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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Aibu. ahhh boss quibbling over 1 minute.

340 replies

Peterbear · 09/07/2020 16:59

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??

OP posts:
HUCKMUCK · 09/07/2020 20:23

@evilharpy

I don't know if this is a public sector thing or a shithead boss thing. A friend works in the public sector, fairly senior position, and told me recently about having to fill in a timesheet every week. She works the same hours every single week (9-5). I couldn't get my head around this.

I'm private sector. My boss has literally said "I couldn't give less of a shit when you work, as long as the work gets done". Which it does, and it gets done well, and I work well over and above my contracted hours although not always during the hours I'm actually contracted to work. But if I had a petty jobsworth boss who watched the minutes I would log on at 8 on the dot, log off at 5 on the dot and do as little as possible in between.

I think it's more prevalent in the public sector but mostly it's shit managers. I work in NHS commissioning and my boss is like yours - flexibility is the main perk of my job!

Someone I used to work for said people in the public sector often get promoted to the lowest level of their incompetence - it's called the Peter principle or something. A lot of people get promoted to senior positions because they are good at what they do but nobody gives any thought to whether they can manage a team or not.

2gorgeousboys · 09/07/2020 20:27

I had a new boss like this a few years ago. Due to the nature of my role I had a good relationship with his Manager and the CEO and would frequently work weekends and late nights to meet deadlines. He decided he needed to control the hours I was working so not only did I need to register my start and finish times, I had to record everything I worked on during the day! I was a fairly senior management role at the time. Things deteriorated to the point he made my life miserable and I ended up taking a grievance out against him and he left the business.

My advice would be, don't rise to the provocation, play the long game and keep a record of all of these petty unreasonable requests. In my experience it's new managers that are insecure or trying to demonstrate that they have authority over a already strong team that play games like this.

TW2013 · 09/07/2020 20:35

So petty. Really glad that I wfh (and have done for years) in a role where I don't need to log in or out at a certain time and as long as the work is done everyone is happy. I probably email my manager about once a week if there is an issue, if I didn't contact her for a few weeks no one would mind as long as I keep returning the work.

AndNoneForGretchenWieners · 09/07/2020 20:35

I used to work for my local authority, it is the sort of thing I'd expect from them and why I would never work for them again. So glad I now work with grown ups in the civil service who trust you to do your hours, as long as the work gets done they don't care how or when you log on. (Am aware not all departments are like this though). I would write the email before you log off the night before and schedule it to send the next morning a couple of minutes before 8, with a read receipt so you could see what time she reads it Wink

c1JSU · 09/07/2020 20:42

I would have to reply to her with something along the lines of ‘thank you for bringing that to my attention, you are quite correct and I will amend it now, I shall also amend my finish time to 5:07 on Tuesday. Apologies for my error’.

Hotwaterbottlelove · 09/07/2020 20:45

I once had a manager who was like this. She also made a spreadsheet where we had to log our activities in 15 minute slots (this wasn't an industry where this was the norm).

I added extra columns for 'going to the loo' and 'filling in this spreadsheet'. She got very annoyed that both took 15 minutes each day!

PhoneLock · 09/07/2020 20:47

I'd write the email now and set it to get sent at 08:00 automatically.

Then have a lie in to make a point. Grin

support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/delay-or-schedule-sending-email-messages-026af69f-c287-490a-a72f-6c65793744ba

BlueJava · 09/07/2020 21:02

I just say "sure I'll amend that" however in future I'd log on at 7:45 make a coffee and relax for a bit. It feels better when you're charging them.

daisychain01 · 09/07/2020 21:09

[quote PhoneLock]I'd write the email now and set it to get sent at 08:00 automatically.

Then have a lie in to make a point. Grin

support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/delay-or-schedule-sending-email-messages-026af69f-c287-490a-a72f-6c65793744ba[/quote]
You'd have to make absolutely certain that the attribute checked "do not send before" is cleared from the settings of that email, otherwise someone in IT with permissions on the mailbox could check the email and see it was pre-timed.

RealityBased · 09/07/2020 21:15

Let me give you the maliciously compliant response to this one (not suggesting you ACTUALLY do it, ... actually, don't ... but your boss is a tit and would well deserve it):

Set up an Outlook rule to send your bloody clock-in email at 7:29 sharp each morning.

Use it to claim 31 minutes PRECISELY of overtime pay or time off in lieu every single bloody day ...

Again, I wouldn't in reality. But I sure would be tempted to. A lot!

tractorvancar · 09/07/2020 21:16

Be careful with pretimed emails as sometimes it will display the time you hit send rather than the intended send time. A tip from here that saved me some bother over the years as I used to use it a lot.

Have a template in drafts and bang it out, saves on typing time.

Sit back and have a coffee and your breakfast, play 'move the mouse' to ensure you are always 'active'. I've been known to bake a cake, do my ironing using this technique at quiet times. Play the game.

Play along and log every extra minute.

RealityBased · 09/07/2020 21:19

Be careful with pretimed emails as sometimes it will display the time you hit send rather than the intended send time.

More suggestions from the "passive-aggressively maliciously compliant" front.

DO let yourself be caught out for doing this. Demand to take full credit for "automating a routine task and contributing to departmental productivity".

Again, don't actually, but DO have fun fantasising about it!

borisjohnsonsstylist · 09/07/2020 21:29

Every evening before you log off, send an email timed to deliver the following morning at 7:50am then do as you please.

