My sister's boss told her to clock out when she's not busy

cdawnr

Mon, Jul 02 2007, 8:30 pm

EstiS wrote:

just to be dan lekaf zchus for a minute, although I agree as stated above that the woman was 100% wrong...but maybe the bosses are under financial stress and their business is taking a strong dive and so she made the comment thoughtlessly out of stress and under preassure.

What

I was going to suggest this as well, just to think of a reason why someone would make such an irrational and unprofessional statement to an employee.

I think that if sis likes the job and the work environment in general, she should go in and say that what was said to her bothered her a lot, but she recognizes that maybe they are feeling stretched and perhaps. since the phones do have slow times, there was some other aspecto f the business they could train her to do between calls (like filing or something).

This way she would also be getting on-the-job training for the future as well. also, then if she sees that things have picked up financially, in six months or soemthing, she can say, you know I was hired as a receptionist but I have also been doing this, this and this, maybe I could get a little financial compensation.

lamplighter

Mon, Jul 02 2007, 8:43 pm

im shocked.
if the suggestion was serious I would quit, wiht of course an explanation that one gets paid for their time.....
fireman dont get paid only when there is a fire
babysiiters dont get paid only when a kid screams
a school nurse doesnt get paid bandaid

and like the preicious posters said, clocking out menas free to leave...I'm not sure how that would help them????

Cinderella

Mon, Jul 02 2007, 8:50 pm

Maybe she should also clock out to: pee, yawn, blink...etc. Twisted Evil

Disgusting, absolutely disgusting, and unacceptable that they would say that to her, as an employee and as a human being. I would be beyond hurt and angrey in her shoes! Mad

chocolate moose

Mon, Jul 02 2007, 8:58 pm

I actually DID work a job with a time clock; Please G-d never again !!!!!! and we were told that bathroom time is a health issue and that it was against the law to ask us to clock out. Smoking, yes, but not bathroom.

Tefila

Mon, Jul 02 2007, 11:32 pm

faigie wrote:

your sister has to tell the BOSS that the company is paying for her time.
it is genayva for them to have her SIT AROUND and wait to be at their beck and call without paying her
what nerve.

100% I agree Exclamation

cdawnr

Tue, Jul 03 2007, 6:39 am

amother wrote:

Another thought maybe it's a nice way of the boss saying we don't need you anymore but want her to come to that decision herself Confused

by insinuating that she is a thief...that isn't so nice!

cdawnr

Tue, Jul 03 2007, 6:45 am

Just a thought that occurred when telling my dh about this post, cause I thought it was so outrageous on the boss.

I don't know your sister, but I have a friend who by nature is not your most enthusiastic employee. She does what she is told andno more. If she was told her jb was to answer the phones than inbetween that she would be one to open up a novel or a magazine...which of course doesn't look so good to the boss.

Perhaps this was happening and the bosses were upset and instead of taking the proper first step (which would have been to find more for the person to do or to approach the person and say that they felt that this was inapproriate behavior), they jumped because it was somethng that had bothered them for a while.

Again, I don't know the OP's sister, so I can't judge that, but I can only imagine that there has to be something more to it to cause the bosses to say something so ridiculous

creativemommyto3

Tue, Jul 03 2007, 7:02 am

If she has no other responsiblities besides answering the phone then I don't see the big deal in her opening a book etc. in between. She is being paid for her time that she is available. I remember being allowed to take an hour for lunch and then all of a sudden they thought that they claimed that they told me to eat lunch at my desk! They wanted their money back and to top it off one of their checks bounced on me! I was hired to do filing and office work , then the receptionist quit and they put me in with the same $5.00 salary that I was before. I told her that it was chutzpah that she didn't want me to take lunch with that low salary she was giving me . She claims to have other complaints but I know that the mistakes were not made by me but the pushy Dental assistant that she had. I think she was afraid of her. Some times ppl are just so cheap. They want top of the line work for a cheap price!

binah918

Tue, Jul 03 2007, 7:41 am

Yep, I had a boss like that too. He never actually bought the clock, but he had me prepare a list of office rules regarding punching in and out. One rule that he told me to put on the list was to punch out when using the bathroom. Btw, this boss would spend maybe 5-6 hours a day (no joke) on the cell phone with his friends, having coffee with his friends, eating lunch with his friends... And yet he expected us to be at the office 10 hours a day, with no lunch break, and punching out to go the the bathroom. And to top it off, there wasn't even work to be done. We would all just sit at our desks bored out of our minds.

faigie

Tue, Jul 03 2007, 10:19 am

the same thing happened to me in my first job. no the guy wasnt under any financial stress, he was just cheap and looking to see what he could get away with.
the girl just has to say that if you hire me, its for the day. I cant be at your beck and call wandering the streets until you decide that you need my services on and off again.
either im hired or im fired. period.

HindaRochel

Tue, Jul 03 2007, 4:12 pm

TammyTammy wrote:

My little sister works in a secretary in an office. Her main job is to answer the phones. Occasionally she may have to do other chores, but those are far and few between.

She's always been relatively happy there. The people are nice, she says, although the pay could be better. But for a secretarial job, it's OK.

Now, her boss (actually the boss's wife, but she's a boss too) came over to her and told her that when the phones aren't ringing, she should clock out (but be available to clock in when the phone rings), since if she's taking money and not doing any work, it's like stealing from the company.

I told her that she's gotta get out of there as soon as possible -- that's just nuts! Stealing from the company??!! What a thing to say to her!!

Tammy

She is being paid to be there at the ready. The bosses wife is being ridiculous. No she shouldn't have to check out to go to the bathroom, to drink a cup of water, to respond to friendly questions from co-workers or clients or any other mild interruption of the day. If she takes too many breaks the boss can warn/fire her. But he can't expect her to be there and not get paid. I'm sure she has plenty of other things she would rather do instead.

amother

Tue, Jul 03 2007, 4:16 pm

I had a job in high school where my boss would call and if the place was not busy send a couple of us home! For me it was a minor annoyance as I was living at home and this was for spending money but there was someone there who needed this money to survive on. It was so wrong, and by the way we made almost nothing as it is.