Aibu. ahhh boss quibbling over 1 minute.

[Peterbear]

IWork for a council in E England. NEw boss has just emailed to say that she has checked my time sheets - on a couple of days last month i have written start time as 8am. ( work from home since covid) I did not however send in my 'log on' email till 8.01. I am being asked to go back and amend my time sheet.
Wtf?? Do I say don't be ridiculous that is a complete waste of taxpayer money or do I just play along? Worth saying that I often work a bit over and don't log this as feel it's petty to put for example 5.07 on a time sheet. Wwyd? Aibu to think jesus get a bloody life??

[Beebeet]

I'd do it, but to make sure to log every minute of additional work you do.

[Al1Langdownthecleghole]

Can you send an automated email to arrive at 7:55?

I’d be tempted to log on at 7:45, then make a cuppa.

[AlexisCarringtonColbyDexter]

I would make sure to log on all next week at 7.59am and then ask for overtime payment!

[FlyRobinFly]

Yup. I’d be petty. Log off consistently at 17.01

[Michaelbaubles]

Make sure to log the time it takes you to go back and correct the timesheet. It should, of course, take at least 1 minute 30 seconds to do.

[Autumnchill]

Haven't I just read this on Work?

[Ugzbugz]

Do you have to send a logging off email?

We sue Google at work and it can take 5 mins for emails to arrive...so surely she wouldn't receive it at the exact time of send?

These managers are utter twats!!

[MysteriesOfTheOrganism]

Log on at 7.59, send the email at 8.00, then go and make a coffee and put your feet up for 5 minutes while mentally sticking 2 fingers up ag the boss.

[ComDummings]

Do it to milliseconds so 08:01:25

[fuzzyduck1]

You can’t argue with his logic so stick to his rules log on at 8 on the dot and off at 5 ON THE DOT. Even if your half way through something. It can always wait to tomorrow.

Had one boss try this on me it all fell apart when because I didn’t do someone before leaving it put a project back a couple of weeks he got the blame and moved to another department.

[QuestionableMouse]

I got a written warning because I clocked in three days in a row at 16:01 (or whatever).

I pointed out that a. the clocking machine was taking two or three attempts to work and b. I'd stayed in at least 15 minutes for each shift. It pissed me off that much I decided to go back into education so I could get out of the place.

I can't stand petty shit like that.

[Confuzzlediddled]

Wow to be honest I have no idea when most of my team start and finish! I expect them on a daily call at 8.30 but as long as they let my know in advance I'm happy for them to skip that. As long as the work is getting done then I'm happy, there are much more pressing issues to be dealing with!

[MrsKoala]

It’s just fucking pathetic. I worked somewhere for 6 months where because of train times it meant I got there 20 mins early and left 30 mins after my shift finished. I always just worked those extra 50 mins 5 days a week, as it passed the time and was better than standing on a cold platform. My boss sat next to me. One day due to a queue in the bank I was 7 minutes late from lunch and my boss said to me in front of everyone to make sure I made up the 7 minutes. I did. But from then on I read my book at my desk and refused to help if the calls started coming in. They banged on about flexibility. But it only seemed to go one way.

As others say I’d make sure I logged the exact time I finished and not do any unapproved overtime. This kind of thing makes working so shit.

[LaurieMarlow]

Jesus. Not surprising though. There are some atrociously bad managers out there.

[Sophiafour]

Is this your boss's first management post, by any chance? I once worked for a (truly ghastly) small publishing firm where the entire senior management team took this attitude, despite the amount of time they wasted. They were the Kings and Queens of Pett-y-ness...Strangely enough, they had a very high staff turnover rate, in a part of the country renowned for its high unemployment levels...I also saw a lot of this behaviour when I was a temp in my 20s (so obviously the lowest of the low, in the eyes of some of the snotty overblown managers I had the joy to work to). Some day I'll write a book....

[HowFastIsTooFast]

Christ on a bike. We have to send a morning email too, but it's largely to let the rest of the team know what we're working on for the day, and we're asked to send it 'before 9.30 if you can' to give us time to action anything urgent first. Surely if they trust you enough to employ you then you should be trusted to start on time even if they can't see you

I'd play them at their own game OP and log all your minutes at the end of the day too.

[Batfinklestein]

That is fucking ridiculous. What a jobsworth!

I would definitely play them at their own game and put all the minutes overtime on my timesheet.

Reminds me of a boss I had years ago. She went on a management training course then came back into the office bleating about not wanting "5.01'ers" on her team. As in, she didn't want people to look at the clock, see it was 5pm so just leave.
Myself and my colleagues were young, were paid fuck all and received no overtime pay. She was paid a management salary and used to swan off early all the time to go to hair or waxing appointments.
We all just looked at her strangely and asked why we shouldn't leave on time under normal circumstances!

[bonjonbovi]

Dear Manager;

Thanks for pointing this out. It takes 2* minutes for my computer to load in the morning and send the email, so I must have started earlier than I’ve documented. I will amend to 7:59.

Time how long it takes tomorrow, and go back to them with that.

Personally I’d cc in your managers manager too.

[Smallsteps88]

I would reply saying “yes, no problem. I also need to adjust my log off time too as I worked 7 minutes past 5. Thanks for reminding me.”

[Hardbackwriter]

@Livelovebehappy

A lot of companies have to ask staff to log on to show they are working minesabottle because tbh some workers will start and finish whenever they feel like it, leaving others to pick up the slack. We’ve had to introduce similar at our place.

But surely if you just send an email to log-on those people will send the email (or, as people have said, automate it) and then roll over and go back to sleep? I don't like but understand systems like they have at call centres that constantly measure staff activity but just sending an email each morning is not just insulting but so easily gamed that I don't understand why anyone would bother.

[knickerthief1]

I hate managers like this. It creates such a toxic environment and you end up with check in check out staff. We were told that during Covid we'll be judged on performing the job and not on hours worked. And guess what - most people have worked above and beyond required hours and have come up with loads of great new ideas.

[JacobReesMogadishu]

@bonjonbovi

Dear Manager;

Thanks for pointing this out. It takes 2* minutes for my computer to load in the morning and send the email, so I must have started earlier than I’ve documented. I will amend to 7:59.

Time how long it takes tomorrow, and go back to them with that.

Personally I’d cc in your managers manager too.

This

[imsooverthisdrama]

This has got to be the height of pettiness, I don't know what it is with bosses and 1 minute lateness . Yes technically it's late but it's actually taken you time to email and it's taking longer for your boss to raise the issue with you all this for 1 minute .
You know what you need to do log out dot on in future and do not log in until time .

[DistinguishedCarrot]

A boss of mine lost all of my respect when he had a go at me for putting one hour of genuinely non-chargeable time on my timesheet. We were required to be 100% chargeable at all times and he wouldn't accept my argument that:

a) I'd been given an administrative task to do that wasn't specific to any client in particular, so I had no-one to charge it to; and
b) that we were required to work 35 hours a week, yet my timesheet, including the one hour of non-chargeable time, had 45 hours on it.

Tosser.

YANBU OP - in your case I would either be logging every single minute over your finishing time or not doing any extra time whatsoever, considering time is obviously so "critical"...

[MitziK]

I had a boss like that. I'd be in early, I'd be working, but if I wasn't at the computer, as far as she was concerned, I wasn't in the building. Despite having signed in at Reception and being on CCTV doing so.

I got told to log everything. So I did.

After she had a conversation with HR about how concerned they were that she was preventing me from taking my full break entitlement and, when I did get it, it wasn't until long after the 'between the third and fifth hour' as provided for by law, and that the accrued overtime as a result was coming directly out her budget, the snippy emails stopped.