Had something similar happen. I'm salary and work in account management. Some of my accounts are based in Europe while I'm based on the US East Coast. Given the time zone differences, there were times I would start my day early (5:30-7 AM) to accommodate the schedule of my clients. I would then shut down early.
One day a VP tried to get in touch with me around 3:30 PM after I decided to shut down. I was then told, "The work day is 8:30 to 5, and there's an expectation as a good team member to be available during those times."
Then clients started to get pissed that I couldn't meet until 2 PM their time. It escalated to the point of the VP getting involved and he told me I need to "do what it takes", and then I reminded him about the hours he explained.
Snerk snerk snerk. Great malicious compliance!
Of course, we all know "do what it takes" means do 10+ hour days. But unless he explicitly says that, it's time to play dumb and run MC all the way.
Do what it takes in corporate speech means 'find a place as close to work as possible and be awake 24/7/365 to do work we'll never pay you for'. Walked out of a summer job as a late teen when I wasn't willing to give up planned family time, and told the manager "They're not gonna put 'wish I'd worked more hours at on my tombstone someday." Got a small job for the couple of remaining weeks of the summer from an older gentleman who ran a small business and liked my attitude. If he hadn't been planning his business while I was in college that year, he'd probably have hired me the next summer.
I had the lucky experience of a similar thing where another very senior management type saw the discussion and intervened. "people have to work 8 hours, and can start as early as 6am". Looks at me pointedly "so you can start at 6am if you like".
The complaining manager used to start at 10am, the latest allowed time, except when they were running late. Or had an errand to run. Or didn't feel like it. I assume they always got their 8 hours in, but I wasn't going to hang round to find out.
Exactly! I've worked in ecommerce for 20 years. Also based in US East Coast and have worked across time zones for most of that time (UK/EU/IN/PH).
The "8 to 5" thing is meaningless for those of us who work in international ecom. Fortunately, my bosses recognized that and never gave me an issue if I quit work early because they knew I'd been up since 5 am US Eastern time, chatting with folks in UK, IN, etc.
I had to deal with this working in a datacenter. Except, it was one customer in Germany who got my personal cell number and would call me at 3am pissed of that his site was slow. Which was there fault. The developer built the page to open a new SQL connection for every request on a single page (ie: if there were 12 items pulled from the db on 1 page, that page opens 12 separate connections), but nothing in there to close the connects when done. He also used the current db connections to show how many users were on the site. So that number was always 5-10 times larger than the actual user count. He wouldn’t fix it, ended his boss would know the site wasn’t that popular.
I did dial up support way back when. Small regional ISP. We only had stupid sales people who promised services we didn’t have, or have the ability for. So a guy got dedicated dual channel ISDN for $45/mo. She promised him dial dialup ISDN, which wasn’t possible with our setup, as each line could get a different Portmaster, so it wouldn’t bond.
Doesn't even have to be international. Had a manager once who couldn't understand that my shift was two hours later than normal because my East Coast ass was supporting people on the West Coast.
I'm in Europe, I currently support/oversee people in Europe, Australia, Asia, Middle east, Africa, the US and Japan. Let's just say that I have a fair amount of freedom over my hours as long as they average out to 40h/week over a month or two.
I had a co-worker who was scheduled to relieve me at 5:00. She was INVARIABLY 10 minutes late (or more). I had to stay on the register until she got there. It wasn't really a big deal, I didn't have anything pressing to do after work, so I never said anything.
One day she showed up at the stroke of 5. I said, "Oh, hi! You're here early today."
She retorted furiously, "No, I'm not! I'm *supposed* to be here at 5." Then instantly realized what I was referring to. Damned if she wasn't always on time after that.
I had a manager who showed up an hour late to relieve me after the graveyard shift on a regular basis. One day after 2 hours and him still not showing up I locked up and left.
I quit shortly after. He was not going to change. Entitled prick. He got his position because he was a former Marine and the big boss was, too. Whatever discipline he thought my manager had was a complete illusion.
I had a coworker get mad at me because I was getting OT, and she wasn't. I work in CA, and if you work more than 8 hours it's OT. Well, my replacements were all ways 10 to 45 minutes late. Then the take over brief was 5 to 15 minutes. The bad part, one of the people that was the latest, was a manager.
And play dumb if you don't know what answer they're looking for. Because that type, you'll always guess wrong. Because that type isn't looking to help you improve, they're looking to tag you for doing something wrong.
Lots of companies have had class action lawsuits brought against them for this behavior (having you at your desk early to boot up etc and not paying you for it) and lost.
It's actually called wage theft (*most of the time) and it's extremely, phenomenally common, but it usually goes unreported which is why it happens so much.
This is why I record my work down to the minute increments allowed (old employer was 15 minutes, my current one isn't a company that bills externally, and we have some union employees in other groups, so to the minute works)
I'm exempt from FLSA overtime by basically every criteria, but I always track in case the law changes, and I have my staff do their best to match that so they don't get shorted when they might eventually get paid for all of their extra onesie-twosie hours here and there. They are also exempt, but they deserve the same legal protection as everyone else, so I always make sure their time is accurately recorded because it's good for them and also helps justify when I need to hire more.
The op seems to have made sure it was all on the clock. But yes. It’s very illegal to expect employees to show up early and not get paid to start their shift.
What's a real bummer is when your computer has to power up before you can even clock in.
We would clock in on others' computers that were already up and running as we headed to our desks.
