Working Late Everyday- Are Reasons Genuine Enough?

What are the primary reasons of spending extra hours in the company?  Is it time mismanagement or to impress your manager or any other.

List of reasons why people work late almost everyday

  • Company Culture: In certain companies people work late every day and automatically they become so habitual that it becomes the culture of the company. People who joins later on, also start following the same culture without questioning about it.
  • Time mismanagement: Some resources are very bad in time management and prioritizing their work so they are unable to complete the work assigned to them in stipulated time.
  • In-competent to finish the work in time: Some resources are very slow and take relatively more time than usual, these kind don’t mind spending extra hours in the company as they were aware that they are working late due to their inability to manage their work in time.
  • To impress the top management: It is human nature to relate number of hours worked with productivity. If a manger sees employees working late every day, they build the impression that they are very hard working. If any employee leaves on time every day they make a perception that this particular resource is relatively less occupied. Keeping this in mind some employees start sitting late everyday just to give an impression that they are 150% occupied and are very devoted and dedicated.
  • Bonus time and appraisal cycle is near: This is as true as anything that money plays a very important role. Some resources don’t work the entire year but just before the appraisal time they start working too hard so as to grab maximum hike and bonus from their employer.
  • In sufficient resources: In case of poor demand management on the part of resource management, there is ineffective assignment and prioritization of work with an assumption of infinite capacity, staff may end up working long hours regardless of how efficient they are.
  • Over commitment to clients by sales or top management: Every company can recall a large number of examples in the past where sales had made a promise to the client without consulting the team who would do the work to ensure timelines could be met. In a small organization where the client’s revenue has a great impact, it’s hard to push back and take a more realistic approach to planning and thus creating a need for the team to work long hours.
  • Due to an emergency or higher priority work: There are times when your seniors ask you to finish some urgent unplanned work as your company’s name is at stake. Under such circumstances it is primary responsibility of each and every employee to work like a team to fulfill your company’s commitment.
  • Different time zone meetings: This is very genuine reason and something which cannot be avoided. In case you are dealing with international client, his day starts when your day is over and you have set up a daily update status meeting, then you don’t have a choice. There are people who work in different shifts as per the requirement, but if you are managing multiple projects with multiple clients and your meetings are scheduled in different time zones then you have to plan your work accordingly.

At times the extra hours are really caused by the reasons you cited. There could be various reasons for a resource to sit late every day. But not all are genuine ones, don’t try to fool your management by starting your work after 3:00pm and then sitting late every day. But if it is the need of an hour, you must prove your loyalty towards your company. Sometimes it may be economically advantageous to use extra hours to accommodate bigger seasonal demand. So it is recommended to use your own discretion whether you want to sit late every day or not.

About Aditi Malhotra

Aditi Malhotra is the Content Marketing Manager at Whizlabs. Having a Master in Journalism and Mass Communication, she helps businesses stop playing around with Content Marketing and start seeing tangible ROI. A writer by day and a reader by night, she is a fine blend of both reality and fantasy. Apart from her professional commitments, she is also endearing to publish a book authored by her very soon.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


Scroll to Top