ADD but I have managed over a 30 year career to make up for some of these deficits, however some things do take me longer to do than it might take someone else. I always meet my deadlines but I have to work extra hours to do so. Since this does not impinge on my employer ( I don't get overtime or toil) than fail to see what the problem is. Some of us may be a bit less 'efficient' but we still do a good job.

[Tappering]

I don't go switching people's computers off - instead I keep in regular contact with them and ask them to finish up and go home. If someone's routinely working over their hours then I want to know why - are they overstretched? Are they using their time productively?

Regular and routine working over your hours is a sign of a problem. And what people unconsciously do "willingly" quite often turns out to be because they are scared not to - they don't want to be the odd one out that finishes on time. Which in turn makes the person that does finish on time, look as if they are shirking or less committed - a judgment which is totally unfair.

As a manager you have a responsibility to intervene and ensure that your line reports are maintaining a work/life balance. The occasions where something is so screamingly urgent that everyone needs to work late, should be few and far between in a properly functioning team.

[Mary46]

I would just do my hours no more. My boss hadnt manners to commit to me back in office after Covid. Nearly year half there.
Just a number. Zero contact

[hellsbellsmelons]

everything is done by 5pm but I get snarky comments that I leave at 5 and don't stay longer
'Well... I can't help it if I'm good and efficient at my job. If any of you need a hand then let me know! Or I could do a general half day training if would help you all get a better work/life balance!?'

[RiftGibbon]

Chocky the last place I worked at was a bit like this. I was off sick and then broke a bone in my foot. I had an hour's commute and the trains were always packed at peak hours. My doctor had forbidden me to travel.
I tried to liaise with work to see if it was possible to work from home (my job would have required me to log into the work system and put things on a spreadsheet) but they dragged their heels. My direct manager rang me every single day to see if I was "well enough to come in" - even though she was aware of why I was not in the office and not able to do anything. She made an appointment for me to go to an occupational health clinic which was reasonably near to where I lived.
The appointment was on the 3rd floor. I hobbled out of the lift on crutches, and along to the consultants office. He took one look at me and said, "Oh you're not REFUSING to go in, are you? You can't travel like that." and signed me off for another month.
{I was being investigated for underlying problems which work, and he also were informed of}
When I went back I resigned.

[ChockyBicky]

I used to arrive early and work late unpaid for a long time until one day I got stuck in traffic phoned to let them know and ran from my car to the office and was 4 minutes late for the first time ever and was told to stay 4 minutes into lunch to make up the hours.
Never again was I early or if I was I waited until start time to start work and logged off at precisely 5:30 and left, bosses will take you for a mug so long as you let them.

We also had a policy where if you were off sick 3 times you were fired, I was ill once and forced myself back to work through guilt before I was ready and before the start of work I was visibly ill and had over done it coming back in when I thought I could manage, I was told it would be counted and a second sick strike so if I was ill again in a year I'd be out the job so I found another job because of the insecurity of knowing if I was ill in the next year I would be unemployed.

[BarbedBloom]

Until recently I was a manager and I told my employees to leave as soon as work is over. I am very much focused on a work life balance. If someone had to stay late they are either inefficient or have too much work and I would take steps to sort both. I ensured they regularly took holidays and never contacted them outside of work unless it was an absolute emergency.

I cannot stand this idea that people should stay unpaid beyond their working hours. It is not acceptable. It is a job, end of. The whole company I worked for felt the same way and they have good staff retention. They also had a wellbeing week each year where staff were encouraged to go in work time for meditation, or a massage.

I have a disability. For years I worked in this ridiculous company that expected everyone to stay hours past their finish time and to put work over their family. I had such a flare that I had to be off work for a year. During my time there, 2 people on my team committed suicide. Another had a mental health breakdown that has left them unable to work to this day. Eventually their reputation became so bad that they could not fill positions. They closed down the year after I left. Absolutely unacceptable.

[Shizzlestix]

I'm a senior manager and director of a company and I am certainly not impressed by staff who race for the exits at 5pm.

What a silly comment. Don’t you have children? Many nurseries fine you if you’re late picking up. Why should an employee stay longer than the hours for which they’re paid?

[thecognoscenti]

@FishyDuck

I'm a senior manager and director of a company and I am certainly not impressed by staff who race for the exits at 5pm. We want staff with an excellent work ethic who are passionate about their jobs and excited to go that extra mile to support the company and their colleagues.

