Like I said, quit and go to Vegas. Leaving yourself a minute of “margin of error” means to me that you’re fully intending to be late a lot. If you work for me, I hope I’m able to replace you before that happens too often.
I’d write more, but I’ve got to be at work today by 10:30 and it takes 55 minutes, and it’s 8:40 now, so I’ve got to jet. If I catch a train that gets delayed I’ll be inconveniencing my co-workers and we wouldn’t want that, would we? 
No, you’re wrong. I dictate the margin of error I’m comfortable with. I’m never late (aside from Acts of god). You, as an employer, are in control of what happens between my start time and my end time. And not a minute more.
My job requires that I arrive 15 minutes early to open the museum and get everything ready for the day. Yeah, I’m “giving” them a quarter of an hour every day, but I also know that if I tell them I need to leave a half an hour early, they won’t dock me for it, or if for some inexplicable reason, I am late, they won’t hold it against me. (I’ve been late a grand total of three times in the past five years.)
It sounds like there are some people in this thread who deeply resent being asked to do anything more than the bare-minimum. I think that sort of attitude is deplorable. “That’s MY fifteen minutes!” For crying out loud, if you’re not willing to sacrifice a measly fifteen minutes to make sure your workday goes smoothly, it doesn’t bode well for your job performance at large. Sure, you can get by by giving “just enough” but you’re never going to stand out as a great employee. You shouldn’t be surprised if you never advance, or if your boss is indifferent to you.
It’s always been my personal policy to go that extra mile no matter if I’m in a job I love or working a McJob. It’s not altruism for the workplace-- I know that my boss notices these things and will compensate me in some way.
It seems to me all this debate over what ‘on time’ means is essentially moot, considering it was a coworker who advised her to be there by 8:00, and not her actual boss. I think a good rule of thumb is that ‘on time’ means whatever your direct supervisor says it means.
There are shitty professional jobs with lousy pay, too.
I may well be wrong, but your ass is fired, just as soon as I find someone willing to give me a little more assurance of punctuality, given the frequency with which God acts in a way that hurts my business.
Sorry, but if your time is so very valuable to you that you’re willing to endanger my business so you never ever ever have to work an uncompensated minute, I’m afraid I don’t want you working for me. To other people, plenty of them, having a decent job with an understanding boss who’s flexible in many other ways, and is generous with bonuses, and who writes gresat letters of recommendation, is well worth a few minutes of your day. Sorry this doesn’t work for you.
The OP said she was expected to show up 30 minutes, not 15 minutes. Do you agree that this is unreasonable?
You believe your boss will reward you for going the extra mile. But there are bosses who not only will not reward you, but will actually penalize you when you decide you can’t break your back. What starts off as “extra” eventually is made the requirment. I don’t see anything wrong with choosing yourself over your employer when 1) the job is temporary and 2)when you are fine being a lower-level peon.
I’ve work a ton of hours for free, but only when I’ve decided that I’m investing in myself by doing so. But when I worked as a pooper-scooper for a summer, I showed up on time, worked efficiently and cheerfully, and then left when it was time to go. The costs of “going the extra mile” outweighed the potential benefits. Not all jobs require personal sacrifice.
(An extra 30 minutes each day translates into an extra 2.5 hours a week. That’s a little more than 1 full workday each month. A full work week every 5 months. For someone making minimum wage and NOT earning paid vacation time, this is blatantly unfair. How many of us salaried people would work a full week and not expect compensation for it?)
Wait a minute. I said I’m on time for work every day. Not late, as you presume. You’re looking under the bed for trouble that doesn’t even exist!
And don’t think for a minute that a 30-minute forced slave labor law will insulate you from the occasional traffic accident, flat tire, or power outage. This is a power trip rule and I’m sure it’s illegal.
Or it means I am sitting in the parking lot reading my book because I don’t want to spend a momment longer in this hellhole than I have to.
Or it means I live across the street and so “half as long as usual” and “twice as long as usual” communtes will all get me to work in the same five minutes period.
Or it means the bus I take runs hourly, so it’s “right on time” or an hour early,and I am aiming for right on time.
As long as an employee is consistiently exactly on time or just a minute or two early, I don’t think an employer is in a position to judge whether or not they are taking acceptable risks regarding punctuality–as long as they are on time 95% of the time, then it’s acceptable.
If the real reason they need to be early is not to have a"cushion", but rather to prep their work for the day, well, then, prep time is working and they should be paid.
Let me get this straight: you’re on time every day, and you show up no more than one minute early every single day. Like clockwork. Except when there’s a hurricane or tornado or earthquake?
All the time.
Reliably.
I really think you need to be fired now, and I’ll buy you that bus ticket to Vegas for a 1% cut of your future earnings at the slots.
How much more assurance of punctuality do you need than to see an employee on time every day? I don’t care how understanding you are. If you’re not willing to pay me for time worked, you’re not someone I want to work for. Some hard up people might bite, but I’m not hard up. I have great references and I’m on time. I work the hours I’ve been hired for and I can choose to work for someone who is willing to pay me for the time I put in.
