Time Clocks

[INTEVA]

What is the general feeling about time clocks? We don't have them @ our hospital but alot of us would like them. When I worked on med-surg, 3-11 shift was always late so we always worked past our shift. We all decided to sign up for OT hoping it might get the manager on their case about always being late.

I now work in anesthesia/OR dept. & I never leave on my scheduled time. I do sign up for OT & any missed lunches, if any. It depends a lot on the caseload for the day .

The problem is; a lot of girls are constantly late & never stay later unless they are on call. Several of us are also nonsmokers so we don't get the cigarette breaks or any other break.

Can anyone tell me how the punching in & out works? Do you punch in & out everytime you leave the floor to smoke? What happens when you are always late & leave early; do they dock you or write you up? Do they question you when you work a lot of OT?

[orrnlori, RN]

We have our fingerprint scanned where I work. You must clock in between 7 minutes before your shift but within 7 minutes after you are to begin. If you are done at 3:15 you have to wait until 3:23 or you'll be docked 30 minutes. It does catch those who are late, now what happens to them is anyone's guess, never seen the chronic late nurses ever have anything happen to them. Then there's the problem of if you forget to clock out. It messes up the whole system. We also have to keep a paper clock in sheet as well. I think it's a mess and would rather just write down my times. We don't clock out for lunch, they just automatically take away 30 minutes from your clocked time, so on the paper sheet you have to note NMT if you didn't eat. I think it would be easier just to implant a chip in our necks or put a jail ankle bracelet on us, then they'd know where we are and if we're working. :chuckle

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

When we used to right out time, I just wrote in 40 hours with 30 minute breaks. So now the time clock reflects the actual time I am there and am getting paid for when I stay late. So I like that aspect a lot.

We clock in and clock out at the end of the shift and not inbetween. 30 minutes is automatically deducted for dinner. If we don't get a break, we have to get to notify the manager to pay us. They pay us through any other breaks. So it doesn't address those who abuse breaks. It does catch those that come in late.

[Gomer]

If you don't have timeclocks or any way to show start and stop times how does your employer track your time? You really should check your state's labor/employment laws. In California, for example, employers are required to track employees' work hours and bedside nurses don't qualify for salaried time (i.e., they are not considered exempt employees).

[USA987, MSN, RN, NP]

I don't mind them for the above reasons that others have mentioned. We also have a 7 minute window before we are late....

[cannoli]

This really has nothing to do with the value or not of the timeclock.

However, they get a lot of free time out of me. I can't clock in 'till 7 minutes before, at which time I go right to work, I don't get paid for that 7 minutes. On the other end, I don't get paid unless I clock out 8 minutes into the quarter-hour. So 7 minutes at the beginning and however many minutes at the end, (sometimes another 7) totals minutes that I don't get paid for, but should. Multiple that by many shifts and that adds up to a lot of unpaid time!

[meesa214]

Gomer-- like 3rdShiftGuy said, many people can just right "40 hours" for the week and not have to write down actual in and out times. The employer is still tracking your time that way.

We just switched from time sheets to time clocks a few months ago. I worked in HR at the time, so I'm very familiar with how ours work here. There are various ways the clocks can be set up. If managers put in the employees' schedules for the pay period (2 weeks), the mgr is then able to pull up reports on who is late, etc. We can clock in 12 minutes before our shift. You can still clock in after your shift starts, but if you do it even 1 minute after, you're considered late on the manager's report.

30 minute lunch breaks are automatically deducted, and you have to notify your manager if you don't take it. The managers can go into the system and make all sorts of changes to your record (i.e. using vacation time, not taking breaks, etc.).

I've found that I'm actually getting paid for MORE hours than in the past because I never wrote down exact times before. Our time now is recorded in tenths of an hour. If I clock in 12 minutes before my shift, and clock out 6 minutes after my shift...that's 3 tenths of an hour more. Doesn't sound like much to you?? That's over an hour extra per week. It adds up fast.

[donmurray]

I'm having trouble getting my head around this clock business. I don't know a single UK nurse who has to use one. Do other professions such as Doctors or Physiotherapists have to clock in and out, or just nurses?

[RN-PA, RN]

We've used time clocks for a few years and I like them. Our name-badges have a magnetic strip that we swipe into and out of the clock with. There are lots of codes that we use for time off (vacations), sick days, low-work (low census) days, missed meal and codes for other units when we get pulled. We could be fired if we were discovered to have clocked out and then stayed to finish work. And I think we have 14 minutes leeway before and after our official start and end times. (For 1445, I can't clock in until 1431 and I believe you have until 1459 before you're considered late. Not sure since I'm always in before 1445.) If we forget our badge or to swipe in or out, we have to fill out a card that we give to management that says when we came in or out or any other codes needed so we can be paid.