Ahh summer time. Great weather, good eats, and shortened hours at the office…or not. This month marks the time hundreds thousands of bright-eyed and bushy-tailed design students clutch their gold-leafed diplomas and crawl out into the real world in search of their first jobs. Most of you (who find jobs) will find them within all different size ranges of companies. Without fail, working at each of those companies there will be THAT guy or girl. (I’ll use the male context for the rest of the article’s sake). He’s the type of guy any boss would love to hire, he’s talented, smart, hard working and willing to roll up his sleeves. He sets a great example to all the other “lazy” employees who clock out at 5 pm. THAT guy has something to prove and dag nabbit he’s going to prove it! THAT guy has been there for 2 years and somehow has seniority over everyone. That should set off a red flag, folks. THAT guy inadvertantly keeps everyone at the office later than they need to be. The other employees who wanted to leave at a decent time aren’t leaving, they’re not wanting to seem like they’re not team players. Because who needs dinner or friends or relationships, right?

Free Advice: Don’t be THAT guy. No one actually likes that guy.

Unless the deadline or project calls for it that is. If you work somewhere that is constantly having to meet trumped up deadlines and impossible feats weekly – I suggest you look for a new job. It doesn’t have to be that way. However, if you enjoy that type of lifestyle, if it makes you feel important and “busy”, then go for it. I’ll send you flowers in the hospital after your stroke or quadruple-bypass operation. On the card I’ll write a sweet little note stressing how important getting those 25 web banners done for boner pills was back in 2010. Aren’t you glad you stayed up until 4 am and finished those?

THAT guy is secretly loathed by 99% of the other designers who work with him. Some of you will disagree with me on this. I’m not condoning always leaving at the stroke (pun intended) of 5 pm. I’m completely guilty of this in my early years as a designer. Most of us are salaried employees, and this means occasionally having roll up the sleeves and put in some late hours or giving up a weekend day to get the project back on track. Deal with it. Just realize that life is short, friends are important and in Minnesota, we only get 3 months of lovely weather. So utilize them! You’ll thank me when you’re 40.

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