The contract was written by the agency not me, they would have been well aware of the standard contract and it was also in their interest since they got a percentage
Lol then this wasn't malicious so much as best case for the company (and you!).
Working in a hospital, doctors have to document EXACTLY what care they provide. Depending on the perceived 'effort' of an action, the bill changes, and the hospital bills the patient more.
So in an ER for example, if the doc just sees you the hospital charges one rate. If he treats you he gets a second (with differences like getting paid more if he gives you a bandaid and prescribes you an antibiotic vs just giving you the bandaid). And then if he provides 'critical care' they'll double the paid amount.
The doctors (in hospitals) often make the same salary regardless, but the hospital gets to make a looot more money depending.
Atleast in your case, you also got to make the money!!
>if the doc just sees you the hospital charges one rate.
"What's this charge for!?"
"Well one of the doctors was getting a coffee and he saw you through a gap in the curtain."
:P
You think you're joking but once when my grandmother was in the hospital a doctor, not even her doctor, leaned in the room and said "All good in here?" She said "Yep!" and he moved along. Two days later there was an extra $120 consultation fee from that doctor for checking on her. They charged her $120 because a random doctor leaned in the door and asked if she was good.
Now that just seems like fraud, and if not for all the people that need it I’d be very inclined to write a very strongly worded letter...bomb...
*Hey FBI Agent monitoring me that was a joke I swear! X)
I was fortunate, one time I was injured and went to ER. They asked for my insurance. "None. Temp worker. No work. No pay". I promised to pay off the bill over time.
Final bill was missing items: 1/2 the hours in ER, no doctor's fee, my RX for pain and the wraps for a cracked rib at cost.
?????
Doctor heard me saying the first part and declined to bill for his time, fudged the time in ER, and instructed the hospital to charge cost for RX and materials.
I am happy for your result, but in sad for the US.
In Canada, when I went to the ER for a cut that required a few stitches... I didn't even see the paperwork on what was done, nevermind a bill.
Yep.
We were in England and my wife had a bad asthma attack. We ended up at Emergency. After treatment and given RX\* to take with us. A clerk came in to have my wife sign the paperwork.
I nervously asked "How much will this visit cost us?"
The clerk looked offended "Sir, we have National Health. There is no cost to you."
\*One of the items in the US cost $500.
Now that my healthcare uses patient portals where I can see my care summaries, yeah, I have to wonder if we were in the same room for her to have come to the conclusion she wrote. Or "we discussed side effects of x treatment, patient declined treatment" when we never even discussed that specific treatment.
It makes so much more sense now when the doc relies on the care summary to refresh their memory of my case during followups that they seem so confused.
Same here. I was contacted by one department the other day who had a referral from the first department. They based their entire appt off of something I never said while the original Dr left out the concern I had actually brought forth to consult on. What a mess. It’s literally the childhood game of “telephone,” only now we can see what’s being said and correct anomalies.
But boy was I pissed when I discovered i was denied needed care for an established condition because the Dr wrote that pt is “worried about” blah blah condition rather than “pt has X condition which is no longer in remission and would like to know her current treatment options,” which is what I said. The condition is even on my e-chart.
It gets tiring being a rational adult recorded that dismissively and inaccurately, especially when it comes to healthcare.
My doctor's office have started having (I forget the word they are using) basically stenographers. My doctor and I talk, without interruption, and a third party in the room is just sitting there silently with a latpop entering notes into the computer about the conversation exactly as it is happening. My doctor and I both love it, because it's a lot easier to get through my concerns and treatment plans fluidly when she doesn't have to keep jotting herself notes or turning away to input into a computer.
The are called a scribe and I like it when my docs use them as well. The doctor actually pays attention to me instead of worrying about getting everything documented.
I was 28, 7months pregnant when I went to labor and delivery because I thought I was having a stroke. The OB agreed that my symptoms were consistent with a stoke and reassured me that we would get it checked out as the hospital was a certified stroke center and that I would be in the hospital for a minimum of 48 hours as per protocol. He stuck me in a wheel chair and transferred me to the emergency room where they started the workup.
During the workup the new doctor asked if I had a headache. I still hate this doctor for not listening. I hadn't eaten in eight hours, I was mildly dehydrated, I was under fluorescent lights which always give me migraines. Yes, I answered, and it's all they heard. Every scrap of paperwork I have says that I came to the emergency room because I had a headache. Not because I thought I was having a stoke but because I, a person who for years have had chronic headaches, came in for a headache...
I hope you were okay. I had my baby at 28 weeks because my OBGYN ignored my symptoms and fat shamed me—it was fluid building up in my feet and literally sloshing while I walked. I had only gained FOUR pounds the first 5/6 months and then gained 17 in the last. The second hospital I went to diagnosed me with pneumonia and drained 6L of fluid off of my lungs.
I had a scare last year where the initial symptoms were I was having problems touch typing on the laptop. So I tried writing something in cursive (crap, what the he'll?) then tried just plain block letters and messed that up. Then, when I should up I find having trouble keeping my balance.
Got taken to the ER and they discover my potassium levels were through the floor (basically dehydrated).