I used to have a boss with an overtime obsession, they'd regularly get emails from me at 8/9pm at night. They'd all be sent at 4pm with a time delay.

Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines Wink

AnneElliott · 09/07/2020 21:31

No wonder local authorities are so shite with management practices like this.

I'm central Government and I'm far too busy to check up on my staff. It's outputs that matter and if you're flexible with staff then they'll return the favour.

We have nights we stay until 11pm when we need to get something sorted - no way would anyone stay if the flexibility doesn't go both ways.

poiuytrewq1 · 09/07/2020 21:33

I am home working for a large local authority, logging on via citrix and igel takes at least 8 minutes, followed by a further 5 minutes for outlook to go live. OP, you are being micro managed and the actions are verging on bullying. I would see if it happens again, keep a note of it and escalate it.

JuniLoolaPalooza · 09/07/2020 21:39

I had a manager a bit like this. We shared an office before she managed me and didn't like what she saw! I was part time and she was very much of the belief you can't do a job properly part time, nor accrue flexi. She thought I was taking the piss so made me do a time sheet. It totally backfired as I could then evidence the 4 extra hours a week I was banking and enjoyed some very long lunch breaks which she could do nothing about!

Mumoftwoyoungkids · 09/07/2020 21:42

Years ago dh worked for a company which had a call centre and a website. Call centre took 40% of the bookings and was staffed with over 100 people who had to be in at particular hours for obvious reasons.

Website was controlled by 12 people (and took 60% of the bookings - do the maths!) It was staffed by 12 weirdos who generally turned up at all sorts of weird times, looked ridiculously scruffy and just annoyed the rest of the staff. Dh was the team leader of the weirdos. He generally worked 8:30am - 6:30pm ish and did a bit of work in the evenings.

One day a new boss was brought in to sort them out! Ta daa! From now on they were all to work from 9am - 5:30pm - none of this rolling in at 10 or leaving early malarkey. I really enjoyed the next couple of weeks as dh worked a good 2 - 3 hours less each day. It was lovely to have him home so much!

After a couple of weeks the new boss started wondering why bookings seemed to be down so much.

At which point dh took pity on him and helpfully explained that peak booking times were 6am -8:30am. The website sometimes went down overnight but this wasn’t a problem because one of the members of staff had set up an alarm and if it happened he would be woken up and would get up at 2am and fix it from home. Which is why he sometimes didn’t get into work until 10 or even 11 if he had had a bad night. The website also sometimes struggled during the peak hours of 6am and 8:30am. But that was fine too as another member of staff had always got up early and sat in front of the screen nursing the site through the peak period. Which was why he never got in until 10 but always left early.

Unfortunately with no fixing through the night and no nursing through the peak periods the bookings during that time fell off a cliff.

Dh then explained that the team couldn’t possibly go back to the old way of working as they were really enjoying being “proper professionals” between the hours of 9am and 5:30pm. Team then got on call payments and overtime payments for stuff that they had been happily doing for free for years.

Pixie2015 · 09/07/2020 21:44

Could say oops I counted from when I pressed the on button !

echodot · 09/07/2020 21:50

[quote mollokoy]Also koff zapier.com/apps/gmail/integrations/schedule/2809/send-daily-emails-with-gmail[/quote]
Brilliant!

Georgielovespie · 09/07/2020 21:59

Wonder if your manager has worked out the cost of that minute? ie your hourly rate vs that one minute.

Bet they haven't. Is your timesheet completed within work time too? Grin

00100001 · 09/07/2020 22:02

See, I'd push back with seemingly innocent questions.

Eg, Ask if the 8am start is from the moment you send the email, or the moment you login to emails.

Wait for an answer.

Then ask another question.

Keep doing this.

They will stop answering and you have evidence that they have nothing to stand on.

Carry on as you were.

I have done this many many times ...mwahahaha

Have managed to get stupid pointless projects delayed for years. By asking sensible questions that are perfectly reasonable.

back2good · 09/07/2020 22:04

The pettiness of so many government offices noted on here is stunningly ridiculous.

But sadly not surprising.

dreamboatquickfuck · 09/07/2020 22:07

This is so ridiculously stupid. Sending a log on email is pointless in the first place. Either the work that is required gets done or it dosen't. I would just I log al the time you work over as others have said from now on.

Horehound · 09/07/2020 22:10

I'd reply and say my time starts when I log on to pc not when j send an email.
What would happen if your pc was going an update when you switch it on? That's happened to me before and it's taken an hour + to update.

00100001 · 09/07/2020 22:12

We were trying to implement standardised signatures in a school, because the marketing mgr had a bee in their bonnet. This was 2 years ago. The conversation went a little like this:

MM: We need standard signatures, do that please.

Me: sure, what template do you want?

MM: name and job title.

Me: what name? And what format? Eg Mr John Smith or J Smith?

MM: I'll get back to you

~some time later~

MM: Mr John Smith

Me: when you ask for job title do you want responsibilities?

MM: What do you mean?

Me: John Smith is English teacher, Head of Faculty, Head if Year and DofE co-ordinator. Which should we use?

Mm: their highest title

Me: which is higher, Head of Faculty or Head of Year?

MM: I'll get back to you...

~sometime later~

MM: I've discussed this with the head and business manager, we want just their job title.

Me: OK, I need everyone's job titles please, we don't have them.

MM: I'll ask HR

~3 weeks Later~

MM: here you go job titles.

Me: great. What font?

MM: I'll get back to you...

And so on and so forth....

I'm an arsehole.