I haven’t been late for work in years. Not one minute. I maintain my vehicle, I set an alarm (even though I’m an early riser by nature) and I schedule my commute based on current construction traffic, the odds of getting stuck behind a school bus, and the weather. I currently work from home, but that’s just been since October.
It’s not that I resent being asked. It’s the fact that a cheap-ass boss won’t pay me for the entire time I’m expected to be at work. There’s a huge difference. I’ve worked overtime whenever asked. And I’ve been paid for it. An hourly employee keeps a timesheet or punches a clock precisely to track exactly how much time they put in. I’ve been salaried for the better part of the last 20 years I’ve worked, but when I was a temp, I filled out a time sheet. Do you think my employer (the temp agency) wants me giving away 2.5 hours a week when they’re supposed to be billing that time to the company? Sorry. Asking people to work for free is illegal.
A salaried employee weighs the compensation based on a certain amount of “understood” overtime…in my current position, I put in at least 45 hours a week…every week…and I’ve decided that my salary has built in enough compensation that I feel it is a fair trade-off.
Sorry…but I never agreed to work for you to begin with. And what the hell is this Vegas reference you keep tossing into the mix? How does that relate to the subject in any way?
Really…it sounds like the people that you hire…the people that are willing to put up with this crap… are bottom-of-the-barrel employees to begin with. They don’t have a choice but to put up with heavy-handed management who can’t part with a buck. I, on the other hand, have chosen to work for stand-up employers who play by the rules.
I don’t see why it’s so hard to believe that an employee can be ready for work at the appointed time without having to show up 30 minutes early. Or even 15 minutes. I’ve done just about every kind of job–from janitorial to retail to field work to desk work–and when it’s time to work, I’m always ready to jump right in. It’s the manager’s job to ensure there’s no dicking around once the employees arrive.
If it takes someone 30 minutes to get prepped for work, no matter who the employee is, then this 30 minutes should be built into the cost of running the business. Why should the employee carry the burden for this?
pseudotriton ruber ruber, your argument seems to boil down to this: if you don’t want to work for free, then I’ll find someone else who will. How is this is not the very definition of exploitation? There will always be some desparate person willing to meet outrageous expectations. That doesn’t say anything about the quality of employee you’re getting, but it does speak volumes about the kind of employer you are.
Beauty. Perfectly put.
I agree with Kalhoun. The people taking the position that everyone should be expected to put in unpaid extra time to ensure they’re not “late” (or thought to be lazy) are wrong. I am punctual. Which means that I am on time. My shift starts at 9:15, so at 9:15 every weekday morning I am to be found in my office at work. If you’re looking for me at 9:10, you’ll be looking in vain. Of course, it also means that at 9:15 you won’t find me merely somewhere in the building - I will be working, not dorking around getting a cup of coffee or discussing last night’s game.
I’m a professional. Moreover, I’m very, very good at my job. I’m one of the best and my boss is not the sort of person to tolerate laziness or poor work habits. Which is fortunate, since I don’t have many. However, he also doesn’t expect me to be at work before my scheduled time (although he does expect me there and functional at that time - how I organize my schedule to make this so is my own business and he doesn’t pry). If I should need to be in before my scheduled time, arrangements can be made (and have been made) but I will be submitting the appropriate paperwork to be recompensed for that time. In point of fact, when I took my current position, my boss requested that I come in at 9:15 instead of the 9:30 that most other people in the firm with my position work because it was more convenient for him. He offered (and I accepted) to end my work day at 5:15 instead of the customary 5:30. While I occasionally come in earlier or work later (if things are particularly hectic), I get paid for that time.
That “if you’re not 15 minutes early, you’re late” saw is nonsense. If you need me to be there 15 mintues earlier than I’m scheduled, then either change the schedule or pay me for the time. If you’re just making sure I’m at work on time, then you can stuff it. The only times I have ever been late to work were situations in which there was no even marginally reasonable hour I could have left for work and still made it on time.* Even if I’d planned to be there 15 minutes early or even half an hour early, I would still have been at least an hour to an hour and a half late.
I’m punctual. I’m dependable. I’m reliable. I am worth every penny of the money I am paid for my job and then some. What I won’t do is show up early for no reason other than someone doesn’t want me to be late. The very moment I cease to be punctual (extraordinary circumstances aside), then we can discuss the need for me to show up early as a hedge. Otherwise, I fully expect my employer to pay me for all the time I spend at work. That’s the deal - work for payment. Expecting to get work for no payment isn’t the deal. Expecting to get work for no payment in a professional situation is exploitation.
*This is because I live and work in the NYC area and (like most of NYC’s workforce) I depend on the mass transit system. If the trains aren’t running, the trains aren’t running - best you can do is call if possible and let people know. This is almost always due to either an emergency situation, intractable mechanical issues or exceptionally heinous weather. Those days, nobody gets anywhere in anything remotely resembling normal time.
Heh-heh. You said “stuff it.” Heh-heh. 