Who else feels guilty when they leave work on time?

[reddaisy]

The woman who covered my job is snapping at my heels putting in ridiculously long hours to impress the management and I mostly try to leave on time to get back to collect DD etc.

I know I am good at my job but I have gone from working all hours even when I was heavily pregnant to working bloody hard during the day but still trying to leave on time.

I actually have found that I am working more effectively now but I don't think that seems to matter.

Anyone else feel guilty for trying to work their hours?

That's a nice thought. I definitely don't let work take over my personal life and time the way I did previously.

If I have had a bad day, I often don't even want to talk about it when I get home as I would rather leave it in the office and enjoy my time with DD and DP. Funny how life changes. I used to go in on a Sunday to get ahead for the week. I would not do that now.

And, I would love to believe that karma exists but in your experience it looks like it doesn't and in my workplace the mediocre, yes men always seem to get ahead.

I truly believe that I will not get promoted any higher at work now I am a mum. Shame but now I have realised that, I don't want to give them more of my time than is necessary.

Well I felt bad at first when I returned to work (am FT) but not anymore. I need to go pick up my DS and that's all there is to it, the nursery won't keep them late and they've had a long day already. I get in more or less on time, ALWAYS work through my lunch hour, and too often stay that extra 10-15 minutes which means I turn up at daycare at last minute and no one else is left :(. And seeing their little faces really does make you switch out of work mode which is lovely.

As someone else mentioned earlier I've had years pre-children of working long (stupid) hours, not any more. I certainly feel I've paid my dues on this one. And several of my colleagues have young children so they do understand - although they're all male so in their case of course going to pick up kids is an exploit to be applauded .

I usually do all dropoffs and pickups but maybe once a week DH does cover pickup though not reliably. This past week he had a stomach bug and stayed home two days which was great as he did the pickup x2 -- it so happened that we had a crisis at work so I was really pleased I was able to stay late with my colleagues to help sort things out. Doesn't usually work that way.

That said DS1 starts Reception next September so already worrying how I'm going to manage my schedule then.

I leave on the dot. I made it clear at my interview that this was not a point on which I was negotiable. Fortunately my boss is very enlightened and said in his experience, the parents usually worked efficiently because they were effectively on deadline every single day, whereas the more feckless members of staff could see a whole day disappear while they were buggering around on Facebook and taking long lunches.

The woman who covered your job does such a lot of harm to other workers behaving like that.

I once took over a job from the most efficient woman I've ever known. Only after I was in the job did I realise that she worked through her lunch hour and also took stuff home. Our boss didn't know anything about that.

No-one can compete with that sort of behaviour (and I wouldn't want to).

At the same time I don't believe in clock watching - if something needs to be finished then it's finished. As long as this works both ways it's not a problem.

Why is it that we can arrive half an hour early for work and no one notices but if leave ON TIME then people seem to have a problem - grrrrr.

Yes, I get the evil eye every day when I leave despite the fact I have actually put in an 8 hour (nearer 8.30) day and am ony required to do 7.30. She seems to forget I am in a minimum of half an hour before her and I don't take lunch.... Leaving 'early' is, in my view always frowned on and the people doing it are normally the ones who arrive at 9.30 and thus fail to realise you have been in the office since 8.00.....
For me it is about to get worse as I have just lost my co-ordinator and cannot see how I can cover my job and hers without doing shedloads of extra hours (which, as my grade doesn't allow for OT, will end up being free...)