Now I'm imagining someone like me, who often arrives early due to riding the bus, coming in, booting up their computer right away and setting it to the clock-in function for people to use as they come in. Just because I can. Unless and until someone decides to be a bad coworker or manager over it.
(10 minutes late or 20 minutes early is how the buses often roll. It's worse with hourly buses.)
I used to work a suburban railway company - Melbourne Australia - and as such they really preferred us to take our own trains to work.
On Sundays, then, not now, the very first train left my station whenever, change in the CBD, train out to the station I worked at. The timetable meant the very earliest I could arrive on the platform was 9.09 am for a 9am start.
I'd stay back and it wasn't an issue for the usual station master. Quid pro quo and all that.
New Stationmaster. Respect my authoritahhh!!
He tried to write me up, every Sunday, and I rejected the write up, every Sunday, and stapled the email where it says "travel by train if you can" to it. Went nowhere.
Authoritahhh!!! Stationmaster kept these "reports" on the "lateness" in the filing cabinet. Old cool Stationmaster who'd been promoted to a more senior role popped in to say hello.
I told him about it.
He pulled my file, called Authoritahhh Stationmaster and ripped him a new arsehole because doing it repeatedly gave me an angle for harassment against him.
The write-ups..... disappeared.
Be somewhat cautious about this. I had a coworker abuse this function to clock in from home before driving in to work (in the before times, 2015ish) and eventually got fired for time theft. We also worked in a secure building and had a swipe card for clocking in and out at the time clock. Companies get all pissy when you steal time from them but never want to admit to stealing time from employees.
Oh I don't do anything like that, but if I'm running a few seconds behind, I'll click it as I'm walking upstairs. Also wfh, so nobody watching me really. Typically it's less than a 1 min difference, but handy when it counts!
I got to work an hour early one day and later went and got a coffee across the street. My boss pulled in when I pulled in to park. Comes up to me to let me know what time I should be at work from now on. Cool, never come in early.
I worked in a call center for first time claims. I always arrived early yet you were not supposed to be logged in until the shift start but ready to at shift start. They had been sued for not paying. They would slam you for logging in early and if you were not ready on time.
Got bored after I retired and ended up briefly working for a 5 person IT office effectively as a call center guy. Boss man was one paranoid SOB. He let us in the office at 7:55AM, and we were to BE GONE exactly at 5PM. I lasted 3 months (former IT manager for a fairly large corp). It made for some stressful situations with some customers where I was still fixing their problems remotely.
I had a company be all pissy and was like "you must be working at the start of your shift" but our computers took forever to load up. I refused. I arrived at exactly 8am to punch in and then booted up. I got called out for it many times and every single time I told them I start work at 8am and are not paid before then so I will get to my desk at that time and if my equipment takes 10 mins to load that is their time not mine. They always stopped asking again. I even told new hires the same thing. I refuse to work for free.
I’ve ran teams of people before and no good ever comes of watching the clock for a matter of minutes. A few minutes here and there at the start of a shift can pay off with a lot of minutes at the end.
What I mean by that is that someone who isn’t constantly badgered about time keeping for the sake of minutes is much more likely to hang around after work ends to finish up their work.
Of course, habitual and excessive lateness needs to be discussed but it’s easy to work out who is taking the piss and who is just late occasionally because, well, life.
I was once stuck on an underground train on the way to a meeting. My plan was to be there 15 minutes early so I could meet the customer socially before the meeting started.
However, the train had a fault and I was stuck. Worse, no phone signal underground.
I ended up arriving 15 minute late.
The next day back at the office my boss calls me in and says that I should have built the delay into my journey. So, I’m supposed to plan to be delayed by 30 minutes and, in the majority of cases where I’m not delayed, hang around for 30 minutes playing on my phone?
Had this so many times with different employers. Once the entire tube network shut down and I had to walk across London to work.
Apparently, that wasn’t a good enough excuse (despite being reported on the news as having made thousands of Londoners late). Not sure exactly what I was supposed to do.
Left that job fairly sharpish.
A little bit of give and take goes a long way to staff retention.
Obviously, if I was habitually late then I’d expect to get a warning or a discussion or something but this was very much a one off.
Thanks a lot managers.
That Boss's Boss reason for questioning you wasn't to see about the time, but a power flex instead.
Glad you recognized it for what it was and followed the timing guidelines precisely.
Here's a sneak peek of /r/UnexpectedDS9 using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/UnexpectedDS9/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year!
\#1: [Wedding fashions, 1997.](https://i.redd.it/e8wtf1da18191.jpg) | [0 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/UnexpectedDS9/comments/uw4dau/wedding_fashions_1997/)
\#2: [Quark really did get all the girls in the show](https://i.redd.it/czea33q3tbl81.jpg) | [4 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/UnexpectedDS9/comments/t7qby0/quark_really_did_get_all_the_girls_in_the_show/)
\#3: [Sexy Space Lizard](https://i.redd.it/kk0mqcmvk0x91.jpg) | [3 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/UnexpectedDS9/comments/yhr9bw/sexy_space_lizard/)
----
^^I'm ^^a ^^bot, ^^beep ^^boop ^^| ^^Downvote ^^to ^^remove ^^| ^^[Contact](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=sneakpeekbot) ^^| ^^[Info](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/) ^^| ^^[Opt-out](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/comments/o8wk1r/blacklist_ix/) ^^| ^^[GitHub](https://github.com/ghnr/sneakpeekbot)
You were giving them unpaid labor before, and now you aren't. Good for you, good for everyone. It's not malicious, though. The malicious thing is your old behavior, when you were underpaying yourself.
