Late Nights Are a Signal to JOs, Not a Standard

As a battalion S-3, I kicked people out of my office at 4:55 p.m.

If someone needed to stay after 5:00 p.m., that required my approval. I used that rule because I wanted to know when the system was failing. Staff work is demanding, and late nights gave me a way to see where the system was breaking down. Late nights could mean we were overworked. It could mean I had given poor guidance. It could mean a section did not have what it needed. It could mean we had built habits that rewarded visible exhaustion more than disciplined execution. Staying late was information, not proof of commitment.

Junior officers learn quickly what an organization values. They learn it from what leaders tolerate. If a staff stays late every night and leaders praise the grind, junior officers absorb the lesson. They learn that being seen at a desk after duty hours carries more value than setting priorities, giving clear guidance, and building a team that can execute within a normal duty day. That lesson creates performative busyness, weak time management, and a culture where support problems stay hidden until they become personnel problems.

Most junior officers will read that and ask a fair question: What do I do if this is already the culture of the staff I am on? Start by reading the pattern correctly. Recurring late nights usually reveal a leadership and systems problem before they reveal a character problem. A lieutenant or captain who stays until 2100 every night may be dedicated. That same officer may also be unsupported, poorly directed, or trapped in a staff that confuses urgency with importance. Seeing the distinction gives junior officers a way to act with more precision.

A staff that works hard and leaves on time sends a different message. It says the team can prioritize, leaders are making decisions, deadlines are real, guidance is clear, and support is present. It also says people are expected to produce, not linger. Leaders have to deliberately build that culture. Junior officers can reinforce it from inside the formation.

My rule forced conversations that would not have happened otherwise. If someone needed extra time to finish a task, I wanted to know why. Was the task truly urgent? Did the officer misunderstand the standard? Did I assign too much for the time available? Did another section create friction we had ignored for weeks? Was the product redone three times because my guidance was unclear? Every request to stay late gave me a better picture of how the staff was functioning. Over time, those requests showed patterns. Some problems belonged to individual discipline. Many belonged to me.

Real operations do not respect release times. Orders change, missions expand, and higher headquarters issue short-notice requirements. A commander needs a product before first light. Army units will always have nights when the staff must lean in and finish the job. The issue is routine. Once staying late becomes normal, leaders should treat it as a diagnostic. Junior officers should do the same.

What Usually Drives Recurring Late Nights

Poor prioritization. Staff sections often keep too many tasks alive at once. Everything stays open. Nothing gets killed. Officers chase five products, ten emails, and three side conversations, then wonder why they are still sitting at a desk after retreat. Leaders must impose order. Junior officers can help by asking a simple question early: What must be done today, what can wait until tomorrow, and what should stop?

Weak guidance. A staff will waste hours fixing products that should have been framed correctly from the start. Unclear commander’s intent, vague standards, and shifting requirements destroy time. A leader who says, “Get me something,” should expect rework. Rework drives late nights. Late nights drive frustration. Frustration becomes culture. Junior officers can reduce some of that waste by giving early drafts, confirming the standard, and exposing ambiguity before the suspense expires.

Unsupported people. Some officers and noncommissioned officers stay late because they are carrying work that should have been shared, delegated, or resourced better. A battle captain buried in updates, a plans officer rewriting slides alone, or a section leader fixing products for subordinates every night is showing the organization something important. Leaders need to see it and act on it. Junior officers need to name the friction clearly enough that a senior can actually fix it.

How Junior Officers Can Respond to Staff Culture

Read the demand signal. A late task is not automatically urgent. Some products have a true operational deadline. Many have an administrative deadline that drifted because no one made a decision at noon. Junior officers should get in the habit of asking what decision the product supports, when that decision will occur, and what version is good enough for the next echelon. Those questions sharpen priorities without sounding defensive.

Force prioritization upward. When requirements collide, say so early and specifically. Tell your boss which task will slip, what risks will follow, and what recommendation you have. Senior leaders often believe they have given clear priorities when they have only stated preferences. Junior officers help the staff most when they surface collisions while there is still time to decide.

Give drafts early. Waiting until a product feels perfect usually produces two bad outcomes. The draft arrives late, and the senior leader changes the frame after hours. A rough draft at 1400 often saves a midnight rewrite. Junior officers who send earlier working versions create decision space for their boss and predictability for the team.

Protect your section’s time. If you lead a small team, do not pass every late task straight through to your subordinates. Take a minute to sort what is truly due tonight, what can be staged for the morning, and what guidance your team needs before they start. Junior leaders establish culture fast through small release decisions. People remember who preserved their time and who burned it carelessly.

Fix your own habits. Some late nights come from poor systems. Some come from weak personal discipline. Junior officers should look honestly at both. Sloppy note-taking, poor file management, unclear emails, and procrastination create avoidable friction. Tight personal habits do not solve a broken staff, but they do make it easier to identify what the system is really doing to you.

What After-Hours Texting Signals

Brig. Gen. Milford Beagle Jr. captured one piece of this problem when he directed leaders in the 10th Mountain Division to stop sending routine work texts before 5:00 a.m. and after 6:00 p.m. unless mission requirements demanded it. He recognized that communication habits shape command climate. A routine text at 2030 about tomorrow’s slide deck reaches farther than the phone screen. It tells subordinates to stay mentally on duty. It tells spouses and families that the unit can intrude at will. It tells junior leaders that predictability is optional.

Leaders should think hard about the signals they send after hours. Walking around at 1900 and thanking everyone for grinding may feel supportive. It may also normalize failure. Sending late messages to show engagement creates the same effect. People will build their lives around whatever a leader repeats. If a staff must stay late for a real mission requirement, own that and explain it. If the staff stayed late because the system was sloppy, fix the system and stop praising the symptom.

The Standard Junior Officers Should Carry Forward

The Army talks often about taking care of people. Culture is one place where leaders prove whether they mean it—on staff, in a company headquarters, or in a platoon. Taking care of people means building a team that can meet standards without wasting lives at a desk. It means respecting families enough to stop treating preventable late nights as routine. It means understanding that an officer who goes home on time after finishing the mission has shown discipline, judgment, and respect for the team.

Junior officers should remember one point. Culture forms in the small decisions leaders make every day. A release standard, a requirement to justify after-hours work, a disciplined text policy, and a willingness to ask what drove the delay can shape a staff more than one speech about balance ever will. My rule at 4:55 p.m. was never about the clock. It was about forcing the organization to show me where it was strong and where I was failing.

LTC Michael Carvelli twice led Soldiers in combat, first as a Sapper Platoon Leader in the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team and second as a Company Commander in the 6th Engineer Battalion (Combat) (Airborne), both in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom.

Photo: Courtesy of DVIDS. Spc. Jesus Menchaca, 7th Army Training Command. 27 October 2023.