You're going to make it on time, too! I take that back. Unfortunately, you were 3.14159265359 seconds late today, according to management's up-to-the-second spreadsheet. Let's talk about working for an employer that times us down to the second!
Yes, I used the calculation for Pi. Why not? It's a celebrity number of the math world, and we're trying to find an angle here. Precisely, we're trying to figure out how your workplace got so obsessed counting down the seconds to your arrival every day.
Now I'm all for being on time. Showing up for work in a timely and consistent manner is very important for maintaining overall employee morale. We've all worked with excuse-filled co-workers who are consistently 10 to 20 minutes every day, and it does begin to grate. Particularly if we're waiting patiently to hand off the baton to this co-worker so we can go home.
But timing employees down to the modern millisecond? Hmm. Timing down to the second is a form of employee tracking that, quite frankly, can take all the joy out of a job if employers aren't careful.
Before you say, "Cross that bridge to the 21st Century, Chris! Nobody uses a punch clock anymore," count your lucky stars that you have never experienced a workplace in the last 20 years that requires you to breathlessly log in everyday on your phone (or via your trendy, biometric-enabled thumb), only to have a manager stop by your desk to say how you were 1.22220 seconds late logging in today. You'd better get your act together, because she's noticing an emerging pattern of lateness on your part as she scans her spreadsheet. You were .89 seconds late yesterday, 1.1765 seconds late the day before, and 1.786 seconds late on Monday morning. Boy, are you turning into a slacker!
How does timing down to the second begin to impact employee morale, though? It's difficult to get a highly accurate picture, because there are no surveys that reveal the impact on employee work attitudes and employer turnover costs. However, we have plenty of secondary employer surveys that tell us just how worried companies are about employees padding their time cards:
A 2009 study conducted by Harris Interactive Inc. showed that 21 percent of hourly employees admit to stealing company time. While only 5 percent participated in buddy punching, 69 percent said they punch in and out earlier or later than scheduled, 22 percent put additional time on their time sheet, and 14 percent didn't punch out for unpaid lunches or breaks.Employers of hourly workers do have a legitimate concern about time card padding -- it certainly does happen -- but where should employers draw the line when they have the technology to track everything down to the second? In another workplace, the employee who logs in 5 seconds late would be right on time.
I know, I know: It all adds up over the long run. We're 2 seconds late here, 3 seconds late there. Before we know it, we're talking one minute of total lateness over the course of a work month. Now spread it out over a large department, or an entire company. Let's run the micronumbers, shall we?
If an employee earns $8.00/hour and is 5 seconds late logging in today, the employer is losing -- wait for it -- 1.1 pennies, which is roughly as much money lost when a manager stops to sneeze. Hey, does the Five Second Rule apply here? Is it okay if we stay 1.2 seconds longer today to make up for being 1.2 seconds late this morning? It all evens out in the end, doesn't it? (Please say it does, before we're suddenly having second thoughts about working here.)
There are hidden costs to tracking employees down to the second in today's highly-trackable workplaces. The employee who is chagrined in front of his co-workers for taking 4 seconds too long in the restroom this afternoon may just spend the next 10 minutes of work time muttering underneath his breath, for example. Is this productive? Nope. Take it away, Ron Swanson.
Okay, Swanson was working late because he had a hernia. I just like the look on his face.
How did I get on this topic, anyway? Oh, yes. I was reading a BBC news blurb about our upcoming leap second in June 2015. Plan ahead now, everyone. How will you use this extra 60 seconds of time productively on the job? Think quality over quantity. Use it, or lose it. Perhaps employers can use the extra time to re-think how they track employee time? I, for one, would second that motion.
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