'If you're 1 minute late I'm docking 15 minutes from your time': Boss refuses to pay employee for 15 minutes, surprised when they refuse to work the same amount of time

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    Font - Boss says "If you're 1 minute late I'm docking 15 minutes from your time" gets mad when I don't work the 15 minutes I was docked for free. MOC Posted this in another sub and got told to try it here too. This happened about 4 years ago. I do construction and we start fairly early. Boss got tired of people walking in at 6:05 or 6:03 when we start at 6:00 (even though he was a few minutes late more consistently than any one of us were), so he said "If you aren't standing in front of me at 6
  • 02
    Font - The next day I accidentally forgot my tape measure in my car and had to walk back across the jobsite to grab it, made it inside at 6:0. Boss chewed me out and told me he was serious yesterday and docked me 15 minutes. So I took all my tools off right there and sat down on a bucket. He asked why I wasn't getting to work and I said "I'm not getting paid until 6:15 so I'm not doing any work until 6:15. I enjoy what I do but I don't do it for free."
  • 03
    Font - He tried to argue with me about it until I said "If you're telling me to work without paying me then that's against the law. You really wanna open the company and yourself up to that kind of risk? Maybe I'm the kind to sue, maybe I'm not, but if you keep on telling me to work after you docked my time then we're gonna find out one way or the other." He shut up pretty quickly after that and everyone else saw me do it and him cave, so now they weren't gonna take his crap either. Over the nex
  • 04
    Font - So between people doing what I did or just staying in their cars instead, he lost a TON of productivity and morale because he decided that losing 15 minutes of productivity per person and feeling like a Big Man was better than losing literally 1 or 2 minutes of productivity. Even though everyone stands around BS-ing and getting material together for the day until about 6:10 anyway.
  • 05
    Font - After a few weeks of that he got chewed out by his boss over the loss of productivity and how bad the docked time sheets were looking and reflecting poorly on him as a leader because we were missing deadlines over it and it "Showed that he doesnt know how to manage his people.", and then suddenly his little self implemented policy was gone and we all worked like we were supposed to and caught back up fairly quickly.
  • 06
    Font - Worker solidarity for the win. Not one person took his crap and worked that time for free after he tried to swing his weight around on them. But obviously I was a target after that and only made it two more months before he had stacked up enough BS reasons to get away with firing me when I called in a few days in a row after my mom fell and I took off work to take care of her and monitor her for a while during the day.
  • 07
    Font - TL;DR- Boss told me because I was 1 minute late he was taking 15 minutes off of my time, so I didn't work for 15 minutes. People saw me and I accidentally triggered a wave of malicious compliance in my coworkers and the boss got chewed out over it.
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    Font - kellykegs I worked in a call center who tried to implement a policy where if you were 30 minutes late they would count it as an unexcused absence even if you came in. You'd still get paid but it would count against you in your review. When I brought up snow delays or major accidents, they told me there were no exceptions to this new rule. Now I'm usually early but, shit happens, and I asked what would stop me from realizing that I'm going to be late because of traffic and just turning aro
  • 09
    Font - huxley2112 Was a restaurant manager in a former life, I would travel around to different locations and train other managers on how to fix food costs, labor costs, etc. Sometimes corp would send a new manager hire to my main location and I would train them on everything before they went to run their new store. All of my employees at my main store would walk in, punch in, then go in back drop jackets and purses off, put work shirts on, etc. They would then look at the lineup and jump into t
  • 10
    Font - I found out later that shift after hearing some rumblings from the staff, so I pulled everyone aside and told them while that is technically policy, no one is abusing it so ignore trainee managers directions from earlier today. When he found out I rescinded his order he decided to break out the calculator and show me how much labor it cost over the course of a month. My location was high volume, so I then proceeded take his "hours lost" number and plug it into our monthly P&L report as a
  • 11
    Font - I had to explain he just pissed off the entire staff and turned them against him for a savings that literally no one would ever notice. Ended up being a "seeing the forest for the trees" training moment that he learned from, so ultimately I'm glad it happened. But yeah, weigh the outcome of micromanaging your people before implementing policy. Keep your people happy, employees are an asset not an expense. Reply Share 4.5k
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    Font - Righthandedranger OP Also if I recall correctly, legally speaking, time required to get into uniform or the time that they're required to be at the location is when their time starts. I know the service industry is notorious for doing their time like that, but it's a pretty serious labor law violation to require employees to get ready on site and then clock in. 1.7k Reply Share ...
  • 13
    Font - patti2mj I worked a midnight shift at a hotel. I was the only one there on that shift. After a few days I was asked why I hadn't clocked out for my 1/2 hour meal break and that it was mandatory to do so and my pay would reflect that half hour off nightly. Soon after, I was chewed out because guests had tried to check in and there was no desk clerk at the desk and where was I? I said probably napping as it was my meal break and I had punched out. They said I was still supposed to check peo
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    Font - vonderschmerzen I had a job try to pull this- started a new policy that if you clocked in late at 8:01 am, they 'rounded' your time to 8:15 to attempt to dock your pay. At first, I started clocking out at 5:01 pm to see if that would also 'round up' since my logic was you'd have to apply the rule uniformly. But then I just looked into labor laws and saw that it's illegal to round up time unequally. If you are going by 15 minute increments, anything after 8:08 would round up to 8:15, but 8
  • 15
    Font - Psychoticrider I started a new job, we started at 8 AM so I got there about 10 minutes before. My boss told me I had to be there by 7:30. Not wanting to rock the boat I started showing up a half hour early. Then every morning we would sit there until 8:05 and listen to all the boss's bragging. All his fishing, drinking and screwing stories, I guess we were supposed to be impressed. Then at 8:05 he would leap up and bark out orders for the day. Same thing over and over again. I said screw
  • 16
    Font - Righthandedranger OP 5 mo. ago Yup. Had a (62 yr old) boss at a different company when I first started construction that had us show up at the shop in the mornings and he expected everyone to get there early and load the work trucks up so we could leave right when our time started. Argued with him about it and he went on a tangent about how my (millenial) generation didn't know how to do what's best for the company and how we don't wanna work. So I just stopped showing up early. I'd walk
  • 17
    Font - That's when I started seriously looking into labor laws and regulations in my area to see what my rights were and what was and wasn't legal that they were doing. Didn't last long there either. Apparently I'm considered something of an instigator/organizer at a lot of my old companies because I tell/told coworkers what their rights are as workers when they're getting screwed over. Reply Share 3.5k
  • 18
    Font - [deleted] We had this crap. We had one or 2 guys that were late 3 out of 5 days a week. A couple of minutes to half an hour sometimes. Boss said from now on 1-5 mins was 15 mins docked. 6-10 was 30 mins. Over 10 was a meeting and possibly a warning. 3rd day a guy here years is 10 minutes late due to car trouble. Boss says your docked 1 hour. Guy says bye and walked out and never came back. The most experienced person in an area that only one other person half knew. Shit hit the fan and it
  • 19
    Font - n-oyed-i-am I got called in over a 6 minute tardy at work. Please log off phone, come conference room 2 at 9:15 am for meeting. I arrive as scheduled. Was told to wait because manager wasn't ready and union rep was stuck on a job or traffic (I forget) ... Meeting starts. We discussed the importance of being on time. How tardiness costs the company $$$. Etc etc etc etc. At end, they ask me for any input. We are at 2 hours and counting due to manager and union rep not ready. I asked if they

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