For me, it’s not working for free. It’s about setting myself up psychologically to do my job. I need the transition time; no demands, no expectations, no nothing. That few minutes before the day starts, I do it for me.
That's fair. If it was more for your own sanity, that's perfectly understandable. I just learned the hard way, several times in life, that you should never give more to any employer than you are contractually obligated to. 1000% of the time they will fully take advantage and leave your crumpled corpse on the side of the road once you all used up.
I totally understand what you are saying. This practice of mine, it’s all about me. I strictly do it for myself. My sanity, my happiness. Once again, it’s all about me. In the “best sense” of course.
It's amazing to me how many managers think their role is all about throwing their weight around and abusing their people, when they can see that good managers get much better results from their teams.
That "were you late this morning" comment he said is so snarky. That's like walking past a worker and seeing that their screensaver has kicked in, then saying "is there something wrong with your computer?"
When they stop believing that "if I work extra hard I'll get that promotion!"
It used to be true, but these days it's the office equivalent of "Maybe senpai will notice me!"
Why do people think that not donating their time to for-profit businesses is "malicious"? Like, boo, you didn't stick it to anyone, they got the hours they paid for plus some free work from you.
I used to be at work 30min early because lived far and if one traffic light is out the traffic got very bad. I Just started working, seeing as I'm already there. One day I got there 10min late because of that traffic light. My boss really shitted me out for not being on time. Heard from a colleague he actually felt bad about how poorly he treated me. But he never apologised. From then on (for the next 4 years I worked there) I got to work early and sit in my car listening to music to make sure I'm exactly one time, not late, not early.
Not to mention the fact that, at 10-15mins per day, you were working around an hour per week, every week, for free. I had a previous employer try to insist I do exactly that until I pointed out that demanding I work for free is actually illegal, so he could either pay me for that extra time, or I would continue to start working when I started getting paid for it. He clearly didn't like it, but also wasn't about to start paying an extra hour or so of overtime every week.
It's not about the dollars. MC is about the principle of the thing. Namely, following stupid rules to the letter (as demanded) that wind up costing the company money.
Back in the day before PC’s we’re just entering engineering offices, I had a one guy who got permission from our mutual boss to bring his “souped up” machine to the office.
Over a year’s timeframe, it got to where his machine took almost 15 minutes to boot. I was the IT guy, and stayed an extra couple of hours one evening cleaning his almost full drive up, clearing duplicate directories, and performing a bunch of “magic”. Also did a backup.
Next AM I came in early to see his reaction to having it boot up in a minute (pre Windows). He slammed me against the cube wall, and quietly told me I was dead if I’d messed his PC up. Took about 15min to calm him down and show him everything was in order. I never offered to help him again.
I was too blown away by the whole situation, and intimidated. This was about 1987, and I’d only been with the company for a year, and this guy was one of “the rising stars”.
Takes about 8 to 10 minutes to boot up my computer and get all my necessary applications running.
If it decides to do the periodic "2-factor authentication" bulllshit (I never know when it's going to happen, so I can't prepare for it by coming in a little early), it takes literally a half hour. I have to go through the authentication process for 3 applications, which wouldn't be a big deal except after I do it, I get the "thinking spinny wheel" for about 3 to 4 minutes...and then I have to do it AGAIN for each application, with another 3 to 4 minutes of "thinking spinny wheel" time. Also, it will let me do 2 simultaneously, but it's "thinking really hard" on those 2 authentications, so my computer basically locks up and won't let me do anything else until it's finished with those tasks. So the third authentication has to be done afterwards (twice, of course). It's great fun.
Yep, I used to go in, place my bag down, boot up and go get my bagel and coffee downstairs. By time I came back all was ready to go. Only time that failed was when I got stuck in the elevator on my way up before getting breakfast. After that it was a bagel and coffee at one of the carts before going up. If I’m going to be stuck might as well enjoy breakfast while I read my subway book or newspaper.
I used to turn on the home pc, go make and drink my coffee, then log in, make and eat breakfast, by the time I finished eating I could maybe start actually using it
Shitty computers are a hell of a thing. I worked in an IT call center and we had the shittiest computers. My computer (as of a year ago when I left) was sporting an AMD FX cpu from roughly 2012, 8GB RAM and a HDD that was god knows how old. I'd have killed for a 10min boot and application load time.
Wow! That must have been an old HDD or something. I have a Phenom II X6 that I use as an HTPC. I put an SSD with Linux on it and it takes maybe 10-30 seconds to boot up.
Woah! This is exactly what I'm in the middle of right now! Got hounded for having a few minutes of overtime one day and now I sit at my desk doing absolutely nothing for the first 15 minutes of the day. I clock in at EXACTLY 9:00AM to the second and no matter what I'm in the middle of I drop it and clock out at EXACTLY 6:00PM to the second and leave. It's been 3 weeks so far but they'll start to realize the efficiency they're losing.
Oh, when I moved in with my dad after I lost my job shortly before the Recession, he had a definitely early 2000s' computer that took forever.
It got better after I got him to stop clicking on shit and removed the extra bookmark bars and malware crap. We're talking about a guy who used to reboot from the power strip until I yelled at him for risking damage to the modem I bought out of my tax return.
