Yep. And people here harp on unions a lot, but we owe two-day weekends to unions.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottwinship/2014/10/20/has-ineq...
How else do you interpret "the wedge" except as the failure of labor to advocate strongly enough for its interests?
Seriously, the only reason people have that perception is because big companies have the money to run smear campaigns against labor.
(I'm doing that right now.)
My goal as a manager is to promote better work hygiene in my employees. Which was supposed to be the point of my comment, probably should have left off how I personally have dealt with this.
One of my employees does this by spending the morning hours managing his inbox and otherwise catching up. Additionally, he always makes a fresh pot of coffee right when getting in. The coffee maker has a 2 hour heat timer, so when it dings at 8:30am it's a clear indication he was in the office early.
You don't have to be blatant. He isn't, but he's well known as the guy in the office that likes working super early, and no one gets bent when he steps out of the office by 4pm. They occasionally whine about how it's unfair he's a morning person and gets to enjoy the afternoon sun, but it's jovial joking about their night owl habits compared to his morning habits.
Basically, having a good team that understands and respects each other is the key. If you don't have that you miss out on many of the good parts.
Are you sure about that? You're a manager. Responding to your parent comment about managing worker's perceptions of their team members: In the case that someone wants to leave at 3 because they got there at 6, why not just explain to everyone that it is, in fact, okay (or even encouraged)?
"Hey guys, I know we are an non-profitable early-stage startup, but do you think we could all try to stick to 8 hour work days?"
I find it interesting that everyone always assumes that working more hours means less quality of life. I thoroughly enjoy my job, so spending more time doing it does not detract from anything.
"Only 13 percent of people worldwide actually like going to work"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-leadership/wp/2013/10...
I actually feel like I'd be bothering my boss by asking him to leave early. Sometimes he asks me if I'll be in at 3pm or whatever for some meeting that may or may not move a needle, just to send the message that no, I'm not expected to be at my desk all day.
Because my work generally impacts no one else in the company, unless there's a fire I rarely interact with them on anything other than a social level, no one knows or cares when I get in or leave. It's just a perception-management game that I'm pretty good at. Projecting competence goes a very long way towards allowing you leeway to claw back on expectations.
It's better to not condition your manager to think this is acceptable early on, or it quickly becomes something you can be forced to do regularly.
I do agree that if that's the case, you definitely shouldn't be putting in a continuous 12, because it's almost guaranteed your management isn't.
The worse case is when they want presence, and as a result, people stay at work long hours reloading the internet. There's no point in that, which is why it's important to just measure results, not effort.
I have been giving this advice to quite a few people lately, both inside and outside my company.
As a manager I feel that my team's productivity benefits more from "work hygiene" than from long hours, but we have a few team members who have come under scrutiny because of perceived short hours.
My advice to them is always, "I trust that you are doing your best as a part of the team. But remember, the teams perception is what matters. And when you leave at 3 it looks like you are slacking. No one knows you got here at 6 because they weren't here. So rather than changing your behavior, work on changing their perception."