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It depends where in the globe you are. Here in Germany people even leave work at 4:30 pm.


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Leaving at 5pm is the norm in Germany only in very particular circumstances. Most people I know are stuck until 18:30 or so.

Fun fact I still leave at 5pm. People mostly not work outside work times except if it is planned or you are on call.

Not in Europe no Sir ;)


In Spain we finish at 6pm.

Some people even work until like 7pm.


Saw the same thing in the Netherlands. At work, you work. As a result of little idling, few work late, and most head out right at 5 or 6.

I’d be more interested in studies showing that you get more productivity by leaving at 4pm than 5pm since that’s when everyone stereotypically starts to slack and goof around on until 5pm anyway.

For me it's the exact opposite. I come in at 9.30am and leave at 6.30pm. Most of my coworkers leave around 4pm, which leaves me 2-2.5 hours at the end of the day to really get shit done.

I'm not a morning person. Understanding and accepting this has helped me manage my time much more effectively.


Do you usually leave around 3pm or stay at work?

Would be interested to know how many people leave work at 5:30 but do extra work after hours.

My work is really flexible, so I come in around 930, and I tend to leave around 4:45 or so. I'm just not productive after that so there's no use sitting in a desk killing time

I suspect that many people who work long hours may be spending time on non-work diversions. HN? ;)

People who leave at 5:01 may prioritize their time better.


Depends on what you do and also where you are. I'm in a European office, and due to the fact I deal mainly with US-based folks, I usually start my day at 12pm and end at 6-8pm depending on workload.

Still depends on your boss. I used to work for a bank and my head of department dislike people who goes home before 7pm. Our official working hours is 9am - 6pm. I was called into the room once for going home at 6:15pm.

When I worked in Austria and Germany, most employees started between 6:00 and 8:00 AM at the latest. Although there was nothing against coming in after 9:00 AM due to flex-time, it would guarantee you'd miss all the morning coffee chit-chat with internal company gossip and by the time you'd leave work and head to the city, the shops would already be close to closing.

Yeah I don't know anybody that leaves after 7h being at work ...

I am in the US and try to do 9-5, plus or minus an hour on the start time, sometimes leaving at 4pm. And while I am usually among the first to leave the office, I don't feel guilty about leaving by 5 any longer considering the occasional odd hour conference call and late night work that pops up.

I miss out on time with my family if I leave later than 5, and I prioritize that over looking busy in the office. After 5 my mental capacity and productivity is dwindling anyways.

Would love to stay on DST and never go back. Kids don't sleep in an extra hour. It makes for a rough week.


It really depends. I worked at a company a few years ago and we stayed late because we were just a bunch of lonely dudes living in a big city with nothing better to do. If we went home at 5, we'd just be sitting alone playing video games.

Oh, it's 5:98:67 now - have to leave work before 6 SUT today, though usually leaving at 6:30.

When do you usually leave work in SUT?


This is big generalisation. In South Europe leaving at 6pm is early. Most of the people I know have standup after 10h30 and do 1h lunch breaks.

Interesting. Is this because of officially shorter working hours per week, because of longer hours on the other weekdays, or just some kind of an unofficial practice? How common is this?

As another Nordic, I've seen people gladly leave the office around 15:00 or 16:00 (or earlier for some people if they like to start early) on a Friday, but it's hard to imagine people who are on the clock regularly leaving at 13:00 unless they are real early birds.

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