Do you ever work late?

[Brooke]

Do you ever stay at work later than your 'usual' day? Who covers for the kids? How late will you stay? And how often does it happen?

[Lori]

I'm done teaching at 10:30, so even if I have students who want to talk after class, it never takes more than an hour. I don't pick up Thomas until 12:00, so it works out fine. Luckily, outside of class time, I can decide when I'm willing to meet with students and when I'm not, and they know that if they want to see me after 12:00, then I'll have my son with me and they just have to deal. If they want my undivided attention, they can see me in the morning.

Sean, on the other hand, does get stuck working late sometimes, and it stinks. He goes in to work at 8 so that he can come home at 5, but the other people in his office don't go in until 11 or 12 (and work until 7 or 8), so it's not unusual for them to want to have a meeting right when he is about to head home. We've talked about him working on their schedule, just so he wouldn't have to work unpaid overtime (because he's salaried, so he doesn't get paid for extra hours), but he likes being home with Thomas at night, so it's worth it to him to have to work a few extra hours every week or two but get to be home at a reasonable time other nights. Plus, if he doesn't have much to do on Friday, I can sometimes talk him into leaving at 3 or 4, since he's already put in more than 40 hours, and a long weekend is always nice. We just wish they'd give him some notice instead of telling him at 4:58 that they are having a meeting, which is what they tend to do.

[Kami]

I Do have to work late sometimes. When I do my parents usually have the kids. It never happens very often and it is usually not mandatory!

[Jenny]

not at my job-job, but my photography side hobby/business keeps me up late if I did too many sessions

[Renita]

It depends on the situation. Sometimes I have to stay late for a meeting...and I can easily coordinate with DH about it.

But I almost always will work virtually after the girls go to bed....at least 1-2 hours extra per night, depending on if we have any issues or not.

[Brooke]

I asked this earlier because I was, surprise, at work late. LOL I only work late on days that Eric is home with both kids. Otherwise I have to pick up Kyle from my stepmom's by 5:30.

I work for my family's business, so I work when necessary. Either at home at night or weekends. Sometimes late at night.

[Shana]

For me, it's not so much working late, as it is working more than I should. I will explain ;)

Working from home allows for a great deal of flexibility with many things HOWEVER it also makes it a LOT HARDER to "leave" at the end of the day.

I try to get most of my work done from 6am to 12pm, but I find myself still working at 1, 2 -- and then logging on to do some catch up work later in the afternoon/early evening.

The great thing about this job is I can fully work around my own schedule. NO ONE tells me *when* to start, or to stop.

That's my problem -- learning to STOP. I haven't figured it out yet. Thus, the reason I am currently doing about 50 hours per week :rolleyes

[MathSpeak]

Well, accountants have this HORRID HORRID thing called month-end which is pretty much code for HELL... LOL You have to tie out all the books, but you have to imagine that when you work for a HUMONGOUS bank that gets REALLY time-consuming. SO, for the books I control, which is about FIFTY! aargh... I need to figure out EVERY SINGLE dollar that came in or went out and be able to account for it if we get audited :thumbsdown For the first 2 business days of each month, I can pretty much count on staying at work until AT LEAST 10pm... YES, that's from 8am... they do order food for us and bring us beer, though... Not a good trade-off if you ask me, though... LOL

[Sarah]

Not exactly. I usually only work when I'm scheduled, and since our hours are alloted by the corporate office, we can't stay longer for extra money. But, a couple of times I have stayed late to cover for a coworker who was either going to be late or couldn't come in at all. In otherwords, we can't go over the hours alloted for the day, but someone needs to make sure all the hours scheduled are covered. I think that makes sense. :)