please empty your brain below

I'm currently a 5, because we're understaffed, but once those 4 additional people join us I shall return to a 4, which is what I expected from this job, or possibly even a 2.

And that's lovely, because in my previous role I was not on your list, instead working away a lot so often not getting home at all! In contrast to that, this is lovely - and I can always finish on time now if I have plans and juggle my workload around them.

I feel very lucky.
I'm a 3/4 as I work flexi time but we have set range of time we can start and finish. We also have to work out with each other to make sure our department is covered to a set time.
I'm an 8 in theory, a 3 in reality. 8 happens on rare occasions, but it's rare enough to consider 3 the norm.
There are sometimes benefits of being able to answer emails and such from home - such that if it does start to overrun, you can at least deal with things.

Particularly when you're commute is anywhere from 90 minutes to 150 minutes!
Call me an 11. Work from home mostly but the company and client assume that means available 24/7. Or that I can travel across country at a moment's notice, spend 2 nights in a crappy hotel, for a face to face meeting that lasts 20 minutes. (or gets cancelled at the last second)

The secret to having a bit of an evening is to load up your calendar with "busy" time. That works for hometime too. I just keep 5-7 as a recurring appt so nobody can book me into a meeting then.
Dunno where I fit. It used to be somewhere like 'Does not have kids, therefore does not have a life, always available to stay back late if necessary', until two events made me snap. Event 1: Person A had to 'be home' for a family dinner. Person B had to make a dinner date with her late-teened daughter. Person A was leading a project and wanted me to be the good guy and mop it up. I was leading a project that Person B and I were working on, and they wanted me to be the good guy and finish their bit. I was working till gone midnight and eating curry out the box when they were having fun times with significant others and eating healthy food and going to bed at a reasonable hour. Event 2: A weekend event was scheduled and I was already exhausted, having just picked up new projects. I had a significant visitor who I had not seen for ages coming one week before the event (this person has already paid a significant amount for a non-refundable airfare) and I had to provide care for a significant other who was ill the week after (I had paid a significant airfare to do this). The week of the event would be spent in the office doing work on the two projects, or one of the other weeks would have to give. I explained my circumstances and was roundly scolded by (well, Person A, as it turns out) who informed me that in attending SHE would be missing the party her 12 year old was holding for her dog. I really wish I was making that up, but I'm not. Since those events I have managed to wiggle out of group work and projects (fortunately not too hard in my line of work) and whereas I still work stupid hours I know that I will never have to work late or pick up for people who consider themselves more important because they have kids, and me insignificant, because I don't. I also negotiated to work from home (not unusual in my profession), unless core duties demand me being there, because I find I get nabbed to do things for others less this way. In meetings with supervisors I always make it clear that I work hard and produce good results, but I am careful to say 'no' to unreasonable loads. Person A, by contrast, takes on stupid loads and then plays martyr and expects to shift on to others, a sneaky move, because this is usually in the form of a favour and not officially noted. I don't, by the way, have too many friends at work, but at least I have my health and a tiny bit of spare time that I would not have if I had not put my foot down and claimed my 'right to a life'.
I'm self employed and work from home so whilst I am a 1), I am also an 8) and a 10). But I can hang the washing out and fetch it back in if it starts raining, and I can make tea when I like and then carry on working afterwards (or get up early). And of course I don't have to commute.
When I started work in the 1960's I had a 4. Later on I had a 6, and now I retired so I have 1.
This is an important equal opportunities issue, that does not get the discussion it deserves.

My experience is that those who are child-free (and also those who are partner-free), get treated differently to those who have childcare considerations, by colleagues, and by bosses, in determining what is 'reasonable'.

That is grossly unfair.

Usually those who are mug enough to go along with unreasonable expectations eventually get a wake-up call, as Antipodean describes.