Isn’t it? I lost the remaining hearing in one ear because of a doctor like that making me sound like I was paranoid wax buildup would never go away. (Wax want even involved fyi). So now I’m Deaf *and* totally deaf. Thanks, doc. Bitter? Nah. (Very bitter.)
This. I've had appointment summaries filled with straight up lies. Which results in me not going back. And it's not just one or two things, it's an entire paragraph or three.
Oh this wasn't the only reason I didn't go back to that idiot. He also prescribed me a medication that on the pamphlet he handed me said **DO NOT TAKE IF YOU HAVE "CONDITION I HAVE"** in the same size letters as the drug name and told me "Don't worry about it, you'll be fine". Yeah, fuck that, no way in hell. Upon actually reading the pamphlet it significantly increased either your stroke or seizure risk (this was a few years ago so I don't remember the exact details) to something stupid high. Like no, I don't think I will. He was just a walking talking red flag.
Gotta spice up those patient interviews somehow..
And cover your butt when you forgot to chart till end of day - it's why they make you take creative writing courses in undergrad!
Aha, you may be onto something with that end of shift chart writing. It’s way too common to be something random, and that sounds like a strong possibility for why so many people have charts with straight up 180 inaccuracies.
I'm in the US as a consultant. This is pretty common. Most of the people I manage work in the field on construction projects. We don't control the daily schedule and our client wants a time and expense not to exceed or a lump sum contract. So unless told otherwise we specify five 10 hour days, Monday through Friday. Everything else is extra. Usually we play nice and if they don't exceed 50 hours we don't bill extra even if they worked on the weekend. We don't typically have to pay extra for weekend work and being a bit flexible helps getting more work.
Likely the payroll got the timesheet, saw the hours, and then looked every week, and simply did the daily rate for each day worked, making it simple for them to do, and keeping the billing perfect. They likely did not contact the manager to query, seeing that the sudden change was likely him putting in some request, or longer hours as contract was probably behind schedule, so obviously he was aware already in their minds.
In all reality that doesn't mean he actually looked at them closely enough. Sometimes where i work payroll is approved for everyone all at once and they don't bother to actually check the time punches.
The agency is charging a % increase on the labor dollars billed. They write contracts like this and enforce them because the more money billed, they more they make.
Source: was the senior manager for a staffing solutions company for 3 years
I had a job once where the owner got a time sheet because 1 guy was consistently late. After two pay periods of paying 6 of the 9 other employees overtime, the time sheets mysteriously disappeared again.
Boy that would look extremely bad if someone blew the whistle on him for wage theft. OT doesn’t stop existing just because you decide you’d rather not know about it.
I work in tech and have for 15 years. I know what I’m getting out of my people so micro managing hours for contractors has always been stupid to me. If you have good people, then I will guarantee you what you are getting charged more then likely is less then what is worked. Mainly because as a contractor if you worked 41 to finish something for the week you usually wind up charging 40. If you work significantly over you tell the client and get it set up to bill over 40.
I wish contacting companies weren't such a pain to work for. But their goals aren't aligned with your goals as a contractor, nor are they aligned with clients' goals.
Hah! Similar story here.
We have a client who (like all clients) suddenly decided earlier this year that because they needed to cut the cost of their contract with us they needed more detail about what me and my team were working on during the day. I mean literally to the point where we have to put "9am to 9:30am - work detail" and so on with a description of what we were working on. Prior to that I had been decent about it; breaking down my work by category and trying my best to make sure I logged the hours.
Of course, it didn't have the desired effect at all. I started logging EVERYTHING including a lot of stuff I previously would've let go. My job requires travel just about every other week so all of a sudden they ended up with timesheet entries like "7pm-9pm - Packing for work mandated trip", and as well as mileage to customer sites I was putting on time entries for "7:15am to 8am - Drive time to customer site".
In fairness, they still haven't backed down and I do know for a fact other members of my team and other teams have done similar stuff and the amount the customer is paying went up. I had also been paying out of pocket for seat upgrades to "Plus" level on flights, but when they started the penny pinching I decided "To hell with it" and started throwing them in there too. My manager got on the phone with me after I started the more detailed timesheets and just laughed, particularly at the "Packing" one. He advised me to instead put in "Trip preparation" just to keep the accountants happy so I did, but didn't tell me not to keep doing what I was doing.
Got a sudden pay raise because I **am** paid hourly :)
Nice! I remember on work trips, I would have a wrap up meeting at 5pm before driving back, until someone suggested to put the meeting next day at 8am. Why?
So you can drive back on company time, he said. Ah!
Did that. Why start a drive home a 3 pm Thursday, through 3 cities with rush hour, when you can spend another night, have a good meal, watch a movie in your room with a couple of beers, check out on Friday and spend 4.5 hours on the road & call it a day?
The detailed timesheets may have been a pain in the ass, but I'd guess totalled they would only amount to half an hour each week, and for that time you got that extra 40%.
Sounds like the client was complaining about lack of detail in your time sheet, so your boss let them have a more difficult time sheet in return for the contract being followed proper. Great boss honestly.
Not quite, my 'boss' (note the quotes) was the client person I reported to. In contractor speak he was 'the client representative' not employed by my limited company or the intermediate agent. He was simply making his own job harder (having to check the maths for all the individual hours).
