Timelies all!

Way back when I was going to massage therapy, there was some electroacupuncture involved. No unexpected evacuations, but it was weird having body parts moving on their own.

Hello all. Best wishes and thoughts to everyone, especially JZ and Sheryl.

I have a non-problem, in that I have a job, which I generally like and where I am valued, BUT

This punching in and out thing is for the birds. I think it might be a "me" problem, because I even though I hate rules, I have trouble not following them. And I am really bad at time math. So I either have to do a lot of math with decimal point equivalent to minutes, which makes no sense to me, or I have to sit on the clock so the math is even. And I still have to do math, because I have no sense of time, and a half hour is automatically deducted for my lunch, so I have to make sure I work eight and a half hours (or whatever even amount) not eight or accidentally seven, because I can't do time math and have to count on my fingers! And my 3 hours a day commuting is now totally wasted because I can't answer emails on my phone (where I can't delay the send to when I am punched in). But I feel badly wasting even one minute of time while clocked in without that buffer.

Aargh! I will get used to it I hope. Maybe I will learn to do the math better? I accidentally went nine minutes overtime last week without pre-approval and I didn't get a talking to...

Also, congratulations on the grandbaby, Laura and Brendan. I am so sorry you are estranged and you don't want to be.

and YIKES on the electro-acupuncture!

ETA I am reading backwards- and congratulations Susan on the surgery!

Sophia is there a way you can check and see how much time you've worked during the week? I'm not sure if you are using an app to clock in and out or a time clock.

We have an app but we can also get the info online/on the register. When I was getting scheduled 40 hours or 38 or 39 hours I found it helpful to check periodically to see how I was doing. So if I clocked in early a few days I could see I was 10 mins over and adjust from there.

There is still math involved but I found it easier than trying to keep it all added up in my head. So if I had been scheduled 40 hours and I worked 3 days and was showing 24 hours and 15 mins I knew I was under 40 but needed to make sure I wasn't clocking in early and had to figure out a way to shave off 15 mins in the next 2 days to get under 40. (Usually by clocking out early and taking a slightly longer lunch).

Sophia that sucks a lot. Especially three hours of commuting, my god!

I think our system is odd. It doesn’t show me minutes, it shows me things like 9.0667 hours and 7.3337 hours and I have no idea how many minutes that is without a calculator. We also don’t clock out for lunch, so I can’t fix it there like I did at previous hourly jobs. There is just a straight 30 minutes subtracted for each day at the end of the week. It also adds the first week and the second week of the pay period together. I was approved for overtime the first week, so I have to go for 84.6667 hours instead of 80. We also can’t work one minute less than 40 hours either….

What a stupid system, Sophia

That’s terrible, Sophia. It’s like they took all the possible drawbacks to punching a clock and turned them up to eleven. I’m pretty sure that deducting a half hour for lunch but not having you clock out for it would not be legal here but I think that might be a state labor regulation. Seems wrong, though, legal or not.

I’ve had that decimal time thing and I did get used to it and had an idea what the numbers I saw frequently meant in minutes without having to multiply by 60 all the time, but it took a while. You could make yourself a chart

.08=5 minutes .25=15 minutes .333=20 minutes Etc

That system is really stupid. Really really stupid. Which doesn't help you. Are there other hourly people you can talk to about how they handle it?

I’m pretty sure that deducting a half hour for lunch but not having you clock out for it would not be legal here but I think that might be a state labor regulation. Seems wrong, though, legal or not.

Oddly enough, I am also a timekeeper, and I pushed back on that during my training. I think the way they get around it is that if we get interrupted during our lunch, we have to fill out an exception form AND START THE LUNCH OVER AT MINUTE ONE!!!! We also have to take our 30-minute lunch once we go back to work after a doctor's appointment. So if you punch out and leave from 11 - 2- you can't take 1.5 hours sick time and .5 lunch. You have to take 2 hours sick time, and then lunch when you are back at work!!!At least according to my timekeeper training.

But it seems so odd to me that In and Out are so restricted, but they are not tracking lunch at all?

My student workers that I supervise don't really have the same issues as I do, as they are only working 4- 15 hours per week, and their time being a little off from that does not matter to me at all. It is really only full-time workers that have the problem.

I am glad to hear I may figure the math out. A chart is a good idea.

The other hourly people I know always work their scheduled hours and sit by the clock. So if they are a few minutes late, they wait until say 8:15 and then clock in. It is harder for me because of the bus, so I am always arriving at odd hours, and I don't want to add to my commute. My boss says she doesn't want me to feel like my work hours are not flexible, nor does she want me to sit by the clock, nor does she want me to spend time doing math.

Today I tried clocking in and doing email from home for 20 minutes, so we will see if I get reprimanded for splitting my day. She did not reprimand me for accidentally going 9 minutes over last week,