come in early

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this is the secret to getting every single status/raise/thing at work, ever

i know guys who honestly don't have a thought in their heads, but they dress sharp and commute 2 hours from connecticut and are literally in at 7:30 am. they leave at 5:30, what they do inbetween doesn't matter, lucky for them, because they don't do a damn thing, but they COME IN EARLY, every day, and people (by which i mean me) feel inadequate and envious and somewhat suspicious but they always always get the benefit of the doubt

i think you could become chairman of the board by the time you retired if you just CAME IN EARLY

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 24 March 2005 14:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Hm. Maybe THAT'S why I was here at 6:00 am today.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 24 March 2005 14:48 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm fucked.

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Thursday, 24 March 2005 14:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Ha! I knew someone who did this regularly and it didn't get him anywhere.

I hate mornings. It's bad enough getting up at 7:00 or 7:30.

― RS, Thursday, 24 March 2005 14:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I work at an ad agency. I'm considered a freak because I'm usually here at 9.15!

― Masonic Cathedral (kate), Thursday, 24 March 2005 14:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm always here early, but there's no one here to notice.

― Huk-L, Thursday, 24 March 2005 14:50 (twenty-one years ago)

how strange.. it seems to work opposite here - if you STAY LATE people tend to think you work well hard!! (possibly because loads of people stay late too so they see you there and they get jealous if you come in early and thus leave early)

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 24 March 2005 14:50 (twenty-one years ago)

haha...im here at 5am everyday. but i get out at 1pm so thats a trade off. although i can't stay up past 9pm or else i die the next day. and i never stay late, fuck this joint.

― Chris 'The Nuts' V (Chris V), Thursday, 24 March 2005 14:51 (twenty-one years ago)

I come in between 8:45-9:00 every day, and I am also fucked.

― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 24 March 2005 14:51 (twenty-one years ago)

oh and my raise last year was $410 annually. WHOOPEE DOO!

― Chris 'The Nuts' V (Chris V), Thursday, 24 March 2005 14:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I came in 20 minutes ago. Bend me over the sawhorse, folks!

― David R. (popshots75`), Thursday, 24 March 2005 14:53 (twenty-one years ago)

The guy at Tom's work who came in outrageously early got fired. But that was because he was coming in outrageously early in order to crank it at his desk to preggo porn away from his wife's prying eyes. Maybe that is what the people at your work place, from Connecticut, are doing, Tracer.

I never come in early. I always just worked late, which worked for me fine. The only time I came in early was that one time I was trying to prevent that fucker D4vid from stealing my mouse. That day I was in at 4.30am. Usually I was more of a 9.45 type of person but hands off my motherfucking mouse. When he came in at 6 he examined every desk searching for the mouse to take it. HAHA FUCKO.

― Allyzay Subservient 50s-Type (allyzay), Thursday, 24 March 2005 14:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Coming in early is a bad tactic. STAYING LATE is better. It makes you look REALLY committed. Until someone spots you sneaking out of the office two minutes after the last other person.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Thursday, 24 March 2005 14:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Wow that story sounds really stupid now that I've typed it out for everyone to see.

― Allyzay Subservient 50s-Type (allyzay), Thursday, 24 March 2005 14:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Now thats a biography title if I'v ever heard one.

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Thursday, 24 March 2005 14:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Hahaha Ally. I tend to get in late and stay late. No one around here cares unless there's an early morning meeting. As long as I get my stuff done, no one says anything. Tracer, those goodie-two-shoes in their natty suits need to be in early to compensate for their severe lack of purpose.

― Je4nne ƒury (Jeanne Fury), Thursday, 24 March 2005 14:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Ha ha! I read something from a german newspaper last year - some guy ALWAYS came in early, he was always the last to leave. He was in before the cleaners, they left him alone - this guy was obviously engrossed. Kept his head down, never spoke to anyone.

It took them a while to realise he was dead. He'd been slumped there for days.

