Hours Are for You to Give

I’ve been asked, “What hours do you work?” That’s an interesting question. Do you mean when am I in the office? Do you mean including nights and weekends? Each moment I check my phone? Companies seem to be more open to letting their employees work remotely. Despite this modern way of thinking, there sometimes is a perception that if they can’t see you, you’re not working. It’s a pretty backward way of thinking given current technology and that many workers have a hard time putting down their work phone during “non-work” hours.

I remember years ago a boss telling me that it really doesn’t matter that you get in early so you can leave early. The advantages of these hours are many—shorter commute time, more production in a quiet environment, an early presence in the office for an unexpected emergency. However, this wizened corporate guru explained that it is much better for folks to see the front of your face at 5 p.m. than the distant shadow of your retreating head at 4 p.m. even if the 4 p.m. departure was made by someone who entered the structure at 7 a.m. and could get work done early in the morning since there was little distraction vs. the 5 p.m.er who got in at 9 a.m. and compared weekend stories as he got his coffee with another 9 a.m.er.

Being a good corporate citizen, I played along for years and put in more hours than I got paid for. Then I attended a town hall meeting that spewed the corporate alphabet soup of earnings with their acronym ingredients — GL, G&A, ROI, GAAP, DSO, P&L, EBITA — which caused the audience to get that glazed look. And then just as the employees were in a state of apathy, the VP revealed the surprise twist — layoffs. That got everybody’s attention. He merrily let everybody know that 270 positions were being eliminated. But, hey, that was globally and less than 1% of our overall workforce. He seemed to think that wasn’t a big deal. I kept thinking but what about the 270 people (wherever they may be) hearing they lost their jobs and wondering how to pay next month’s bills. I personally couldn’t find anything jovial about that. And that’s when I started thinking: Why am I working all the extra hours? Doesn’t every extra minute working contribute to another minute away from family and fun? If at the next town hall, I’m part of the next round of layoffs and therefore unable to attend, would anyone remember the extra time I dedicated to the company and remember me fondly? Doubtful. Those extra hours are not increasing my personal ROI.