Help please disciplinary re clocking in times

MollyJoe

Thank you to everyone.

Actually getting the pc booted and running takes longer the more people logging on i.e at the main start time of 8.30 there can be approx 40 people and therefore it takes much longer than for those starting at 7am alone.

I am / know I will have to comply with the request/ order what I wanted clarification on is can my manager actually specify a time, i.e amount of minutes before start time we must clock in.

I am not clear on treating everyone like for like but surely we would all have to be disciplined exactly the same for a specific amount of time - does this make sense?

Can she discipline an 8.30am start person for 8.28am and not a 7 am start person for 6.58am given that the pc boots up quicker at the 7am time?

And just to complicate matters further are we allowed to bring others into it during a disciplinary ? As from past examples of other issues we are usually told that management can not discuss another employee's issues with us.

Tomorrow is another wonderful today I am sure.

Incisor

MollyJoe wrote: »

... Can she discipline an 8.30am start person for 8.28am and not a 7 am start person for 6.58am given that the pc boots up quicker at the 7am time? ...

The useful part of CFC's advice is that she can initiate a disciplinary on these grounds and if the company supports her, she can possibly make it stick. But at the end of the day, if work has started, ie pc is switched on or otherwise initiated, [but not necessarily fully booted or logged on] by 0830, then the contract is complied with. There is no choice but to comply with the contractual requirement of 0830 for work to start, but beyond that you have the choice of how far you are prepared to be pushed about. But if you choose to be pushed outside of the contract hours boundary, it will often expand further. Ultimately if a company will sack good workers for not complying with an arbitrary non-contract requirement, you are better off out of it.

I have no time for petty policies with no justification from stuck up idiot managers, particularly if it goes outside contracted hours [apart from maintaining the reputation of the company]. I think that the best approach would be for the whole office to openly defy the 0828 ruling while complying with the 0830 contract requirement.

SandC

It does seem petty but are they not just doing this because they have been having people regularly clocking on bang on 8.30 or over the 8.29 ruling? I personally don't think requirement to clock on by 8.28 is unreasonable. Does everyone in there all clock on regimentally together at the allotted time? Is there nobody there 10, 20, 30 mins before official start time?

In my opinion (and I might be slated for this), it's petty of an employee to not want to enter the building any more than 2 mins before start time!

Incisor

SandC wrote: »

... In my opinion (and I might be slated for this), it's petty of an employee to not want to enter the building any more than 2 mins before start time!

Pettiness breeds pettiness. It is no more petty on the part of the employee than the 0828 clock on requirement is on the part of management.

mitchaa

Take longer dinner breaks.
Take longer tea breaks.
Take longer toilet breaks.
Take longer cigarette breaks.
Take longer eye strain breaks.

I clock in and clock out of work but it is only used for fire safety, not timekeeping. I manage my own timekeeping Some days it will be 8hrs, some 7, and some even 6. (Contracted 37.5 over 5 days)

As long as i get my work done, no-one bats an eyelid.

I dont think i would want to work for a company so anal as the company described.

DGJsaver

briona wrote: »

I think the OP's company is being REALLY petty. Reminds me of a member of staff at a company I worked for in the past who gave employees a major dressing down if we parked slightly on a yellow line in the carpark. She made one member of staff reverse and re-park THREE times before her her parking was deemed acceptable! Seriously!

To be fair that is an EXCELLENT employee , it`s because of people that cant park that we all suffer parking dinks and dents

IGNORANT DRIVERS:mad:

Reds-on-Sea

I too work in a place that has had many, many petty rules over the years. My old office manager used to set his watch alarm to bleep dead on 8:30, woe betide any poor soul who wasn't sat at their desk at alarm time. He also used to get annoyed if people went to the loo within the first 30 mins of work - we should get to work early if we need to pee! There's now a 30 minute either side of arriving/breaks ban on coffee making which is fair, but if they stopped me going to the loo, there'd be hell to pay. Now we have clocking in/out machines. I'm paid by the 1/4 hour, and can claim a full 15mins, even if I'm 3 mins late (doesn't work in reverse obv!) but I get a weekly telling off as I'm invariably 1 or 2 minutes a few times a week. *shrugs* I try, but even if I leave 10 minutes earlier, I still seem to roll up at the same time. I don't know where the time goes.

with regards to the "computers ready to go at 8:30" policy, where does this end? What if you had a really big, complicated computer/machine that took 30 mins or an hour to boot up? (like the photocopier does at work!) Where do you draw the line?

I'm with Incisor all the way here. Quibbling about a minute here and there is probably more detrimental to production than being easy going about it. Kids happen, traffic happens (and my journey time increases by 20 mins when it rains due to traffic) even bad hair days happen... as long as you're there by your contracted time that's all I'd be worried about. If they're prepared to sack good workers for such petty incidences, then you deserve to work somewhere better.

MollyJoe

Again thank you all

SandC The majority of our team are at their desks inexcess of 15 minutes early - all working - none of us sit and wait for start times. It seems that we have a pedantic with nothing better at present to do manager than flex her authority over what ever issue she sees fit. Most of them pathetically trivial. This week just happens to be the clocking in times. As one of the girls in the team said she has destroyed our office enviroment.

The morale is so low.

MrsE_2

jumpycheese1 wrote: »

There are some people I have worked with do not understand the meaning of timekeeping. This means you should be ready to start work at 10:00, 11:00 etc, not enter the building at that time.
Soubrette, I worked in call centres and it takes an age to sign into the computer, open up the relevant applications etc. We were told NOT to switch off the base units as they will take longer to log in than those computers that have been switched on all night.
These people who swanned in at the time they were supposed to take calls always were 15 mins late as were chatting to the other late colleagues. They only lasted 5 mins either they got the sack or quit.

"Swanned" in at the time they were paid to start you mean:rolleyes:

ceridwen

MollyJoe wrote: »

Again thank you all

SandC The majority of our team are at their desks inexcess of 15 minutes early - all working - none of us sit and wait for start times. It seems that we have a pedantic with nothing better at present to do manager than flex her authority over what ever issue she sees fit. Most of them pathetically trivial. This week just happens to be the clocking in times. As one of the girls in the team said she has destroyed our office enviroment.

The morale is so low.

Then they are shooting themselves in the foot - what on earth are they doing starting work 15 minutes before start of work time and handing over 1 hour 15 minutes per week of unpaid overtime? Big handbags girls - with summat to read in. Or - if theres some policy preventing handbags near desks - then 15 minutes per day of chatting or personal "surfing the Web" or whatever - but dont give such a petty employer free time. That employer wants it both ways - most people doing unpaid overtime and the others being forced into handing over little bits and pieces of their own time for nowt.

I dont think the employer would be trying so hard to get people to clock in/log in in their own time if it wasnt for those colleagues handing over unpaid overtime willy-nilly!!!