All, I am a recent 30 year old. I have worked in a few jobs in my time, and now find myself in a small indipendent IB, finally starting to enjoy my job and the time with my family. I am still amazed at this concept of 9-5. What is it? I dont mean to put forth a daft question - I do understand many regulated activites, jobs with shifts, and general 'services' run 9 to regiemes. But does this exist in the business world? Are there really industry / finance / services players that walk into the office at 9 and out at 5? And if so, how do thier business models compete with those that oull off 70+ a week? And their salaries?Sometimes i wonder if its all just a myth ...

Easy, 9-5 is when you have a job in the HR department of a small firm based in Wakefield or somewhere similar. The kind of job where, when the clock hits 5.00 exactly, you can drop everything, walk out the office, and totally forget about work until 9.00am the next working day.Sadly, most jobs in London require that you wake up at 1am each night in a cold sweat thinking about what's going to happen during your next appraisal. And we're all too anxious about keeping our jobs to risk it all by leaving the office at 5pm. After all, if you leave at 5pm you're not a team player and/or you don't work hard, right? And how are you going to pay that £300K mortgage on your 2 bed flat in Southwark if you lose your job?I think you'll find that the business models of firms which work their staff 70+ hours per week are pretty much the same as those that work their staff 35 hours per week. The difference is that the company owners go home twice as rich at the end of the year. As for the staff...? Well, 98% of them just burn out and eventually relocate to Wakefield or similar. A far cry from the vision of wealth and affluence they were promised when they graduated.

Depends what you work in. I have mates who are brokers, traders and sales people. Apart from the odd client entertainment night they work fairly regmented hours. I can't get my head around this long working hours culture. If the people around me were honest with themselves they could easily just pull the finger out and get everything done between 9 and 5.

9 - 5 is what you do if you don't pay your bills, play on the the internet, make personal calls and put in 'face time' at the office.I reckon just as much work would get done if everyone abided by the EU Working Time Directive all the time.

well, i don't work 9 - 5, i actually work 9.30 - 4.30. And I earn £129,000. As a Contractor.

"9 - 5 is what you do if you don't pay your bills, play on the the internet, make personal calls and put in 'face time' at the office. "Agreed. The majority of the work I do could be completed by 1pm. Yet, we're routinely in the office past 9pm. However, I know of a few people who stay late for the expensed evening meal.Corporate Whore - http://corporatewhore.blog.com

Dave,Not to go too off topic but is 9-5 fairly standard contracting hours? I'm keen to get in to that space if there are opportunities in change management when I have a few more yrs experience.

I used to know of one joker who would hang around the office until 10pm every night just so she looked busy and could get a taxi back home (home being about 15 mins away from the office by tube). That kind of behaviour really kills office morale. What's the point of working hard if your office has a culture where everyone stays until 10pm every night regardless? The worst part was that she wasn't unassertive (that at least can perhaps be excused) - she was instead just trying to look important whilst actually contributing very little. I know it's easier said than done, but try and assert yourselves! If you can get the job done by 4pm, then don't be bashful about letting people know you've done your bit and can be reached on your mobile phone if they need you. Obviously be proactive and offer help with other things if you do finish very early (e.g. marketing work), but be task focused - don't hang around the office if you really don't have anything to do. People will respect you more for it.