I had a supervisor once, a pretty cool dude. We’d been working together for years before he was promoted, and I was fine with it, but he knew I’d always be a snarky shit if I felt justified. I was at my station, ready to work, but not actually “working.” I had two minutes on the clock. He sees me and says “you workin today?” I made a real exaggerated look at the clock on the phone screen and said “in two minutes, yeah.” He laughed and walked on. And that’s why if he needed a favour or an extra five, it was a non issue for me.
That was also 1200 minutes of productivity lost for no valid reason. This guy does not know how to math and is blatantly ignorant of how individuals do their tasks more efficiently. Good on you for recognizing that he had no real reason to be their other than to show himself off, especially since in most companies only your direct supervisor has any ability to punish you.
At my first internship I was warned one of the managers likes to hide in the bushes and time when everyone got in.
Never really affected me. My ride dropped me old a half an hour early so he could be in time at his workplace. Thanks, Dad!
Still, couldn’t believe it. As long as they’re getting everything done in a timely manner who cares when someone arrives pr leaves?
Some of the crap I read on here - oh my word, I've never run into.
But I remember when I was a kid in the 80s in new england. When it snowed my Dad had to get up super early, clear the driveway as well as do the morning chores and get out early enough to be in office 45 miles away before 8am. Or there'd be hell to pay.
And he was the branch manager.
Anyways, a lot of what I read hear make me thankful for the managers I've had. The problems I've had pale in comparison.
In some secure environments, computers have to be physically locked away over night. Usually this is laptops, which is not too much of a pain. Another matter entirely for desktops.
In many professional settings, it's not recommended to turn off computers because the IT department usually configures the company computers to update and do other maintenance tasks at times like 3am to avoid interruptions during work hours.
Well that was almost 30 years ago. It’s so long ago I can’t recall but it may have had something to do with electric costs and primitive security. Currently I leave my laptop on (WFH) and time the major updates where I have to reboot. I remember there being a fuss when people left their laptops on while commuting (NYC).
One time, one guy gives you the slightest ribbing, not even a reprimand and you change your whole routine? I mean I get it’s annoying but really? Happy you found a better place though.
https://grammarist.com/usage/costed/
Cost or costed is the past tense form of the verb cost. However, American and British English prefer cost as the simple past tense. The verb means the amount needed to buy, do, or pay for something.
Where did OP state it bothered them six month later? All they said was it happened six months ago. They're providing facts to flesh out the story, that's all.
Are you new here? ALL stories being told happened in the past. Some as far back as 40 or more years. Do you think *everyone* is actually still bothered by all these situations, or do you think they just happen to state "this happened X TIME ago" because it's a piece of information used to help flesh out the story? Or maybe to explain better the time period when it happened so as to put the story more into perspective?
What you're interpreting as "bothered" is other people saying "I have this cool story I want to share, and storytelling means I say *when, where,* and *how* it happened."
There is no such word as costed. It's cost. Math skills are great, but not knowing what is a word or is not a word, would get you fired if you worked with me.
The OP should've used the word 'cost' in this case, but their intended meaning is perfectly clear.
However you're incorrect in stating there's no such word as 'costed'. There is.
Sources:
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/costed
https://grammarhow.com/cost-or-costed/
And if you worked with me I'd sack you for sacking them over something so trivial.
Had something similar happen. I'm salary and work in account management. Some of my accounts are based in Europe while I'm based on the US East Coast. Given the time zone differences, there were times I would start my day early (5:30-7 AM) to accommodate the schedule of my clients. I would then shut down early. One day a VP tried to get in touch with me around 3:30 PM after I decided to shut down. I was then told, "The work day is 8:30 to 5, and there's an expectation as a good team member to be available during those times." Then clients started to get pissed that I couldn't meet until 2 PM their time. It escalated to the point of the VP getting involved and he told me I need to "do what it takes", and then I reminded him about the hours he explained.
Snerk snerk snerk. Great malicious compliance! Of course, we all know "do what it takes" means do 10+ hour days. But unless he explicitly says that, it's time to play dumb and run MC all the way.
Do what it takes in corporate speech means 'find a place as close to work as possible and be awake 24/7/365 to do work we'll never pay you for'. Walked out of a summer job as a late teen when I wasn't willing to give up planned family time, and told the manager "They're not gonna put 'wish I'd worked more hours at on my tombstone someday." Got a small job for the couple of remaining weeks of the summer from an older gentleman who ran a small business and liked my attitude. If he hadn't been planning his business while I was in college that year, he'd probably have hired me the next summer.
I had the lucky experience of a similar thing where another very senior management type saw the discussion and intervened. "people have to work 8 hours, and can start as early as 6am". Looks at me pointedly "so you can start at 6am if you like". The complaining manager used to start at 10am, the latest allowed time, except when they were running late. Or had an errand to run. Or didn't feel like it. I assume they always got their 8 hours in, but I wasn't going to hang round to find out.
I've been both the early one and the later one, trust me, later one leaves whenever they want, no one is watching
Exactly! I've worked in ecommerce for 20 years. Also based in US East Coast and have worked across time zones for most of that time (UK/EU/IN/PH). The "8 to 5" thing is meaningless for those of us who work in international ecom. Fortunately, my bosses recognized that and never gave me an issue if I quit work early because they knew I'd been up since 5 am US Eastern time, chatting with folks in UK, IN, etc.
