What A Way To Make A Livin’

I work on a case with people from many different areas. Most of the people on the case work in a time zone that’s three hours ahead of mine. This means that I am often in meetings or depositions that start at around 7 AM or earlier.

A couple of weeks ago, I attended several days of a deposition, starting at 5:30 (for me) each day. Those days, I left the office at around 3 PM. My manager then called me into her office.

Manager: “Why are you leaving early every day?”

Me: “I started at 5:30 AM.”

Manager: “I don’t care. This is a nine-to-five job. It doesn’t matter if you’re in earlier; you leave at five, otherwise people will think it’s okay to come in and leave whenever they want.”

Well, nine-to-five it is!

I started arriving in the office promptly at 9 AM. This unfortunately led to me skipping several meetings, but alas, it cannot be helped. One meeting I skipped, scheduled for 6 am, is an important biweekly one that my manager is also supposed to attend. She has never attended and always relies on me to prepare a report on the meeting, so she can present it to her boss.

Manager: “Where is [report]?”

Me: “I don’t have it. I wasn’t able to attend the meeting, since I work a nine-to-five job and I don’t want to give anyone the wrong impression. No report, sorry!”

As I left promptly at five, I peeked through the window to her office and got a great view of her trying to explain herself to her boss.

Today, she called me and dejectedly informed me that I can leave the office whenever I want from now on.