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When should an employee be paid?

Hi all.

Me and coworkers work in a small office. Email come round suggesting we are late if we are not sat at our PC's with the relevant software loaded by 9am (start time).

Our issue is our computers take atleast 10 minutes to boot up and load up the software, plus it takes us about 3-4 minutes to get from the gate of our place of work, park up and get to our desks.

If we did what the email says, we would be coming into work about 15 minutes earlier plus the time it takes us to shut down our computers and leave at the end of the day means we could be working 25 minutes over each day, so just over 2 hours per week.

To us, this don't seem fair, we're not on huge wages where it's 'just part of the job', we are paid by the hour.

What are peoples thoughts on this?
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Comments

  • HappyMJ
    HappyMJ Posts: 21,115 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Chucky1234 wrote: »
    Hi all.

    Me and coworkers work in a small office. Email come round suggesting we are late if we are not sat at our PC's with the relevant software loaded by 9am (start time).

    Our issue is our computers take atleast 10 minutes to boot up and load up the software, plus it takes us about 3-4 minutes to get from the gate of our place of work, park up and get to our desks.

    If we did what the email says, we would be coming into work about 15 minutes earlier plus the time it takes us to shut down our computers and leave at the end of the day means we could be working 25 minutes over each day, so just over 2 hours per week.

    To us, this don't seem fair, we're not on huge wages where it's 'just part of the job', we are paid by the hour.

    What are peoples thoughts on this?
    Don't shut the computer down at night.

    Lock the screen and turn the monitor off. It'll then take seconds to turn the monitor on and unlock your terminal in the morning.

    You "should" be at your workstation at the correct time and in my opinion it's up the employer to pay you to set your workstation up every morning and if that takes 10 minutes then you should be paid for that time.

    You should have reached the site, parked the car, gone through security, got your cup of coffee and sat down by the time you start work and start getting paid.

    Personally before I get my cup of coffee I get to my workstation, take my coat off, turn on the computer then go and get the cup of coffee and by the time I return the computer should be most of the way through it's starting process and I should be ready to go.

    You do not have to do anything work related before 9AM if that is your start time but you do need to be there and almost ready to go. You could if the workstation hasn't quite started yet do another work related task rather than sitting there watching it doing nothing. I can make myself look quite busy when needed without actually doing any work.
    :footie:
    :p Regular savers earn 6% interest (HSBC, First Direct, M&S) :p Loans cost 2.9% per year (Nationwide) = FREE money. :p
  • Tammykitty
    Tammykitty Posts: 1,005 Forumite
    Fifth Anniversary 500 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    IMO its from when you at your desk.


    If your start time is 9am, then you should be at your desk at 9am.


    The time it takes to park and get to your desk is park of the commute time


    As for shutting down - can you not just start the shut down and leave, that's what we do in my office.
  • Darksparkle
    Darksparkle Posts: 5,465 Forumite
    Seems pretty standard to me. Everyone needs to leave their work and get to cars, buses, trains etc, you aren't working so no you shouldn't be paid for it.

    My old office raised the issue about slow PCs causing you to start early. They then bought new PCs, upgraded Windows etc.
  • ohreally
    ohreally Posts: 7,525 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    That'll be any goodwill out the window then!
    Don’t be a can’t, be a can.
  • Chucky1234
    Chucky1234 Posts: 250 Forumite
    Seventh Anniversary 100 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Yeah, we were of the opinion that we should be at the desk at 9 and leave the desk at 5, boot up and shut down time is down to the employer but wanted to see if that opinion was shared.
    HappyMJ wrote: »
    Don't shut the computer down at night.

    Lock the screen and turn the monitor off. It'll then take seconds to turn the monitor on and unlock your terminal in the morning.

