I had a co-worker get fired last week for what I think is one of the stupidest things imaginable. Let me preface this story with the fact that at my job, if you are off probation, it is actually pretty hard to get fired (Union job). Even when on probation, where they can fire you for anything, generally its going to be something pretty obvious, like not showing up to work or crashing the bus into old people.
Apparently this coworker thought of a clever way to pad his paycheck- simply fill out an overtime card and put in ‘10 minutes’ every day. I guess he figured nobody would get suspicious with such a small amount entered. The reason this was stupid is that our employer has multiple ways of confirming when you finished work- When a bus pulls into the yard and they pull out the farebox, there is an electronic timestamp. The security guard also notes the driver/bus that pulls in (and the time). When you use your ID card to enter the building, the card reader also notes the time. There are also all the CCTV cameras which can see drivers and their ID numbers on their shoulders. So with all that, it seems pretty stupid to claim you came in 10 minutes later than you really did.
The sad part is, its not hard to get overtime at this job. If you want to work your day off, you have about an 80% chance of getting work. Some people work 365 days a week just for the extra moolah.
Some years ago, there were folks where I worked who’d come in on Saturday for “overtime,” clock in, take off to do whatever, then come back to clock out. I don’t know if they were union or not, but none were fired. Life working for the Feds - your tax dollars at work.
At the same place, a few years earlier, I had a coworker who told the boss she needed overtime to finish up some project. The project was reading magazines and doing her taxes. I know this because I was actually doing overtime since I *did * have a big project that had to get done. I asked the boss if he’d want to be told if someone was abusing overtime. Turns out he’d suspected her, and her “overtime” was stopped. But she still works there. I, on the other hand, escaped.
Point is, if you want to put in crazy hours, you can. You can make $60,000 a year doing the bare minimum, or if you’re willing you can double that amount by working twice as much. Really no need to cheat the system, in my opinion.
This reminds me of another individual who seems to abuse our work transition program. If you are too injured to do normal duties but can still physically show up for work, they can basically work around your limitations so that you don’t have to be on worker’s comp/use up sick leave. Most of these folks however do very little beyond take up space. Normally I don’t have a problem with this since most of these folks want to get back to their normal duties generally for the overtime. However there is one individual that will be on transition for weeks at a time, go back on duty, within a week ‘get injured’ and be back on transition. And the cycle continues. Basically this person is gaming the system and getting paid to sit around and read a magazine all day.
But…what you’re missing here is that he didn’t want to “put in the crazy hours”–he just wanted to get paid for them, without having to do any of the actual work.
How much did his 10 minutes a day add up to, money-wise? Sounds like a piddly little amount. Maybe he was just testing the system, getting ready for a bigger scam?
I know a guy who used to work with my brother that was having people punch the time clock for him. Worse, when he was caught and the union saved his job the *first *time - he did it again. Man, I have no words.
If my math is correct, $60,000 year/2080 hrs per year(52wks*40hrs)=$28.85 per hour, multiplied by 1/6th(0.1666667) of an hour = $4.81 per 10 mins, at time and a half thats $7.21 per 10 mins of overtime. 5 days a week thats $36.05. So a full year nets him $1874.60.
$60,000/year vs an extra $1874.60? No one ever said criminals are bright.
When I was working for the Feds there were a lot of people who would come in on Saturday and spend most of the time sitting around talking (even more than they did during the regular work week, which was quite a bit). I can’t swear that there weren’t any that would actually leave the office, because I was too busy working to monitor their comings and goings. The conversations, however, were hard to avoid hearing even with my headphones on. I guess they figured that since there was only one manager on duty on the whole floor they were less likely to get caught. Of course, being Federal employees, the worst that would happen to them would be a “warning” which didn’t really mean anything.
I worked in an office where two of my coworkers, who granted had very busy jobs, started coming in at 6 am; they’d clock in, then sit around eating breakfast and relaxing till everyone else showed up, and then pretend they’d been working the whole time. They were getting comp time for it all. So of course when they got caught, all that happened was that the rest of us were no longer allowed to use comp time even for legitimate reasons. They, of course, suffered no consequences since they had management convinced the place would fall apart without them.
ETA: Part of the federal government has adopted a new pay system that also makes it much easier to fire people. As a result, my husband is getting actual work 8 hours a day every day out of a couple of people who used to come in, clock in for their midnight shift, then go watch TV or sleep in the lounge all night.
