Work-life balance: Executives who leave the office before dark

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They walk the walk when it comes to work-life balance. Jason Fried, CEO of Basecamp, pictured.Flickr/Jason McELweenie

Working long hours has become a status symbol in the US.

Sometimes that example is set by a company"s top executives, who are in the office from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., then sending emails until midnight.

But some execs are forging a different path, showing the importance of work-life balance by limiting their hours in the office. Below, find six execs who have spoken publicly about their commitment to leaving their desk at a reasonable hour.

True, most of these execs log on before and/or after they"re physically in the office, but they value flexibility in terms of hours and location — not only for themselves, but also for their employees.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg leaves the office at 5:30 p.m. sharp every day.

Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

"I walk out of this office every day at 5:30 so I"m home for dinner with my kids at 6," Sandberg said in a 2012 Makers interview.

According to Fortune, Sandberg sometimes gets to the office by 7 a.m. — and she"s already been sending emails for an hour. And after the kids are in bed or the night, she"ll generally head back to her inbox.

In the 2012 interview, Sandberg said it took her a while to feel "brave enough" to talk about his practice publicly.

VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger earns "points" for getting home by 5 p.m.

VMware

Years before joining VMware, Gelsinger worked at Intel, where he"d regularly log 80-hour workweeks.

But for the past 25 ears, Gelsinger told The Wall Street Journal, his secretary has kept a chart tracking the points he earns based on how much time he spends with his family.

Here"s an example of how it works: If he arrives home by 6:30 p.m., he earns a point. If he arrives home by 5 p.m., he earns two points. If he"s away from home on the weekend, he has points deducted.

Gelsinger, who is the author of the 2003 book "The Juggling Act: Bringing Balance to Your Faith, Family, and Work," said the rules have changed somewhat since his kids left home.

"If you have kids, 6 to 9 p.m. is gold. Do not squander it. You might get back on email at 9 p.m., or be doing Javascript at midnight, but make sure you carve those hours out [for family time] and protect those," Gelsinger told Business Insider"s Julie Bort.

Zillow Group CEO Spencer Rascoff tries to be home by 7 p.m. every night.

Courtesy of Zillow

In a 2017 interview with Glassdoor, Rascoff said that at 7 p.m., "I am almost always with the kids and my wife unless I’m on a business trip. At 7 p.m., I am usually running around my house chasing my three young kids and two dogs and trying to turn mayhem into order."

Rascoff also wrote an article for Fortune in which he explained why he doesn"t expect Zillow employees to be working 24/7, like he did in the early days of Hotwire, the company he cofounded in 1999. Instead, Rascoff wrote that Zillow understands "each of us is a whole person and lives for more than just our jobs."

Google SVP of platforms and ecosystems Hiroshi Lockheimer is at the office from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. every day.

Hiroshi Lockheimer

Lockheimer told Business Insider"s Aine Cain that he drops off his two kids at school every morning before going to work. "That"s almost religious for me. That"s something I really enjoy doing and I insist on doing," he said. He generally gets to the office around 9 a.m.

Lockheimer typically leaves the office at 5:30 p.m. so he can eat dinner with his family. Like Sandberg, once the kids are in bed, he"ll grab his laptop to catch up on work.

Weebly CFO Kim Jabal limits her office hours to between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Weebly

Jabal previously shared her daily work schedule with Business Insider: "Home an hour in the morning, get kids to school, work in the office 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., have dinner with kids, work three hours at night."

Jabal acknowledged that it can be hard to maintain these hours if your organization doesn"t offer some flexibility. "Rigid work hours and work location make it much more challenging," she said.

Basecamp CEO Jason Fried tells all his employees they shouldn"t be working more than 40 hours a week.

Most of Basecamp"s employees work remotely, so technically there"s no central office to leave.

In an interview with The New York Times, Fried said he doesn"t buy into the idea that working longer hours means working harder: "[W]e"re opposed to the prevailing idea in our industry that you have to work 60, 70, 80 hours a week to do a good job. We believe 40 is enough."

Basecamp is unique among tech companies in that it offers a $5,000 annual vacation stipend and shortened four-day, 32-hour weeks during the summer, among other perks, Business Insider"s Chris Weller reported.

Fried told me in 2016 that pushing people to work longer and longer hours is "not sustainable or fair. Your company doesn"t own anything more than 40 hours [a week] of your time."

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