General Etiquette > All In A Day's Work

Leaving the Office - Only One With Keys Frustrating Update pg. 4

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dirtyweasel:
On Friday I ran into a situation at work in which I wasn't sure what to do.

On Friday afternoon everyone in my office had left for the day except for my boss, my coworker and myself.  About half an hour before the end of the day my boss left and encouraged us to leave as well since everything was done for the day.  I was in total agreement, but my coworker wanted to stay for another half hour in order to get her forty hours for the week.  The problem?  She doesn't have a set of keys for the office and I do.

I didn't know what to do because I know she has money problems at home so I know she needs every penny, but at the same time I didn't have any work to do so I was basically wasting time while she finished up what she was doing.  I'm not comfortable lending out my office keys to her because she's a brand new employee and while she seems like a decent person it's not my place to lend out office keys to new people.  Plus, we work in a field where we handle a LOT of private information (Social Security numbers, medical information, etc.) so if anything happens and information gets compromised I could potentially be fired and my company fined a huge amount.

We ended up staying for the full half hour and I finally said, "Okay, it's time to leave," but she still made me stay a few extra minutes while she finished up what she was doing. 

What could I have said to let her know that it was time to go?

Would it have been okay to let her know a half hour before closing  that I was leaving and she needed to too?

Hmmmmm:
I believe the boss should have said the office was closing early and insisted every one go home or said it was up to the employees if they wanted to leave early and made sure someone with keys was ok with staying till the office's official closing time. 

I do not believe the employee wanting to get her entire 40 hours in did anything wrong nor should have been pressured to leave if there was no official early closing. 

Cleargleam:
Does the office door lock only with a key? If not, there seems to be no obstacle to the coworker staying late and letting herself out. If not, then the co-worker needs to make arrangements (beyond guilt trip) or somebody to stay - whether in the form of temporary keys or otherwise. Making somebody stay on her behalf seems presumptuous.

Outdoor Girl:
I don't blame your coworker making sure she got paid for all her hours but I would have clarified with boss on his way out whether or not I was still getting paid for the half hour early I was leaving.  Whenever I've been let go early, I still got paid because I was prepared to stay.  And then, depending on boss's answer, reminded him that coworker didn't have keys to lock up.

Would you be comfortable going to your boss on Monday and letting him know what happened?  And asking him to get coworker her own set of keys?

TootsNYC:
When I'm the boss in that situation, I pay people for their 40 hours, even if I release them early. You might ask boss to clarify.

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