MN Photography wrote:
There is more to a job than just clocking in. I've owned businesses with hourly employees. People are just about never ready to work the moment that they walk in the door.
For example, I used to have an employee that we called Miss Bare Minimum because she made something of an art form of the doing the bare minimum amount of work required to keep her job. She needed to clock in at 10AM, so she timed her commute so she would walk in the door at 9:59. After clocking in at 10, she would start her daily routine of personal, but paid rituals beginning with a ten minute stay in the bathroom immediately after clocking in. Then the 5-10 minute preparation of her first cup of coffee and organizing her purse followed up by a personal phone call or two. It was unusual that she did any actual work before about 10:20.
Taking time to decompress from a commute and taking care of personal business before clocking in is one of the reasons that employers like to see people show up 10 or 15 minutes early.
This;
I ran my business 45 years, and in California The Law is time and a half for overtime, and overtime is over 8 hours in a day or over 40 in a week unless the regular hours differ.
Anyway, My foreman began at 6:00 A.M. and the rest of us started at 7:00 A.M. and I usually arrived a few minutes early, to see that one of my employees, of a few months, always clocked in at 6:30 to 6:45.
I thought, WOW, I have a real worker finally, until my foreman told me that he clocked in and went immediately into the toilet, and never came out until 7:00.
Think about it, I was paying him $21.00 per hour to work and $32.50 per hour to sit on the toilet before work, plus numerous potty breaks during the day.
I had a talk with him, he changed for a week or so and then went back to his routine. I fired him, and he filed a complaint with the labor board. I sent them time card copies and a letter from my foreman and never heard from them again.
One more reason you should be on time, but not really too early.