German efficiency?

― Rumpsy Pumpsy (Rumpie), Thursday, 24 March 2005 15:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I get in early so I can leave early and have 6 hours of life outside the office.. I no longer care what everyone else's perception of me is.. Although I must admit that I think the people who can't get their asses in before 9:30 are lazy. I'm judgemental.

― dave225 (Dave225), Thursday, 24 March 2005 15:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Also, no matter how early you arrive, if you leave four minutes early you look like a slacker. If you arrive ten minutes late and stay ten minutes late everyone assumes you're going to be there til like ten or whatever.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Thursday, 24 March 2005 15:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Fuck coming in early or staying late. I get there at about 9 (if I'm late, I shave it off my lunch break) and I leave at 5, after which it's almost always totally forgotten about until I get there again. I will settle for impressing superiors with my quality of work, if at all.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 24 March 2005 15:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Well for my workplace, coming in ostentatiously late* was more about the fact that no matter when you showed up to work, you were expected to be there til the fucking cows came home half the time, and it wasn't like they paid overtime so some of us started taking a relatively relaxed stance on the "show up by 9" policy, since that didn't entail "and then leave by 6 or even 7" 80% of the time. (xpost Matt DC otm)

* ostentatiously late: the majority of us who took up this viewpoint lived approximately 1 block away from work so really even the laziest of lazies could've shown up on time or near it, very easily, if given any incentive to do so.

― Allyzay Subservient 50s-Type (allyzay), Thursday, 24 March 2005 15:07 (twenty-one years ago)

So, come in early, leave for 4 hours at lunch, come back and stay late?

― Brian Miller (Brian Miller), Thursday, 24 March 2005 15:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Most of my jobs, I've been the come-in-around-9:45 guy. I figure anything before 9:50 is still closer to 9 than it is to 10. But I also usually stay late.

― o. nate (onate), Thursday, 24 March 2005 15:13 (twenty-one years ago)

In all honesty, at my workplace there were a lot of really sarcastic and quite nasty attitudes towards the people Tracer is describing, who show up early and then left "on time," regardless of how much or how little they worked or how much or how little the rest of us worked. It was all about the staying past 4 or 5. One person explained it to me, and it made sense--95% of the company comes in at 9(ish give or take an 8.30 or a 9.30), it's not a shift system. Which means any problems/situations/questions/emergencies are going to crop up during normal working hours, but people who are showing up at 6am and leaving at 3 or 4 are circumventing the majority of the issues, in quite a lot of people's eyes. Especially since those people, at my workplace, were also most apt to take full or slightly overlong lunches, every single day. It was basically a question of what are you doing, all of our work involves banks and financial institutions and private customers, none of which are going to contact us or be contactable before 9am and usually issues with such crop up much later--showing up at 6am in that circumstance on a regular basis and not for special case projects was a complete waste of time and those people were generally viewed as being LAZIER than the people who sat around talking about fucking baseball until 9pm.

This obviously applies only to the culture at my workplace, and not a universal stance or one that I even agree with personally, to make clear! It's just weird, I guess it depends on a lot of other factors--I mean just as another example my dad's job depends entirely on the hours the NYSE is open. If he showed up hours before then and then left before it closed cos he was done with his 8 hours, he'd get fired immediately.

― Allyzay Subservient 50s-Type (allyzay), Thursday, 24 March 2005 15:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I used to put in late hours - worked nights & weekends for almost a eyar on a huge project ... And when it was done, no one said thanks for working all those extra hours to get it done. So now I work 40 hours per week, and if something needs to get done faster, figure it out based on a 40 hour week, dude.

― dave225 (Dave225), Thursday, 24 March 2005 15:17 (twenty-one years ago)

eyar = .45 * dollar.
(year, obv.)

― dave225 (Dave225), Thursday, 24 March 2005 15:18 (twenty-one years ago)

showing up early seems to be frowned upon in music - like, "what's wrong with you? don't you have a life? weren't you out until 3am at a gig?".

unless you show up not having slept yet from the previous night. that gets big bonus points.

