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??

[elfycat]

Working at home (call centre - inbound stuff we waited for calls at times, other times we were non stop, and you couldn't finish on time if you were on a call) I set up my own computer next to the work one... Played Zoo Tycoon between calls arriving.

I only did it after twat-boss started and they lost a lot of goodwill. He was a numpty; at one point told me I hadn't accrued annual leave whilst on maternity and tried to get me leave without being paid the £1200 I was owed. I spoke with HR and told them he'd get the company into legal bother and they must make sure he didn't try that one again (and I messaged all the pregnant employees to remind them of the annual leave entitlement - in case they weren't aware - and not mentioning him)

[BubblyBarbara]

Get automation software that loads up apps or sends an email at a specified time and set it to 8.59am each day, then swan in at whenever you like.

[jayho]

I work in public sector and also hate this. Along with many others, I'd set up an auto-email for 7.45 and then put 8 on your time sheet.....

However, from another point of view. I used to work with someone who would arrive at the office at 8 am, using your security card to enter the building logged you on. They would then fire up their computer which showed they were in. Then, they would change from their cycling gear, do their hair and makeup, go to the canteen for a cup of tea and chat with everyone in there and get back to their desk at about 9.30. Then start work. at 10ish they would announce that they were 'starving' having cycled to work and go back to the canteen returning about 40 mins later with a scone. They'd take their lunch at 1ish, logged it at 30 mins but were often out of the office for 1.5hrs because exceptional dramas had occurred between the office and M&S. We had a 7.5 hr workday and at about 4 they'd announce that they were exhausted and piss off......

[QueenCT]

I guess it depends on the job.. mine is strict but it has to be. So breaks are timed and a minute late is late. Two episodes of lateness and no commission

[AwkwardSquad]

Blimey. If your new boss has time to piss about with that level of nit-picking, she does not have enough work to do. I am a manager in the public sector and we are all working our arses off, how does she have that much spare time?

[Awwlookatmybabyspider]

The words trip and power come to mind

[Glittertwins]

I dared to leave 15 mins early in the evening despite being in 1 hour early in the morning. My manager was that petty that he called me on my phone (own, not company phone) to demand I went back to my desk for another 15 minutes.
He is beyond contempt

[Pluckedpencil]

Dear bosses,

If you are worried your reports are not doing enough work, do not treat them like school.chidlren. Give them clear minimum and stretch targets and hold them accountable. That is all.

[Puzzledandpissedoff]

I just resent working for people I find childish/unintelligent

In that case you might want to reconsider working for a council; I can't speak for others, but mine contains little else

You've got to admit it has a certain comedy value though - I wonder if your boss is quite so careful when examining tenders and so on?

[LaurieMarlow]

Give them clear minimum and stretch targets and hold them accountable.

Many of them are too stupid to manage like this, unfortunately.

Being punctuality nazis is all they have.

[123rd]

Such a shame. I work for LGA and they are very flexible with hours worked etc. Is it just this boss or do you feel like the rest of the management team are like this?

[Puzzledandpissedoff]

I work for an LA too OP and the management would quibble over this I believe it's some of the reason they struggle to keep afloat financially

Well quite - I mean, just think of the damage a whole minute could do

As suggested they might do better to focus on their subcontractors' arrangements instead, because I can almost guarantee they're being robbed blind

[LookItsMeAgain]

I've got a situation at the moment that sounds very similar to the ones that have been posted. I work on flexi-time. I never abuse the system and very often would only take a shorter lunch time and some mornings I wouldn't even have time for a morning break time (so effectively working through my break). Since working from home, I have been logging on much earlier and been available to accept calls from an earlier starting time.
I got called by our public health to bring my child to an appointment that had we not been in lockdown would have happened during the normal school day, during school and they would have visited the school to give the pupils their booster vaccine, but we did have lockdown and that didn't happen so I had to bring my child for this appointment. It was during my core hours. I couldn't get around it.
Remembering that I had not taken my break time for a few weeks (due to training someone in around the time that I do take my break) I thought some level of flexibility would be shown to me about this.
Nope.
I had offered to work longer hours that day to repay the time that I might have been unavailable. I offered to bring my phone with me to the appointment so I could take any calls that might come in to me during that time. They were not going to be 'down' any time and they could have been up time and effort and loyalty.
Neither of my suggestions was acceptable.
I had to clock out when I stopped working to bring my child to their appointment and clock back in again when I got back.
So for the sake of 35 minutes, I have now decided that I will no longer be as flexible to the company as I had been.

