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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU to think your start time is your actual start time?

193 replies

Katie2001 · 27/08/2015 14:26

Since starting work, many years ago, I've always believed if you start work at 9, you come in at quarter to or just before so you can be ready to start. If you are held up for any reason, or have to drop kids off or whatever of course it's different. Of the two colleagues at work on the same level as me, one starts at 9:30 so comes in at any time between that time and quarter to ten, makes her coffee, eats her breakfast and is ready to actually work about ten or quarter past. The other one starts at 9 but comes in any time between quarter past 9 and quarter to ten. Neither have school age children. Maybe I'm in the one in the wrong?

OP posts:
FanFuckingTastic · 29/08/2015 16:18

My mum has always been pretty laissez-faire about time and work. She always runs late, but at the same time, she put 100% effort into the job. She never misses a patient, barely has any time to eat or pee when working, has to drive around all over the county to different GP surgeries, and stays late to write notes up.

She will stay as long as it takes when, for example, a patient is suicidal and needs urgent referrals for their own safety, she will work at the weekend if there is a backlog of work, and she is generally well thought of and respected as being very good at her job. Whilst she might be late for admin times/group meetings, she is always there for a patient (half of which never turn up).

There are definitely jobs where punctuality is vital, time sensitive work, retail work, customer facing work, etc. But I think there are definitely careers where so long as work is done in an appropriate manner, that it doesn't really matter if someone is late in the mornings, and takes time out to greet colleagues and get themselves a drink.

I guess it depends on whether someone is depending on you to be at a certain place, at a certain time or whether there is time to spare that can be made up, either by working extra hard or by staying a bit later to make up the time missed first thing. I know I'd prefer a career like the latter where time management is something I am responsible for, rather than being told where to be by a manager and facing sanctions if I am not there.

MargoReadbetter · 29/08/2015 17:22

Well, obviously if your presence and work impinges on others, of course you should be professional and turn up on time.

What I'd read, however, was a lot of bitching because some people could spend 15 minutes less being a slave and could get away with it. The affront of not slaving - it pretending to - like others.

Has anyone else read "The Circle" by David Eggers?

maybebabybee · 29/08/2015 17:29

Totally agree Margo. Feel very lucky that none of my colleagues appear to be like this!!

NeedsAsockamnesty · 29/08/2015 17:36

There is a special place in hell for the employers who only notice when you are a few minutes late or leave a few minutes early but turn a blind eye to you starting early or finishing late or missing breaks

MargoReadbetter · 29/08/2015 17:39

Shock, horror - I go to the loo when I get in and I also make myself a cup of coffee. That's because I have a one hour commute by car. I can't drink in the morning before I set off or in the car because I might need the loo. If you're old enough it will happen to you too. I don't need medication, with its side effects, when a trip to the loo and a change in timing the drinks can work just as well. What is it coming to when work colleagues police our loo breaks?!

Should we charge employers for not having our work stations ready for us when we get in? Computers on, logging in with no hitches etc.

How grim.

googoodolly · 29/08/2015 17:58

Margo, have you ever worked retail? We're not allowed toilet breaks unless on an unpaid break or have permission from a team leader/manager. Imagine if half the checkout staff decided they needed the toilet so they were just going to go and leave a queue of customers!

Or a nurse deciding she needs the toilet so the patient needing medication or whatever has to wait.

Not all workers have the luxury of being able to work around their bodily functions - sometimes the bodily functions have to fit in around the work!

maybebabybee · 29/08/2015 18:03

I think it's fairly obvious that Margo isn't talking about retail or nursing.

BoneyBackJefferson · 29/08/2015 18:11

Margo

Who is treating workers more like slaves, those that pay them for their time or those that expect them to pick up the slack caused by them for nothing?

MargoReadbetter · 29/08/2015 18:25

Oh, give it a break. Give your colleagues a break. Or work them till they drop and then send them flowers in hospital and say how very valued they were. Perhaps, just perhaps, we could all be more human? Not begrudge a drink and a piss.

maybebabybee · 29/08/2015 18:29

why does anyone give a stuff what time their colleagues are getting in or what they're doing unless it affects them directly?

One of my colleagues is often on buzzfeed or BBC news at work - at least, I often see it up on her screen when I go over to speak to her. I don't give a shit - why would I? She gets me everything I need on time, frequently goes out of her way to be helpful, and is a good worker.

None of my business if she chooses to go to the loo, spend 10 minutes having a coffee and a chat, or leave slightly earlier.

Before I get stamped on - this relates to office work. Not retail or nursing etc.

