If you start work at 9 am, is it OK to walk through the door at 9 am ?

[mmhhhkkkk]

Or is that a bit ' late ' ?

I need to be walking through the door 15 minutes before so In my workplace that would be late

Why do you ask @mmhhhkkkk?

I find this really hard to understand for general office jobs. I ‘start’ work at 8:30 generally, but it’s flexible so may be earlier or later. I count my login time from when I get in (or as I’m still WFH when I switch my laptop on). If I’m in the office I sign in at the time on the clock, immediately turn laptop on, whilst booting I login into phone, then hang up coat and sit down (or spend the time unlocking cabinets). All of that is work time, not my personal time.

@mmhhhkkkk

Hmmm, good question! I think with most jobs, people should be there 5 to 10 minutes early. In order to hang up their coat and bag, maybe grab a coffee, and set themselves up.

However, there's a very thin line between coming in a bit early, and people taking advantage ... (trying to throw work stuff at you when you haven't started yet.)

Some years ago, I had a job that started 9am, and finished at 4.30pm (half hour lunch,) and my bus got me there at 8.35 to 8.40am. If I'd got the next one, I'd be there at 9.05am, so too late. Several people started at 8.30am and had an hour lunch, I chose to start at 9am and have half hour.

At least once a week, someone would badger me as soon as I walked through the door, with some work related shit. I'd say 'I don't start for 20 minutes!' But it didn't stop them!

The shit hit the fan this one time, when my manager made an appointment for me with a client for 9am. The second I started work. (I usually preferred 9.10am for the first one...) He instructed everyone else, to not start HIS appointments until 9.30am, but mine were 9am.

Anyway, this one day, I got in work 25 minutes before I started, and my manager said 'your nine 0 clock is here, go call them in from the waiting room.' I said 'but it's 8.35am, they are nearly half hour early.' He said 'and??? They are here, and you need to see them, and not keep them waiting 25 minutes!' I dug my heels in, and said 'their appointment is 9am! If I hadn't walked in til 8.57am, they'd have had to wait 25 minutes then!' He said 'just call them in.' I said 'NO.' He was fucking fuming because I refused. I literally did NOTHING wrong, so he had nothing on me, and no reason to 'scold' me.

After I HAD seen them (I did at 8.45am in the end!) he called me from his office, and said 'we need to talk about your attitude earlier. Come into my office. NOW.' I said 'no, and carried on working.' He said (loudly) 'ARE YOU ACTUALLY LOOKING FOR THE SACK?' I said 'on what grounds??? Go on, report me to the area director, and we'll all meet together, while you tell me exactly what I did wrong, but no I am not coming into your office. I've done nothing wrong.'

tl;dr. Basically, it's not uncommon for other people to take the piss if you're too early, and expect you to start work early. So I would never be more than 5-6 minutes early.

By the way, my manager stormed out in a rage, but nothing else was ever said. It was WEEKS before he spoke to me normally though. I didn't care. I didn't like the twat anyway. I'm not always very assertive, but can be, and no WAY was I accepting bollocking for nothing.

Also, this wanker of a manager used to glare at anyone leaving ON TIME too, and not wanting to take a phone call or see someone at reception 2 minutes before their finish time. He never did - but expected others to. He often stayed after half five though (when the office shut,) sometimes til 6pm, as it kept him away from his wife and kids, but he regularly went off for lunch at midday and didn't return until 2.30 to 3pm. Fucking arsehole he was.

I'd consider pushing the button that turns my PC on is work. So if I'm doing that at 9am I've started work. If I'm in the building but hanging up my coat, I haven't.

Saw the clients at 8.55 am NOT 8.45am!!! (Get an edit button please mumsnet!)

At one place I worked, if you got in a minute after nine, the team leader would always say 'good afternoon'. But if you left at half five, the official finishing time, he would always go 'half day'?

At another place, I heard of someone who worked all weekend, was two minutes late on the Monday, got shouted at from the window by the CEO's secretary and summoned to the CEO's office for a telling-off. Not the best way to keep dedicated staff.

@TooWicked

Depends where you work.

When I worked for the NHS (admin) it was quite common for the usual pisstakers to walk in at 9am, go and make their porridge and a coffee, switch their computer on, eat their breakfast, have a wander up and down the corridor to chat to everyone, and they were good to start some actual work at about 10.10am for 20 minutes before their first coffee break.

That was apparently deemed acceptable.

I left a NHS admin role because of one of the other admins being like that, drive me nuts.

Current manager needs you have to be logged on and ready to work at your start time

For me it means be ready to go at 9. So I’m at desk, logged on by 8.59 ready to go.
May vary by company/culture I guess

I agree with @caughtinanet, it is impossible to say without any idea of the role.

@Pemmican

When I was young, I would have said 'ooh, no, that's taking the piss that is. We should all be good little workers, present and correct at 09:00 and ready to do the boss's bidding'.

