I encountered this conflict with my colleague during my internship in an organization at Woodland. As I lived in NUS, it took me 2 hours per trip for traveling. Although I left work at 6pm, by the time I reached home, it was 8pm plus already. My supervisor was very nice to me, she allowed me to leave half an hour earlier as long as I finished my work. So, I was quite enjoyable for my first two weeks at work -- doing my job “fast and sweet” and arriving home by 7:30pm to have dinner with my roommates.
However, things changed after another intern came in. He was responsible and attentive to work, but sometimes he was so attentive that he stayed at work until 7pm and later. I didn’t know whether it was because he lived in woodland, 5 minutes from work, or he really loved the job; he seemed to be fine with stay late and even made it later and later. I didn’t pay much attention at first, but as time passed by, I started to feel uncomfortable to leave when he was still working. I can’t help thinking, what would the other people think of me? My supervisor would think I was neither dedicated to my work nor a team player. My colleague would think I threw all my work to him and left earlier myself. I would become the “bad person” in the office. So I offered to help him, but found there was nothing much I could do. He was slow not because there was too much work, but he was too careful to everything. Actually, he also urged me to leave earlier because he understood I lived far from work.
I was put into this situation that I had no problem with my colleague, and neither of us did things wrong. But I couldn’t just ignore it because it bothered me. What should I do?
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4 comments:
Frankly, if I was an employee in this organization, I would try to follow their working hours. I might say "Thank You" to my manager for his kind consideration, but I would leave on time. I do not want to be an exception. However, in your case, you were taking an internship rather than working there. So maybe it could be more flexible. You can leave 5 or 10 minutes earlier but do not leave too early. In this way, I think both your supervisor and colleagues could understand you and would not put you in their "bad person" lists.
You can tell your supervisor about your concerns. Explain to him/her about the situation and see what he/she have to say. If he/she is still ok with you leaving early, then it's alright. Or you can also tell your supervisor that you would like to stick to the original 6pm, since that's the official knock-off time. That way, you don't feel bad by leaving early.
I think that it is advisable to leave only after your working hours. By doing so, you would not need to feel worried about whether your other colleagues will think badly of you. However, if your supervisor has no objections of you leaving early, I do not think that it would really be a problem because you have already finished your work.
If I were you, I would knock off on time so as not to be seen to be treated to preferential treatment. If you are really keen to reach home early, you could have "test the waters" by asking if the supervisor mind keeping to the original arrangements. As long as you fulfil your job responsibilities, I'm sure your colleagues and supervisor would have no issue against your early departure.
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