Do you consider leaving work at 7pm “working late”
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Anonymous
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Before kids that was normal (lawyer).
After kids that became late. |
Anonymous
| That's late to me but my husband and I have always been early risers, mostly due to kids but even before that. I have a co-worker with no kids and I think she and her husband would say 7 is not late. |
Anonymous
| It would be late for us. Unless there was a special circumstance requiring it, I would be very unhappy with what you describe. |
Anonymous
Yes it is late. My MDs left for their central station or LIRR trains at 5pm and were back online after 8pm. 6-8pm was dinner or family time. My PE bosses called all their own shots on call, travel, FaceTime in the office or not. They all got their work done and were response 24/7 but no one was at the office for dinner or later unless it was project driven/ imminent deadline and was not done. |
Anonymous
| It depends on if you have kids/plans/other obligations |
Anonymous
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Yes. It basically means that you can never plan to go anywhere or be anywhere on a weeknight unless you know in advance and schedule a babysitter who is able to drive kids to activities.
So, basically, you can never work late, go a a networking dinner, volunteer to coach a kids sport or lead one of their activities (if you have more than one kid), be involved in the PTA if they meet in the evening, join a book club, or do one of the myriad other normal activities that people do because you never know if your spouse is going to be home to take care of the kids. |
Anonymous
| Yes. Absolutely. |
Anonymous
If it’s not okay with you, then it’s not okay. Just like it isn’t okay to be a SAHP without the thumbs up from your spouse, it isn’t okay to work 60+ hours a week either. It’s not okay to unilaterally make decisions about your employment if they don’t work for your spouse. Now, if you are being unreasonable and he actually needs to work these hours in order to put food on the table, then you need to deal. But if this job is making your household miserable, then he should look for a different job where this isn’t the culture. |
Anonymous
| Very late- I leave at 4. |
Anonymous
I don’t see 7pm being an issue if it was already worked into agreed upon responsibilities. What have you discussed as each of your responsibilities in regard to dinner and driving the kids places? My DH was always on an early schedule from when we first met and liked getting in early to avoid traffic and leaving by 3:30-4. So he had dinner and school/aftercare pickup and I had getting the kids out in the morning. Any kid activities had to be agreed upon by both of us that we could commit to the logistics with our work schedule. Often that meant DH was on activity drop off and I had to be on activity pickup (meaning a firm work cutoff time) and I helped organize carpools. Since my work schedule was on the later end, it did come down to eating dinner with the family or not. I found it was easier to have days I planned to work later and get dinner on my own than trying to get everything done in 8 hours of work plus commute when I wasn’t starting work until 8:30am. If your DH has agreed on certain things and work always seems to supersede, that’s a different issue. I think I read somewhere the advice that your family should be just as important as a work client. From that lens, he should be communicating and balancing. You can’t do everything to meet a deadline for one client and drop the ball and not communicate, or negotiate timelines with the other client. If a true work emergency has come up, he has to figure out what absolutely needs to be done I.e. what needs to be done before he leaves work and if there is any way to work around kid activities like work in the car/location while waiting or logging on later in the evening. Otherwise if he can’t cover what he agreed to do, he needs to ask you to cover and should be negotiating to offer something is exchange, like getting the kids out the next morning or taking over something you would do one the weekend. |
Anonymous
| Some of you are really lucky that you have a very high paying job and leaving at 5 pm is the norm rather than than exception. |
Anonymous
| Ya, it happens, but we don't spring it on each other because we have dependent, minor children who need to be picked up, fed, and put to bed. The assumption is that we'll both be home by 6; if either needs to be out later, we ask. |
Anonymous
| DH and I both work in industries that demand a lot; however, cultures have changed. Unless we have a client-facing event or dinner, we can both leave whenever we want, and rarely, either of us is home after 5 pm, other than for work travel or events. DH is often on work calls from our home office until late, which is annoying, but that's a different story. |
Anonymous
Lots of people adjust their work hours once they have kids. It sounds like he never agreed to do that, and that your kids are old enough that this has been going on for years. It sounds like you are battling a years-long pattern. Did you have to adjust your work hours for kids? |
Anonymous
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In DC and most other places, yes.
In NYC, London, maybe SF? Not really. Some cities just have later hours and even families adjust to it. When I lived in NYC, a normal workday was 10am to 7 or 8pm. My spouse and I had dinner around 8 or 9. In bed at 11 or 12. Working late in a place like that means you're there until 9 or 10 at least, maybe later. I think it can depend on the industry, too. |