    Our employer has told us the computers must be shut down, otherwise that sounds like a good idea.
    You "should" be at your workstation at the correct time and in my opinion it's up the employer to pay you to set your workstation up every morning and if that takes 10 minutes then you should be paid for that time.
    That's what we thought too.
    You should have reached the site, parked the car, gone through security, got your cup of coffee and sat down by the time you start work and start getting paid.
    My work doesn't have security, but if it did I personally would expect that to be paid. I think it raises an interesting argument if you spent 10 minutes a day getting through security. Technically its part of the job in my opinion therefore should be covered by the employer, what do people think about this?

    Tammykitty wrote: »
    IMO its from when you at your desk.


    If your start time is 9am, then you should be at your desk at 9am.


    The time it takes to park and get to your desk is park of the commute time


    As for shutting down - can you not just start the shut down and leave, that's what we do in my office.

    Yeah I agree with this. With regards to shutting down - the monitors have an orange light for standby mode when we shut down and have to manually press the button on the monitors to turn them off standby. The employer has stated these must be turned off so we have to wait for it to fully shut down before turning the monitor off standby.
  • Chucky1234
    Chucky1234 Posts: 250 Forumite
    Seventh Anniversary 100 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    ohreally wrote: »
    That'll be any goodwill out the window then!

    Not sure what you meant by this haha, do you mean goodwill by the employees or the employer?
  • basil92
    basil92 Posts: 12,510 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    I had this dispute with a former employer.

    My start time was 9am and I was paid hourly, except they expected us in at 8.40am for a morning meeting!! Finish time 5pm but another 15 minutes was required to close down, lock up and set the alarm...So an extra 35 minutes a day unpaid! That sure as hell adds up to a lot of unpaid hours over a year.

    I wouldn't object if I was being paid well..but on a low hourly rate I thought that was taking the p$sh somewhat (ok, a lot).

    Was taken to task over it regularly but stood my ground. You pay me to come in early and I will...otherwise I will be there and ready to start work at 9am and not before..you already get an extra 15mins at the end of the day!!

    Taking liberties imo and I suspect harder to stand your ground these days. But it really is an abuse I'm sure many, (especially) low paid employees, endure:(
    If you want somebody you can trust...trust yourself :cool:

    Chopper98 wrote: »
    Basil - Lovely, a sensitive soul with legs designed for the catwalk
  • HappyMJ
    HappyMJ Posts: 21,115 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Chucky1234 wrote: »
    Our employer has told us the computers must be shut down, otherwise that sounds like a good idea.

    Yeah I agree with this. With regards to shutting down - the monitors have an orange light for standby mode when we shut down and have to manually press the button on the monitors to turn them off standby. The employer has stated these must be turned off so we have to wait for it to fully shut down before turning the monitor off standby.


    Forget about shutting it down properly.

    Turn the switch off and it's shut down instantly.
    :footie:
    :p Regular savers earn 6% interest (HSBC, First Direct, M&S) :p Loans cost 2.9% per year (Nationwide) = FREE money. :p
  • theoretica
    theoretica Posts: 12,685 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Chucky1234 wrote: »
    Yeah I agree with this. With regards to shutting down - the monitors have an orange light for standby mode when we shut down and have to manually press the button on the monitors to turn them off standby. The employer has stated these must be turned off so we have to wait for it to fully shut down before turning the monitor off standby.

    Are you sure you need to wait? The computers I know you can turn the monitor on and off without it disturbing the rest of the computer, so just start shutdown, monitor off and away.

    Do you need to log in individually before the software starts? If you could organise a computer turning on rota it would mean most of you could get in later.
    But a banker, engaged at enormous expense,
    Had the whole of their cash in his care.
    Lewis Carroll
  • TELLIT01
    TELLIT01 Posts: 17,494 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper PPI Party Pooper
    Switching the monitor off will not affect the shutdown of the computer. Once you have selected 'Shutdown' the process will complete without any further intervention from the user.
    Regarding start time, my view would be that you should be at your desk by 9am. If the company has systems which take 10 / 15 minutes to load that is their problem, not yours.
    If you feel like offering some form of compromise, maybe a rota with one person coming in early to start up all the machines would work. Personally, I wouldn't offer the compromise.
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