A Gurgaon-based employee has sparked a debate on LinkedIn after explaining why he prefers leaving work late. Tanmay Jain, who works at an e-commerce enablement firm, said his decision has nothing to do with workload or toxic work culture but rather with avoiding the city’s notorious rush hour traffic.
(Also read: Cars as far as the eye can see: Viral video shows Gurgaon’s jam-packed roads, internet says ‘better than Bengaluru’)
Writing on LinkedIn, he shared, “I hate leaving office early. Not because I don’t have a life outside work. Or because my workplace is toxic. In fact, it’s one of the healthiest environments I’ve been in. The real reason? When I leave late, I don’t have to battle Gurgaon’s rush hour traffic. I arrive late. I leave late. And in doing so, I get back my mornings. Time to read, lift, play. Time to start the day with myself before giving it to work.”
He added that research backs his choice. “Psychologists like Daniel Kahneman have shown that every small drain on our mental energy hurts the quality of our decisions. An hour stuck in traffic is exactly that kind of drain. It leaves you depleted before you’ve even opened your laptop. If you have the option to tweak your timings, try it once. Escaping the rush hour might be the simplest productivity hack no one talks about.”
Check out the post here:
Reactions pour in
The post quickly attracted mixed reactions. One user commented, “Why not start early at 7 am and finish early? Why not start the day with good habits rather than ending with a bad habit. Maybe cycling to work considering all the metro web you have.”
Another said, “Wouldn’t going and leaving early be a better option, since you’re mentally and physically in a better state during the early part of the day?”
Many agreed with Jain’s stance on flexibility. As one person put it, “It calls for wiping away the old-school mindset that equates fixed hours with productivity. True efficiency often comes from flexibility, not just clocking in ‘on time’.”
Some also related to his traffic woes. A user remarked, “Used to do the same thing navigating Chennai traffic. Once you try this, you can never go back to rush hour traffic.” But another raised a family concern, asking, “When do you get a chance to spend time with your kids as by the time you reach home they are asleep. Or family time does not matter?”
Practical takes also surfaced. One person explained, “I go early, leave early or go late and leave late. Have adjusted just to dodge the traffic and to save time.”