Engineers on time clock 2

[EngJW]

Our company has decided that engineers are now hourly employees and must punch a time clock. We are also subject to factory attendance rules- you can get docked for doctor and dentist appointments, you get reprimmanded if coming back from lunch a minute late, and so on.

They claim it is due to new federal laws on overtime. I searched for information about "exempt" positions and I don't think this is right, but I could not find anything about converting exempt to hourly.

A few managers are excluded. There are also some engineers putting in overtime. I don't know if they will now get paid for it.

I have no options other than to live with it. The company doesn't care if anyone quits over it. I just need to stick it out about 5 more years (if the company lasts that long), but this is very demoralizing and I feel my attitude going bad.

Your comments would really be appreciated.

 

[UcfSE]

If you are in the US, I would check with the Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Devision.

http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/wages/index.htm

 

[HgTX]

Beggar--only if they actually pay the overtime.

Hg


Eng-Tips guidelines: faq731-376

 

[BobPE]

If I wanted to punch a time clock, I would not have bothered to get an engineering degree.

You can't buck their system, nor should you try. If you do not like it, get yourself out into a real company that values you as an engineer.

take care.....

Bob

 

[redgdon]

If I were you, I would look for another job with less hours and enjoy my time left on Gods earth a bit more.

 

[mshimko]

All should recall what the term "excempt" means in the context of this thread:

"Excempt" mean you are excempt from many federal labor laws, which generally apply to blue-collar workers.

"Non-excempt" means all these labor laws apply to you.

If you fall in the "non-excempt" category, the company has no choice.

If you fall in the "excempt" category, your employer has choices: pay you by the hour, pay you more for overtime; expect you to work 60 hours/week for your salary, etc. The plus-side is we hopefully get salaries to match.

 

[MTPipeliner]

The company I work for recently reclassified many employees to comply with the new laws. All engineers were kept exempt. Engineering techs, fieldmen, etc were changed from exempt to nonexempt.

There are good and bad to both. Since I'm exempt, I'm not hassled over a couple minutes here or there, but I also don't get any overtime. Many days I wish that I was nonexempt.

I remember when the new laws came into effect there were articles in the paper about which type of job was exempt and which was non-exempt typically. I don't know if you can find those articles on the net anymore or not.

 

[ewh]

EngJW,
How's it working out with the timeclock? I am sure many of us here would be interested.

 

[EngJW]

Thanks for asking. I raised a stink about it and had a talk with the boss. So far I am off the clock. My complaint was that two engineers (one degreed and one not degreed) in another building did not have to punch the clock but I also have a degree plus more experience so the same rules should apply to all. A week has gone by without punching the clock so I am waiting to see if I get a paycheck.

 

[BJC]

Time clocks don't necessarly mean you have to stick a paper ticket in a device with a clock on it. There are electronic fobs that can go right on the back of a picture badge. The system can have sensors located at the water cooler, coffee room, bathroom etc.
I have seen the system, never heard of it being used to it's malovent capacity -but it's only a matter of time.

 

[EngJW]

The trouble with these electronic timekeeping systems is that the factor of human judgement is removed. An example from a place I used to work at:

We had badges that you had to insert to open the gate, and the time was logged. A report was sent to supervisors of what time people logged in. After 10 am for some reason, I think after the guards showed up, the gates were left open no you could walk right in. So in my case I was 2 minutes late only one time, because of a snowstorm, and my name was flagged as late so I had to be talked to. Coworkers told me that what they did is if they saw they were going to be late, they would turn around a go home and come back later when the gates were open.

As many of you know, you can get to work a half hour early every day of the year, except the one day the interstate backs up over a wreck and you might be 15 minutes late. Most reasonable managers would overlook this.

 

[MadMango]

I worked in the medical device field, for a new start-up division. I remember the first day of work, after a few rounds of interviews with various department heads. The new director of the division walked around to make sure everyone had everything they needed. He told me, "Normal start time here is 8am, but I know how bad traffic can be sometimes, so if you could manage to get to work by 10am, that would be great. And if you have to leave a few minutes early to get someplace important after work, I'll understand."

I think that was abused by most (I doubt many put in more than 30hrs), or perhaps it was the 2hr lunches that were abused the most... either way, I think both were examples of when a time clock might have been nice.

[green]"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."[/green]
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
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[johnwiss]

I think these precedents suck! They probably monitor web usage (usually the domains you are visiting), email, phone calls, now they are monitoring wxactly how long you are at the plant. You should get the younger folks to lobby for telecommuting at least a day or so each month at first, then maybe one a week.

To be honest I would try just about anything to f### your employer on this issue. I would find buddies to help with clock-in and clock-out stuff (provided you are really exempt and are paid for 40 hours subject to the Exempt rules--I am not advocating cheating the system). There is probably several early guys and late guys to assist. Most people don't know (and it is never published) that if you work more than 5 hours a day you have the right as a exempt employee to get credit for the whole day (I think this is true) thus you can have the employer "pick up the tab" occasionally just like when you take time off in some instances they force you to take PTO (paid time-off).

What a bunch of bastards at your place by the way. Thank goodness you are on the home stretch. Don't do anything I suggest if there is any real probablility you could get canned over it.