As clear a statement as you can get, this time from Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook:
I walk out of this office every day at 5:30 so I’m home for dinner with my kids at 6:00, and interestingly, I’ve been doing that since I had kids. I did that when I was at Google, I did that here, and I would say it’s not until the last year, two years that I’m brave enough to talk about it publicly. Now I certainly wouldn’t lie, but I wasn’t running around giving speeches on it.
Dr. Deming talked about the need to drive fear out of the workplace. I think that’s a key element of respect for people. An environment where people are afraid to go home so they can be with their families (or just go home so they can take care of themselves) is quite the opposite.
Here’s Sheryl’s video. Well worth the 57 second investment to watch.
Some companies and departments seem to have a stigma towards leaving work “early” (or just working 9-5).
I make sure to leave my desk by 4:30 everyday (mostly). How? Because I’ve learned to kill off things that arn’t important and streamline things that are.
Granted, I understand some people are just simply worked to death but others I really think can’t see the waste in their day to day work to be able to better manage it. I can think of people I’ve seen who think because they are at work, work is being done.
Kudos to you. If more people had that attitude, we’d have less NVA face time and more productive, value-added days.
Hi Dan
There is more than one good reason to go home at the end of the day, if you actually did your days work. Even as the owner of my own business, after so many hours a day, the value I create for myself starts to decline. Going home and being with my family helps re-energize me for the next day’s work. Keeping up a stable and positive home environment takes time and effort, but doing that allows you to go to work the next day without the baggage of dysfunction so many carry around.
I have had the experience of working in s few places where little other than the needs of the business mattered. I saw firsthand how unproductive people that are over worked and misused become, but all the managers demanded was more. In the end something always fails in those places. On the other hand I had one experience that was the opposite, all the owner wanted was you to do a day’s work, and go home to recharge, he was rewarded with great performance from his staff constantly.
As I started my own business, I made the active choice to build it on a good model, and keep work, and remember the real reason I do it every work day, that being what’s at home. I am my most productive and capable and drive my greatest success when I draw the line the tightest. It allows me to actually give my customers my best.
Thanks for the comment, Rob. I’m continually astonished at the number of workplaces and bosses that just don’t get the idea of diminishing returns.