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Original poster

Being asked to get to work before start time

222 replies

TooBored1 · 15/05/2025 13:56

I'm being asked to get to work earlier than my start time, to set up for the day. Is this legal?

I'm salaried, with set working hours, eg 8.30 to 4.30 with 30 mins for lunch. I work physically in an office.

We hot desk and, at our managers insistance, have to take our laptops home every night.

Our line manager is expecting us to arrive at 8.15 every day, to set up desk, turn laptop on etc before 8.30. This isn't about taking off coats/putting lunch in fridge/ making coffee, literally about physically setting up for work

And ditto re going home. We should pack up our desk in our own time.

Does anyone else's boss make them do this?

OP posts:
Newyorklady · 15/05/2025 19:25

Is there a business reason you need to be ready for 8.30 am ie customer servicing.
It shouldn’t take 15 minutes to set up anyway.
I personally think it’s unreasonable.

CappuccinoChocolate · 15/05/2025 19:26

JustHereWithMyPopcorn · 15/05/2025 18:05

Do people really think getting to work 15mins before your start time is a big ask?

insisting someone gets to work 15 mins before their paid time, to set up is. Especially when the company can actively reduce that set up time and doesn't pay overtime.

OnTenterhooks · 15/05/2025 19:26

I expect my team who work from home to be ready to start their working day at 8.30, not just setting up at 8.30. I do the same, so it seems very reasonable to me.

wordler · 15/05/2025 19:42

OnTenterhooks · 15/05/2025 19:26

I expect my team who work from home to be ready to start their working day at 8.30, not just setting up at 8.30. I do the same, so it seems very reasonable to me.

Edited

Yes but you can reasonably expect that the people WFH have the same set up everyday and can just sit down and wake up the computer a minute or two before their start time.

Unlike the poor OP who has to first find an empty desk, sometimes hunt down a chair, then go and collect keyboard, mouse extra screens, then connect it all to her laptop before she is ready to start - every day.

The manager who has insisted on this 15 minutes has created an ideal opportunity for a team meeting discussing the current hotdesking set up and how to improve it.

Gettingbysomehow · 15/05/2025 20:13

It certainly is a big deal for people who have to travel, take kids to nursery and so on. When I'm home working everything is already set up and all i have to do is sit in front of the PC.

Crazyladee · 15/05/2025 20:24

I worked for years in a busy call centre. We had to be all set up computer wise, with all the various screens opened and we had to be logged into our phones, ready to take a call, on the dot at the start of our shift.

Also, once a week, we even had a ten minute morning meeting before the start of our shift start time too, that was unpaid.

A few people grumbled a little about it (the quick weekly meeting) but generally people didn't mind. The company really looked after their staff in other areas so my attitude was that it was "give and take"

Original poster
TooBored1 · 15/05/2025 20:49

Crazyladee · 15/05/2025 20:24

I worked for years in a busy call centre. We had to be all set up computer wise, with all the various screens opened and we had to be logged into our phones, ready to take a call, on the dot at the start of our shift.

Also, once a week, we even had a ten minute morning meeting before the start of our shift start time too, that was unpaid.

A few people grumbled a little about it (the quick weekly meeting) but generally people didn't mind. The company really looked after their staff in other areas so my attitude was that it was "give and take"

Exactly, it's about the give and take but ATM it all feels a little one sided.

OP posts:
Eldermillennialmum · 15/05/2025 20:51

I thought this was always the norm - that you're in the office and ready to work (computer on) by your start time and you work until your finish time. In reality it is quite laid back in our office and people log in late and then start packing up ten minutes before finish time.

Whyherewego · 15/05/2025 20:51

So basically do what they ask and then stop doing overtime ! Work to rule

Wexone · 15/05/2025 20:53

OnTenterhooks · 15/05/2025 19:26

I expect my team who work from home to be ready to start their working day at 8.30, not just setting up at 8.30. I do the same, so it seems very reasonable to me.

Edited

op is not talking about wfh they are talking specifically in the office where the desks are cleared every day including monitors and keywords. then in the morning not only have to find a desk but also set up all their equipment

Blushingm · 15/05/2025 20:53

MidnightMeltdown · 15/05/2025 19:16

They are being unreasonable. Start time is the time you arrive at your place of work. If you are required to do additional things in order to start work then that’s on their time. You have already spent enough of your own time commuting into the office.

