Billing for compensatory time

In My Humble Opinion
1

I work in an office. My labor contract allows us to bill for compensatory time (comp time) which is hours worked more than 8 hours in a day. The comp time isn’t paid but each hour of comp time I earn = an hour I can take off (like vacation time).

Comp time is viewed as “ass time”. That is, clock time I have my ass planted in a work chair more than 8 hours in a day = comp time. You can also get comp time at home (we do laptops, phone calls, etc at home).

Recently, the secretary who does the office time sheets told me that I bill for less comp time than anyone else in the office. She expressed surprise at this, because I also lead in getting my TPS reports in on time, I get tasks I’m assigned done quickly, etc. She said I must be cheating myself on comp time. My last evaluation from the boss also praised me for getting stuff done quickly and well.

To me, some things I have to do for work are really easy. I can write well, I can break down processes into components steps, etc. I have (not bragging) a “low genius” IQ, an understanding of bureaucracies, how things work, etc.

I was recently asked to write a description of the flow of TPS reports from start to finish. In 'ass time", it took me three hours and got rave reviews.

And no comp time.

But outside of work, while drinking beer, walking the dog, mowing the lawn, I was thinking on it, sometimes. By the time I sat down and wrote my first draft, I had 90% of the description ready.

“Ass time” = none

“Thinking time” = 15 minutes in 5 days (estimate). How do you estimate a “mull, mull, mull, AHA!, mull on AHA!, etc.”

Am I cheating myself somehow on comp time? Should I bill for how long it might have taken another (hypothetical) cow-orker to do the same work?

Do other Dopers have this problem? How do you deal with it?

Thanks,

Whistlepig

2

I’ve been in the same sort of position, minus the sub-genius part though.

I never charged for the thinking it over while taking a dump at home time. You just can’t turn off your mind. If you have something going on that is important to you, you just keep churning it around. Even when your not aware that you’re doing it.

The CEO of a research company I worked for did it though. And a LOT!!! The worthless fuck-nugget gave himself a $30,000 raise (we could cash out our time every quarter) by working on his books at home and charging the company for it.

3

Just to say that my dad had the choice between overtime pay and comp time.

As a reporter, he racked up a truly staggering amount of overtime (if you’re in another town, you’re ‘at work’ 24 hours a day!). So one year he thought about it, decided the time was more important, and took most of the year off.

4

Isn’t that the bottom line? Doesn’t that put you first in line for advancement/more dough?

There’s your problem right there, if you’re still thinking about work at home you’ve not drinking enough beer.

On a slightly more serious note hasn’t Scott (Dilbert) Addams had something to say about judging workrate or work done by people who think for a living? It’s a toughie. As an illustration IIRC Dilbert points out that he isn’t paid for the time he spends designing circuits in the shower, but he is paid for time spent filling in his timesheet.

5

Unless you can figure out a way to turn off your subconscious, or convince the office to pay for that, then you’re out of luck.

Having read a number of bullshit NLP-as-applied-to-business theory books (including, “The Subconscious Mind in Business” ca. 1930), basically, your subconscious mind never stops working, mulling over things that you’re not even aware of. Even boring-ass TPS reports. I’ve got some anecdotes, but basically, the line goes, “your company is paying you a wage based on your skills, which happens to include natural abilities like subconscious thought.” So, no, I don’t think that’s acceptable to bill for. The problem is that it’s not feasible to track the hours (not that anyone expects that for all 8 hours a day, you’re firing away on all cylinders, focusing all your attention on the job). On a lark, I started calculating time on a time sheet with 15-minute intervals (I was doing secretarial work on about a dozen projects) and was surprised how often I wasn’t actually working on anything.

Hell, you could always just stay late and take a nap (provided that your ass is in the chair).

Slightly off-topic, are there actually TPS reports? If so, are the cover sheets really that important?

6

Didn’t you get the memo?