Many people in my (speech and language therapy) workplace arrive unfeasibly early in the morning (7.30 or 8am).  This means that they can leave at 4 pm, or, sometimes on a Friday, even at 3.30! 

Whilst I’d love to be able to work to this schedule, it just doesn’t suit my body clock.  (Actually, if I didn’t have to work at all, I would probably wake up at 10am and go to bed at around 3 in the morning). 

I usually get to work at 9 ish, or if I am not seeing any children, sometimes even 9.30 or 9.45.  This means that I often leave later than everyone else – sometimes at 5.30 or even (gasp!) 6 o’clock!

Frequently, as they are leaving on a Friday (as I’ve just had my mid-afternoon cup of coffee) my colleagues will say to me and the other late starters things like “don’t stay too late”,  or “make sure you don’t work all weekend” etc etc.  And I laugh, but it really pisses me off!

The subtext, of course, is that people who stay ‘late’ only do so because they don’t have a life/ are working too much etc.

In my case, this may well be true(!), although that is really not the point.  The point is, it’s ONLY FOUR O’ CLOCK AND I DIDN’T GET IN TILL QUARTER TO TEN!

It can make working after 4 o’clock on a Friday pretty stressful sometimes, and I just wish they wouldn’t say it.