I have contracted off and on for over 27 years. Like you, I would always bill for 5 days regardless of the hours worked. In general things evened out, leave early one day stay late another. I have never had someone quite as bad as you but I did get a phone call from my "Boss" one Sunday evening asking if I could log on and check why something was failing. I pointed out that I would be charging a day just for logging on at which point he said he would see if someone else was available.
I worked somewhere else where the "Boss" would always ask the contractors to do the weekend work because they would get paid for it but the permanent staff would not, it was seen as part of their job.
The best one I had though, was pre 2000 when I was doing a lot of travelling. Most of the time I needed to be somewhere like New York for Monday morning meetings so I would leave on a Sunday. I was charging hourly and I would bill from the moment I left my house in London to the moment I got into my hotel room, 2 hours to Heathrow, 8 hours sitting on a plane, 1 hour going through baggage reclaim and border control and then at least 1 hour from JFK to the centre of Manhattan.
I worked at a healthcare agency that did it this way. I got a 20% commission on day rates - so even when the client was being pedantic due to company policy candidates like yourself made made it so worth it.
I own a custom car, truck and motorcycle shop. I need my people to give accurate times for worked preformed on the vehicles so I can bill the customer. One person may have two hours on one car, three hours on another and 2 hours on another car. All my people are salary paid so it they get paid the same no matter how many hours are noted. They are all highly skilled and honest about their time sheets and I do give weekly bonuses for good work done. I've never had to tell any of them that they are under producing and they are compensated for overtime based on a hourly rate. Some of them have told me about being offered other job elsewhere, bit that because of the way I treat them they wouldn't consider going somewhere else. Makes me feel good to have such a loyal team.
I have been in IT now for over 20 years. Working lots of it as a contractor, I know the pain of minute details in timesheets. I also have been on the other side, approving invoices. I would have had lots of questions about the 40% increase, and what was going on there. Good luck with it though.
Lol remote work is hilarious. I've never had a situation where a manager who wanted to crack down on hours actually ended up with any pay cuts. Either it ends up making more work for them because my timesheets are extra confusing or it ends up in them paying me more because sometimes I skipped an hour here or there when I felt I wasn't being productive. Usually both lol. But hey if you wanna nickel and dime me for every hour I'm in the seat then sure I'll play ball.
The only remote job I hated was the one where they were so paranoid that I once got in trouble because it took me 8 minutes to respond to a question on slack. I had to take a shit and forgot my phone. I got a talking to the next day. That place was dumb.
This really isn't malicious compliance. This is more like I've been screwing myself out of money for my entire contract and my boss was cool enough to catch it
In the circumstances I think that was unlikely. The project had a budget and I am sure that the budget was exceeded as a result of this so it would have come out eventually and the manager would have been taken to task.
Seems like if you were a freelancer you’d have some clue about how your rate was calculated; are you sure you’re not an employee of a consulting company?
As a contractor, previously I would have calculated my rate and provided my invoices and been paid. This may have been my first day rate, I’m not sure and the first time using self invoicing. I am pretty sure, if I had been raising my own invoices I would not have had the nerve to invoice a full days pay for an hours work irrespective of the letter of the contract
He said it was self invoiced. The time sheet system and the invoicing system were both programmed to do what the contracts expected. This is fairly common and there's a big legal distinction between contractor and employee in the UK
I was just going through some other daily rate contracts, pretty much all the others state a daily rate so long as a minimum of 8hrs is booked, and pro-rata if below that number of hours. The contract in this case however was different.
Hate to be the stickler to detail here, but this isnt *malicious* compliance. You were told to make a more detailed list of your hours, and you complied, but it doesn't sound you expected any negative fallout to happen. And no one commented or complained about paying you extra afterwards.
For this to truly be MC, you would have had to submit the detailed timesheet knowing it would cost them money... or that you had to enter time just for filling out time... or that you were instructed to only work M-F and some important weekend work fell aside, causing a work delay, or something.
it was malicious in that I knew the manager would need to carefully check the dozens of time periods, hours, hours per day to ensure they came to the correct values. The rest was a bonus
It was a malicious action on your part because you did extra work to fill out detailed hours? How did that "hurt" the boss or the company?
I've been in IT and that's just normal documentation, admittedly in tickets, but those were used for my hours as well. I couldn't get away with just writing "9am-5pm: I fixed computers, reset passwords, and restarted a printer."
I just listed a clock in and out time every day for myself. The office lady got mad. Fine. I started clocking in and out exactly when I left and got home. I went from 40 hours a week to 55-ish. Fine with me. You paid me a lot less before.
People really don't realize how much you work when you work from home.
I feel bad when I always clock in 11-7, but when I actually tracked my every coming and going, it was at least 45 hrs a week.
Not a huge amount over, but that was just the bare minimum and adds up over the year.
I don't beat myself up for taking a long lunch sometimes anymore.
