Sacked for excessive internet use !!

k3lvc

Sachin wrote: »

Time sheets are used to show time spent on projects to be used to bill the clients on time spent on their projects

In which case this throws a whole different light on it. Do your time sheets that are then used to bill these companies exclude your time spent surfing or are your (ex)employer then billing their clients for the time you've spent surfing :eek:

SarEl

Any wrote: »

I assumed that is what the timesheet was for, because most office based jobs are not timesheet based unless they only get the hours down paid.. (as SarlE is saying).
Office jobs are usually set office hours so no need for timesheets.

All just assuming obviously, OP hasn't mentioned.

No, I didn't say that. Many offices have timesheets or some form of timekeeping system for core hours - especially these days with flexible working. I was querying what type of timesheets the OP kept.

OP, please clarify - are you (because nobody cares how the clients are charged) paid by the job done, or by the amount of hours you work in a week? To be clear - billable hours are timesheets in which you say that you have done XX jobs and these took 7 hours to complete, a sum of hours produced by a calculation, and it being not relevant whether you actually took 4 hours or 12 - you still get paid for 7.

Or do you have a set number of hours which you are required to attend work by contract, and if so, how do you show the employer that you turned up for those hours and not less?

Sachin

the amount of time spent on project is used to bill clients . i get paid my salary for working 4 days a week ( 8 hours ) 8-5 mon - thurs . The timesheets are used as a means of billing clients and working out how much to charge them . i hower do not falsfy the time sheets . i sometimes work through lunch and sometimes use internet the same time as working . many others stream videos on youtube etc while working at the same time . They have just showed my browsing history -- not given me time spent . This is because if they checked others they would find others are on the net 8-5 streaming videos , music etc . So they ve presented me with browsing history.

in 7 years my work never questioned . never brought up about to slow or anything . Work always done . So i browse the net at the same time . Who doesnt these days . No dodgy sites .Its accepted practice in our office .

I feel i should have got a warning . when intially told of the issue i apologised if they thought i was using it too much and stopped using the internet immediately. However they still sacked me .

Gillyx

Most people I know who work within office environments, using the internet during work time is gross misconduct. They are allowed to use the internet before work starts, during their lunch break and can stay late to use the computer/net if they wish to do so. They must not have clocked in or must have clocked out before they use the computer for personal reasons.

SarEl

So if you keep no timesheets of when you are working and when you are not, how can you have falsified timesheets?

Any

SarEl wrote: »

No, I didn't say that. Many offices have timesheets or some form of timekeeping system for core hours - especially these days with flexible working. I was querying what type of timesheets the OP kept.

Confused now... I thought you are asking whether the timesheets were kept for payment hours...
If not, then I didn't understand your post. Sorry.

SarEl

Any wrote: »

Confused now... I thought you are asking whether the timesheets were kept for payment hours...
If not, then I didn't understand your post. Sorry.

Billable hours are not real time! So it may be constructed as a formula - I have worked on a letter for my client and a letter = one hours work; one hours time is billable at £250; therefore one letter = £250. The client is charged £250 regardless of whether the letter takes 30 minutes or 90 minutes. That is a really siomplistic way of explaining it. So what is recorded on such a timesheet are not real times because clients are not billed by the minute! Now depending on the employers system, this may be a "time and motion" type system, which doesn't improve matters for the OP - this type of system is the "I was working on this letter for my client between 10 and 10:20". In this case the client is probably still billed for 30 or 60 minutes (depending on the charging unit), but it is a direct recording on time during a specific real time period - just as a timesheet is. So if the OP has been browsing the internet during that time - then the timesheet is false because they were on the intrenet for some of that time, regardless of what other time they spent on the letter.

If it is simply a real time timesheet - I came in at 9, had a coffee break at 10:30 - 10:45; lunch at 1 - 2... etc - and the OP was on the internet at a time they were logged in as not on a break (i.e. working) then again, it is not a true record of their working hours.

Catherine_Johnson_2

Sachin wrote: »

.... i get paid my salary for working 4 days a week ( 8 hours ) 8-5 mon - thurs ......

Which just about sums it up really. You get paid a salary for working 8 hours a day, 4 days a week, which you admit you haven't been doing but you've told them you have by lying on your time sheet. You've been cheating on your hours and you got caught. In effect you've been stealing from the company, which is gross misconduct, and is why they have dismissed you. Anything else is just trying to muddy the waters.

What makes it worse is that, as well as you being paid for hours you didn't actually work, the clients of the company you worked for have also been billed for hours you didn't work on their projects.

I really can't understand people who try and defend or justify this sort of behaviour. If you get paid for working a certain number of hours a day then why not do exactly that and work those hours? Anything else is dishonest, surely?

Sachin

All i put on the time sheet is the number of hours i worked on a particulary project during the day .

For example

Alpha Project - 6 hours
John Gilmour Project - 2 hours

That is all that is put on the timesheet nil else .

Others work on these projects too do the same thing . Then the company can bill the company approprately.

Strider590

Ummmmm..... Ok, it's been researched and proven that it's exceptional to get more than 60% efficiency from any given employee. That goes for all of US!!

What this sounds like to me, is pure hearsay... Someone got a bee in their bonnet and instead of making a complaint, they spent weeks/months bad mouthing the OP behind their back, before finally going to the boss!

I'm at work right now, I'm waiting for a form to open on a 300+mb database, there's nothing I can do but wait. I keep a browser window open and flick back to it between tasks, it resets my focus, in just the same way as one might gaze out of a window for a few seconds.