The problem: Every night, your workaholic boss is still glued to the computer when you need to leave. How to go home without looking like a slacker?
slacker：懒鬼
Should you sneak out, hoping to avoid a six o'clock showdown in the hall? Guiltily apologize, promising to be on email all night? Or just walk straight toward the door in the most professional way you can?
sneak out：偷偷溜走
Many hard-working employees have an even harder-working boss who toils late into the night. Career coaches and employees who have been there say the first priority should be conveying that you are still working hard -- and good at your job. That requires communicating clearly and frequently about your progress and results. Ideally, you want to figure out what the boss really needs and deliver it consistently enough that your hours become a non-issue.
toil：过度劳累，辛苦工作
Many employees assume managers value people for working day and night, and workplace trends support that belief: Two-thirds of workers are putting in much longer hours on the job than five years ago, according to a poll of 325 employees last fall by Right Management, Milwaukee, a talent and career-management company.
But before you get too hung up on work hours, check your assumptions about what the boss wants, says Cali Williams Yost, chief executive officer of Flex + Strategy Group, a Madison, N.J., training and consulting firm. Managers work long hours for a variety of reasons: It may be a personal habit or preference, or perhaps they just don't want to go home. 'People make way too many guesses about managers' expectations that are just wrong,' Ms. Yost says.
Bosses are often taken aback by employees' focus on their schedules. Betty Enyonam Kumahor often works 14-hour days, emailing and calling contacts around the world. 'My teams started tracking how many hours they thought I slept each night, based on my email 'send' times,' says Ms. Kumahor, a regional managing director in Atlanta for ThoughtWorks, a software-development company. 'They asked me jokingly, 'Do you ever sleep?'' She assured employees she would stop sending so many late-night and early-morning emails so they didn't have to extend their hours to respond.
When managers focus on employees' work hours, they are often looking for reassurance on other fronts: that their subordinates are meeting deadlines; that they can be reached when needed, and that they aren't creating extra work for colleagues, Ms. Yost says.
reassurance：使安心，再保证
Rich Gee's boss on a former job took him aside and criticized him for leaving the office at 5 p.m., says Mr. Gee, a Stamford, Conn., executive coach. The manager acknowledged that Mr. Gee was meeting deadlines and delivering good work; he arrived at the office at 6:30 a.m., two hours before his co-workers. The boss seemed nervous, however, that Mr. Gee wouldn't be available when needed. Mr. Gee said he could be reached 24/7 by cellphone, and pointed out that he always responded quickly to emergency requests.
He continued to leave the office at 5 p.m., but updated his boss often on his progress and results and checked in every evening before he left. In time, he says, his boss 'saw that it wasn't hours that mattered -- it was how hard I worked.'
One key to Mr. Gee's solution: healthy communication. Employees should sit down with their bosses and ask them to define job objectives and time lines for reaching them, says Pat Katepoo, the Kaneohe, Hawaii-based owner of WorkOptions, a consulting firm. Then 'look for natural times to communicate about your progress, when you have a staff meeting or you're walking by or writing an email,' says Ms. Katepoo.
There are many ways to project a hard-working image. If a manager speaks about a project in an intense, focused way, answer with similar intensity, acknowledging its importance and repeating the deadline, says Anne Brown, an advertising executive who has written about how young employees can deal with workaholic bosses in a book, 'Grad to Great,' and on a website she co-founded, GradtoGreat. Manage time well in one-on-one meetings, moving quickly through your agenda, adds Ms. Brown, of Kansas City, Mo. And, of course, be prepared to work long hours during a crisis or busy season, or when a major project deadline is looming.
In some cases, shifting your work hours can help. At companies where managers focus on face time, employees who work 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. -- when more people are present -- are more likely to get noticed than those who work 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Executive coach Michael Melcher was told in a previous job at an investment bank that 'I wasn't working long enough hours,' he says. 'I started coming in later and staying later,' he says. 'A couple of months later, my boss said, 'It hasn't gone unnoticed that you're putting in additional hours.' '
Faking a presence at the office, however, doesn't work. Throwing your coat over your chair as if you just stepped away, then leaving for the day, is likely to backfire, Ms. Yost says. Colleagues will 'think you're there and run around like crazy people trying to find you.'
Another nonstarter, says Mr. Melcher, an executive coach with Next Step Partners, New York, is 'being a whiny complainer, with a lot of exasperated sighs, saying you're working your fingers to the bone. Nobody wants to hear that.'
In some professions, working long hours is unavoidable. Certain firms' cultures breed intense competition and long hours among new hires, says Julie Cohen, a Philadelphia career and personal coach. Others have unwritten cultural rules, such as, 'Nobody leaves the office before the boss leaves,' she says. It is wise to prove yourself on the job for at least six months and ask a mentor for advice before exploring shorter hours, Ms. Cohen says. 'You might be stepping into a minefield if you don't understand the ins and outs of the organization.'
To get the most out of a negotiation about hours, Mr. Melcher says, think in advance about the boss's needs, and bring specifics documenting your own performance. Start on a positive note, talking about what's going well. Ask what the boss expects of employees when it comes to work hours and responding to email. To propose solutions, Mr. Melcher recommends the 'yes . . . and' technique: Affirm the boss's point, and then state your own. For example: 'Yes, I want you to be able to rely on me after hours. And since I have young twins, it is important to me to be home between 5:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. and spend that time with family. I could respond to you between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. How does that sound?'
Such conversations can open a dialogue -- or expose a brick wall. When project manager Ashanti Stanford raised the issue with a boss at a previous job, the manager rolled her eyes and sighed. 'The expectation was, 'I have to work these hours, so why are you complaining?'' Ms. Stanford says. She has since moved on to a job with better hours.
brick wall：砖墙