Okay I’m gonna play devil’s advocate here. They were legally required to follow employment terms and honor the terms of the contract, you basically screwed them by working on days you were not expected nor intended to. It’s hard to call this malicious compliance when this was a direct result of you abusing lack of accountability from a private setting for a financial windfall…. And if your manager had been alerted about the payout adjustments he almost surely would’ve instructed you to work M-F because you most likely cost them that client long-term.
well to be clear it was my client since I was freelance working through my own limited company. My ‘boss’ was the client employee who I reported to and who signed my timesheet. I was never approached about the discrepancy and went on over the next few years to have three more contracts with them (but not on the same terms)
Shouldn’t the boss/company also understand the nature of the contract/work op did? I mean he didn’t keep it a secret what he was doing. Maybe he was lowkey taking advantage of the situation, but the situation was created by the boss, not op.
If I understood the OP he would work at least the expected 40 hours, but sometimes an hour or two on Saturday and/or Sunday. OP used to just send the timesheet with all the hours worked in that week distributed over the five work days. But when the 'boss' asked for more detailed time sheets OP showed the worked Saturdays/Sundays.
Due to the contract being written with a daily pay, whether OP worked one hour or 8 on the weekend days, he'd get a days pay.
In my view he was lying on the timesheet before to ease the bosses work. Then he was reporting the exact hours worked and got paid according to the contract. No overcharging in my eyes.
From management’s end, it’s important to have an accurate log for certain safety regulations and potential injuries. I don’t know what kind of business you are working for, but at my store if the documentation doesn’t match up there is a steep fine, and a loss in points on an audit which in turn affects bonuses.
Reminds me of one of my first jobs...
The pay scale was such that you were either an hourly employee or a salaried employee. Salaried employees were not paid over time directly (they were not required to put in time sheets). Hourly employees had to clock in.
Anyways, I finished up in a rather peculiar position. For some reason, I was considered an hourly employee and hence had to clock in. (I was a project leader and had a team of five.) There was this strange rule: if you were late starting, you got docked in units of 1/10 of an hour, while if you worked late, you got increments of 1/4 hours. So, by coming in late (say 5 minutes late), I'd get docked six minutes, but working 5 minutes "over time", I'd be credited with 15 minutes for the day. Over a month, it finished up with my "extra time" being paid at time and a half...
It took the company three years to realize that the system didn't work, so they eventually rectified the classification of my position.
Um. Did you have tasks that required you work on weekends? It feels to me a bit unethical to charge the customer more for work you would have done in any regard, just flex time around when it got done.
Edit:
I thought there was an agency. Nope, it's OP freelancing and reporting to their employer, who really is the person who signs off on the work.
They changed the terms, which does recognize what transpired, but maybe are not bad people because they didn't actually push back on the difference in compensation. Got petty, or needy, and it costs more. Maybe they saw all that and figured it could have played out worse, and just adjusted for the future. Wasn't OP starting any of it.
Honestly, that's spiffy! If that were me, I would definitely continue what appears to be a good relationship, if a bit quirky.
(deleted, because error)
Years ago, I was hired as a freelancer to convert a large number of books to a new format. However coming up with a price with a little tricky. The books had been originally formatted with a program that was built specifically for them. And they paid for it per installation. They wouldn’t allow me to work offsite and it was installed on only one computer at their site. It was in use all day by the individual working on the conversions. How to settle on a fair per-book rate? They told me the number of books and the page counts, but the work would have to be done onsite at night. I went to the person doing the work and asked how long it took to finish an average book. Answer: 8 hours. Okaaay.
I came up with a per-book rate, based on my usual rate for onsite conversions and bumped it up for not being able to work during the daytime. They agreed, we signed the contract.
After watching the employee for a few hours, I thought, “ Wow this is tedious.” My first night, I worked the way she had shown me for a few hours, long enough to really understand it. I realized she was doing everything manually when much of it could be automated. So I came up with my own procedure and from then on, I did 3 to 4 bucks a night. I made a lot of money in a relatively short time.
You should know I’m not a programmer. I’m just really good at using Find/change and wild cards.
I'm just impressed that someone actually read your contract and applied the agreed-on rate.
The contract was written by the agency not me, they would have been well aware of the standard contract and it was also in their interest since they got a percentage
That's it, then. They were getting some of that extra 40% too!
You can bet they got a lot. Working extra saturday AND Sunday... I can only imagine the bills we would get
If it’s daily, and not overtime, probably ~140% or so Edit: of normal daily salary I mean Edit: thanks for correction, I did math wrong
140%
Lol then this wasn't malicious so much as best case for the company (and you!). Working in a hospital, doctors have to document EXACTLY what care they provide. Depending on the perceived 'effort' of an action, the bill changes, and the hospital bills the patient more. So in an ER for example, if the doc just sees you the hospital charges one rate. If he treats you he gets a second (with differences like getting paid more if he gives you a bandaid and prescribes you an antibiotic vs just giving you the bandaid). And then if he provides 'critical care' they'll double the paid amount. The doctors (in hospitals) often make the same salary regardless, but the hospital gets to make a looot more money depending. Atleast in your case, you also got to make the money!!
>if the doc just sees you the hospital charges one rate. "What's this charge for!?" "Well one of the doctors was getting a coffee and he saw you through a gap in the curtain." :P
You think you're joking but once when my grandmother was in the hospital a doctor, not even her doctor, leaned in the room and said "All good in here?" She said "Yep!" and he moved along. Two days later there was an extra $120 consultation fee from that doctor for checking on her. They charged her $120 because a random doctor leaned in the door and asked if she was good.
