When I used to work regular day shifts, I mostly started at 8 and finished at 5. I’ve also had jobs that started at 9 with no break in between and ended at 5, and right after graduation I even did an evening shift from 12:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Looking back, I feel like I’ve tried pretty much every possible daytime schedule.

I took that evening shift because I had just graduated and wasn’t very good at riding a scooter yet. I found a cram school right near my house that I could walk to, and starting at 12:30 felt like a dream—I could sleep in, eat slowly, and still get to work on time. At first it seemed pretty nice, but after a while I realized it wasn’t what I thought.

Finishing at 8:30 p.m. meant getting home around 9. After dinner, a shower, and some phone time, it was already 11 or 12. The next day I’d want to sleep in because I’d gone to bed late, and the cycle of late nights and late mornings continued. My whole life felt stretched along a long timeline dictated by work, with almost no time that truly felt like my own. In the end I felt dazed every day, and that wasn’t the kind of life I wanted.

After leaving that cram school, most of my later jobs started at 8, and even earlier in the steel industry I started at 7:30. That extra half hour counted as overtime, so I got used to the “start early, finish early” routine. At least after 5 p.m. there was still plenty of evening left to do my own things—whether eating, exercising, writing, managing my IG, or just lying around at home. That felt like real personal time.

So when I joined my current company and encountered the 8:30 start time, it actually felt pretty novel. A lot of companies start at 8 and finish at 5, and after 5 it can get awkward if you suddenly need purchasing to contact a supplier or check on something with an outside party—because the other side might already be off work. With an 8:30 start, the whole workday is simply shifted later, but suppliers don’t necessarily shift their hours too. It made me wonder what the real reason for the 8:30 start was.

Maybe it’s like the company’s other staggered-hour policies—meant to avoid morning rush hour, or to let different departments operate on offset schedules. I don’t actually know the exact reason; every company has its own considerations.

But if you ask me which schedule I prefer, I still like the 8-to-5 arrangement better.

It’s not that I especially enjoy waking up early; I just really like the idea of finishing work early. Waking up half an hour earlier in the morning doesn’t mean much to me, but leaving the office half an hour earlier in the afternoon is completely different. I could have an extra dinner, write a bit more, do more of the things I want to do, or simply get home earlier and feel like I still have a little time that’s mine.

From my experience with the evening shift, I already deeply understood how “finishing too late eats up your life,” so now I really treasure the days I can leave early.

Of course every company has its own system. Since I chose to join, I just have to get used to it and follow the local customs—8:30 it is. I only hope I won’t end up with the combination of “start at 8:30 and then keep working overtime until who knows when.” If that happened, the personal time I want would probably have to say goodbye to me in tears.

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【Workplace Life】What time do you usually start work?

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