While insulting when no-nothing managers use it to punish workers who fail to arrive exactly on time, it is necessary to document that an employee is actually there or not. Suppose a manager decided to only pay you for 4 days and you had no time card. How could you prove you were working that day? It takes the guesswork out.
It IS misused by some managers however. I had one that demanded that everyone could not clock in more than 5 minutes before shift so he didn't have to deal with questions of overtime. And that anyone even 1 minute late was docked an hour. Results of said asshattery was all 250 people trying to use the one timeclock at the same time, resulting in a jammed machine, lots of people not being able to clock in or out, and an entire department quitting. If managers use it as intended, it's no big deal. But when managers become second-counters and use it poorly, then it does become insulting, yes.
The time clock can suck because it enforces the "Blue collar VS White collar" division in the work place. It reminds the Blue collar worker that he cannot be trusted to keep his own hours and this distrust is probably reflected in other policies. IE: must stay "on campus." It's the equivalent of being 17 in high school and being forced to stay on campus, except you're an adult and 25. You can argue that in general, Blue collars should not to be trusted, but I'm not convinced you can argue the time clock is not divisive and juvenille. Perhaps if management was forced to clock in?
I didn't have a problem with the time clock at my last job, when you could clock in and out anytime before or after your shift (they just wanted proof that you actually showed up at all), but there would still be lines at the end of the shift because everyone wanted to get out of there as soon as the clock hit the hour. ;D
My first job the higher ups were strict about clocking in close to your shift, so there was actually a disincentive to get there a little bit early, because my boss would want me to help get set up, and then I was in danger of getting distracted and forgetting to do so at all. :/ The local manager was overall a pretty nice person. The upper management had pretty much only given her half-days off every week, so I didn't mind helping her out a bit.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-08-31 05:52 pm (UTC)===|==============/ Level Head
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2009-08-31 05:53 pm (UTC)===|==============/ Level Head
no subject
Date: 2009-08-31 06:08 pm (UTC)It IS misused by some managers however. I had one that demanded that everyone could not clock in more than 5 minutes before shift so he didn't have to deal with questions of overtime. And that anyone even 1 minute late was docked an hour. Results of said asshattery was all 250 people trying to use the one timeclock at the same time, resulting in a jammed machine, lots of people not being able to clock in or out, and an entire department quitting. If managers use it as intended, it's no big deal. But when managers become second-counters and use it poorly, then it does become insulting, yes.
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2009-08-31 06:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2009-09-04 04:14 pm (UTC)My first job the higher ups were strict about clocking in close to your shift, so there was actually a disincentive to get there a little bit early, because my boss would want me to help get set up, and then I was in danger of getting distracted and forgetting to do so at all. :/ The local manager was overall a pretty nice person. The upper management had pretty much only given her half-days off every week, so I didn't mind helping her out a bit.