What is up with employers

M

Mikey_Gore

Posts: 22   +2
I've been going to work for nearly two months now. And during one of my conversation with the boss it came up. Not as a topic of issue but during the conversation. I was totally shocked of his audacity to mention something as trivial and unnecessary as this.

Ever since I began work, I have always arrived before my working hours began. Not once was I late. I would sometimes arrive 15 minutes early, sometimes 10 minutes early. But usually I arrived 5 minutes early. The latest I ever arrived was once 1 minute early.

So why are bosses so obsessed with their employees arriving earlier than their working hours. If our working hours are 9 to 5 and you have a lunch break of 30 mins, who is to say you are not allowed to use all of your free time. This wasn't said to me outright (but he sounded annoyed), may be he feared sounding unethical or illegal, but what is the difference of few minutes anyway. Is his company going to make money of minutes? This isn't that kind of job. I don't understand, do bosses actually make money because of minutes. WTF? Do they count the seconds too? They must be sick! If bosses are counting minutes like this which I find so silly, maybe we should demand more money, on the count that we are arriving early. Silly isn't it. I have never been late, never. Heck I don't think there should be a problem if I arrived at 9.00 am sharp all the time.

Why is this boss on my case, thinking that I will be more useful to him with his unreasonable rants. And let me tell you this. When I arrive to work, in the morning, since I am not a tea drinker, their is nothing that I do. I sit at my desk immediately upon arrival.

In my opinion, a well rested individual who is not pressured will be more productive. And if you are a boss who counts the minutes to their employees arrival like this, do you perhaps think that he/she will be better at his/her job? Do you think that making your employees feeling pressured to get to work will do your business any good? Or do you enjoy the power you hold and make unreasonable demands?
 
There are all kinds of bosses.

Generally these are the rules to be followed:

1. Your boss is always right.
2. If you think the boss is wrong, refer to rule 1.
 
a: MYOPIC control freak.

Once I had a 45 minute commute which required I leave the house by ~7am.
When I changed jobs, my bio-clock was imprinted to get up early, so I just continued
to leave a 7. The manager found me at my desk when he arrived ~8am (start time was 8:30). Thereafter, he started arriving early too - - just to be in the building when I was. After saving his B*** more than once, we became good friends and we discussed my early arrival. Without disclosing the underlying concern in detail, he made it known that the manager needs to know what his staff is doing.

Think like the owner of the business; Just what is being emailed or FTP'd out of the shop?

For me it was a great productivity gain - - 1.5 hrs of uninterrupted time and my compile jobs ran at light speed. Franklt, due to the early arrivial, I also departed somewhat early too, and that caused more issues than the start time!
 
Its still doesn't make any sense. If you expect your employees to come 20mins early, or 30mins early this should be told at the beginning, and that would be the working hours. He never told me to arrive early. Why do they expect you to come before the working hours. It makes no difference. Then they should tell us your working hours are, 8.50 am to 5.10 pm etc.

I think that most bosses are just control freaks, and they like to manhandle trivial things. His company is not endangered by employees who stick to schedule of their working hours. He probably wanted to complain about me, but couldn't since I never arrived late. How lame he complained that I arrive 5mins early and not more!
 
There is a difference between arriving for work and beginning work. In order to begin work at 8:00 a.m. one would have to arrive a few minutes before that to prepare to start working at 8:00 a.m. Similarly at 5:00 p.m (or whenever the shift ends) one works until then and cleans up, locks up, etc. afterward. That's how it was where I've worked. Maybe it's not that way everywhere but the important thing is, evidently, it's that way where you work.

I wouldn't dwell on the fact that no one made that clear to you at the beginning. Maybe they should have but they didn't so your boss let you know. Now that you know, you can move on.
 
choose carefully the battles you wish to fight - - most of the time, the result isn't worth the effort and the complainer only looks foolish. ask yourself
a) what happens if I win?
b) what happens if I loose?

either answer needs to be "significant" and not just a moral victory.
 
Thanks.

This isn't a battle or anything. There is no action that I am going to take. This isn't about winning or losing. Guess I'm just venting. Its as you said now I know, but it was the demeanor that I found wrong.

I think they are legally and morally obliged to stay within the rules and not ask their employees to arrive 30 mins early. In order to save face he didn't want to blatantly say "I'm being an *** asking you to come much earlier, but this is how we work around here. ie. like asses".