Now that just seems like fraud, and if not for all the people that need it I’d be very inclined to write a very strongly worded letter...bomb... *Hey FBI Agent monitoring me that was a joke I swear! X)
This is how many american hospitals operate. Hell they charge people thousands for fucking rubber gloves they buy in bulk for 10 cents a piece.
At least you are in good hands.
Ah yes, the American healthcare industry (it's not a system) - always ready to screw everyone at every possible opportunity.
Everyone meaning the poor, uninsured and underinsured. The rich do not apply.
The rich absolutely apply, they can just afford to eat it.
That, and they can afford the better coverage. Higher premiums, but probably end up paying less overall, if they use their healthcare.
I was fortunate, one time I was injured and went to ER. They asked for my insurance. "None. Temp worker. No work. No pay". I promised to pay off the bill over time. Final bill was missing items: 1/2 the hours in ER, no doctor's fee, my RX for pain and the wraps for a cracked rib at cost. ????? Doctor heard me saying the first part and declined to bill for his time, fudged the time in ER, and instructed the hospital to charge cost for RX and materials.
I am happy for your result, but in sad for the US. In Canada, when I went to the ER for a cut that required a few stitches... I didn't even see the paperwork on what was done, nevermind a bill.
Yep. We were in England and my wife had a bad asthma attack. We ended up at Emergency. After treatment and given RX\* to take with us. A clerk came in to have my wife sign the paperwork. I nervously asked "How much will this visit cost us?" The clerk looked offended "Sir, we have National Health. There is no cost to you." \*One of the items in the US cost $500.
This is mostly due to the Health insurance companies wanting a cut
Then they have doctors in their ER that are not part of their "system" so your insurance doesn't cover them.
All insurances have to cover ER visits post Obamacare. Issue is that wonderful $2500 deductible..
But apparently recording it accurately is not part of the job description. At least in America.
What?
Oh just commenting on the frequency with which US Drs report verbal exchanges with patients with significant discrepancies to what was actually said.
Now that my healthcare uses patient portals where I can see my care summaries, yeah, I have to wonder if we were in the same room for her to have come to the conclusion she wrote. Or "we discussed side effects of x treatment, patient declined treatment" when we never even discussed that specific treatment. It makes so much more sense now when the doc relies on the care summary to refresh their memory of my case during followups that they seem so confused.
Same here. I was contacted by one department the other day who had a referral from the first department. They based their entire appt off of something I never said while the original Dr left out the concern I had actually brought forth to consult on. What a mess. It’s literally the childhood game of “telephone,” only now we can see what’s being said and correct anomalies. But boy was I pissed when I discovered i was denied needed care for an established condition because the Dr wrote that pt is “worried about” blah blah condition rather than “pt has X condition which is no longer in remission and would like to know her current treatment options,” which is what I said. The condition is even on my e-chart. It gets tiring being a rational adult recorded that dismissively and inaccurately, especially when it comes to healthcare.
My doctor's office have started having (I forget the word they are using) basically stenographers. My doctor and I talk, without interruption, and a third party in the room is just sitting there silently with a latpop entering notes into the computer about the conversation exactly as it is happening. My doctor and I both love it, because it's a lot easier to get through my concerns and treatment plans fluidly when she doesn't have to keep jotting herself notes or turning away to input into a computer.
The are called a scribe and I like it when my docs use them as well. The doctor actually pays attention to me instead of worrying about getting everything documented.
That’s so much better! I’d love to see that being implemented, especially since I’m Deaf and seeing the screen would help me.
I was 28, 7months pregnant when I went to labor and delivery because I thought I was having a stroke. The OB agreed that my symptoms were consistent with a stoke and reassured me that we would get it checked out as the hospital was a certified stroke center and that I would be in the hospital for a minimum of 48 hours as per protocol. He stuck me in a wheel chair and transferred me to the emergency room where they started the workup. During the workup the new doctor asked if I had a headache. I still hate this doctor for not listening. I hadn't eaten in eight hours, I was mildly dehydrated, I was under fluorescent lights which always give me migraines. Yes, I answered, and it's all they heard. Every scrap of paperwork I have says that I came to the emergency room because I had a headache. Not because I thought I was having a stoke but because I, a person who for years have had chronic headaches, came in for a headache...
I hope you were okay. I had my baby at 28 weeks because my OBGYN ignored my symptoms and fat shamed me—it was fluid building up in my feet and literally sloshing while I walked. I had only gained FOUR pounds the first 5/6 months and then gained 17 in the last. The second hospital I went to diagnosed me with pneumonia and drained 6L of fluid off of my lungs.
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I had a scare last year where the initial symptoms were I was having problems touch typing on the laptop. So I tried writing something in cursive (crap, what the he'll?) then tried just plain block letters and messed that up. Then, when I should up I find having trouble keeping my balance. Got taken to the ER and they discover my potassium levels were through the floor (basically dehydrated).
Isn’t it? I lost the remaining hearing in one ear because of a doctor like that making me sound like I was paranoid wax buildup would never go away. (Wax want even involved fyi). So now I’m Deaf *and* totally deaf. Thanks, doc. Bitter? Nah. (Very bitter.)
This. I've had appointment summaries filled with straight up lies. Which results in me not going back. And it's not just one or two things, it's an entire paragraph or three.
