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,

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.

Hard to see how that's going to work. Adhere to this system, but don't be rigid about it, but don't mess it up, but don't spend time figuring it out.

You can clock in and do email at home but not on the bus? That sick time lunch time thing makes no sense. The lurkers do not support this timekeeping system in email, Sophia's employers!

Well, we will see about the home thing. Since I can work from home flexibly, I thought I would give it a try. It seems like a better sell if I get asked about it. I think my boss is OK with whatever I do, but she can't come out and say it with the literature I was given by HR.

Huh. My work does this gym subsidy thing where you document you have visited your gym 25 times in a quarter and they give you $100 (or what you paid for the gym if it was less than $100, at least that's what they used to say) and they just announced that now these reimbursements will be in the form of an Amazon gift card, not checks or direct deposit like they have always been. Weird! And somehow makes me less motivated to do it.

reimbursements will be in the form of an Amazon gift card, not checks or direct deposit

They may be playing accounting/withholding/reporting games.

It's worthwhile to get confirmation whether the reimbursements are getting included in your W-2 income or not, because that affects both the withholding amount and whether you have to report the reimbursement separately on your tax return.

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They were treated as reimbursed expenses rather than compensation previously. And maybe that was technically wrong? I mean, for my purposes it doesn't make much difference (especially since I haven't actually been getting the subsidy, though who knows maybe this quarter I will manage it) as if my cat food subscription comes off a gift card instead of out of my checking account that's $100 more in my checking account, right? Feels less like I am getting some of the money I spent on my gym membership back and more like I'm being bribed to go the gym, though. And now that I've written that out maybe that is too subtle a difference to actually even exist.

Sorry about the hassle Sophia. Sounds like a pain.

Tonight I need to walk the dogs, go to the Pharmacy, move our new dryer from the garage to the basement and install it, do laundry, add salt to the water softener, replace the furnace filter, cook dinner, and do dishes. Not sure I can make it all happen.

Really need to do some shoveling too. Oh and bring in the mail and put out the garbage and recycling.