Remember, work is the amount of your life that you are prepared to sacrifice in order to earn enough money to live. It is not the be-all and end-all.
Pretty much what allotmentqueen said: 1 and 10 have a (nasty?) tendency to be the same thing. You can stop work any time...but can you? Really? Ever? Then again, at least I'm not in an office, twiddling my thumbs waiting for home time. Been there, done that, felt the pointlessness of existence.
I would argue that single people should get preferential treatment. Those lucky enough to be in relationships already don't need to put all the hours into dating, meeting new people and socialising that single people have to.
I'm a 2, or occasionally a 4, but then again I'm a receptionist so that works a bit differently. I was annoyed by the "advice" give out during the Olympics. I have to be here when the building's open, I can't stagger my hours and I can't work from home.
I think I am a 1, but also a 7, 8, 9 and 10, in that in theory I can stop whenever I like, and in theory office hours at 9:30 to 5:30. But in practice I have to get the job done, I am effectively on call, and I am expected to check in regularly if I am out of the office.
I'm a 10 and a 1 except a 1 where "I can stop whenever I ike" is "when everyone lets me". That's the problem with customers these days. They expect to get you all day every day.
It's 10 for me too, the joys of running my own business!
Pretty much a 3, but with some 4 days when I have to do things in the evening, but known in advance so I can plan my other hours around them. One thing I never do now that I live a 20 minute walk from the office (as opposed to a two hour commute in my previous job) is work from home. That has significantly reduced my 'work oppression' levels.
8 days of the February count to go. This sort of post should increase the views and comments, although the numbers at http://daytum.com/dgeezer appears to be a little out of date.
Depends entirely on the time of year/work schedule.

For around three-quarters of the year, it's 4. But for the other quarter (in three main chunks spread through the year) it's more like 8. Which overall is a pretty good balance and one I'm basically happy with.
I'm a 3.
I work with a 4 who behaves like he is an 8 as he thinks it makes a good impression on the boss - a bad case of presenteeism. His work's no better than average, so it's a wasted effort. I'm a 3 - self-employed.
I just...
I mean :) I always thought you were a retired guy having so much time to wander everywhere and learn about everything in your free time. I was wrong, and it's even better that you still do all of that while being employed.
That would help make up for the number of comments that seem to have disappeared from this post (about half of them).

dg writes: Still 25 comments there, as far as I can see.

Pedantic of Purley replies: Oops. I confused two consecutive posts. Only ten comments seen because there was only ten comments for that post although 25 for previous post.
I think, in response to Blue Witch, it depends on your work setting. In my job, having kids or not having kids made not a jot of difference - we were all on a minimum of 8, from the lowest rung upwards.

More senior people were expected to be 9s or 10s, and middling people like me were constantly being nudged to 9 no matter what the health or sanity consequences. Cue much burnout. The irony was that our work was for children, yet many people hardly saw theirs. Now I work for myself and have no idea how to manage my time.
Seems a bit whingey and whiney DG. Have you got a bit of SAD?
I'm a 2 with extraordinarily rare situations where 8 comes in to play. Once or twice a year...
One more comment to the total, then!

It seems a bit peculiar that so many of DG's commenters are Andrews. Perhaps that says something about the reader demographic. Or perhaps we are just more voluble (read:opinionated) than average.
An astute observation, hence why I came up with this nickname a long time ago :)
I like the index, and having been a 10 (25x8 type work) and previously a 7 (whilst a London mainline commuter), I'm now a working 1.

My name is not Andrew.
I'm between 7 and 8.
I work in support so there is no such thing as 'the job is done' because there are always some more problem that need to solved.
I'm the Andrew from 08:00. Strange that there are 6 Andrews in the corporate division I work in.