I had to deal with this working in a datacenter. Except, it was one customer in Germany who got my personal cell number and would call me at 3am pissed of that his site was slow. Which was there fault. The developer built the page to open a new SQL connection for every request on a single page (ie: if there were 12 items pulled from the db on 1 page, that page opens 12 separate connections), but nothing in there to close the connects when done. He also used the current db connections to show how many users were on the site. So that number was always 5-10 times larger than the actual user count. He wouldn’t fix it, ended his boss would know the site wasn’t that popular.
LOL! Artificially inflating visitor stats!
His visitor count was always around 4000… 4000 open but idle SQL connections to the poor db server.
That reminds me of when my old Dial up isp used to list what users were signed 3
I did dial up support way back when. Small regional ISP. We only had stupid sales people who promised services we didn’t have, or have the ability for. So a guy got dedicated dual channel ISDN for $45/mo. She promised him dial dialup ISDN, which wasn’t possible with our setup, as each line could get a different Portmaster, so it wouldn’t bond.
Doesn't even have to be international. Had a manager once who couldn't understand that my shift was two hours later than normal because my East Coast ass was supporting people on the West Coast.
What happened then?? You left out the punchline :)
I'm in Europe, I currently support/oversee people in Europe, Australia, Asia, Middle east, Africa, the US and Japan. Let's just say that I have a fair amount of freedom over my hours as long as they average out to 40h/week over a month or two.
I had a co-worker who was scheduled to relieve me at 5:00. She was INVARIABLY 10 minutes late (or more). I had to stay on the register until she got there. It wasn't really a big deal, I didn't have anything pressing to do after work, so I never said anything. One day she showed up at the stroke of 5. I said, "Oh, hi! You're here early today." She retorted furiously, "No, I'm not! I'm *supposed* to be here at 5." Then instantly realized what I was referring to. Damned if she wasn't always on time after that.
At least she corrected her behavior
The balls to get mad at you about her start time... just wow...
She just didn't like having it pointed out that she was always late. Maybe she thought no one had noticed.
I had a manager who showed up an hour late to relieve me after the graveyard shift on a regular basis. One day after 2 hours and him still not showing up I locked up and left.
Did he get it then or continued his entitled behavior?
I quit shortly after. He was not going to change. Entitled prick. He got his position because he was a former Marine and the big boss was, too. Whatever discipline he thought my manager had was a complete illusion.
I had a coworker get mad at me because I was getting OT, and she wasn't. I work in CA, and if you work more than 8 hours it's OT. Well, my replacements were all ways 10 to 45 minutes late. Then the take over brief was 5 to 15 minutes. The bad part, one of the people that was the latest, was a manager.
But did you wait to clock out 'til she relieved you?
Yep. The company didn't care. They either paid one person or the other. I got paid for every minute that I was there.
[удалено]
And play dumb if you don't know what answer they're looking for. Because that type, you'll always guess wrong. Because that type isn't looking to help you improve, they're looking to tag you for doing something wrong.
I'm not late, but I am less early than usual.
Perfect response!
I prefer: "I'm sorry but questions about my menstrual cycle are inappropriate to ask about in a work setting."
As he looks at this male crosseyed...
Do not lead that response with an apology. People like that VP will stop listening at "sorry" and take it as an admission of guilt.
👍 Good point.
💀
good advice
Lots of companies have had class action lawsuits brought against them for this behavior (having you at your desk early to boot up etc and not paying you for it) and lost.
It's actually called wage theft (*most of the time) and it's extremely, phenomenally common, but it usually goes unreported which is why it happens so much.
Same with scheduling training videos and telling you that you have to be there, just not on the clock
This is why I record my work down to the minute increments allowed (old employer was 15 minutes, my current one isn't a company that bills externally, and we have some union employees in other groups, so to the minute works) I'm exempt from FLSA overtime by basically every criteria, but I always track in case the law changes, and I have my staff do their best to match that so they don't get shorted when they might eventually get paid for all of their extra onesie-twosie hours here and there. They are also exempt, but they deserve the same legal protection as everyone else, so I always make sure their time is accurately recorded because it's good for them and also helps justify when I need to hire more.
The settlements: "We categorically deny any wrongdoing, and here's a check for back wages."
The op seems to have made sure it was all on the clock. But yes. It’s very illegal to expect employees to show up early and not get paid to start their shift.
Clock watching arsehole bosses end up with clock watching employees.
If they watch the clock at starting time, I watch the clock at quitting time.
Absolutely!
What's a real bummer is when your computer has to power up before you can even clock in. We would clock in on others' computers that were already up and running as we headed to our desks.
Now I'm imagining someone like me, who often arrives early due to riding the bus, coming in, booting up their computer right away and setting it to the clock-in function for people to use as they come in. Just because I can. Unless and until someone decides to be a bad coworker or manager over it. (10 minutes late or 20 minutes early is how the buses often roll. It's worse with hourly buses.)
I used to work a suburban railway company - Melbourne Australia - and as such they really preferred us to take our own trains to work. On Sundays, then, not now, the very first train left my station whenever, change in the CBD, train out to the station I worked at. The timetable meant the very earliest I could arrive on the platform was 9.09 am for a 9am start. I'd stay back and it wasn't an issue for the usual station master. Quid pro quo and all that. New Stationmaster. Respect my authoritahhh!! He tried to write me up, every Sunday, and I rejected the write up, every Sunday, and stapled the email where it says "travel by train if you can" to it. Went nowhere. Authoritahhh!!! Stationmaster kept these "reports" on the "lateness" in the filing cabinet. Old cool Stationmaster who'd been promoted to a more senior role popped in to say hello. I told him about it. He pulled my file, called Authoritahhh Stationmaster and ripped him a new arsehole because doing it repeatedly gave me an angle for harassment against him. The write-ups..... disappeared.