And as I mentioned in my first post, there is nothing that I do when I arrive at work. No tea, nothing. Heck the computer is even open, and the page that I was working on. And I said I usually arrive 5 mins early. And I am not talking about arriving in the building. No. Sitting at the desk, PC open, and that's 5 mins early. i.e. Begin time
 
this is a great (safe) place to VENT your feelings.

get some sleep and move on - - moral victories are hollow anyway.
 
Well, the reason is that they're intent on getting more than 8 hours for 8 hours pay. But you already knew that. There's not much you can do with a mindset like that.

You can let your large intestine recover the time for you. Or, if your internet usage isn't being tracked, you could come in a half hour early, then surf porn for an hour.

If the boss that's giving you the problem is some mid level grunt trying to make a name for himself; first determine if he's the one setting the policy, or just brown nosing, trying the get points.

If it's him, you could always just come in 5 minutes early, and insist the he write a disciplinary action about you for "not arriving early enough and not providing enough unpaid labor", then sue the crap out of them if he does. OK, you do need to have all your bases covered if you were to go this route.

Pay me no mind, I have a really bad attitude.
 
'Covered bases' can be uncovered, and as JB says, moral victories are hollow.

There is such a thing as managing your boss.

Do some googling on that.
 
Well, the reason is that they're intent on getting more than 8 hours for 8 hours pay. But you already knew that. There's not much you can do with a mindset like that.
Click to expand...

+1 CC

There are about 30 people who directly or indirectly report to me, and I have never bothered with regard to arrival time, my focus has always been on the tasks at hand, and expected completion time/date, as long as they are meeting the given targets, I am fine with it. I believe if someone arrives / leaves at time but is a poor performer, their punctuality doesn't matter at all. Anyway, I think management style of each person depends upon their own beliefs / experiences ......
 
Don't forget that everything you do has a knock on effect on other employees.

People have this inbuilt mechanism that when someone else gets away with something, you can too. So if you get to work one minute late each morning, others will start doing it too. Then everyone gets to work 1 minute late, people will start getting there 2 minutes late.

Doesn't sound like much now, but lets say your workplace has a net profit of $20 per person, per hour, and hires 25 people (including the boss). If every person gets there a minute late in a day - that's $8.30 down the drain - for one day. 1 week (5 day week), $41.50. 1 year, $2,158 in lost profit. All for the employees being one minute late.

Per employee.

That's $54,625 every year.

That is what your boss is trying to avoid.
 
I understand what you mean. Please note however in my previous post I said the latest I have been is 1 minute early..i.e. 8.59 am. I have never been late.

Also, that calculation although does seem to make sense, then you may want to calculate the time lost of each person going to the toilet etc and you can come up with a number with that as well. Maybe we should ask permission to go to toilet etc, and boss may ask if its number 1 or number 2. Maybe they can disallow number 2 because it takes longer. Instead of calculating what "profit" they have LOST, maybe they should calculate what they have GAINED.

I think they should be more concerned in motivating their employees to be happy with their jobs and also their working condition, so they can be more productive.

Also work per minute is preposterous. If an employee is motivated to get work done and get it done well, minutes hardly mean anything.
 
Yes, employers generally do have to keep the personal needs of employees in mind, and cover those costs. The 1 minute late thing is simply to show you how it can snowball into massive costs.

Also encouraging people to come in early allows to prepare properly for work, relax, speak with their peers and generally motivates people to work hard all day.
 
The "minute watch" is a petty and unproductive approach.

Find a better job, but don't burn your bridges.
 
jameslangley said:
Don't forget that everything you do has a knock on effect on other employees.

People have this inbuilt mechanism that when someone else gets away with something, you can too. So if you get to work one minute late each morning, others will start doing it too. Then everyone gets to work 1 minute late, people will start getting there 2 minutes late.

Doesn't sound like much now, but lets say your workplace has a net profit of $20 per person, per hour, and hires 25 people (including the boss). If every person gets there a minute late in a day - that's $8.30 down the drain - for one day. 1 week (5 day week), $41.50. 1 year, $2,158 in lost profit. All for the employees being one minute late.

Per employee.

That's $54,625 every year.

That is what your boss is trying to avoid.
Click to expand...
Everybody shush, the bean counter is here.
 
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