If you are finished with all your work for the day, you should be asking your managers and colleagues whether there is anything you can do to help them.

Are you absolutely sure that you're not making cups of tea during the working day or switching off your computer before 5? These behaviours are not acceptable at my place and you owe your employer significant amount of time if you've been exhibiting them!

Wow. Heaven forbid any of your staff want a cup of tea! Do you time their loo breaks too? If they've done their work they are entitled to leave at the time you stop paying them. They don't need to stay late, unpaid, to help out the people who have too much to do.

[Nat6999]

When I worked, there was one manager who started work at 6.15am when the earliest start time was 7.00am, she never finished before 6.30pm when the latest finish time was 6.00pm, she worked on one of three floors but would go marching around the whole office telling anyone off she suspected wasn't working, even telling staff off in front of their own managers who were the same grade as her. She had been there from the year dot, managers had started & been promoted over her sometimes two or three grades, she never got promoted. One of my friends got promoted to the same grade as her & when she saw members of her own team being told off in front of her by said manager repeatedly, went to group management & asked if said manager had been asked to supervise her management, was told no, every time said manager approached her team, she publicly told her to leave her area & sit down. After seeing this other managers did the same, within a year said manager had applied to retire & gone. Usually when anyone retired there was a gathering, a presentation, staff bought gifts & cards, the day she left there was nothing, group management ended up having to dash out to buy something, it was usual practice for there to be cakes handed out, every single staff member refused a cake, there was a weird group stood in the middle of the office of group managers who had been forced to attend & said manager, come lunchtime, the entire office went to the pub except said manager who sat working at her desk. She was the last staff member to leave on her last day, come the following Monday morning it was like she had never worked there, her name was never mentioned & her staff were shared around other management teams.

[FluffyKittensinabasket]

No matter how much unpaid overtime you do, surely this whole pandemic has shown how disposable we all are to employers? It’s really just a job. Your colleagues are not friends, who cares what they think.

[PhilCornwall1]

• I'm a senior manager and director of a company and I am certainly not impressed by staff who race for the exits at 5pm. We want staff with an excellent work ethic who are passionate about their jobs and excited to go that extra mile to support the company and their colleagues.
  
  If you are finished with all your work for the day, you should be asking your managers and colleagues whether there is anything you can do to help them.
  
  Are you absolutely sure that you're not making cups of tea during the working day or switching off your computer before 5? These behaviours are not acceptable at my place and you owe your employer significant amount of time if you've been exhibiting them!*
  
  You're either winding everyone up, or you work in a shit place.
  
  I'm Senior in a large organisation and would never expect this bollocks from my team.

[PhilCornwall1]

Presenteeism, because that's what being in work longer than your contracted hours is at the end of the day, is misguided if people think it will go in their favour when situations like redundancies come up.

We had 5 people go last week, one a Manager (although this one I think was a case of "we don't want you, you're a pain in the arse) that would regularly do 50 to 60 hour weeks, it didn't do them any good. Told on Tuesday, gone on Friday. Working longer hours did nothing for them.

An employer ultimately has no loyalty to you, you're just a number.

[joan04]

@FishyDuck

I'm a senior manager and director of a company and I am certainly not impressed by staff who race for the exits at 5pm. We want staff with an excellent work ethic who are passionate about their jobs and excited to go that extra mile to support the company and their colleagues.

If you are finished with all your work for the day, you should be asking your managers and colleagues whether there is anything you can do to help them.

Are you absolutely sure that you're not making cups of tea during the working day or switching off your computer before 5? These behaviours are not acceptable at my place and you owe your employer significant amount of time if you've been exhibiting them!

This must be a wind up, if not your company culture belongs in the 80s, if not the Victorian era. What is your companies Glassdoor rating?

[Vinorosso74]

YANBU. I would sometimes stay a little later if I needed or wanted to get something finished but some people just faffed about and wanted to be seen by management. Thing was these people were the ones who often got the promotions as the managers were the same!
Before I left myself and a colleague sort of job shared each working 3 days. We were putting on extra time to keep on top of our shared workload. She would sometimes stay later whereas I had to collect DD so may do things at home. We got pulled up for not getting as much work done as two colleagues who were both full time. They expected 1.2 people to do the same as 2 people! We both agreed to work to rule and not worry about backlog. I left not long after.