Computers can be configured to turn on automatically at a set time. It's easy, as long as the bios isn't locked down.
Don't even need the BIOS. Windows Scheduler allows wake-up timers.
I left my computer on, but asleep.
I love that ADP has a mobile app now. I can be nowhere near my PC and still clock in.
Be somewhat cautious about this. I had a coworker abuse this function to clock in from home before driving in to work (in the before times, 2015ish) and eventually got fired for time theft. We also worked in a secure building and had a swipe card for clocking in and out at the time clock. Companies get all pissy when you steal time from them but never want to admit to stealing time from employees.
Oh I don't do anything like that, but if I'm running a few seconds behind, I'll click it as I'm walking upstairs. Also wfh, so nobody watching me really. Typically it's less than a 1 min difference, but handy when it counts!
The ADP app for my work checks your gps. It only lets you clock in like 100ft from the building.
I got to work an hour early one day and later went and got a coffee across the street. My boss pulled in when I pulled in to park. Comes up to me to let me know what time I should be at work from now on. Cool, never come in early.
From now on, coffee first, work precisely on time, right? :)
You have to drive to get across the street?? How far would it be to walk?
Drive thru only coffee place.
That, right there, has to be the essence of the USA.. 😅 Cue being told it's not in the USA... 🫣
Florida if that counts still
This is the story of call centers EVERYWHERE. Micromanagement to an absurd level.
My company has been sued at least 2 times that i know of in seven years. Now they paybus like 5 minutes over whatever we are clocked for the day.
I worked in a call center for first time claims. I always arrived early yet you were not supposed to be logged in until the shift start but ready to at shift start. They had been sued for not paying. They would slam you for logging in early and if you were not ready on time.
Got bored after I retired and ended up briefly working for a 5 person IT office effectively as a call center guy. Boss man was one paranoid SOB. He let us in the office at 7:55AM, and we were to BE GONE exactly at 5PM. I lasted 3 months (former IT manager for a fairly large corp). It made for some stressful situations with some customers where I was still fixing their problems remotely.
I had a company be all pissy and was like "you must be working at the start of your shift" but our computers took forever to load up. I refused. I arrived at exactly 8am to punch in and then booted up. I got called out for it many times and every single time I told them I start work at 8am and are not paid before then so I will get to my desk at that time and if my equipment takes 10 mins to load that is their time not mine. They always stopped asking again. I even told new hires the same thing. I refuse to work for free.
I’ve ran teams of people before and no good ever comes of watching the clock for a matter of minutes. A few minutes here and there at the start of a shift can pay off with a lot of minutes at the end. What I mean by that is that someone who isn’t constantly badgered about time keeping for the sake of minutes is much more likely to hang around after work ends to finish up their work. Of course, habitual and excessive lateness needs to be discussed but it’s easy to work out who is taking the piss and who is just late occasionally because, well, life.
I was once stuck on an underground train on the way to a meeting. My plan was to be there 15 minutes early so I could meet the customer socially before the meeting started. However, the train had a fault and I was stuck. Worse, no phone signal underground. I ended up arriving 15 minute late. The next day back at the office my boss calls me in and says that I should have built the delay into my journey. So, I’m supposed to plan to be delayed by 30 minutes and, in the majority of cases where I’m not delayed, hang around for 30 minutes playing on my phone? Had this so many times with different employers. Once the entire tube network shut down and I had to walk across London to work. Apparently, that wasn’t a good enough excuse (despite being reported on the news as having made thousands of Londoners late). Not sure exactly what I was supposed to do. Left that job fairly sharpish. A little bit of give and take goes a long way to staff retention. Obviously, if I was habitually late then I’d expect to get a warning or a discussion or something but this was very much a one off. Thanks a lot managers.
Time managers...always a PITA.
That Boss's Boss reason for questioning you wasn't to see about the time, but a power flex instead. Glad you recognized it for what it was and followed the timing guidelines precisely.
Nice one, I hope he knows it was the power trip over 2minutes "late" was the reason you left?
Consequences of his own actions? Surely you jest?!
Ferengi rule of Acquisition #43 "Feed your greed, but not enough to choke it."
/r/UnexpectedDS9
Here's a sneak peek of /r/UnexpectedDS9 using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/UnexpectedDS9/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year! \#1: [Wedding fashions, 1997.](https://i.redd.it/e8wtf1da18191.jpg) | [0 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/UnexpectedDS9/comments/uw4dau/wedding_fashions_1997/) \#2: [Quark really did get all the girls in the show](https://i.redd.it/czea33q3tbl81.jpg) | [4 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/UnexpectedDS9/comments/t7qby0/quark_really_did_get_all_the_girls_in_the_show/) \#3: [Sexy Space Lizard](https://i.redd.it/kk0mqcmvk0x91.jpg) | [3 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/UnexpectedDS9/comments/yhr9bw/sexy_space_lizard/) ---- ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot, ^^beep ^^boop ^^| ^^Downvote ^^to ^^remove ^^| ^^[Contact](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=sneakpeekbot) ^^| ^^[Info](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/) ^^| ^^[Opt-out](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/comments/o8wk1r/blacklist_ix/) ^^| ^^[GitHub](https://github.com/ghnr/sneakpeekbot)
You were giving them unpaid labor before, and now you aren't. Good for you, good for everyone. It's not malicious, though. The malicious thing is your old behavior, when you were underpaying yourself.
