Leaving loudly: Why do Kiwis hate their exits from work being noticed?

In 2020, let's consider more flexible office attendance through the summer months. Photo / 123RF

It's the end of the year, and we've all checked out. In response to growing workplace disengagement, the Christmas month sees fairly common acknowledgment that "it's that time of the year" as office productivity reaches an all-time low. Everyone needs a break. This week, we are all just competing with the clock to round out each day.

But December also highlights a year-round affliction: we hate leaving work loudly enough we might be noticed. Even when we've finished our work for the day, or come in early, or missed lunch, no one wants to be perceived as skiving off work.

And this comes as companies struggle to switch over to flexible work arrangements that aren't just a black/white dichotomy of people doing house chores between work emails and playing office chicken with their managers. In theory, people think it reasonable to leave work for appointments and childcare responsibilities when it's balanced with completing work. But in practice that rationale doesn't translate.

Westpac-funded research by Colmar Brunton in April 2019 showed that 24 percent of surveyed New Zealand workers are comfortable leaving work loudly enough to be noticed. Worse, 20 percent of the 1,000 person-survey said they "have" to sneak out of work quietly. The researchers suggested this concern equated to a productivity loss given the amount of staff attention spent focused on perception management over actual work.

This dent to productivity surely goes further in December as people yearn for their holidays, let alone nursing the damage and anticipation of Christmas parties. Friday afternoons are already lost causes, so too may be the afternoons where sun is beaming out and after-work Christmas drinks can't start soon enough.

These are truths we all know hold water, so why are we all still pretending?

As we enter the 2020s, we should consider new perceptions of fulfilling our work obligations. We already think about work-life balance holistically in dedicating much of January to holiday, because we know we and our workers will be recharged and more productive for the coming year as a result.

With more and more experience-craving Millennials and Gen Z-ers in the workplace, it seems likely that satisfying their prioritisation of recreation over work will be another tool for longer-term retention. The less hiring processes the better for any company.

So could we apply the same logic across the working year? Could we embrace reality and perhaps reduce some days' working hours in December, redistributing those hours to the months the sun is not inviting us out for a drink?

Could we even trade expectations that work emails will be answered in exchange for more flexible office attendance in summer months? Would this really be so different
from the amount of work we tell ourselves "Karen" or "Bill" are doing from home on Friday afternoons?

This is already the same work output we have, only it's afflicted with productivity loss while people worry they'll be judged for being away from their desks. Inverting the acceptability of leaving work early might actually counter that productivity loss, as workers revel in jobs that give them time BACK. Arguably, the same amount of time they already take anyway.

The first step in making this happen may just be noting – loudly, as it were – that you've achieved your outputs early for the day, so you're heading off to pick up the kids or go to the gym. Alternately, if you have a flexible workplace policy, announcing, "there's nothing more I can do until so-and-so gets back to me, I'll be available on email," ensures people are tracking your work is being done at an appropriate pace. More importantly, you're not just wasting time at your desk.

Let's try rethinking why we hate leaving work loudly during the unofficial month of Quietly Slipping Out of Work. If we're achieving our outputs, then what does it matter if we're at our desks? Maybe we might develop a healthier culture where people staying late are assumed to have fallen behind on work, rather than putting in more hours than are expected of them.

If a fifth of workers are more worried about misconceptions of not contributing than knowing they have a supporting and empowering workplace, they're not as operationally effective as they could be. If leaving loudly is one way to fix that and improve our work experience, it's worth taking up