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Are You On Time To Work?

Posted by Cliff on from the punctuality-is-for-machines dept.

gravitie asks: "I'm a developer in my local area. I'm on what is supposed to be 'flex time', so I can work the hours that my boss and I see fit for me to fullfil the number of hours I'm required to get a week. Besides this I must clock in at 7:30 AM every day I am at work. If I clock in at 7:31 I am late, no questions asked. If I am late 3 times in one quarter I get a verbal warning. Next time I get a written warning, then it just goes down hill from there (docked pay, etc..). Is this standard in todays business world? Should 1 minute late really be considered 'late'?"

9 of 328 comments (clear)

  1. Why a fixed time to come in for work? by adc · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you have flex hours, why do you have to clock in at 7:30 AM?

    1. Re:Why a fixed time to come in for work? by Brandybuck · · Score: 5, Funny

      At my job, my boss tells people that "he's usually in between 8 an 8:30". I try to be in by 8

      I've got flex time. My boss comes in at 8:00. I come in at 10:00. No problem. My boss leaves at 5:00, I leave at 5:01. No problem...

      --
      Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
  2. Re:Getting to be that way by grotgrot · · Score: 5, Interesting

    One employer I worked for decided that times were tough and they would require everyone to work an extra 15 minutes a day. Everyone ended up working less. The reason was that most used to work at least an half an hour extra each day, if not more. When the edict came down (roughly phrased as "accept this or your employment is terminated in two weeks as per your contract"), everyone started working exactly the required hours, and not a second more.

    I guess we had issues being treated like that, and all the managers getting Jaguars as company cars.

  3. from the "you have my sympathy" department by leitz · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Dude, I feel sorry for you. My boss likes to know if I'm not going to make it in that day or if I need to leave a few hours early. "Late" is defined as near lunch time. FWIW I normally show at 7 am and bail at 3. The boss knows even if I'm not there I'm either doing something work related at home or recovering from a long on-call issue. He also knows if he needs to tap me for early, late, or weekend work I'll support him just like he supports me.

    The respect and latitude my boss has given me has earned him a less than 3 minute pager response time and a "yes" every time there is a weekend problem or a 2 am "Can you go in and fix it?" When he needs a long day, I'm there. My record so far is 25 hours straight, on-site.

  4. Re:Don't be late by BrokenHalo · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Your employers set up the rules, as a good employee you should respect an abide by those rules.

    Sure, if you're a Nazi or like working at a boot camp. In the real world, the majority of well-run places I've worked at are flexible enough so long as you get your work done and don't take things to extremes like 3-hour lunches... The responsibility is also there that nobody should feel like you're dumping your workload onto your colleagues.

    A boss who's into kicking heads will not get as much value from his staff as one who rides with a looser rein.

  5. Salaried? by Dancin_Santa · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What are the legalities of treating a salaried employee as an hourly wage earner?

  6. Make the best of it... by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 5, Funny

    If I clock in at 7:31 I am late, no questions asked. If I am late 3 times in one quarter I get a verbal warning.

    Well, at least if you're running one minute late you can make the best of it and go out for breakfast, coming in 3 or 4 hours late.

  7. Re:Erm, try reading your contract. by nathanh · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Your contract tells you your conditions of work. If you don't like having to be there at 7:30, read your contract. If they're the rules, and you still don't like it, you're free to get another job.

    No. Things don't work like that. I know there is this popular myth that contracts can transcend law, but the law always trumps. Imagine if a contract said "in this job you will be sexually harrassed and you can't complain about it". Not legal. Any contract that violates the law isn't binding.

    In the scenario described, if he is 1 minute late 3 times in a month, his pay is docked. Pay docked for 3 minutes of tardiness per month? I'm sure there's a labour law that specifies a limit on penalties for tardiness. The contract cannot impose penalties higher than those limits.

    Now for the rant. I'm really pissed off with cunts like you whose answer for everything is: "if you don't like it, leave". That's not a fucking answer. You're exactly like the braindead fucks who pretend that the way to fix a country is to get rid of all the dissenters. Fuck you.

  8. In defense of them unskilled blue collar types... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I expect the poster's company will have a terrible time attracting talent at that point -- if they haven't already gone under by then, because only the most desperate and talentless of their employees won't have found jobs at a place that doesn't treat knowledge workers like unskilled factory workers.

    While in general I agree with everything you've said, I'd caution you to be just a little more temperate in your choice of language. Factory workers must be punctual because the assembly line can't move unless everyone is present at their posts, not because they may or may not lack some particular set of skills or aptitudes that a different worker or type of worker might or might not possess.

    Time was that Americans understood they were to treat all their fellow citizens equally. Granted, if you're a typical /.er, your childhood and adolescence were inundated with the propaganda of class warfare and class hatred, and that's about the only kind of political discourse you've ever heard, but it was not always so, and, for what it's worth, there are plenty of us out here in fly-over country who pay reverence to the old ways.