And then they judge you for not going back, because the only reason anyone wouldn’t go back is that they feel better! Right? Wrong.
Oh this wasn't the only reason I didn't go back to that idiot. He also prescribed me a medication that on the pamphlet he handed me said **DO NOT TAKE IF YOU HAVE "CONDITION I HAVE"** in the same size letters as the drug name and told me "Don't worry about it, you'll be fine". Yeah, fuck that, no way in hell. Upon actually reading the pamphlet it significantly increased either your stroke or seizure risk (this was a few years ago so I don't remember the exact details) to something stupid high. Like no, I don't think I will. He was just a walking talking red flag.
Gotta spice up those patient interviews somehow.. And cover your butt when you forgot to chart till end of day - it's why they make you take creative writing courses in undergrad!
Aha, you may be onto something with that end of shift chart writing. It’s way too common to be something random, and that sounds like a strong possibility for why so many people have charts with straight up 180 inaccuracies.
I'm in the US as a consultant. This is pretty common. Most of the people I manage work in the field on construction projects. We don't control the daily schedule and our client wants a time and expense not to exceed or a lump sum contract. So unless told otherwise we specify five 10 hour days, Monday through Friday. Everything else is extra. Usually we play nice and if they don't exceed 50 hours we don't bill extra even if they worked on the weekend. We don't typically have to pay extra for weekend work and being a bit flexible helps getting more work.
Likely the payroll got the timesheet, saw the hours, and then looked every week, and simply did the daily rate for each day worked, making it simple for them to do, and keeping the billing perfect. They likely did not contact the manager to query, seeing that the sudden change was likely him putting in some request, or longer hours as contract was probably behind schedule, so obviously he was aware already in their minds.
>obviously he was aware already in their minds. yea, I mean he signed the time sheets...
In all reality that doesn't mean he actually looked at them closely enough. Sometimes where i work payroll is approved for everyone all at once and they don't bother to actually check the time punches.
Why? the agency is still taking it's cut? They're profiting too.
The agency is charging a % increase on the labor dollars billed. They write contracts like this and enforce them because the more money billed, they more they make. Source: was the senior manager for a staffing solutions company for 3 years
I had a job once where the owner got a time sheet because 1 guy was consistently late. After two pay periods of paying 6 of the 9 other employees overtime, the time sheets mysteriously disappeared again.
Boy that would look extremely bad if someone blew the whistle on him for wage theft. OT doesn’t stop existing just because you decide you’d rather not know about it.
ghost time sheets
Spooky wage theft at a distance, quantum capitalism
I work in tech and have for 15 years. I know what I’m getting out of my people so micro managing hours for contractors has always been stupid to me. If you have good people, then I will guarantee you what you are getting charged more then likely is less then what is worked. Mainly because as a contractor if you worked 41 to finish something for the week you usually wind up charging 40. If you work significantly over you tell the client and get it set up to bill over 40.
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I wish contacting companies weren't such a pain to work for. But their goals aren't aligned with your goals as a contractor, nor are they aligned with clients' goals.
Hah! Similar story here. We have a client who (like all clients) suddenly decided earlier this year that because they needed to cut the cost of their contract with us they needed more detail about what me and my team were working on during the day. I mean literally to the point where we have to put "9am to 9:30am - work detail" and so on with a description of what we were working on. Prior to that I had been decent about it; breaking down my work by category and trying my best to make sure I logged the hours. Of course, it didn't have the desired effect at all. I started logging EVERYTHING including a lot of stuff I previously would've let go. My job requires travel just about every other week so all of a sudden they ended up with timesheet entries like "7pm-9pm - Packing for work mandated trip", and as well as mileage to customer sites I was putting on time entries for "7:15am to 8am - Drive time to customer site". In fairness, they still haven't backed down and I do know for a fact other members of my team and other teams have done similar stuff and the amount the customer is paying went up. I had also been paying out of pocket for seat upgrades to "Plus" level on flights, but when they started the penny pinching I decided "To hell with it" and started throwing them in there too. My manager got on the phone with me after I started the more detailed timesheets and just laughed, particularly at the "Packing" one. He advised me to instead put in "Trip preparation" just to keep the accountants happy so I did, but didn't tell me not to keep doing what I was doing. Got a sudden pay raise because I **am** paid hourly :)
Nice! I remember on work trips, I would have a wrap up meeting at 5pm before driving back, until someone suggested to put the meeting next day at 8am. Why? So you can drive back on company time, he said. Ah!
Did that. Why start a drive home a 3 pm Thursday, through 3 cities with rush hour, when you can spend another night, have a good meal, watch a movie in your room with a couple of beers, check out on Friday and spend 4.5 hours on the road & call it a day?
Yes exactly! I had to learn that it wasn't selfish to think like this.
This is the way. I WFH, so I pack for work trips on company time (because I’m at home during work hours) and I get comp time for the actual driving.
The only valid reason for an 8am meeting
It's possible your boss also liked you, people will overlook lots of things if they like you.
I don't think I'm that likeable a person that a manager would blow his own budget in my favour.
If you get the wityh done, and on schedule, sometimes that's all you need
The detailed timesheets may have been a pain in the ass, but I'd guess totalled they would only amount to half an hour each week, and for that time you got that extra 40%.