[KeepingPlain]

If I was a manager, I'd actually be questioning workers who were staying late and why. Are they stressed at home and don't want to go home? Are they scared to go home? Are they stressed at work and struggling with the workload? Do they just need better time management skills and help in understanding how to manage their work? Or do they think it looks better if they stay late?

It doesn't. There's going to be a reason usually, and it's never a good one. You need to have a work/life balance, focusing on work only is no life. You end up stressed, resentful to the business and can end up ill. I only work past my hours if I really have to, as in something/someone else has stopped me from finishing early and otherwise it's a leave at 5 situation.

[sunshineandrainbowz]

Thanks for all your insight! It has been an interesting read.

For more clarification I'm working until 5pm - I do not shut my laptop down until then (so I guess I leave at around 5:05 after I've packed up etc). And I arrive at work around 8:50 to set everything up.

I work in an admin role where there are a set number of tasks (no phone interaction only email) and so I can easily know when all my work is done. As for helping everyone else on their tasks, I don't really know how to do their roles so I would probably be more of a hinderence than help haha!

All in all you've reassured me that I'm doing nothing wrong! Today's work culture seems insane.

[QueenCT]

We are salaried but work shifts. Log off at 1 second past 5 and out the door, along with out managers. Overtime is available but paid and optional. Contracted to 40hrs a week and don't have to work a minute more unless you want to

[RiftGibbon]

Had similar in my first job too; also 9-5. I was at my desk at 9 (computers/machinery was on overnight so no startup time needed). My manager asked me to come in earlier "to be ready for the working day". I asked what time and she said 8.45. Then I asked what she wanted me to do when I got in. "Start work"
I asked if I would be paid for the extra 5 hours a month and she said no.
I didn't come in early.

[Happynow001]

@RiftGibbon

Same type of thing happened to me - I used to come in 30 minutes early every day and stay half an hour longer. Had to go to the doctors one day which was just round the corner, let my boss know I had to go. I was gone for 30 minutes max and he emailed me and told me I had to make up the time.
Something similar happened to me too. I was setting up new systems in my company and was working extremely long hours, including over the weekend in the office, as well as doing my Day to day job.

However I stopped all that when my boss, who knew about and benefited from the results of my overtime, asked me to make up time I needed to take for a medical appointment. He was very surprised when I stopped, but I gained more of my life back when I left to work for someone more reasonable.

[dadshere]

If any of them make a comment about you leaving ON TIME, just tell them that you are sorry for them that they are so inefficient at their job that they cannot complete it in the allotted time, but maybe if they try a bit harder during the day, they may be able to get their work done too.

[Happynow001]

[quote sunshineandrainbowz]@cazzacat - they do offer overtime pay which is maybe the drive for why people do it? But shaming me for not doing it aswell is baffling[/quote]
Possibly because you are showing them up by getting your allocated work done properly and in time? Working over your allocated hours when there is a genuine need, and you can facilitate it, is one thing. Doing so every day, however, means either there is consistently too much work for the number of employees to do during the standard working day or that time management skills need to be reviewed.

[PleasePassTheCoffeeThanks]

What looks bad is getting ready at 4:59 and out of the door at 5:01 as it means basically you have been watching the clock instead of focusing on work.
If you don't start getting ready before 5 then no that is fine.

[yelyah22]

This thread is SO depressing!

My workplace values people and the work they do - so if someone's got everything done that they can that day at 4:45 and they could:

• stay and start a tiny part of a bigger project that will take them two hours to get them to the 5pm mark and have to pick it up again tomorrow,

• or they could leave 15 minutes early

We tell them to go home. Every time. Equally, if someone was halfway through a bigger project at 5pm and they know there's 20 minutes left to finish it for the day, they can choose to finish it (if they want - but there is zero expectation) or they can go home because they have lives and the majority of people work to live, not the other way round. Many times, people will stay to finish the work (and they are paid for the overtime!), but many times people leave because they want to get home. So yes, overall, this might mean we lose out on 5, 10, 15 minutes' paid productivity here and there, but it also means our staff are happier, feel trusted to manage their workload, and valued for the time they do spend in the office that isn't part of their contracted hours. Funnily enough, at every annual performance review there's at least one person who says they're glad to be trusted and not made to feel like a clockwatcher. It'd be very obvious if someone was taking the piss or not finishing their work, and thankfully we employ adults and manage like adults and everyone gets stuff done, the odd quarter of an hour here and there doesn't make a difference to us but it does make a difference to them and how they feel.