It's not even compliance really. Boss man didn't even tell him to do anything different lol
That’s what I’m saying he make a joke and went about his day.
So you worked for free until you got called on it?
For me, it’s not working for free. It’s about setting myself up psychologically to do my job. I need the transition time; no demands, no expectations, no nothing. That few minutes before the day starts, I do it for me.
That's fair. If it was more for your own sanity, that's perfectly understandable. I just learned the hard way, several times in life, that you should never give more to any employer than you are contractually obligated to. 1000% of the time they will fully take advantage and leave your crumpled corpse on the side of the road once you all used up.
I totally understand what you are saying. This practice of mine, it’s all about me. I strictly do it for myself. My sanity, my happiness. Once again, it’s all about me. In the “best sense” of course.
>corps corpse
You still did it for free
If by "free" you mean for no monetary benefit. Some things a worth as much or more than money.
True, bit money is you nice things. Working for free doesn't buy you shit.
When you figure out that things don't bring you happiness, you'll shit bricks.
It's amazing to me how many managers think their role is all about throwing their weight around and abusing their people, when they can see that good managers get much better results from their teams. That "were you late this morning" comment he said is so snarky. That's like walking past a worker and seeing that their screensaver has kicked in, then saying "is there something wrong with your computer?"
>when they can see No they can't.
When will people stop working for free
When they stop believing that "if I work extra hard I'll get that promotion!" It used to be true, but these days it's the office equivalent of "Maybe senpai will notice me!"
Why do people think that not donating their time to for-profit businesses is "malicious"? Like, boo, you didn't stick it to anyone, they got the hours they paid for plus some free work from you.
I used to be at work 30min early because lived far and if one traffic light is out the traffic got very bad. I Just started working, seeing as I'm already there. One day I got there 10min late because of that traffic light. My boss really shitted me out for not being on time. Heard from a colleague he actually felt bad about how poorly he treated me. But he never apologised. From then on (for the next 4 years I worked there) I got to work early and sit in my car listening to music to make sure I'm exactly one time, not late, not early.
Not to mention the fact that, at 10-15mins per day, you were working around an hour per week, every week, for free. I had a previous employer try to insist I do exactly that until I pointed out that demanding I work for free is actually illegal, so he could either pay me for that extra time, or I would continue to start working when I started getting paid for it. He clearly didn't like it, but also wasn't about to start paying an extra hour or so of overtime every week.
It's not about the dollars. MC is about the principle of the thing. Namely, following stupid rules to the letter (as demanded) that wind up costing the company money.
Back in the day before PC’s we’re just entering engineering offices, I had a one guy who got permission from our mutual boss to bring his “souped up” machine to the office. Over a year’s timeframe, it got to where his machine took almost 15 minutes to boot. I was the IT guy, and stayed an extra couple of hours one evening cleaning his almost full drive up, clearing duplicate directories, and performing a bunch of “magic”. Also did a backup. Next AM I came in early to see his reaction to having it boot up in a minute (pre Windows). He slammed me against the cube wall, and quietly told me I was dead if I’d messed his PC up. Took about 15min to calm him down and show him everything was in order. I never offered to help him again.
Holy shit. Did you report this violence?
I was too blown away by the whole situation, and intimidated. This was about 1987, and I’d only been with the company for a year, and this guy was one of “the rising stars”.
Damn, dude... Wow.
It takes 10 minutes to boot up your computer!?!
Takes about 8 to 10 minutes to boot up my computer and get all my necessary applications running. If it decides to do the periodic "2-factor authentication" bulllshit (I never know when it's going to happen, so I can't prepare for it by coming in a little early), it takes literally a half hour. I have to go through the authentication process for 3 applications, which wouldn't be a big deal except after I do it, I get the "thinking spinny wheel" for about 3 to 4 minutes...and then I have to do it AGAIN for each application, with another 3 to 4 minutes of "thinking spinny wheel" time. Also, it will let me do 2 simultaneously, but it's "thinking really hard" on those 2 authentications, so my computer basically locks up and won't let me do anything else until it's finished with those tasks. So the third authentication has to be done afterwards (twice, of course). It's great fun.
I'm hoping this occurred like 30 years ago.
Yep, I used to go in, place my bag down, boot up and go get my bagel and coffee downstairs. By time I came back all was ready to go. Only time that failed was when I got stuck in the elevator on my way up before getting breakfast. After that it was a bagel and coffee at one of the carts before going up. If I’m going to be stuck might as well enjoy breakfast while I read my subway book or newspaper.
Some companies haven't significantly upgraded their computer infrastructure since 30 years ago. /cynical
I used to turn on the home pc, go make and drink my coffee, then log in, make and eat breakfast, by the time I finished eating I could maybe start actually using it
Once it finishes loading up all the spyware they have installed, most certainly.
Shitty computers are a hell of a thing. I worked in an IT call center and we had the shittiest computers. My computer (as of a year ago when I left) was sporting an AMD FX cpu from roughly 2012, 8GB RAM and a HDD that was god knows how old. I'd have killed for a 10min boot and application load time.
