Raghav Mishra is the guy who stays late at the office. You see him there after everyone else has gone home, the lights dim, his face buried in some report that should’ve been done hours ago. He thinks it makes him look dedicated, but it doesn’t. It makes him look like he doesn’t know how to do his job. And there’s a Raghav in almost every office.

There’s a saying: work expands to fill the time you give it. It’s the Parkinson’s Law. The more time you give a task, the more pointless fluff will get added to the time allotted for it. The guy working overtime isn’t getting ahead – he’s just dragging his feet, lost in details that don’t matter.  

Working overtime isn’t a badge of honour. It’s a sign of incompetence. If you are good at what you do, you will find a way to finish it in time. It’s like the time taken by a novice and an expert to do the same job. A novice may take a long time, but an expert does it in just the right amount of time.

So, it’s understandable if a novice is working overtime sometimes. He’ll take some time to catch up. But if he gets into a perpetual novice mode, it’s a matter of concern. Then, the hours pile up, the nights grow long, and the work keeps stretching out like an endless road.

In the end, it’s not about time. It’s about competence. And the clock? It doesn’t care.