h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What, exactly, did The Great Designer have in mind when he/she/it came up with the idea of Friday afternoons?
You can't work on them - anything momentous that needs doing will probably not be completeable in a few hours, and so will have to be left til Monday, and anything of a lower stature is instantly more trouble than it's worth. The best purpose I can find for them is to annoy everyone.
I mean, it's not as if you can just throw your work aside and go down the pub.
...
Hmm, that's a thought.

Well, he obviously had H2G2 in mind, since we both seem to write this while on payroll

I know someone who messes around here while he's doing the payroll! He hasn't managed to give me any extra hours yet though.

Clearly you have to end the working week somewhere, and Friday afternoon is the best place to do it. If you didn't work Friday afternoons, then what would be the point of Friday mornings? And if you didn't work then, what would be the point of Thursday afternoons? The only solution to this meaningless afternoon problem is to work 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. Personally, having had to work through Friday afternoon, Friday evening, Friday night, Saturday morning, afternoon, and finally going home Saturday evening in the past (during a really scary 96 hour week)- I kind of like the way things are at the moment. Friday afternoons give you some quality time to relax and dream about the weekend ahead- provided you have one.

You're absolutely right! The last couple of companies I worked for finished at 1 pm on a Friday. This meant that a couple of hours on Friday morning were spent tidying up bits 'n' pieces of work that were left from earlier in the week. The rest of the day was spent killing time. Mind you, it was nice to get home while everybody else was at work, and it also gave me some time to do some shopping without having to drag my husband round.

I finish work at 12.30pm on Fridays. When I worked Friday afternoons it was pretty leisurely, but now I finish early, I more or less work right up to finishing time.

I work Friday afternoons now, I wish for the good old days when I finished at 12.30pm.

I use Friday afternoons at work to catch up on all the fiddly little things that I haven't managed to do during the week due to other more pressing things.

Officially I can finish at 15:15 hrs - if that ever happens I am an extremely happy teddy.

I try and tie up loose ends up at work on Friday afternoon because I'll probably take a while to remember where I was on Monday morning

Surely it's where you were on Saturday night that you have trouble remembering.