― lauren (laurenp), Thursday, 24 March 2005 15:22 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm always at work early - if I came in on time, I'd still be on of the first people to start work, and I'm usually in about 15 minutes before that.

So far, I've had no raises, promotions or anything.

(at my last job, I was told off by the "Personnel Manager" for turning up at 9.45 - because we worked out of her house, and she refused to be forced out of bed before 10am)

― caitlin (caitlin), Thursday, 24 March 2005 15:26 (twenty-one years ago)

i've been showing up at like 10:20 every day, i'm "freelance," and the other day my boss says "i've gotten some feedback from your producers." i eye him warily and begin protecting the soft parts of my body and he says "they'd like you to come in a little earlier" and i got all defensive! like i knew i was being "wrong" even though, even though there is NEVER any work for me to do until about 10:30 because it takes the producers that long to organize themselves and figure out what they need. so for the last few days i've been showing up at 9:30 and waiting around until just about now for the first requests to trickle in. of course i never worked out with my boss what time to come in, prior to this, which was his fault and mine. i think it might have been better if he hadn't shunted responsibility for the "feedback" onto the producers though - even though i think it is right that they went to him, rather than directly to me - because now i'm like "which one has been talking shit about me behind my back"

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 24 March 2005 15:28 (twenty-one years ago)

i don't think the raise/promotion thing works unless you come in really ostentatiously early, like 7:30 or 8 (and don't leave early, obv, because this negates everything and is actually totally counterproductive like wot ally said)

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 24 March 2005 15:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I *do* come in at that sort of time. It doesn't work, because hardly anyone else is there to notice. Although on days when my boss is also in that early, I make a note of popping in to say hello right away to make sure he realises what time I routinely arrive at.

― caitlin (caitlin), Thursday, 24 March 2005 15:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Dave is my workplace doppelganger

― Chris 'The Nuts' V (Chris V), Thursday, 24 March 2005 15:34 (twenty-one years ago)

now i'm feeling v. bad about my laziness. people get to work at 9 or even 8, and my boss has to tell me to try to be in by 10.30. god forbid i have to work in some other field. i'm like an animal raised in captivity, unable to be turned out into the wild b/c i'm unable to fend for myself.

― lauren (laurenp), Thursday, 24 March 2005 15:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Caitlin, make sure you send emails to important people as soon as you get in!

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 24 March 2005 15:37 (twenty-one years ago)

i think another thing is that you have to make sure your boss etc. agree/are aware to what you're doing with work hours.. like, if you have arranged with the boss that you're coming in early but leave early too then fine. But to kind of impose it yourself (like "ner ner ner i'm leaving at 4 cos i came in 7am!") would look very bad.

i think the thing that impresses people the most is when there is work to do, you ARE prepared to change your routine schedule (be in come in extra early for meeting, leave late to finish everything) to accomdate the work.

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 24 March 2005 15:38 (twenty-one years ago)

you lack professionalism

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 24 March 2005 15:39 (twenty-one years ago)

and martin skidmore OTM re: emails.

Whenever I work late (to say 9pm or something) I always make sure I have sent some emails of some form (but semi-subtle with it it has to be related to what you have been doing rather than like "ner ner i'm working soooo late look!"), with the time stamp on the email right there on the top of the email.