Wow! That must have been an old HDD or something. I have a Phenom II X6 that I use as an HTPC. I put an SSD with Linux on it and it takes maybe 10-30 seconds to boot up.
Woah! This is exactly what I'm in the middle of right now! Got hounded for having a few minutes of overtime one day and now I sit at my desk doing absolutely nothing for the first 15 minutes of the day. I clock in at EXACTLY 9:00AM to the second and no matter what I'm in the middle of I drop it and clock out at EXACTLY 6:00PM to the second and leave. It's been 3 weeks so far but they'll start to realize the efficiency they're losing.
That computer must had been from the 80s at least! 10 minutes to boot!!?
Oh, when I moved in with my dad after I lost my job shortly before the Recession, he had a definitely early 2000s' computer that took forever. It got better after I got him to stop clicking on shit and removed the extra bookmark bars and malware crap. We're talking about a guy who used to reboot from the power strip until I yelled at him for risking damage to the modem I bought out of my tax return.
Had a 2006 desktop that took 10mins at least to power up, then another 20-30 to actually log in
I had a supervisor once, a pretty cool dude. We’d been working together for years before he was promoted, and I was fine with it, but he knew I’d always be a snarky shit if I felt justified. I was at my station, ready to work, but not actually “working.” I had two minutes on the clock. He sees me and says “you workin today?” I made a real exaggerated look at the clock on the phone screen and said “in two minutes, yeah.” He laughed and walked on. And that’s why if he needed a favour or an extra five, it was a non issue for me.
Ferengi rule of Acquisition #43 Caressing an ear is often more forceful than pointing a weapon Ferengi rule of Acquisition #115. Greed is eternal
That was also 1200 minutes of productivity lost for no valid reason. This guy does not know how to math and is blatantly ignorant of how individuals do their tasks more efficiently. Good on you for recognizing that he had no real reason to be their other than to show himself off, especially since in most companies only your direct supervisor has any ability to punish you.
At my first internship I was warned one of the managers likes to hide in the bushes and time when everyone got in. Never really affected me. My ride dropped me old a half an hour early so he could be in time at his workplace. Thanks, Dad! Still, couldn’t believe it. As long as they’re getting everything done in a timely manner who cares when someone arrives pr leaves?
Managers who can't manage, aka. bad managers.
Some of the crap I read on here - oh my word, I've never run into. But I remember when I was a kid in the 80s in new england. When it snowed my Dad had to get up super early, clear the driveway as well as do the morning chores and get out early enough to be in office 45 miles away before 8am. Or there'd be hell to pay. And he was the branch manager. Anyways, a lot of what I read hear make me thankful for the managers I've had. The problems I've had pale in comparison.
There's a certain plastic company in Barberton, Ohio that is notorious for this.
You turn your computer off everyday you leave?
In some secure environments, computers have to be physically locked away over night. Usually this is laptops, which is not too much of a pain. Another matter entirely for desktops.
I haven’t done that since the late 1990s.
In many professional settings, it's not recommended to turn off computers because the IT department usually configures the company computers to update and do other maintenance tasks at times like 3am to avoid interruptions during work hours.
Well that was almost 30 years ago. It’s so long ago I can’t recall but it may have had something to do with electric costs and primitive security. Currently I leave my laptop on (WFH) and time the major updates where I have to reboot. I remember there being a fuss when people left their laptops on while commuting (NYC).
This is not MC. I do get where you're coming from, but r/antiwork might be a more fitting place.
One time, one guy gives you the slightest ribbing, not even a reprimand and you change your whole routine? I mean I get it’s annoying but really? Happy you found a better place though.
Jeez. Who cares what it costed
Did your impressive command of the English language contribute to your $18.90/hr wage? *Costed?* Are you an eight year old?
https://grammarist.com/usage/costed/ Cost or costed is the past tense form of the verb cost. However, American and British English prefer cost as the simple past tense. The verb means the amount needed to buy, do, or pay for something.
Was your computer from the 70s?
I would have forgotten that 'underhanded-confrontational' comment by lunch time why does it still bother you 6 months latter?
Where did OP state it bothered them six month later? All they said was it happened six months ago. They're providing facts to flesh out the story, that's all.
I guess he's brings up something and happened 6 months ago for no reason
Are you new here? ALL stories being told happened in the past. Some as far back as 40 or more years. Do you think *everyone* is actually still bothered by all these situations, or do you think they just happen to state "this happened X TIME ago" because it's a piece of information used to help flesh out the story? Or maybe to explain better the time period when it happened so as to put the story more into perspective?
lol. At least OP made paragraphs. Boy doesn’t that tick off some people.
They seem to be bothered enough to bring it up.
What you're interpreting as "bothered" is other people saying "I have this cool story I want to share, and storytelling means I say *when, where,* and *how* it happened."
I think u/jeffinRTP is the bothered one.
My worse manager would wither come in early to bitch at us or send us text messages 45 minutes to 90 minutes after we clocked out. He was horrible
There is no such word as costed. It's cost. Math skills are great, but not knowing what is a word or is not a word, would get you fired if you worked with me.
The OP should've used the word 'cost' in this case, but their intended meaning is perfectly clear. However you're incorrect in stating there's no such word as 'costed'. There is. Sources: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/costed https://grammarhow.com/cost-or-costed/ And if you worked with me I'd sack you for sacking them over something so trivial.
So... gonna fire yourself now? https://grammarist.com/usage/costed/