I've only spoken English for 53 years, so help me out here. If something is 'due by Friday', do I have until 11:59 PM Thursday night to submit it, or do I have until 11:59 PM Friday night to submit it?

Friday before close of business.

If it's work related, drop dead is end of business. I'd say 5PM Friday.

That said, it doesn't look good to wait until the very last moment.

For me, due by Friday means around noon, if not earlier.

Before Friday implies by close of business Thursday.

By Friday implies by close of business Friday. (Or some other mutually understood point of time in Friday, like the weekly meeting at 1:00 pm Friday when that specific report is always discussed, or whatever.)

Well, it looks like I was wrong! Thank's for clearing that up. I always took 'by Friday' as due before Friday.

Friday by close of business in my opinion.

It is unclear and depends on your businesses standard practices. But "by Friday" would be on Friday by COB to me.

Personally when giving direction, I give the person a time / date, then follow it up with a calendar reminder for us both. Then there is no question (or more appropriately, there SHOULD be no question) as to when it's due.

Even then, people fuck it up. Part of the reason I have it due at least 24 hrs before I really want it done.

Due on/by, is interchangeable IMO. Of course the latter meaning you can send it before or on Friday.
As long as the date still says Friday, and that the place is available to take it.

Due before Friday would be Thursday.

I worked for a guy that if a meeting was sheduled, as in you had to be there in person, by noon, you had better be in the parking lot by 1130 and in the office by 1145,

if a report was due on Friday, and you were given that notice on Monday, it best be in by Thursday AM, (he was off Wed)


he was actually one of the best people I ever worked for

Close of business Friday.

If a rule/statute/order says something is due by Friday, that means by COB Friday (which is whenever the clerk closes for the day - not my office).

So yes, by Friday = COB Friday. Before Friday = COB Thursday.

-Rob

Based on my old bosses it means by the end of that business day, 5pm for us drones. More than one boss were proponents of Lombardi Time.
“Be happy in your work” Col. Saito
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If you want to understand English better, learn Spanish.

quote:

Originally posted by darthfuster:
If you want to understand English better, learn Spanish.

es la verdad!

My Manager does this all the time

To him it really means he wants it done by yesterday

'If I had wanted it tomorrow, I would have asked for it tomorrow...'

Due by Friday means it needs to be ready at beginning of Thursday's work day.

If it was "due Friday", I'd say that was by end of the work day...Friday.

Absent other context I think some of the above is stretching it. All by itself "due by Friday" means exactly that, by 11:59pm Friday. There is no "close of business" or other hidden context embedded in that phrase by itself. Now it may have some context depending on what surrounds it, like who said or wrote it etc. etc. But absent other details if someone told me my project is due by friday I would feel 100% ok if I sent it off at 11:59.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
Before Friday implies by close of business Thursday.

By Friday implies by close of business Friday. (Or some other mutually understood point of time in Friday, like the weekly meeting at 1:00 pm Friday when that specific report is always discussed, or whatever.)

As a PM, this is how I read it too

In the absence of clarity, I would assume "by Friday" means no later than 11:59pm Thursday.

Conversely, if the deadline was "by COB Friday" or any variation thereof, I'd assume it was due by 4:59pm Friday.

If the intent of the OP's phrasing example was that it was actually due by COB/EOD Friday, I consider it ambiguously wrong and in need of additional information.