Monday 5 July 2010

On the dot




Unless you are the busiest person on the planet, you'll know and embrace the term 'Clock Watching'.
All executives are all guilty of it, however well we do our jobs during the day.

The Media industry is run by the clock. YoY figures, Quarterly reports, Friday deadlines, and Monday meetings. We must all start at
9am, take lunch at 1pm and finish at 5:30.

These strict time rules are of course punctuated by:
9:01-9:30 breakfast
11:00-11:20 coffee (from outside source)
2:00-4:30 AWOL period (mandatory for sales reps)
5:00-5:30 clock watching

You may only leave 'on the dot' at 5:30 if you have verbalised throughout the day that you need to do this. 'I have to get out on time today' 'I can't be late I'm meeting someone'. You may only use this once a week or other executives could accuse you of always nipping out early and shirking. If you do not verbalise that you need to leave 'on the dot' you may only leave at 5:35. It's simple manners.

Some additional time based etiquette:
Do not call anyone before 9:30 (especially on Mondays or Fridays)
Set your Out of Office for long meetings
Never leave before an inferior member of the team. Do whatever you have to to stay. Brush teeth, check train times, re-organise desk, archive emails, delete text messages to save memory on your phone.
Remember to congratulate someone for still being there if you call later than 5:45pm.

I have observed many creative clock-watching techniques in my time as an executive. These include:

Starting to slowly pack bag at 5:25
Going for extended toilet break at 5:15
Saying 'Is it 5 o'clock already! Wow the day has gone fast' (covering your tracks).
Making a sandwich at 5:20 as you need energy for the gym / heavy night of drinking.
Scheduling 4:30 meetings and not returning.
Avoiding looking at watches or wall clocks (as you could get caught). Other clocks are available on your office phone or mobile.
Running important errands (greetings cards or postage) before the shops close.

Please feel free to add your personal methods and techniques.

It's time I clocked off.