Addressing Employee Challenges with Late Work Hours: Strategies for Better Work-life Balance

Hi Seniors,

I am Jayashree, an HR executive, and I am facing a problem in my company. Many of our employees stay back late beyond office hours to complete their work. While staying back occasionally is understandable, staying back late every day has become an issue - performance decreases, stress levels are high, etc. The worst that has happened is that employees here have a misconception that if they leave on time, they would be considered under-performers.

Please let me know what measures can be taken to change this. Also, please help me with drafting a policy for leaving on time. What points should I include in the policy?

Looking forward to your help.

Cheers,
Jayashree

Hi Jayashree,

You can call all the employees who are sitting late and tell them to stop this concept as it is disturbing other workforce. You may not be forcing them to stop from tomorrow as it is the only one force where you can have production rhythm. Moreover, you may require these late-sitting employees if the time comes for that. So, treat them in such a way that they should understand what HR wants to deliver.

Please establish a strong framework regarding this subject.

Regards,
Maruti G
Bangalore

Dear Jayashree,

Employees work late for a few reasons. These are:
(a) their boss likes it,
(b) working late is a part of the organization's culture,
(c) employees are loaded with extra work and it is just impossible to complete it within specified working hours,
(d) their organization promotes experiments of various kinds and to do these experiments, employees prefer working extra,
(e) the organization is too process-centric. In the bargain, the organization has become too bureaucratic,
(f) the organization depends on off-shore customers. These off-shore customers keep on calling at midnight also. To avoid their calls at home, employees prefer taking their calls at the office itself.

However, for reasons (b) and (c), you need to define the measures of productivity. As long as you do not define measures of productivity, we cannot make any conclusions.

As a curative measure, conduct a survey on why the employees work late. Find out which is the No. 1 reason for working late. Later, you can also open a meeting and ask them to provide a solution. You can also find out if this late sitting is because of Parkinson's Law.

Ok...

DVD

Dear Dinesh,

Thanks so much for your inputs. I will conduct a survey to get more specific answers. However, based on the information gathered through the grapevine, it seems that managers themselves stay back late and work, leading to their team members also staying late. Furthermore, leaving on time is often perceived as underperformance, with comments like 'She leaves on time because she's jobless' circulating as rumors. What steps should I take to put a stop to these rumors?

Regards,
Jayashree

You can just take a seminar on time management and how work can be efficiently done within the timeframe, so that everyone understands that the company does not entertain late sitting, but just good performance.

Best of luck, Jayshree!

Regards,
Neetu

Dear Jayashree,

While replying to any post, please delete the comments of the previous poster from that post, lest these may be repeated unnecessarily. Please check your previous two replies in this thread.

Ok. Coming to the point, conduct a survey of the employees' attendance. Find out the following:

a) Total number of hours spent by all - as per office hours policy against actual hours spent by each employee.

b) Average hours per employee per day.

c) Which department has an above-average figure. Which department has a below-average figure.

d) Consumption of excess resources like electricity, water, etc., because of employees' late stay.

Show the above data to your MD or CEO. Obtain inputs from him/her and find out what he/she says.

If the MD/CEO agrees that people should leave on time, give a target to each HOD to reduce their excess working hours by at least 10%. See the result. Let the MD/CEO talk to the managers about unnecessary late sitting. Later, give the managers a target to reduce the excess hours by at least 10%.

Regarding grapevine, I have given my reply in my previous post. Your organization is a victim of Parkinson's Law. Your managers can change this situation.

Ok...

DVD

Dear HR,

This is a most common issue nowadays in many industries. Many people feel that working late hours gives them an extra edge or the so-called mileage over others. This is only a misconception and misleading thinking.

Every industry should have a monitoring system of activities, targets, and schedules given to employees (of course, depending on the nature of the industry and their business requirements). This kind of system will help industries recognize performers and non-performers.

Generally, people who prefer to sit late after office hours are falling under non-performers. Of course, with exceptions for rarely performers and semi-performers. Define their duties, goals, and fix time schedules. This will solve the issue to some extent.

Also, you can consider making a policy, but this will not help you much. Mainly, top management's commitment is required to tackle such issues in a professional way.

Thanks,

Dakshina Murty
Manager - HR

Hi,

I am working in the automobile sector where late working is a normal trend in our company. One possible solution is to set the closing time of the office. After that time, nobody is allowed to work, similar to a school setting. Another approach is to create a list of employees who consistently work late. Review their Key Responsibility Areas (KRA) and job responsibilities, and ask them to create a timetable outlining their daily activities. Then, they can meet with their Head of Department (HOD) or immediate supervisor to discuss the minimum time required to complete their tasks.

The goal is to identify and rectify any inefficiencies that may be causing work to take longer than necessary. Simplifying and streamlining the work processes can make tasks easier and shorter for everyone involved.

In my opinion, sitting late in the office depends on their work, which means the production of work only. Otherwise, ask employees to stop the late sitting concept. Generally, employees who sit late will do less work and spend time leisurely.

Hi,

I have faced the same problem in one of my previous experiences, and this is what I did: Firstly, I listed down all the names of the individuals along with their department names who regularly stay late. I collected the data for one month and presented it in the monthly senior management meeting in the presence of the COO and CEO. After that, I made the managers responsible to come up with justifications for staying late, and slowly the late stays reduced. After 3 months, when the late staying reduced to a very low level, I also implemented a rule that since the office closes at 06:30 p.m., all lights and AC will be switched off at 07:30 p.m., thus forcing people to leave by 07:30 p.m. It worked for me.

C. VENKATARAMANAN