MargoReadbetter · 29/08/2015 18:30

I'd also say that any workplace that cannot afford to give people some dignity to go to the loo when they need to (eg because they're understaffed) is a rubbish workplace. Perhaps direct your ire to your bosses, not your colleagues.

Icimoi · 29/08/2015 18:35

Boney, the simple fact that people have loo breaks or make themselves tea during work hours doesn't automatically mean that there is any slack for others to pick up.

As for the phone issue - meh. If you choose to phone someone, you don't have an automatic entitlement for them to be there ready to pick up the phone the second it rings. They could be at a meeting, working elsewhere in the building, dealing with an urgent crisis or, shock horror, in the loo or making themselves a drink. If, as a customer, you want a service which absolutely guarantees that the person you want to speak to will always be available to take your call, you will be a long time looking for it.

Reminds me of the idiot who threatened a formal complaint against me because I wasn't there to take his totally non-urgent calls 40 minutes before my official start time. He wasn't officially a client at that point and I decided life was too short to take on someone like that, much to his surprise.

quietbatperson · 29/08/2015 19:02

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BoneyBackJefferson · 29/08/2015 19:33

Margo

You were the one that brought up slaves. Why should I give them a break if they are causing me extra work, because if they are doing this to their colleagues they don't care if they (the colleagues) are working "till they drop"

Icimoi

there is a difference between toilet breaks/drinking at your desk and rocking up to work late everyday and causing others to cover for you. (I didn't bring up toilet breaks or drinks)

If a teacher is late it will cause extra work for quite a few people, office staff (takes the phone call and delivers the message), cover organiser (organises cover + calls the HOD + any forms required to list the absence), HoD (sorts cover work), technician (if the department has one sorts equipment), then whoever is covering. It won't matter if they are 10, 15 or minutes late it needs to happen.

If they are 1 minute late, they still have to settle the class in the corridor, get them in the room, sort out the computer, then start the lesson.

Would you be OK, with the teacher being late to every lesson first thing in the morning.

IMHO, If you are in a job where it is possible to be late and not impact on colleagues then whatever (shrugs), but don't claim that its the same for everyone

MargoReadbetter · 29/08/2015 20:03

Boney - grass her up, you know you want to.

MustBeLoopy390 · 29/08/2015 20:33

As a team leader in my last job I was contracted 9am until 9pm five days a week, 9am being the time I had to have my team all in and sat to start our 30 min daily meeting. Anyone not in the room by 8.59 was told to stay outside and repeat offender's names were given to management and they were dealt with. I was at the office by 8.30 at the latest to start prepping and often returned home between 10.30pm and 11pm after making sure everyone's paperwork was all correct and accounted for, packing up and travelling home. yes I was on people's backs about time wtc but my team became known for our 'excellent time management skills and impressive levels of punctuality'. I'm still quite sad I left the job in a way.

MustBeLoopy390 · 29/08/2015 20:34

Etc not wtc

MargoReadbetter · 29/08/2015 20:42

^^ good wind-up

quietbatperson · 29/08/2015 21:15

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BoneyBackJefferson · 29/08/2015 21:16

Margo

By the time it gets to me, I don't need to grass anyone up, the office staff know, the cover organiser knows and the Hod knows.

With the children outside the classroom the other teachers in the department know and when the paperwork is filled in the Headteacher will know.

As I have posted, It is entirely possible to work in an area where slack time keeping affects no-one else, but for most people this isn't the case.

MargoReadbetter · 29/08/2015 21:31

Boney - we are in agreement there but what you're describing is lack of professionalism. OTOH do you feel as strongly about teachers doing loads of unpaid work? Or is that ok? What's sauce for the goose...

BoneyBackJefferson · 29/08/2015 21:35

It says in the contract, work till the job is done. If I didn't accept that when I took the job I wouldn't do it.

MargoReadbetter · 29/08/2015 21:39

Did you expect to do as much as you do? I'm in a different job but also loads of unpaid hours. Mission creep, increasing workload, piling it on. It's getting horrible and I want out.

MargoReadbetter · 29/08/2015 21:41

And work till the job is done is a bit of BS, isn't it? Why define the job as full-time, part-time etc when it doesn't matter, you work till the job is done? Piss poor management if it over works employees.

LarrytheCucumber · 29/08/2015 22:19

Not all workers have the luxury of being able to work around their bodily functions - sometimes the bodily functions have to fit in around the work!
Teachers have this problem too. My friend was on 'water tablets' and trying to fit her bodily functions round a day's teaching was a very difficult business!