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 24 March 2005 15:40 (twenty-one years ago)

I come right on time. Doesn't matter because my parents/bosses need me more than I need them. *evil cackle* ;-)

― nathalie barefoot in the head (stevie nixed), Thursday, 24 March 2005 15:43 (twenty-one years ago)

maybe we should now discuss what color shirt seems most "hard-working." i say for women it's pale peach, and for men, yet again, for like the seventh year running, it's deep cornflower/electric blue.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 24 March 2005 15:45 (twenty-one years ago)

funny, i always end up staying late wherever i am, but i've always had the sneaking feeling it makes me look lazy and inefficient, unable as i seem to be to allocate my time sufficiently efficiently to get all my work done in designated working hours.

i've also always been terrified that if i don't stay longer than my contract stipulates, it'll look like i'm not needed all that much and i'll lose my job altogether. ditto taking holidays.

presenteeism, i curse thee.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Thursday, 24 March 2005 15:55 (twenty-one years ago)

OK Tracer coming in "early" in common parlance does not mean "9:30"
Yes most people who get the raises and promotions and are viewed as excellent employees DO get to their workplace by at least 9:30, but that's not really COMING IN EARLY.

When B-RAD got fired for the cache of wank prep sto'd on the cubicle unit he had been coming in at FIVE THE AM for months for no good reason at all.

Right now our "early" dude is my bro Tony who gets here at 6 am because that's part of the contract and he's reliable. I am an unreliable constantly-tardy bastard but I am now responsible for giving two briefings a day and doing candidate interviews over the phone plus I have gotten two promotions in the past 12 months.

I can't figure out what it is I do that's so topnotch around here besides make up funny metaphors about ostrich specifications and turkey eggs but whatever.

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 24 March 2005 15:56 (twenty-one years ago)

NB the most hardworking and effective shirts are sweaters and short sleeve buttondowns depending on the weather. if you are required to wear a tie your productivity drops by 50%, I'm wearing one today and really feeling the inertia.

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 24 March 2005 16:00 (twenty-one years ago)

I wore a tie for a year, but offset the inertia effect by A) making like Willy Loman (because tie + SQL programming happy worker bee) and B) making sure the back of my computer monitor faced the door of my office.

― David R. (popshots75`), Thursday, 24 March 2005 16:04 (twenty-one years ago)

I DRESS BET\ST BUT DO NOT COMB MY HAIR OR SHOWER. MY CLOTHES ARE PROBABY WRINKLED AND SMELL LIKE SMOKE GREASE AND SWEAT. WILL I GET A RAISE ILX.

― DESPRERATE 4 MONEY., Thursday, 24 March 2005 16:04 (twenty-one years ago)

dude 9:30 is practically the middle of the night for me.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 24 March 2005 16:05 (twenty-one years ago)

MY GARMENTS 2DAY CONSIST OF:

NICE LITTLE SHOES. WHITES SOCKS. KHAKI PANTS I HAVE NOT WASHED FOR 2 WEEKS BUT HAVE WORN EVERY DAY. A MAROON LONGSLEEVED POLO. IT IS ACTUALLY PRETTY CLEAN - - - - I THINK.

― I THINK I THINK I STINK., Thursday, 24 March 2005 16:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Bastard ILX erased my fancy "greater-than / less-than" not-equals sign. That's it - I'm going back to work!

― David R. (popshots75`), Thursday, 24 March 2005 16:06 (twenty-one years ago)

The other (of many) great things about working for an ad agency is that everyone wears jeans and t-shirts all the time. Hurrah.

― Masonic Cathedral (kate), Thursday, 24 March 2005 16:22 (twenty-one years ago)

I have a co-worker who comes in at 7:30 (i know this because she mentions it almost daily), and leaves at 3:30-4ish..

I have figured out why she likes it. I know because I come in at 7:30 once in a while and she's never here at 7:30. She comes in more like 7:50, eats a bagel and reads the paper for about thirty minutes, then when people start coming in around 8:30, she starts doing work. Then she gets to leave at 3:30 or 4 and not look like a lazy jerk.

I have another co-worker who left at 5 last week and got berated by her boss for not having pride in her work. MY GOD.

I have decided I am going to become a hair dresser.

― jill schoelen is the queen of my dreams! (Homosexual II), Thursday, 24 March 2005 16:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Kate, I worked at an ad agency (and still do, sorta), and it was awful! I worked my ASS off, got chewed out for never working overtime, and had to dress business professional every day.. plus I had to suck up to BIG TIME asshole clients every day. It was awful. But it was not a "cool" ad agency. It was an evil one.