Start time is start work - not arrival time

you can’t walk through the door and be ready to work - you take off your coat, sit down, lunch in the fridge etc

OnTenterhooks · 15/05/2025 20:54

Wexone · 15/05/2025 20:53

op is not talking about wfh they are talking specifically in the office where the desks are cleared every day including monitors and keywords. then in the morning not only have to find a desk but also set up all their equipment

Show quote history

I get that is different and annoying - but my team does WFH so I felt it important to add that in

Blushingm · 15/05/2025 20:56

If you had a hospital appointment at 8am you would arrive at the hospital in good time, ready to be called at 8am. You’d be classed as late if 8am was when you arrived at the building

Wexone · 15/05/2025 20:56

OnTenterhooks · 15/05/2025 20:54

I get that is different and annoying - but my team does WFH so I felt it important to add that in

Show quote history

not really as the op is talking about in tye office specifically never mention wfh at all. so not relevant

Wexone · 15/05/2025 20:59

Blushingm · 15/05/2025 20:56

If you had a hospital appointment at 8am you would arrive at the hospital in good time, ready to be called at 8am. You’d be classed as late if 8am was when you arrived at the building

not the same. you are not being paid to attend a hospital appointment. the staff more than likely will be paid for the time they were in to prep for that appointment

Wexone · 15/05/2025 21:02

Blushingm · 15/05/2025 20:53

Start time is start work - not arrival time

you can’t walk through the door and be ready to work - you take off your coat, sit down, lunch in the fridge etc

Show quote history

not in our place. we are required to clock in as soon as we walk in the door the machines are right by the door then have to walk up a few flights of stairs to get to our desks. depends on the company.
in the ops case if they want them in 15 mins early, because of the companies abysmal use of hot desking then they should be paid for it

Quitelikeit · 15/05/2025 21:06

What a way to demoralise your staff!

Absolutely unreasonable and I would stop the overtime and look for another job!

MissScarletInTheBallroom · 15/05/2025 21:14

Let's normalise not working for free, people.

SnakesAndArrows · 15/05/2025 21:56

You should be at your desk ready to start work at 8.00. If there’s nothing on your desk, and you have no chair, then the first paid task of the day is to find and assemble the items required to start your other daily tasks.

ACynicalDad · 15/05/2025 22:00

I think that's a rubbish way to run a team. Maybe sitting at your desk, not making coffee or going to the loo at the start time, but computer out and turning on is only taking a minute. You aren't doing that for fun you are doing it for your job. I don't care if my team knock off at 4.50 as I know other days they'll be there to 5.30 and what a waste of 10 mins, but if the culture is like that I'd be ready to press off at 5 dead.

andtheworldrollson · 15/05/2025 22:03

Start time is when you arfive
if the first task you need to do is set up equipment then that’s the first work oriented task you do
i mean why stop with “you need to set up the equipment in your own time” why not “you also need to go through emails and work out your schedule for the day “

ProseccoCheeseBooks · 15/05/2025 22:07

Yes I’ve had this with all my jobs. At the desk, computer ready for tasks, at 9am. But never been mandated as to what time to arrive, just strict that you need to working at 9, not turning laptop on at 9.
also very normal for everyone to be told to take their laptop home each day.

IfYouPutASausageInItItsNotAViennetta · 15/05/2025 22:19

It would be bad enough if the company were 'just' trying to steal an extra 5 hours of unpaid working time from each employee to boost their profits; BUT the fact that they are ordering them to waste all of that time doing unnecessary, grossly inefficient tasks at the start and end of the day is even more disgraceful.

IfYouPutASausageInItItsNotAViennetta · 15/05/2025 22:38

andtheworldrollson · 15/05/2025 22:03

Start time is when you arfive
if the first task you need to do is set up equipment then that’s the first work oriented task you do
i mean why stop with “you need to set up the equipment in your own time” why not “you also need to go through emails and work out your schedule for the day “

It's illogical, isn't it?

Would they expect to only pay a chef from the time the food is ready to serve - oven heating up and all the prep time, as well as the washing up afterwards, is just you 'being ready to work'?

If you were a coach driver based in X town and tasked to collect a load of people from Y town 3 hours' drive away and bring them back to X town, would you be expected to travel there unpaid, in your own time, to 'be ready to start your job driving the customers'?!

ForPearlViper · 15/05/2025 23:03

I temped in a new office set up which was supposed to be entirely 'clear desk'. Everyone had a laptop with attached phone that we disconnected and locked up in cupboards at the end of the bank desks every desks everyday. It was indeed at least 15 minutes by the time you'd got your equipment out, connected the cables and the computer and phone booted up. If there was something urgent first thing (and it was an environment where things could genuinely be urgent) we just used our own mobiles until we were in the system. It was nuts. The nextdoor team dealt with serious safeguarding issues. After a couple of days in these new building, the wonderful new state of the art offices had to have its first landlines installed.