If employees are clock-watching there may be a reason, writes Steve Hart
KEY POINTS:
When staff run for the door to leave work at 5pm every night, managers should be asking why it's happening.
Alison Boddie, a senior consultant with human capital consultancy Right Management, says it is impossible for managers to know what is causing staff to make a quick cut of it at the end of the working day unless staff are asked about it.
"A manager might say, 'Look, we can see you like to leave at 5pm - why is that?', says Boddie. "They may have commitments at home they need to get to, and once a manager understands then everything can be fine and be communicated to the rest of the team."
However, if staff are disengaged - and simply can't wait to get out the door - Boddie says the employer should work to find out what they are disengaged with. Is it the job, the firm, the culture, their colleagues or all of the above?
"It could be that they are disengaged with their teammates, the morale could be terrible and they don't like being in the office," she says. "It could be they completed all their work at 2pm and sat there punching the card until 5pm.
"Or they could enjoy their job but not like the direction their employer is taking and be struggling with their own reaction to that. So it is really dangerous to make an assumption about why a person is walking out at 5pm and dive into performance management or react poorly and assume that the employee is a bad employee."
However, Boddie admits there are jobs where people should know that clocking in and out on the dot is not the norm. Among them are jobs in public relations, marketing, publishing, broadcasting, the emergency services and her own job as a business consultant. Boddie says the hours people work and time they walk out the door is down to the culture of their employer and the industry they are in - both have a strong bearing on what's expected.
"When people leave early in these types of jobs it could be that the employee believes it is fine; perhaps they see their manager or other staff do it without repercussions," she says. "It may be that the expectations have not been made clear to them - do they understand that it is not acceptable for them to leave at 5pm in a culture where longer hours are expected?"
Boddie has worked until midnight to complete projects for clients and says it is all par for the course working in a high-profile consulting firm.
"In marketing and PR, for example, the culture will be that if there is work to be done then it has to be done. And if there's not then it is fine to leave; no one should look sideways at you.
"In some jobs it is quite culturally acceptable to be in and out [of the office] at quite random times."
She says it is important for managers to lead by example if they want staff to stay late and that staff shouldn't be given a "like it or lump it" ultimatum from employers when it comes to routinely working unpaid overtime.
For many people, working a few minutes' overtime here and there is all part and parcel of completing a day's work. In countries such as Britain, Australia and the US, working long hours is defined as working 48 hours a week. Here though, the Department of Labour considers 50 hours to be a long working week.
Information from the 2006 census shows that the number of people working 40 or more hours each week was almost 1.2 million and of those, 415,000 (75 per cent men) reported working 50 or more hours a week.
According to the census, specialist managers, farmers and farm managers, CEOs, general managers, teachers, hospitality and retail workers and professional drivers typically work 50 or more hours a week. For some people this overtime is unpaid and includes getting to work well before the official start time, working through tea and lunch breaks and staying late - perhaps doing two or three hours' unpaid work every day.
Andrew Campbell, campaigns director for banking and office worker union Finsec, says more people are working unpaid overtime because their employers are understaffed.
"The numbers of staff working in banks across New Zealand has gone down and at the same time bank profits have risen," says Campbell. "Fewer staff are being asked to do more work."
Campbell says from his research some employers have ways to make staff feel bad about leaving on time.
"Staff that say, 'Hey, it's 5pm - I'm off' can be made to feel bad," he says. "Most banks have systems that measure behaviour and people that left work on the dot would not be seen as a team player.
"These staff would be concerned that they may not get a pay increase, or move up through their salary scales. An employer would describe it as a negative behaviour that lets their teammates down.
"People find they are very much in a catch-22 situation. Which is why most of our members work unpaid overtime and don't complain."
Campbell says some people prefer flexible working that can include a 10-hour working day over four days.
"I think we all know that by the time we get to Friday we are flagging, and so if people can be more productive over a shorter week then it could work," he says.
In Utah, 17,000 government employees are now working a 40-hour week spread over four days. The change means staff get every Friday off and government officials say office lighting and heating costs will be reduced by 20 per cent.
Although four-day weeks are not common in offices here, medical staff in hospitals routinely work 10-hour days, as do those in the film and TV industry, where 10-hour days are standard.
Campbell says the BNZ is now in discussions with Finsec about a flexible working policy that may lead to longer working days.
"There is movement in that area, but it is important to create rules that are flexible enough to meet people's desired working arrangement," he says.
Contact Steve Hart at www.stevehart.co.nz