Now I am old, I say 'do you know what? Who fucking cares. It's only work. I'll do as little as I can get away with and if you don't like it, do feel free to dob me in - it won't make any difference because the bosses are all skivers too - hadn't you noticed?'

This. There are much more important things in life than work.

No that’s perfectly fine!

Technically 9am is on time if office based, but it does throw my morning off. Getting in at 8.45 gives me time to plug in laptop, laptop charger, phone charger, wash hands, fill water bottle, get cup of tea, put lunch in fridge.

Depends exactly what u mean.

I swipe my pass to get in but then have to wait for a lift to the 8th floor. It can take another 5mins. I consider walking in the door at 9am fine as long as it's the door to the actual office my desk is at where I'll be sat down in like 29seconds.

I disagree about being logged in. Sorry if my job is on a computer then when I press the button to switch it on, that's me starting.

Totally role dependant.

In my job we start work at the time you sign in at the front of the building. However I've spent numerous weekends and evenings writing case notes and reports so swings and roundabouts.

I guess it depends on the person and their general attitude to work, if they start at 901 but leave at 515 then that’s way different to being ready to shoot at 459

I walk through the door at 9. Obviously I'm in the minority... but my work gets done and there are times I work through lunch or stay a little later to finish bits up, so I think as long as you do your hours, does it matter if you don't start on the dot?

Everyone I work with including me, gives 15 minutes extra on every shift for handovers, unpaid. We need to be in uniform and PPE for handover, so another 5/10 mins getting changed.
The culture is that it's expected, and if you're late you're letting the team down, because then that shift doesn't finish on time - no hint that actually, we should be paid for at least those 15 minutes handover because it's work, and the employer is letting us down by demanding (and they do demand you are in handover) 15 minutes time free I work 4 shifts a week - that's an hour a week, over a weeks pay they're getting, from every staff member, free each year.
They don't pay me a minute over my finish time, or to not be there.
Getting paid from 9 should mean starting anything work related at 9, and if it takes 15 minutes to set up equipment etc, then that time should be paid. But if even the workers think that it's ok to expect set up time to be in a workers own time, as seen on this thread, then what hope is there that companies will actually pay people for the time they spend working setting up to facilitate what they need to do, or attending handovers etc.
I am on just above min wage - that extra weeks wage would help me out a lot, and move me further away from needing top up benefits.

Bit late, for sure. Need to be ready to work at 9

All those saying you have to be sat at your desk logged on by 9am for a 9pm start…do you start shutting down your computer at say 4.50 so you can literally turn everything off on the dot of 5? In my office we arrive at 9, so probably are logged in and ready to go by 9.10. We then start shutting down at 5 so are fully logged off and ready to leave by 5.10. Can’t see that this is in anyway unfair to our employer.

Depends on the job. There is always someone at our work place and work hours are staggered.
If we start at say 1.pm staff usually arrive at 1.pm and make a brew, have a chat and gather for a handover from previous staff that finish an hour later.
It's never been an issue for the 12 years I've been there!

I would try to get a read on the office culture early on and see what others do, but usually it means 'logged on and ready to start', not 'walking through door'. I usually log in around 30 minutes before I actually have to be working, although some of that time is waking up, getting ahead of any major problems that have materialised in my inbox and drinking the coffee.

I had one manager who thought it meant 'have sorted all your emails and be on with productivity'. I don't agree with that. If your main job is to do a process, stuff peripheral to the process but still mandatory to the job is still work, IMO, and falls in work time. Then again I'm a lazy jobsworth in the public sector.

Completely depends. A nanny for ex could arrive on the dot as she starts working as soon as her coat is off. Someone who needs to put on a uniform should arrive earlier or someone who has to be ready to take calls from the start of the shift.

I used to work with someone who clocked in at 8am and disappeared off to the loo for half an hour to do her face. Every morning.

This did not make her popular.

@NotTerfNorCis

At one place I worked, if you got in a minute after nine, the team leader would always say 'good afternoon'. But if you left at half five, the official finishing time, he would always go 'half day'?

At another place, I heard of someone who worked all weekend, was two minutes late on the Monday, got shouted at from the window by the CEO's secretary and summoned to the CEO's office for a telling-off. Not the best way to keep dedicated staff.

That's the sort of thing I was on about with MY old manager. Fucking twat he was.

AGREE that it's no way to treat good staff. Stupid fucking comments aimed at anyone who had the temerity to want to leave on time. There's one in every workplace like this.

Also, funny how they say 'good afternoon' even if you're a second late, but never praise you if you're 10 to 15 minutes early. Nope, they just start pushing work on you, and act like you're not pulling your weight if you won't step up and start work 15 minutes before your work time. And want to GASP finish at your actual fucking finishing time. Do these arseholes think they're clever and original with their cunty comments? It's always men that say this too...