Don’t Deny It – Everyone is Guilty of Leave-the-Office Early Pangs

I wasn’t always a manager. I have a long history of working well beyond the stipulated hours. There were phases when work would absolutely consume me, ensuring I never checked the time. However, a decade of work-life seems to have changed something, somewhere. Now, like many other colleagues, and all of my fellow team handlers, I have started suffering from monthly bouts of leaving-the-office early pangs. Please understand that this has very little similarity with hoping the work-day gets easier, less demanding, or gets over quickly. Leaving- office-early symptoms stem from this sudden urge that makes you plot in the most conniving manner to ensure you can leave the workplace prematurely without getting noticed in any way, without affecting your workload for the day.

 

Some common symptoms of leaving-the-office bug include:

• Incessant need to leave office premises early without any plans for the day
• Overactive mind starts assuming less time-at-office is somehow winning a duel [with LIFE?] 
• Sudden hope that leaving-workplace-early will drastically improve the quality of life
• Urge to exit the premises early without any discomfort, pain, or anything upsetting 
• Restless legs that want to get moving, express extreme hostility towards being seated
• Sudden realization that your ecosystem still seems like an absolute stranger
• Spurt in visions of grandeur that make you question the objective of the current occupation

 

A Few Tips to Handle Must-Leave-Work Early Syndrome or Attack:

• Never share it with anyone at work – it makes you look childishly unprofessional
• Try to think things you would be able to do if you leave early – if this is not a long list, you are overthinking the advantages
• Take the time for a quick stroll – keeps the circulation going and might help dampen this anxiety-sorts
• Give yourself one hour to regain composure – have a coffee, make a call, get some sunlight on your face. Sometimes this works like magic!
• Don’t stick to your seat – you are probably not loving it at this moment. Get-up and move around, socialize a bit with your team. Catch-up on desk management that you had been ignoring
• Don’t overload on a sweet bite – this can heighten the anxiety. Yes, you might want to chew some gum
• Stop bitching about what could have been better – this is a one-day thing. Don’t overdo it and never get melodramatic or melancholy about it
• Don’t compare with your friends whose workplaces allow more flexibility in this regard – THIS IS A THUMB RULE!!

 

Must Try: take a few minutes off the daily scheduled tasks and try to test your observation powers. This hardly takes 5 minutes. For instance, I have tried this to disengage the leave-workplace-early mindset by counting the textures in and around a cup of tea!