Awol

Ms_manchester

Sorry guys, so I overslept (yes I know my fault and were working from home) so a manager calls me at 8 minutes into my shift and wakes me up. I answered the call apologised and was logged within the next 5 minutes. They have marked me down 10 mins AWOL. 
I've worked there a while and this has never happened before, very rare I am late. Is this right? Can you be 10 mins AWOL? What outcomes can happen with this as I've always thought awol was a very serious thing. Thanks 

General_Grant

Ms_manchester said:

Sorry guys, so I overslept (yes I know my fault and were working from home) so a manager calls me at 8 minutes into my shift and wakes me up. I answered the call apologised and was logged within the next 5 minutes. They have marked me down 10 mins AWOL. 
I've worked there a while and this has never happened before, very rare I am late. Is this right? Can you be 10 mins AWOL? What outcomes can happen with this as I've always thought awol was a very serious thing. Thanks 

So you lost up to13 minutes before you began your shift and have been marked for 10.
You were absent (from being logged in) without leave.
Being AWOL is as serious as the employer chooses - and a one-off of 10 minutes is unlikely to be "very serious".  Relax and go to bed earlier.

Sandtree

Ms_manchester said:

Can you be 10 mins AWOL? What outcomes can happen with this as I've always thought awol was a very serious thing. Thanks 

Did you have leave (aka permission) to be absent for the first 10 minutes of your shift? If not then you've proven you can be absent without leave for 10 minutes.

Being late/AWOL is a very serious thing but life happens and employers consider these things in light of your overall performance. They will record it, in case this is the start of a new trend with you but wont fire you over it or give you a formal written warning etc because its a first offence (the later of which they could do if they wanted).

Think the latest I've been is about 3 hours after my car broke down in the middle of nowhere with no mobile signal and whilst the boss clearly wasnt a happy bunny they understood the predicament and I made up the hours at a later time.

getmore4less

In a WFH environment it relies on trust you are actually working.

Don't mess with that if you want to keep your job

TELLIT01

You were not at work when you should have been, and don't even have the excuse of missing a bus or breaking down.  Take it on the chin and set a second alarm.  It may seem, and be, picky to make a fuss over 10 minutes but when working from home a lot more trust has to be put in employees and some do take advantage of it.  Maybe you are just catching the fallout from others who have been doing it on a regular basis.

TBagpuss

They've marked you down as being absent without leave for 10 minutes because you were absent without leave for 10 minutes. However, whether they do anything further is up to them, and their policies.

It sounds as though they may have simply recorded the fact, and that any disciplinary action will only follow if there are further similar incidents. What does your employee handbook, or other terms say about being late / awol? Most places I have worked it would only be an issue if it were a pattern, but it would recorded so that it was clear whether there was a pattern. If the role is one where cover is essential (i.e if  you being late means someone else has to stay past the end of their shift) it's likely to be a bigger deal but still as a one-off probably the sort of thing which results in a warning rather than anything more serious.

Brynsam

Ms_manchester said:

Sorry guys, so I overslept (yes I know my fault and were working from home) so a manager calls me at 8 minutes into my shift and wakes me up. I answered the call apologised and was logged within the next 5 minutes. They have marked me down 10 mins AWOL. 
I've worked there a while and this has never happened before, very rare I am late. Is this right? Can you be 10 mins AWOL? 

What would you describe it as?

robatwork

Naturally employers, especially those not used to WFH staff, are very twitchy at the moment about staff actually pulling their weight. In some roles it's really difficult to see who is performing well from home and who is swinging it.

One easy measure is if you have a system you can login to, which you've fallen foul of. I'd suggest you're 5 mins early for the next few weeks.

68ComebackSpecial

robatwork said:

Naturally employers, especially those not used to WFH staff, are very twitchy at the moment about staff actually pulling their weight. In some roles it's really difficult to see who is performing well from home and who is swinging it.

One easy measure is if you have a system you can login to, which you've fallen foul of. I'd suggest you're 5 mins early for the next few weeks.

Absolutely employers are nervous about staff WFH, and often with good reason. Within a week of WFH in March my husband was receiving irate calls and emails from clients complaining about the lack of contact and information from one of his team. Investigation showed that he was only logged in for, at most, a couple of hours a day, resulting in a written warning. After a period on furlough he is now back WFH, but will be facing further disciplinary action because he, stupidly, thought that his skiving would go unnoticed as long as he logged in to the company's systems. What he failed to take account of is that the system also records the lengthy periods of inactivity. My husband wants him out of the door and is working through the process with HR towards this outcome.

oh_really

Be prepared for the appearance of bossware.

[Deleted User]

Depends on the industry. Remember experienced agents same age and older then me hyper ventilating in the lift to get to their seats of amorning when cutting it fine in a 6th floor 2018 min wage insurance call centre when they were late. Although to be fair the nmw insurance brokerage company didn't really think you had a chance if you didn't live in the same town centre. To the other extreme of a boss' view in another industry of well this isn't brain surgery and the expectant pregnant colleague taking a 15 minute lie down every hour, crikey I even know people working 30 hours with that of a 40 hour contract payable where an employer pays 10 hours for zilch when you think of the people out there on zero hours, aka. having to care enough for hours worked'. Although getting older myself but not so bothered working later, I get there is quite a difference between being in work at 8 then at 9.