[Meredithgrey1]

My old manager once had a go at me for clocking in to the system at 09:02 despite being in the office until 20:00 the previous three evenings.
It worked in the sense that from then on I always clocked in by 9am. But he could fuck off if he wanted me to stay until 8pm again.

[PlanDeRaccordement]

I’d report her to HR. That’s harassment. Anyone with a brain cell knows that it takes time to write a log on email and so sending one at 8:01 proves you were working at 8:00.

[Davincitoad]

Say oh right thanks and change timesheet to 7.59 and point out it takes time to login

[NewKittyMeow]

@Livelovebehappy

We also have a system in place where it tells your boss if you are away from your laptop. Staff regularly receive calls from our managers with ‘.. you’ve been away from your laptop for 12 minutes. Why?...’ That’s why companies will want workers back in the office ASAP after lockdown has totally lifted, so they can keep more of an eye on things. I doubt, as some people are saying, that wfh will be the new norm.

Jesus Christ, I could not be having with this. My HR manager actually said to me once when we were discussing my assistant’s workload that she didn’t care when we all logged on and off as long as the work was getting done - that’s the attitude throughout my organisation. .

[MuchasSmoochas]

Unbelievably petty. Personally I would just suck it up, it’s not about being right, you’re not going to win with this person.

[AuditAngel]

I couldn’t cope with that. I am contracted for 7.5 hours a day. Yesterday I worked 8-8 less an hour for lunch. I don’t get overtime. My boss told me to finish early today , couldn’t due to a meeting, so I’m off tomorrow afternoon.

[myohmywhatawonderfulday]

Can you automate your log in email so that it sends itself at 8am regardless of when you log in?

[Jayaywhynot]

Rise above it, play their game.
"Never wrestle with a pig, you both get dirty and the pig likes it"

[rwalker]

I don't work for the council but it sounds like they used a similar system to us at work.
All timesheet pre filled with expected hours start ,dinner and finish. The system cross references itself with expected hours, data captured from logon system and there time sheet.
Any mismatches (which there are always plenty) have to be manually corrected . So every member off staff times 5 time sheets so I can have over 220 time sheets to check and amend because people can't be arsed to log on on time or book lunch correctly can take a full morning to correct these . It not about the odd minutes it's the fact it makes a full morning of work for me due to there avoidable errors (ALWAYS manage to book overtime correct)
As for people saying about computer booting up there is a very strong union at work who queried this the out come was .They said i you have to at your desk by 8 and ready for work logged in boot time didn't count

[jellytot24]

I used to work for a county council in the East and this was constantly a headache. Bosses micro-managing and wanting to know why we'd sent login notification a few mins after logging in (hmmm, perhaps because most of us quickly glanced at emails and our diaries first) but raising merry hell if we logged overtime.
Play them at their own game. Log everything, dot every i and cross every t. They soon get bored and move on to something else to pick at.

[MarioPuzo]

I detest petty nitpicking like this.

In one of my previous jobs, we once found a diary in my boss' desk of the comings and goings of everyone in the office, including senior managers who outranked him by miles. The diary was along the lines of: John Smith, came in at 9.03am, went for coffee at 10.12 not back until 10.32. Jane Brown came in at 9.01am, went for lunch at 12.29 etc.

Beyond petty and he was a nightmare to work for.

[RuggerHug]

I had a boss who insisted on this when she was out of the office to make sure we were there. It was ridiculous and everyone knew it. She tried to make an example of me in front of the department by saying she didn't get any email saying I was there on x,y and z days, so how was she to know when I got in? Luckily I knew when she was talking about and asked her in front of everyone to take out her BlackBerry and check the first emails she received on those days. I had sent them just after 7am and as the only person without a work phone where else would I have sent them from but the office?


The point I'm getting to, after that she was so pissed off I'd shown how stupid her system was she began ringing me to check something for her that meant I was at a filing cabinet or someone else's desk until after 9 so she could say she didn't get an email and couldn't remember phoning. Send a mail 15 mins before your start time then go make a cuppa or whatever, log off 15 mins after you finish. She wants to count to the minute, overtime can be paid that way too. Half an hour a day adds up over the month.