Oops

[denny]

Wednesday night after flying, I forgot to set my alarm clock, and hence slept soundly through to about half ten in the morning, when I was woken by a text message from my boss. I got to work at 11am.

This morning, I have a letter inviting me to a disciplinary meeting to discuss my "poor attendance" (presumably meaning timekeeping).

Whee.

Comments

[wildeabandon.livejournal.com]

Oh ffs. That's just ridiculous :/

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

My tendency to get in inside my flexitime allowance but later than he'd like has been an ongoing line of complaint from my MD for months... this has just given him an excuse to make it an official warning.

I think working to rule is the correct response in these situations.

[wildeabandon.livejournal.com]

*nods* I know, I just think he's being really stupid about it. *hugs* I hope you manage to work this out - it seems like such a good job in every other respect.

[olithered.livejournal.com]

Joy :-/

[mirabehn.livejournal.com]

Ack. :-(

And you're on flexitime? So presumably so long as you work the correct number of hours and Get Stuff Done, he ought not to have a problem with you.

But presumably he has anyway?

Meh. *hugs*

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

He's said to me in the past that he realises I do work long hours and that I do a good job, but unless I get in at 9am every day then he's not going to be happy with me. It doesn't really make sense to me, but then I'm not a morning person.

If someone on my team wanted to start at 8am and finish at 4pm I'd think they were mental, but I wouldn't have a problem with it. I don't understand why morning people have to be so self-righteous and stroppy about people who want to start late and finish late, it seems to be a common attitude and I've never seen it in reverse. There's nothing virtuous about having a different bodyclock!

Gah.

</rant>

[(Anonymous)]

Working to rule is a possibility, although it's slightly confrontational. Another approach might be to explain why you were late and offer to make up 150% (or 200%) of the time you missed within core hours at another time. I'm guessing we're only talking an extra hour or two here.

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

1.5 hours late from our current latest allowed starting time, yeah. 2 hours from when my boss would prefer me to start. My contracted hours are '09:00 to 17:30 with one hour for lunch and 30 minutes flexitime' (but my boss strongly believes that I can't be an effective manager unless I get in at 9am, so the flexitime is largely nonexistent for me).

As I routinely work until 6pm or later despite now aiming to get in for 9am each day at his insistence, and have worked through my lunchbreak about 99% of the days since I started working here, I'd be surprised if I hadn't already 'made up' that time at least twice over in the first three days of this week, let alone in any longer timeframe.

Working to rule is confrontational, yes. Given the above, I'm feeling slightly confrontational at present. I don't think he's being fair.

I also don't think he's acting in the best interests of the business, which should be his over-riding concern. He has a personal thing about mornings, and he can't justify it in any way except that it's his preference and he's the boss. Personally I think it'd make a lot more sense for me to come in alert at 10am than knackered at 9am, as long as I put in the hours.

[pooloftrees.livejournal.com]

"...and he's the boss"

Oh god, I hope he's not started being like my former boss who felt the need to remind staff in a rather aggressive way "I'm the boss".

"1.5 hours late from our current latest allowed starting time, yeah"

For this particular instance I think (if you haven't already) apologising would be advisable, and keep it separate from your main argument (perhaps if possible as different meetings, but I suspect it's all going to be lumped together in this meeting). Given you aren't dealing direct with customers (are you?), I can't see flexitime being an issue to you doing your job. With regard to your managing, do you update him regularly on how your team are doing? I don't know what he is like, but most managers I know like to see pretty bits of paper that show that the departments are doing a good job/making progress or improving...

[pooloftrees.livejournal.com]

Oh, and good luck!

[steerpikelet.livejournal.com]

Hope it goes well, love.

[fayroberts.livejournal.com]

Hope this goes okay. I am worried for you (I was fired for being a bit late sometimes once - but this is different as I wasn't on flexitime, and was in probation).

Offering solutions is something I think bosses like. Is there any other reason he might be at all narky with you?

Good luck!

[kotenok.livejournal.com]

Oh crap, that's really silly.


I hope it gets sorted out sweetheart.

*hug*

[atreic.livejournal.com]

Try and force him to talk about it in terms of outcomes. "You get in late" is an observation, but unless he can point to problems it is causeing "You get in late so it's harder for me to arrange meetings with everyone, you get in late so everyone else starts to drift in late but still leave early, you get in late and there is noone to make me a cup of tea when I get it" then it's harder to fix things. Also, you can then fix the problems (eg buy him a tea maker) while still working at a sensible time.

But really, if you signed up to a job where you have to be in by 9.30, you should try to be there by 9.30. I mean, either renegotiate so you officially have better flexible working, or get a job that better suits your lifestyle, or do what you said you'd do when you took the job.

Is ths overtime unpaid? In which case it is not "working to rule" to turn up at 9.30 and leave wihtout doing an insane amount of unpaid overtime. If you're being paid overtime then it is kind of cutting off your nose to spite your face to stop doing it if you want the extra cash and they want the work done. Also, does your boss even know? If he is getting in at 9 he probably doesn't know if you leave 5 minutes after he leaves or 5 hours.

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

Right, the answer to some of your questions is slightly complicated, so bear with me :-p

When I first started here, I did sign up (not without some concerns) for a job where I had to be in for 9am. I can't claim that I managed this with any degree of regularity. Fortunately, after a short period we were offered flexitime for everyone in the company, of 30 minutes. This is in our contracts.

I then became a manager, had a member of my team who hated mornings more than I do, and one of my attempted solutions to this problem was to negotiate flexitime for everyone in the company of 1 hour. This is not in our contracts, and has apparently been taken away again as far as my boss is concerned, so let's assume we're at the contracted 9-5:30 +/- 30 minutes legally and morally speaking.

My boss wants me in at 9am, because he likes to have morning 'catch up' meetings, and he feels that it sets a poor example to the others if I get in 'late' (i.e. at the tail end of the flexitime) every day. He has repeatedly stated that I cannot effectively manage my team if I'm not in the office before them. He hasn't explained why this would be so in any detail, it just seems to be one of his personal axioms.

My team members do all work in excess of their contracted hours on a daily basis, as do I, due to habitually working 9am to 6pm (plus or minus a few minutes at each end), and to working through lunch breaks or taking short breaks (out of personal choice, this isn't asked of any of us).

We did all drift to coming in later (and going home later) at one point, which suited all the developers fine, and as far as I can tell did the business no harm whatsoever, but it annoyed the MD because he's a morning person.

I'm salaried, my overtime is unpaid (and my contract includes the fairly typical 'in case of business need you will work whatever extra hours we require' clause). At a guess, working to rule would mean I'd work between 5 and 10 hours less per week on average.

My boss is aware of the hours I work. I'm starting to suspect he just regards them as 'doing my job properly'.

[atreic.livejournal.com]

Meh :-(

(Cheers for explaining, by the way, I have no right to be so nosey!)

You should encourage your manager to talk to the people you manage, to see if there is any evidence that the time you arrive is affecting your ability to manage your team. If they all say they don't mind then he won't have a leg to stand on. If it is causing problems, then it's only by getting to know them you'll get them fixed.

Poor you though - I'd go crazy without proper flexitime.

[pooloftrees.livejournal.com]

My boss is aware of the hours I work. I'm starting to suspect he just regards them as 'doing my job properly'

Unfortunately that seems to be "the industry standard"... :-(

Most people seem to forget that geeks aren't just a cog in the corporate machine, always there to meet their IT needs - just because we work with computers (which work 24/7), it doesn't mean we are like computers ourselves.