The Art of Leaving!

The art of leaving office after work is indeed a complex, metaphysical, psychosomatic process, which can only be mastered through a structured program, a la the art of living of Sri Sri Ravishankar ji. Whenever we leave office only, colleagues will have "urgent deliverables that need to be vetted by us" or managers would call for "meetings to discuss strategy for seamless integration of trainee associates". I am sure Dilbert faced the same problem too in his bounty corporate career but let us keep him aside for a moment. In this simple article, I intend to share some of the "best practices" I follow to accelerate the process of leaving office on time.

1) Start sending signals half an hour before exit. Make yourself a bit jittery, talk about traffic, some procession happening, weather, crowd at junctions etc. Send chaotic signals to make people understand you are leaving in the next 15 - 30 minutes!
2) Decline meeting requests (am serious) which may border the exit time. Cajole your colleagues also to decline meeting requests so that you don't stand as odd one out ;)
3) Go around the bays and talk to people, asking them when they were leaving, since it's about closing time at work and that everyone has to leave.
4) Talk about human rights, labour laws, 8 hour work shifts etc loud in such a way that the HR bay would also be able to hear. If HR sit in separate buildings, forward key labour rules as normal forwards to someone in HR so they may do the needful of forwarding it to their team members!!

5) One could also be proactive in starting preparations to leave for the day, right from lunch (isn't this getting better?!) After the lunch break, remind people half the day was over and that only 3 or 4 more hours are left for the work day to get over.

Is there more in your mind that could be added to the best practices list?, please do let me know.