How to leave the office on time

I recently saw a post / graphic on LinkedIn asking whether people could leave their workplace/office on time everyday. It went on further, to attribute laziness and/or incompetence etc. on those who stayed back to work late, which I thought was ludicrous. It has become"fashionable" to state this conclusion.

?What people need to do is to exhaust their "options" prior to reaching that conclusion about those who work late, without getting in to an argument with the concerned about why the work wasn't completed during the day or earlier!

Can you leave your office/workplace on time?

My first reaction was; Is that even a question? That too in this day and age where people are on/available 24/7? This got me thinking and here is my view. Managers / Leaders need to exhaust their options by examining the following questions / situations:

• Is it necessary to complete the work that very same evening itself? If not can it be done the next day or later? Deadlines can often be imaginary and not real. If a deadline can be moved, without affecting a client deliverable (internal or external), adversely or breaching a commitment, do it later.
• Can the work can be done remotely? From home / other location? If yes, get the work done remotely and not out of the office.
• Will the work take a few hours? If a piece of work is going to take more than a few late hours, its best done the next day or re-assigned to a larger group.
• If a single person has to stay back there are safety / risk issues associated with being alone at work and travel back home etc. The manager/leader is to be held accountable for the same. It is always advisable to have a minimum of two people together, at all points in time. First to ensure safety and second to keep positive pressure to complete the task according to the finish timeline.
• If a group of people are required to stay back, the manager/leader has the responsibility to make sure the task is understood, distributed correctly and that no person is requested to stay back unnecessarily. S/he is also to be held accountable to ensure that safety, travel back arrangements are in place in addition to the completion of task, on time!
• If an organisation has to encounter such late-working situations on a frequent basis, it may be understaffed!
• Given the volume of work, and if staffing is not an issue, the competency and/or proficiency, including that of the "manager or leader"may be questionable! Evaluate the situation with a long term view. Training / re-training / counselling may be an answer.
• Beyond this point, it is time to tell the manager that s/he is being fired for laziness / incompetency or whatever the reason.

Try my recommendation. Let me know if it works for you. If it doesn't, seriously ... get a life!

Note: I am not able to locate the post/graphic which was posted on LinkedIn. If I do, I will post that link.