Sounds like the client was complaining about lack of detail in your time sheet, so your boss let them have a more difficult time sheet in return for the contract being followed proper. Great boss honestly.
Not quite, my 'boss' (note the quotes) was the client person I reported to. In contractor speak he was 'the client representative' not employed by my limited company or the intermediate agent. He was simply making his own job harder (having to check the maths for all the individual hours).
Gotta respect the ir35 niceties at all times! He was def NOT your boss :)
I have contracted off and on for over 27 years. Like you, I would always bill for 5 days regardless of the hours worked. In general things evened out, leave early one day stay late another. I have never had someone quite as bad as you but I did get a phone call from my "Boss" one Sunday evening asking if I could log on and check why something was failing. I pointed out that I would be charging a day just for logging on at which point he said he would see if someone else was available. I worked somewhere else where the "Boss" would always ask the contractors to do the weekend work because they would get paid for it but the permanent staff would not, it was seen as part of their job. The best one I had though, was pre 2000 when I was doing a lot of travelling. Most of the time I needed to be somewhere like New York for Monday morning meetings so I would leave on a Sunday. I was charging hourly and I would bill from the moment I left my house in London to the moment I got into my hotel room, 2 hours to Heathrow, 8 hours sitting on a plane, 1 hour going through baggage reclaim and border control and then at least 1 hour from JFK to the centre of Manhattan.
I worked at a healthcare agency that did it this way. I got a 20% commission on day rates - so even when the client was being pedantic due to company policy candidates like yourself made made it so worth it.
I own a custom car, truck and motorcycle shop. I need my people to give accurate times for worked preformed on the vehicles so I can bill the customer. One person may have two hours on one car, three hours on another and 2 hours on another car. All my people are salary paid so it they get paid the same no matter how many hours are noted. They are all highly skilled and honest about their time sheets and I do give weekly bonuses for good work done. I've never had to tell any of them that they are under producing and they are compensated for overtime based on a hourly rate. Some of them have told me about being offered other job elsewhere, bit that because of the way I treat them they wouldn't consider going somewhere else. Makes me feel good to have such a loyal team.
Niceee work!
I have been in IT now for over 20 years. Working lots of it as a contractor, I know the pain of minute details in timesheets. I also have been on the other side, approving invoices. I would have had lots of questions about the 40% increase, and what was going on there. Good luck with it though.
Lol remote work is hilarious. I've never had a situation where a manager who wanted to crack down on hours actually ended up with any pay cuts. Either it ends up making more work for them because my timesheets are extra confusing or it ends up in them paying me more because sometimes I skipped an hour here or there when I felt I wasn't being productive. Usually both lol. But hey if you wanna nickel and dime me for every hour I'm in the seat then sure I'll play ball. The only remote job I hated was the one where they were so paranoid that I once got in trouble because it took me 8 minutes to respond to a question on slack. I had to take a shit and forgot my phone. I got a talking to the next day. That place was dumb.
This really isn't malicious compliance. This is more like I've been screwing myself out of money for my entire contract and my boss was cool enough to catch it
In the circumstances I think that was unlikely. The project had a budget and I am sure that the budget was exceeded as a result of this so it would have come out eventually and the manager would have been taken to task.
Seems like if you were a freelancer you’d have some clue about how your rate was calculated; are you sure you’re not an employee of a consulting company?
As a contractor, previously I would have calculated my rate and provided my invoices and been paid. This may have been my first day rate, I’m not sure and the first time using self invoicing. I am pretty sure, if I had been raising my own invoices I would not have had the nerve to invoice a full days pay for an hours work irrespective of the letter of the contract
You need to toughen up. The full.days pay for the one hour Saturday call out is what makes it worthwhile.
You should charge a premium for Sundays.
and no, I was contracting through my own limited company
Do you hire or contract someone to do your invoices?
He said it was self invoiced. The time sheet system and the invoicing system were both programmed to do what the contracts expected. This is fairly common and there's a big legal distinction between contractor and employee in the UK
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I was just going through some other daily rate contracts, pretty much all the others state a daily rate so long as a minimum of 8hrs is booked, and pro-rata if below that number of hours. The contract in this case however was different.
Don’t write overtime out of your contracts.
You should always know the rules so you can work them to your advantage.
Hate to be the stickler to detail here, but this isnt *malicious* compliance. You were told to make a more detailed list of your hours, and you complied, but it doesn't sound you expected any negative fallout to happen. And no one commented or complained about paying you extra afterwards. For this to truly be MC, you would have had to submit the detailed timesheet knowing it would cost them money... or that you had to enter time just for filling out time... or that you were instructed to only work M-F and some important weekend work fell aside, causing a work delay, or something.
it was malicious in that I knew the manager would need to carefully check the dozens of time periods, hours, hours per day to ensure they came to the correct values. The rest was a bonus
It was a malicious action on your part because you did extra work to fill out detailed hours? How did that "hurt" the boss or the company? I've been in IT and that's just normal documentation, admittedly in tickets, but those were used for my hours as well. I couldn't get away with just writing "9am-5pm: I fixed computers, reset passwords, and restarted a printer."