― jill schoelen is the queen of my dreams! (Homosexual II), Thursday, 24 March 2005 16:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Also the bad thing about working for an ad agency is if you lose a client (which happens quite a bit), a bunch of people get laid off. There is not much job security. I only feel slightly comfortable right now because my biggest client has signed a three-year contract with us. The agency I worked for before didn't require a contract.

― jill schoelen is the queen of my dreams! (Homosexual II), Thursday, 24 March 2005 16:48 (twenty-one years ago)

I thought the boss wouldn't be in today so I wore sneakers, jeans, and a $2 shirt I got from 01d N4vy three years ago. I have since learned that the boss will indeed be in today. Fab.

― Je4nne ƒury (Jeanne Fury), Thursday, 24 March 2005 16:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Wow, the great transcontinental divide between American ad agencies and UK ad agencies. Even the non-cool ad agencies in the UK like to pretend they are cool by being casual.

I bet you didn't even have an Office Bar!

― Masonic Cathedral (kate), Thursday, 24 March 2005 16:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Jeanne, I wondered if I could get away with Friday casual as it's the last day of my workweek, but I decided against.

― M. White (Miguelito), Thursday, 24 March 2005 16:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I tend to dress up better on Fridays because I'm going out. Of course "better" in my book usually means "worse" in the context of the office but hey.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 24 March 2005 16:52 (twenty-one years ago)

No way we had an office bar. In fact, the vice president of the company was super conservative and religious and had a huge portrait of George W. Bush up on the walls. I was brought into her office almost weekly for a weekly berating. I had to do all my own billing, tracking, follow-up, copy-writing, creative requests, and sales. IT EFFING SUCKED! Sometimes I think my current job isn't so great, but when I remember the fucking BILLING (adding on countless "fees", tracking creative hours, etc. etc.) and COLD CALLING I consider myself lucky that all I do now is manage some on-going projects for my client.

― jill schoelen is the queen of my dreams! (Homosexual II), Thursday, 24 March 2005 16:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Ugh, that sounds awful, Mandee! I've worked for three different ad agencies and never had such an awful experience. Was it a very small one that they didn't have different departments to handle these sorts of things?

― Masonic Cathedral (kate), Thursday, 24 March 2005 16:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Ha ha, I used to do this at my old job when I started at 7:30. But there was a real lack of work to be done most of the time anyway so it's not like I was avoiding work per se...

― Leon Bluth (Ex Leon), Thursday, 24 March 2005 17:01 (twenty-one years ago)

did she spread strawberry creamcheese on that bagel by any chance?

― curious., Thursday, 24 March 2005 17:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Well we had a "creative" department in los angeles who seemed totally uncreative and blase about the entire business - all they did was give attitude and they were totally unwilling to ever go the extra mile to get a good job done. All the work they produced look like total crap and if I ever needed a rush job they'd tell me basically to forget about it. My designer stayed up all night on Monday trying to finish a job. Although I felt awful that he had to do so much work, I felt grateful for someone so committed.

― jill schoelen is the queen of my dreams! (Homosexual II), Thursday, 24 March 2005 17:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I think it was plain cream cheese, actually.

― jill schoelen is the queen of my dreams! (Homosexual II), Thursday, 24 March 2005 17:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't remember the last time I was early for work...probably the day when I wanted to go to watch cricket, and had booked leave...but went in early to make a "Library is Closed" sign (in case my colleague was off-sick). I usually get in at around 9ish.

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 24 March 2005 17:12 (twenty-one years ago)

I am not your role-model.

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 24 March 2005 17:12 (twenty-one years ago)

The latest I've stayed is about 17:05, people were like "wow, what are you still doing here?".

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 24 March 2005 17:14 (twenty-one years ago)

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