It's National 4pm Finish Day - here's how to convince your boss to agree

I would say, with a wavering confidence, that the most common time to leave any office is 5pm. They made a song about it. But as it happens, that’s not the way it goes, in actuality - people leave the office at wildly different times all over the country. Some leave at 6, others at 9, some at midnight, and others, 4.45am when they’ve fallen asleep in the broom cupboard again.

But wouldn’t it be nice to leave at 4pm? I know I’d like to - pack up your stuff, extend a forearm, mimic a Lego-person-hand and walk into a pub by ten minutes past. What a wonderful end to the day - perfect, some may say.

But ya can’t, can ya? Cos your boss has just banged a thick stack of TPS reports onto your desk, the gust dislodging your fringe, the pile flattening that origami crane you spent an hour making when you should have been working - you’re gonna be here for a loooong time, baby.

So how do you convince your boss to let you slink off at 4 like an absolute postman?

Well, rejoice, because it’s National #4pmFinish Day today, so you actually can stroll on outta your pod at sixteen o’clock, you lucky sod. And it’s all thanks to Red Bull, who came up with the idea, not just to give everyone a couple more pints in the poob, but also to increase productivity throughout the day. 

They say:

“It’s a day where we all head out of the office a bit earlier so we can do more of the things that are important to us after being more productive with our time in the office.”

Like, if you know you’ve got a couple fewer hours in your working day, maybe you’ll bang it all out more efficiently, rather than reading every single entry on this Wikipedia page or something.

Now all you’ve got to do is convince your boss to let you slink out at 4 - it’ll take some doing, but I reckon you can manage it. I have faith. 

If the whole Red-Bull-said-so, #4pmFinish thing doesn’t work, then the one I always use, is to jolt out of your chair suddenly, eyes wide open, then immediately penguin-walk out the office really quickly with one fist punched into the arse of your trousers. Nobody ever asks any questions if you don’t come back.

I mean they did at my last job because I did it on the dot at 4 every single day, but still, it works in moderation.

(Image:)