I think Andrew is old Hebrew for "Grumpy old Git"
You've left out the significant number of people who work shifts, who therefore know exactly when they finish work, even though it varies from day to day.
I haven't had a holiday in near enough a decade & that takes into account enforced bank holidays - no income and everyone else, their dogs and brats clogging up places I'd rather be. Work when it arrives - keep at it til it's done. Repeat ad nausuem.
Having grown-up children and therefore fewer specific commitments (no child to be picked up from school or the childminders on time), I'd expect and offer to help out by staying late. It's tough, being a working parent and I would rather they had some family life, even if it's sometimes at my expense. But I'd expect a professional attitude from parents too: ie that they work hard and to a high standard during the working day and do any preparation necessary outside working hours. A dog's party is taking the piss. And if you're expecting someone to stay late, you send the work when you've said you will or a communication to explain why not and when it will come. Though it's quite possible that the person who made the phone call to you had not told Y that X had been promised by half past hometime. Email is always better than a phone call because it sets out the situation to everyone. But that's exactly why some people won't use it,
Oh, and I'm 1, sometimes 3 or 10 but I work from home and mostly unpaid. I'm only busy because I choose to be.
I'm a teacher so although the kids have a designated home time, I usually stay until 5-6pm getting displays up etc. Then I have to work every evening and most weekends on prep work so probably an 8, as I can't go in unprepared for the next day.
I'm currently a 4. I'm a 4 hrs a day part-timer and the official line of my employer is that I should not under any circumstances work flexibly, that my start and end times should be immovable. That never happens in practice and you are not seen as a 'team player' if your pen goes down on the dot if there's a deadline to meet. I had an 8 job before and the accompanying unhealthy lifestyle eventually made me ill.
My wife's a 6 except when she's a 10 (which can be weeks at a time). I'm a 4 bordering on 5, but with a bit of intelligence my place could easily make it 4 some of the time and 3 the rest.
I refuse to be pigeon-holed !
Some great posts today. Thanks for your Blue Witch, especially.

I am a 7, wishing to be a 4. As I have become more senior in the company it is more difficult to leave the office.

Today at 1.30 I received notification of a meeting starting after work and had to wiggle out of it and get verbally abused by the boss as whilst it wasn't in my calendar I was supposedly advised about it days ago. Very uncomfortable but not worth staying for. I am just sorry everyone else stayed at such short notice!

And what about distance from work? I have a 40 minutes commute to central London, and whilst it is never explicitly mentioned, my 'boss' (when s/he chooses to be) lives far outside London and finds it easier to get away. "I am not missing my train", I hear, as I somehow find myself slipping into 8 territory, staying back as s/he leaves.

This is a great idea from Australia: http://www.gohomeontimeday.org.au/
Being self employed I can range from 1 when I dont have too much work on with easy deadlines, or 10 + when I am really over-pushed anyway but simply can't afford to turn down more work.
As a freelance IT contractor who does a lot of work around Europe - I should be a 1 - in reality I am a 10 for two thirds of the year and then 0 for the rest.
PS: I am sure when DG does his end of month number crunching he will see how many comments these non-London topics get compared to London subjects
39 so far for this post at 1900 hours compared to 4 for yesterday's Bakerloo post
I'm still at work :(
1 or 3.

Remember that unpaid overtime is just that.
I'm a number 2. (That doesn't sound very good).
I am not a number. I am a free man!

8 is generally expected in the organisation I work for. You are expected to be on call on Christmas Day.
FYI jobs at investment banks are usually 8,9 or 10. This goes a LONG WAY to explain the high pay.
Sigh, that turned into a a hometime+5hrs day.
Yep, self-employed sounds as if it should be 1 but is actually 10 most of the time, as I have clients in very different time zones who all expect me to respond to job requests within an hour or two. At least I can stagger when I actually do the work: no-one cares if a translation has been done at 10 a.m. or 3 a.m., provided it meets the deadline.
DG, otsukaresama deshita! (what you say in Japanese to someone leaving the office, literally "you were honorably tired")
I'm with timbo: I'm a shift worker, so my hometime isn't always the same. It normally matches what it says on the rota, but can be earlier or later depending on how busy it is when the next shift come in to relieve you.

Fortunately, if you do have to stay late, you can claim overtime.
I'm a 3/10 - working in financial services for those investment bankers mentioned previously, so I am constantly on call, bb and so on, fairly often working weekends and late evenings when the deal is hot. However, I also work part time and have reached a professional level where I can say "I worked all Friday, that's not one of my days, so I am leaving at 1pm today to go to the cinema" - and, give them their due, work are totally fine with that.










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