The attached picture is an example of a flawed, one-size-fits all mentality. All jobs are, quite obviously, not the same.

In my career in industry, if I were to "always leave office on time," then I could never be successful. I work in agriculture, so in summer it is not unusual to have 10-12 hour days, whereas in winter there are times when a half-day is sufficient.

In my academic career, there were times that data needed to be collected at 8- or 12-hour intervals. During those times, I spent a lot more time than the "official" workday. I was then and am now quite happy with my social and family lives.

Calling someone "Inefficient and Incompetent" because they work a different schedule than you is absolutely unnecessary - a smug judgement that profits no one.

I respect Dr Kalam, but do not agree with what is said in my case. In fact it is not universally applicable. It depends upon the person and type of job he/she is doing. For example if a surgeon is in the middle of a major surgery, is he/she will leave it half the way? Emergencies be it in medical field or any other fields will not wait for 8 to 5 attitude. May be a job in a government organization as a clerk can afford to have that type. For a researcher when he/she is in the middle of a great experiment or analysis, cannot simply leave halfway because it is 5.00 pm. It is not possible to schedule everything to just be completed by your office hours.

Well, I can share a recent experience of mine. I was busy with an important assignment (other than routine) for two months so I was lagging behind in my research work. So I broke the time barrier and worked till late night for about one and half month. Not only did I finish the remaining work, the results were extraordinary as I had some kind of extra competitive attitude. So working late certainly was a bliss.

As a researcher, office time is no limit as my insect cultures and molecular biology experiments don't respect that, not even the holidays. loll.

@Jack , Nageswara, Mohd. Thank you all for your comments. I agree with all of you that in agriculture we need more time to spent on doing experiment because it takes time, but still not everyday. What I understood from above photo is "Leaving on time should be your habit", but if you have a special period, like summer season or a critical surgery or even postponed experiments, that needs to work harder because you don't have it again during the year, then you do it and work late. I do it myself sometimes, but NOT everyday.

I agree with giving your family and friends some of your time because that makes your scientific life more relax as well as your social life. As I said above, I've seen several examples when some individuals work late everyday, and their outcome is just like others, NO big difference.

Cheers

Hi all,

Good question, and a recurring one.

There are at least four other sides to it, though, now that communication tools tend to have people working everywhere, not just in the lab or in the office,

* first, because they're always with you , these tools will make you keep working even at home, on the plane or train (that's where I am as I write this), or sometime even in your car. Your smartphone is a great tool to keep you working anytime of day, anytime of year, and so is your Internet connection. Many of us check e-mails daily even during holidays or off-days. A colleague of mine ( head of a large department) once made a simple calculation: he simply counted all the e-mails he received during one calendar year, multiplied this by 5 mn (as an average time it takes to read, answer, archive or dump any message), and divided that figure by 365 ( the number of days in a year). The result was appaling: he would have needed 7.5 hours on every single day in that year to deal with his incoming mail box, doing nothing else. Of course, this explains why most of us don't answer (and even read) every e-mail that comes in, but it shows how technology can keep you working even when you don't want to, jut to keep up the pace ( another red Queen case, I guess).

* second, because these tools allow for fast communication, they increase the feeling of urgency. Many people keep on working because they are under the impression that something is expected RIGHT NOW from them, and that this cannot be postponed. Back to my young days in research, we sent paper manuscripts through the normal posting system ( now called 'snail mail'), as three print copies to the office of the journals. This office then sent them back to referees - as 'hard copies' again- etc. It then took three or four months before you even throught of getting the reviews back. Life was slower then, but was it less efficient?

* third, this immediateness in communication makes it more difficult to sort what really matters and what doesn't. A great exercise I love doing is checking my emails when I'm back from holidays. The number of messages that were sent as 'urgent', were not answered and for which this lack of answer had striclty no consequence is quite astounding!

* fourth, when you like what you're doing, working can become addictive.The 'workaholic syndrome' lurks, and then how much time you spend working is just not an issue anymore for you, because you enjoy doing it. True, others in your neighbouring circles might not feel that way, and many divorces stem from one of the partners enjoying his/her work more that his family life.

At the end of the day, the proper answer to the question is probably as much about the ability to 'switch off' and do something else when you're not in your usual working place, than just counting hoursthere. Working nowadays is far more than being present in the office or in the lab at given hours.

It should be statistically tested; however, hard work and sincerity always pay back.

I don't know if it's good or not, but I plan my schedule to leave the office before 8:30pm. Depends on the day, the classes that I teach (one of them ends at 8pm), the time that me and my students schedule meetings by chat, but I plan the time. Athough I plan my schedule, I spend more than 8 hours in my office/university.