After Hours Admin Coverage

[judy3927]

Can anyone give me feedback on how your office handles after 5:00 admin needs?  Are you expected to stay late with little or notice?  Are you allowed to say "I can never stay on Thursday", for example?  Just curious as we are having some issues here at my office and I'd love feedback from others.  Thanks!

[tiffanyctd]

Unless it's a real emergency (which has not happened at this job), I've got advance notice of when I'm going to have to stay late (usually for a reception). We generally have to have that advance notice because we're not a typical "business" setting. First, we have to have the Dean's approval if we are going to have a meeting after five. Second, we all are part of car pools, so we have to make arrangements for transportation. Third, several of us are taking classes at night. The university pays for us to attend, and we have to keep our grades up.

[gee4]

Depends what for.  If it's for an event, all relevant parties contribute.  If it's my boss asking and I can stay then I will.  Once a quarter I have a meeting from 5-6pm which I have agreed to attend and take minutes.  I know in advance so don't mind.  Usually we down tools when it's closing time and go but again it just depends on each individual's role and what they do.  For example both of my directors are not here this afternoon but I shall leave at 4.30pm as normal on a Friday.

[misslynn]

I usually know in advance if I need to stay late for a meeting. My cat is the only one mad at me if I get home late so it's not a big deal for my to work late. It would be different if I needed to pick up a child from daycare or something.

[raindance]

I very rarely have to stay late at work, and if there is a need for me to stay late then I usually know well in advance.  I do travel now and then in connection with my work, and this tends to mean an overnight (or two) stay somewhere.  Again, I have good notice of those meetings.  Once or twice a year I have to work on a Saturday.  I am allowed to take time off in lieu of payment, so I don't lose out on "my time".  

Some industries do require personnel to work late and at very short notice - I am thinking particularly of some of the companies in the City here in London - but the salaries and benefits on offer to staff will be sufficient to compensate for those requirements.  

[Katie G]

If it's something you know about well in advance, that's one thing.

If it's an occasional occurance where you have to hang around on little or no notice, well, we all know that can happen and we deal with it.

BUT, if it becomes a chronic thing that you have to stay late often because of someone else's lack of planning, or dropping the ball, or scatterbrained-ness, that's another thing entirely and needs to be addressed.   We are entitled to have  a life ouside our workday and nothing peeves me like the assumption that we have nothing better to do than hang around and help clean up someone else's mess.  

[ozbound]

Around here, it is necessary for us to stay until all the paperwork is done that needs to go out the next day. That is usually not a problem, especially during slow times. However, when things get busy in the summer we might have to stay late, usually without much notice, but I came to expect it after a while last summer. I got lots of overtime pay so I didn't mind too much.

[sirnas]

Staying late is part of us.  In my office, we start work as early as 8:00 am each day and close by 9:00 p.m. each day including Saturdays sometimes.  Actually, closing late has become  part of me. Any day I close early is a day of celebration with my family.  This is because it is very rare.

I work with a Chief Executive of a hospital as his P.A.  Our day start with seeing patient in the morning, operation or ward round in the afternoon and office work in the evening.  That is how we run the days.

[dettu]

I can stay late any day except Monday if I have advance notice--and I can stay late on Monday if the advance notice is more than one day. I have to pick up a child from daycare and they close at 5:45. If I have to get someone else to pick him up, I really need to know that morning so I can find someone.

I have offered before to pick him up and bring him back to work with me to do the late work...it hasn't happened often, but it has happened.

Most of my bosses have children too and don't expect me to be a robot on call 24/7.

[itsme_calista]

I have, in the past, picked the children up from school and bought them into the office.  They sit in the conference room and do homework/draw or my daughter stood sending a load of faxes out for me.

My boss understands that I have children and will work round that, I have come in on a Saturday previously and taken work home with me over a weekend or when the children were ill (but that's diverting away from the question).

It's extremely rare that I would need to work after 5.00 pm and the times I have previously were IT breakdowns when the figures needed processing.

Callie

[dettu]

Me too--rare that I would have to stay late. One of the points I made clear when I took this job and the one before it was that routine overtime could not be a part of my schedule. When I was young and single, I was able to stay late whenever they needed it. Now, my priorities are different, so I took a job that didn't require those hours.