Can I Have a Life in an Office Where Everyone Stays Late?
There are ways to manage your energy and build in personal time, even in the most face-time-obsessed workplaces
Laura Vanderkam, the time management expert who wrote Off the Clock and Juliet’s School of Possibilities, is here to answer your schedule questions. Check back every week for more advice, and send your own productivity problems to asklaura@medium.com. (Your name will not be used.)
I work in an industry where people pride themselves on their long hours. At my office, 12-hour days are not unusual. As you might guess, not all this time is spent well. You can order dinner if you stay until 7 p.m., so, shockingly, anyone working until 6 or 6:30 finds stuff to do until it’s time to order the spicy tuna rolls. Unfortunately, I’m too junior to do much about the inefficiencies. Do you have any suggestions for building a life outside of work, and managing my energy through long days?
While I do like sushi, I’m not a fan of pointlessly logging hours at the office. This tends to happen in work cultures that put too much emphasis on face time, but the good news is that not every company is like this, even in industries known for their long hours.
