Thoughts on a time clock system that rounds to the nearest 15 minute increment?

My employer uses such a system and I kinda hate it. There are reasons this type of system was created in the first place, and also reasons why it’s not a more commonly used way of tracking labor hours and minutes.

The way it works is this:

Your clock in or out time is based on the nearest 15 minute increment. If you clock in at 9:01, you show up having clocked in at 9:00. Same thing in you clocked in at 8:54 or 9:07. If you clock in after 9:07:30 you just clocked in at 9:15.

You get payed based on these 15 min increments, but can be judged by actual clock in times…only when it’s advantageous to the employer. Did I mention that the standard time at this business was up to 8 minutes off of actual time?

That’s extremely common. I did that as much as 40 years ago. It is a simple way to track clock time.

As long as you work your 8 hours or whatever, any perceived slight at clock-in will be to your advantage at clock-out, and vice-versa. If you are really worried about the minutes you’re not being paid for, then learn to work the system by clocking in at the most lucrative point.

If his clock doesn’t match GMT, who really cares?

I think time clock systems should be more accurate than the smallest time intervals that any of the involved parties care about. This includes rounding precision and how nearly the clock is set to standard time.

The opposite view must be that there is some reason to have the time clock system introduce errors or uncertainty into the agreed-upon starting and ending times of shifts worked, and that the errors be big enough that at least one of the parties cares about them. I think this opposite view is ridiculous on its face.

It’s not specific to time clocks- my employer currently uses electronic timesheets , but even when we used paper, start and end times had to reflect the nearest 15 minute interval (9:00, not 9:01, and 9:15 not 9:14). One of the reasons is leave usage- if a non-exempt employee comes in late or leaves early, they will likely use leave to cover the difference and no one wants to track leave usage (or payroll deductons) in one-minute increments

Doesn’t bother me in the least. It is in your interest to be on time to work, and to your advantage at closing time. Just be certain you are being paid for all your time. It’s not difficult.

When I started my business I used a time clock for my employees. They didn’t like it, there were constant bugs in the system from power failures, etc.

One day I switched to everyone just keeping track on a note-card (which has since been moved to computer). My employees loved dumping the clock, and if anything are generous toward me in their record keeping.

My company goes the opposite route and uses hundredths. Yesterday I punched in at 9.65 (I was running a little late).

We use computers pointed to an ADP website to literally “log in” to work and “log out” at the end of the day.

While I can understand some of the advantages to rounding up or down in fifteen minute intervals, it still irritates me there is so much inaccuracy with a computer-based system!

I wish we had a time clock here. I arrive about 15 minutes before my shift plus/minus a few minutes because I take public transportation. Other staff are consistantly late, for instance where I work you have to get in the building take the very slow elevator, go to the fifth floor, sign in then come to 4th. If you arrive in the front door at 0700, chances are you don’t get to the floor until at minimum 0705, and that is assuming the elevators were fast and you didn’t stop to chat. Then the outgoing staff gives you report and you do narcotics count. As you can imagine, I end up staying past 715 more mornings than not, and that assumes people arrive on time. There are 3 particular people who are 5-10 minutes late daily.

I finally got tired of my free overtime and started signing out for extra time if I stayed past 15 after. When I was asked about my “overtime” I pointed out the chronic tardiness of my collegues. Timeliness was mentioned in the staff meeting and staff were asked to “sign in for the time you arrive”. But it is still the honor system, and I see people falsifying the time sheet. It bothers me, I take an earlier bus to make sure I am ready to work from the start of my shift, that means report and narcotics count are done. I wish “they” who have control would either be there at shift change and see who comes in when, or just put in a punch clock or similar.

That’s how our system works, and it doesn’t bother me in the least. If you show up for work on time, and you leave on time, then how does it matter?

Weird. You can be a few minutes late, but still be paid as if you punch in on time? And then punch out a few minutes early but still get paid for the entire shift?

