If you’ve worked late at any point this year, this month, or most likely this week, I’ve got some good news for you.
Today, June 21, at 5pm or whatever time your shift ends, you can pack up your stuff and leave the office/shop/construction site without feeling guilty in the slightest.
Why? Because it’s officially National Go Home on Time Day, so we can clock off when we’re supposed to without having any repercussions. Well, you might have a slightly p*ssed off boss but hey, that’s their problem.
The campaign by Working Families is attempting to raise awareness about how important work-life balance is, while stressing that finishing work on time should be the norm – not the exception.
Except for many of us, it is the exception. How many times have you thought to yourself, ‘oh I’ll just stay an extra 10 minutes to make sure I get this piece of work finished,’ before that 10 minutes turns into half an hour, which quickly turns into an hour?
Fair enough if you’re getting paid to do overtime, but the majority of us aren’t; according to the Trades Union Congress (TUC), UK workers did two billion hours of unpaid overtime in 2017 alone – racking up a massive £31.2 billion of free labour. Yikes.
If that doesn’t make you want to pack up your bags and leave when you’re supposed to, how about the fact it’s Friday and leaving on time means you get a longer weekend? Yep, thought that’d work.
Jane Van Zyl from Working Families said, as per The Mirror:
Making work-life balance a priority and having widespread, genuinely flexible, human-sized jobs will deliver benefits for both businesses and all workers
Working people who are burnt out and disengaged are not going to perform as well – which is bad for business, bad for the economy, and perhaps most crucially, bad for families.
Go Home on Time Day is a chance for working people across the UK to unplug and spend time with loved ones. And it’s an opportunity for employers to consider what improvements they can make to their workplace culture to support their employees’ wellbeing.
Basically, there’s no excuse not to sign off and join everyone in the pub ASAP. And if your boss doesn’t like it, feel free to show them this article.
Forget about your workload, turn on your out-of-office (preferably 10 minutes before you’re due to clock off), and say hasta la vista baby.
Or something to that effect.
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A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).