DD’s work has clocks 4 mins slow misses the bus

[nicjoo]

My DD started work 3 weeks ago. She and other new starters have noticed that the clocks are 4 mins slow. This is confirmed by various phones. They use computers but no idea how they made clocks slow on that. These are the clocks they adhere to when logging on and off systems A few colleagues and herself have missed the bus. It’s not nice to stand outside in this weather for 25 minutes. Plus beggars

What do the employer want to achieve from slow clocks?

Get more time out of them. Get someone to call the big clock on speakerphone and request/demand they are set to correct time.

Surely they can’t make clocks on computers slow. I don’t know how this can be rectified if the computers are neigh used for clocking out. I’d do a deep dive into how computers timings work I think.

Er, don’t stand outside for 25 mins waiting? Go outside just before the bus is due.

Learn to drive?

Not sure what the point in this would be as it’s not getting 4 mins extra labour as they’d be clocking onto shift 4 mins later too? I would personally just say, can I start 5 mins early and finish 5 mins early to make my bus, but be prepared that they probably don’t have too much interest in my travel arrangements.

Stupid me thought that computer clocks always showed the correct time. But having just googled it I see i'm very wrong!

Surely if this is causing your dd and her colleagues real difficulty then they should be raising it with management?

My work laptop time always used to be slow and I was forever missing meetings. I couldn’t change the time and rang the IT department who sorted it.

When I used to work we had to leave the building because it was being locked up 🤔
(Seriously it was shift ended, get coat and bag, leave building, key holder locks up - all in the space of 5 or 10 minutes)

Why do people suggest this?
Because driving lessons, a car, insurance, petrol, parking fees.....so cheap isn't it (sarcastic).

Plus beggars?

Why can’t they raise it with their boss?

There’s not the option for this at work . Places like Costa and Caffè Nero close later in the town where my DD works. But can’t sit in there without purchasing anything

You need at least £7k at a minimum to learn to drive plus buying car and insurance (many young drivers are £1500 a year)

My DD drives but employer has no car park and parking all day is £15. Bus is £6

What sort of work is it? In many this would just be something you’d raise as an issue with IT to correct.

The computers pick the time up via RTC (real time clock) onboard and the network. If they are all out then something needs tweaking. Open a website clock and see if there is a discrepancy. It can affect programs eg Office.
Get a car? Really? How entitled is that and why do we want yet another car on the road? OPs daughter may not be able to drive/afford or even need a car.

The work computers may not be connected to the Internet, in which case clock drift will occur unless whoever manages the system regularly resets it. It used to be common - on a local network there would be a ‘master’ computer and the clocks of the others would be ‘slaved’ to it; the ‘master’ would need to be periodically reset.

Is it worth her seeing if she can fix it on one computer herself first and then calling IT if no luck?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/set-time-date-and-time-zone-settings-in-windows-dfaa7122-479f-5b98-2a7b-fa0b6e01b261#:~:text=date%20and%20time-,To%20set%20the%20date%20and%20time%3A,%26%20language%20%3E%20Date%20%26%20time.&text=In%20the%20Date%20%26%20time%20window,time%20automatically%20is%20switched%20On.

I have had this problem and did manage to fix it through the above route I think.

Has she asked her employer about it ? Maybe they are unaware of the impact ?

Are the bus and work timetables specifically meant to align (as in, is this a specific bus timetabled to pick up employees finishing work)? If they are, then DD and others should point out the clock issue.

If they are not meant to align, then, as is the case for lots of people, this is just a version of a case of "my work times and the buses don't match up very well".

I wouldn’t advise this without knowing what these computer systems are used for. Having a time out of sync on one vs the others might completely fuck something up.

But in this case the mismatch is unnecessary. There’s no reason whatever for her to not flag it now. The clock drift will likely just get worse and may at some point cause other problems so the sooner the better.

Ah yes, I work on the basis that if work doesn't want me to touch something they'll have locked it down 😂 but maybe that's the wrong attitude. Our work IT team always seem moderately irritable if you haven't tried to fix the problem yourself first so I always have a nice list of all the things I have tried before I ring them.

No reason to assume this is clock drift as opposed to just the wrong time set (which would be more likely).

Without knowing the big picture it's hard to know whether changing the clock will be long term beneficial. If the bus/work timetables are not deliberately aligned, then the next timetable change might throw them out of synch anyway.

And quite possibly there is a whole different group of people who wait for a bus going somewhere else that are pleased the clocks are set 6 minutes late because it reduces their wait time.

She'll just have to wait for the bus. Or walk along to the next stop instead of sitting in the cold. 25 minutes isn't all that long and I'm sure she has colleagues who catch different buses on different timetables who have to wait.
If 4 minutes is make or break she'd likely miss the bus sometimes anyway.
But no harm in bringing it up I suppose.

Don’t be daft! If a clock is 4 minutes slow then it’s 4 minutes slow at clocking on time AND clocking off. The amount of time hasn’t changed 😂

Your DD and a few colleagues are missing the bus but no one has raised the issue? If I finish at 4 I leave at 4. Fuck what the incorrect clock says. Why is everyone simply missing the bus? Weird.