Where I work, right now, if you punch in a few minutes early or late, you get paid for that time. However, it sounds like we are soon going to go back to the way things were 5 years ago, where if you punched in within 15 minutes of your start time and out within 15 minutes of your quit time, you are paid for 8 hours and the extra time is just rounded off. There was no rounding for punching in late or punching out early, though. Therefore, if you punched in one minute late, you were expected to work for 16 extra minutes after your shift to make up the minute missed. Ugh.

No, because the boss is going to be watching. If you show up at 9:05, you’re late and in trouble. He’s also watching when you leave. If you go at 4:55, you’re going to be in trouble for leaving early. So every day you’re going to clock in a little bit before 9, and clock out a little bit after 5, losing ~10 minutes a day of pay. So if a company has 100 employees, that’s 1001/6250, ~4,000 man hours a year, or 2 full time employees. That’s why they do it. They nickle and dime every employee and it ends up being a significant amount in a year.

We are paid to the nearest quarter incriment. I see people standing by the computer waiting a few minutes to clock out so they get paid for an extra 14 minutes of non-working time. However, I do like it that I can run 2 minutes late and still be alright.

In my experience, people will get back at bosses who do that. They’ll punch in at 8:55 and spend 20 minutes having coffee before doing any work, or they’ll pack up and stare into space for 10 minutes before punching out at 5. Or they’ll start lining up at the timeclock at 4:50 to make certain they punch out exactly at 5.

Decades ago I had a time clock job where at check out there would be a line waiting for the clock to get to where it had to be for them to get their “Due”. I used to punch out as a :rolleyes: to my coworkers. I had shit to do.

Exactly. The point is to cheat you out of money you’ve earned. Even if I don’t give a shit about the money, I do care about the concept of cheating people out of it.

Just like I’d think some bank employee who intentionally rounds up to the next cent and puts the extra money in his account would be a thief, even though he’d be taking barely any money from me.

Still, it’s better than my mom’s job where being more than fifteen minutes late or leaving fifteen minutes early means you lose a half day, and a few hours means you lose the whole day. And they don’t allow light work and instead punish those that need it by assigning them more strenuous jobs. And people wonder why I support public sector unions.

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No, because the boss is going to be watching […] They nickle and dime every employee and it ends up being a significant amount in a year.
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I’ve been working with Time and Attendance applications for over ten years and I have never seen this. Maybe because I’ve only seen large organisations where “the boss” really doesn’t care about individual workers’ time.

Tough rounding of in/out clocking times is used as a penalty* to persuade staff to arrive on time. If you’re running a shop or production line it really is rather important your worker-ants are at their posts on time. If you are running an office who gives a toss? (Some idiot managers of course, insert the relevant Dilbert strip here).

It is not unusual for quite an amount of leeway to be used, for instance allowing a ‘grace’ period which counts as ‘late’ (for reporting) but doesn’t effect worked time. Another scheme I’ve seen, a late clock in moves the expected out time, so as long as you do your hours you’re fine.

*when I worked on a production line you got a weekly bonus if you were not late any day during the week. Was that really a bonus, or a penalty?

How does that work?

If you’re supposed to show up at 9:00, but you show up at 9:05 and get in trouble, that’s not the fault of the timekeeping program; that’s your fault for not showing up on time. Luckily for me, my boss isn’t that concerned, so if I show up at 7:05 i just leave at 4:05 (even though I could technically leave at 4:54, since both will round to 4:00). I see no reason that you need to clock in early and clock out late. If the reason is “because the boss is a jerk and will punish you if you do otherwise”, then again the problem is not with the timekeeping system; in that case the problem is with the boss.

If you clock in late and leave early, of course you’re going to be in trouble…like I said before, if you’re supposed to work 9-5, then clock in at 9 and clock out at 5, and I don’t see how anyone can complain.

I worked in a hotel with a time clock that appeared to round time to the nearest 15 minutes, but anyone with a half a brain could see that the computer was tracking every minute. It only rounded when displaying your time. So, you might think that you only got paid for 7 3/4 hours each day, but your paycheck would be cut for 39 3/4 hours.