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I do this too, more like 630pm but yes agreed not everything requires burning the midnight oil
M1 has a good point. I now clock out around 5:15 with absolutely no feeling of guilt. Some of my team (subordinates) stays late, but hey, they don't arrive until 10:45 or so (classic late-riser developer disease).
If there's something extremely time sensitive, sure, I'll stick around and wrap it up. But there are VERY FEW true emergencies in our line of work. Whenever I see someone become flustered or overwhelmedci remind them, "Hey, we're not doctors and nurses. No one's holding the nuclear launch codes...these aren't real emergencies, so take a breath, go for a walk to unwind."
Bcg1 and Sa1 no.... I simply don't live to work. Seems kind of stupid for someone working at such a good firm to assume I'm putting out rubbish because I leave at 6. What it means in my case is I value my time and get my work done efficiently. Id consider myself a happy, relaxed, smart person who puts out great work (there's always room for improvement, whether you're working 50 or 80 hours) and don't think working 65 hour weeks is necessary, healthy or productive. At some point you need to draw the line. There's also always more work to be done on a painting but a great artist knows when to stop. It's not at 11 pm.
Just bc someone gets in early or gets up early doesn't mean they are doing work all day. There is a lot of bullshitting going on, we all know this. It's all about prioritization. I believe in work life balance, I think having a good balance works best in the end for all parties (self, client, and firm). When you get run into the ground you get burned out and produce shitty work. If I need to stay up all night to finish something, I most def will, but will not just for looks or to not feel guilty. This is a job, not my entire life. I have a husband and child who are extremely important and deserve quality time from me. Give it 100% everyday, but damn stop killing yourself, live a bit, enjoy life, you damn sure work hard enough for it.
It gets easier as you move up and the project/client needs you more than you need them. I had to burn the midnight oil when I was freah out of school.
Client work typically stops at 6. Then it's gym, happy hour, dinner and maybe an hour of firm stuff.
I am with you. Also fuck staying late just because some people can't get their shit down. Damn if I ever get bullied to stay. There is a difference being 'active' vs 'productive'
I've been very fortunate to have a long distance runner for a manager. He gets cranky if we don't end at 5 or 5:30 in order to get a run in before dinner :) at most just a half hour of hotel work after that most nights.
D1, they are still drinking the kool-aid. While proposal work is important at the M/SM level, usually someone on the bench is outting it together while we are mainly providing our feedback on specific areas and/or reviewing estimates.
Hahaha oh gosh. We just don't have capacity to finish at that stage. There is always more work to be done than we have time for, it's a matter of prioritization. If we're shutting off at 5:30 (assuming you didn't start working at 4am) it means your neglecting opportunity to do better work. At least in our cases
I appreciate the above OP and A2, don't mean to suggest you're not doing good work. I'm just saying for the scope of work we have to complete (at least in my experience at my company) it can't possibly be done by 5:30pm. Call it poor scope planning, over delivering, or whatever, but that's a reality for us
I watch people on my project put in tons of extra work for no real purpose. Half the time they are working until 12 with nothing to show for it. Polish that deck all you want doesn't make it any better
Recruiting, proposals, imminence. I'm actually a bit of a slacker. Some people spend 20 or more hours a week on firm stuff.
Is this the difference between tech consulting and strategy/operations consulting we're seeing here?
I typically get in around 8:15, and I work the entire day. I'm MC and our work is great, client loves us, that what really matters.
20 hrs of internal firm stuff, holy shit wtf are they doing
Well said, all.
Only work late if your client needs something ASAP or on a proposal. Then again I prefer to work early in the morning... I'll sometimes wake up at 5am to do work.
@D1 do you really have >5hr of internal work a week? What type of work is this (mentoring, BD, Corp Citizenship, etc)?
I agree w bcg1. Y'all must be putting out rubbish, unless your superiors are doing all of the polishing work.