Here's the thing, though: my boss is fixated on 9 o'clock in the morning. People have to be logged in at work by 9 or he gets upset. But here's the rub: "logged in" doesn't mean working.
In fact, there are plenty of days when people are at work, but have forgotten to log in to the "chat" system, and so they don't show up on his computer. So he assumes they're not there and gets upset.
There are also the people who do get in before 9, log in, and then go do other things. Like socializing for 20 minutes. Or going out to get coffee. Or - as a few people do - have simply not logged out of chat the night before, so they appear to have been online for hours, even if they're not in the office. Of course, he has no problems with that because they're logged in so they must be working, right?
He also has no problem with the people who take hour-long (or longer) lunchbreaks, or multiple smoke breaks (we're talking 6 or 7 in eight hours) during the day.
But as one of the non-smokers, who doesn't go out to lunch for hours and doesn't stand around in the office chatting, I'm still watched over and glared at when I'm not available in chat by 9 on the dot. Doesn't matter if I'm at work and doing other work-related things away from my desk, either. Doesn't matter if no one wants to contact me via chat. Just matters that I'm not there.
So I do my best to be in at 9. I rush the pup's walks on days when we're running a little behind. I push the speed limit on the freeway. I coast into my desk and turn on the computer before I have my coat on.
And I really hope, some day, to once again be treated like an adult.
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