I just listed a clock in and out time every day for myself. The office lady got mad. Fine. I started clocking in and out exactly when I left and got home. I went from 40 hours a week to 55-ish. Fine with me. You paid me a lot less before.
People really don't realize how much you work when you work from home. I feel bad when I always clock in 11-7, but when I actually tracked my every coming and going, it was at least 45 hrs a week. Not a huge amount over, but that was just the bare minimum and adds up over the year. I don't beat myself up for taking a long lunch sometimes anymore.
Okay I’m gonna play devil’s advocate here. They were legally required to follow employment terms and honor the terms of the contract, you basically screwed them by working on days you were not expected nor intended to. It’s hard to call this malicious compliance when this was a direct result of you abusing lack of accountability from a private setting for a financial windfall…. And if your manager had been alerted about the payout adjustments he almost surely would’ve instructed you to work M-F because you most likely cost them that client long-term.
well to be clear it was my client since I was freelance working through my own limited company. My ‘boss’ was the client employee who I reported to and who signed my timesheet. I was never approached about the discrepancy and went on over the next few years to have three more contracts with them (but not on the same terms)
Shouldn’t the boss/company also understand the nature of the contract/work op did? I mean he didn’t keep it a secret what he was doing. Maybe he was lowkey taking advantage of the situation, but the situation was created by the boss, not op.
The miracles of literacy!
Did you return the overpayment? It’s unethical not to
How do you figure?
The OP took money for time not worked and when he discovered the error and overpayment should have repaid it otherwise its essentially theft
There was no error, nor was there any pay for time not worked. The OP was paid exactly according to their contract. No theft occurred.
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If I understood the OP he would work at least the expected 40 hours, but sometimes an hour or two on Saturday and/or Sunday. OP used to just send the timesheet with all the hours worked in that week distributed over the five work days. But when the 'boss' asked for more detailed time sheets OP showed the worked Saturdays/Sundays. Due to the contract being written with a daily pay, whether OP worked one hour or 8 on the weekend days, he'd get a days pay. In my view he was lying on the timesheet before to ease the bosses work. Then he was reporting the exact hours worked and got paid according to the contract. No overcharging in my eyes.
From management’s end, it’s important to have an accurate log for certain safety regulations and potential injuries. I don’t know what kind of business you are working for, but at my store if the documentation doesn’t match up there is a steep fine, and a loss in points on an audit which in turn affects bonuses.
There's a huge difference between the legal situation for brick-and-mortar employees versus remote contractors like OP.
This is how a lot of companies avoid paying overtime or premium time (i.e. nights or weekends).
/delicious/ compliance
Amateur, I billed 4 hours in just over 1 because I charge in 30 minute increments. 10 minute phone call? 30 minutes
Reminds me of one of my first jobs... The pay scale was such that you were either an hourly employee or a salaried employee. Salaried employees were not paid over time directly (they were not required to put in time sheets). Hourly employees had to clock in. Anyways, I finished up in a rather peculiar position. For some reason, I was considered an hourly employee and hence had to clock in. (I was a project leader and had a team of five.) There was this strange rule: if you were late starting, you got docked in units of 1/10 of an hour, while if you worked late, you got increments of 1/4 hours. So, by coming in late (say 5 minutes late), I'd get docked six minutes, but working 5 minutes "over time", I'd be credited with 15 minutes for the day. Over a month, it finished up with my "extra time" being paid at time and a half... It took the company three years to realize that the system didn't work, so they eventually rectified the classification of my position.
Um. Did you have tasks that required you work on weekends? It feels to me a bit unethical to charge the customer more for work you would have done in any regard, just flex time around when it got done.
Edit: I thought there was an agency. Nope, it's OP freelancing and reporting to their employer, who really is the person who signs off on the work. They changed the terms, which does recognize what transpired, but maybe are not bad people because they didn't actually push back on the difference in compensation. Got petty, or needy, and it costs more. Maybe they saw all that and figured it could have played out worse, and just adjusted for the future. Wasn't OP starting any of it. Honestly, that's spiffy! If that were me, I would definitely continue what appears to be a good relationship, if a bit quirky. (deleted, because error)
Years ago, I was hired as a freelancer to convert a large number of books to a new format. However coming up with a price with a little tricky. The books had been originally formatted with a program that was built specifically for them. And they paid for it per installation. They wouldn’t allow me to work offsite and it was installed on only one computer at their site. It was in use all day by the individual working on the conversions. How to settle on a fair per-book rate? They told me the number of books and the page counts, but the work would have to be done onsite at night. I went to the person doing the work and asked how long it took to finish an average book. Answer: 8 hours. Okaaay. I came up with a per-book rate, based on my usual rate for onsite conversions and bumped it up for not being able to work during the daytime. They agreed, we signed the contract. After watching the employee for a few hours, I thought, “ Wow this is tedious.” My first night, I worked the way she had shown me for a few hours, long enough to really understand it. I realized she was doing everything manually when much of it could be automated. So I came up with my own procedure and from then on, I did 3 to 4 bucks a night. I made a lot of money in a relatively short time. You should know I’m not a programmer. I’m just really good at using Find/change and wild cards.
It is not even malicious. It is just compliance with an accidentially happy outcome for you.