Weird time-clock rules at work

[opalbee]

Hello, all~

At my current job, I was told that I have to clock-in "7 minutes early" before my shift in order to clock-in "on time". If my shift starts at 10:30, I have to clock-in at 10:23. If I clock in at 10:24, then, although the time-clock shows the actual time, apparently, somewhere within the system it counts my clock-in time as 10:37. I tried asking other co-workers about what the purpose of that was, and nobody knew.

I'm not sure if it has something to do with making sure we're early to our shift? But then why not just schedule us 10 minutes early, like at 10:20, if you want us to start at 10:30? And often times people clock-in at the time they were scheduled, rather than several minutes early, and I dislike the fact that if I clock in 1 minute later than I was supposed to, it takes 7 minutes off my pay. I'm also supposed to clock out for 30-minute breaks, which we take whenever we can (typically when residential activity has slowed down) and it gets confusing at that point because I don't know if I'm going to gain 7 minutes worth of pay or lose it.

Has anyone else heard of a facility having time-clocks that work like this? Or do you have a possible explanation?

I hope I explained this okay. I am sleep-deprived and words aren't coming to me easily.

[klone, MSN, RN]

I think your coworkers misunderstand. Many facilities have the 7-minute rounding rule. If you clock in at 10:23, it rounds you to 10:30. If you clock in at 10:22, it would round you to 10:15 (thus, incurring incidental overtime). If you clock OUT at 10:37, it rounds you down to 10:30, but if you clock out at 10:38, it will round you up to 10:45.

[opalbee]

I think your coworkers misunderstand. Many facilities have the 7-minute rounding rule. If you clock in at 10:23, it rounds you to 10:30. If you clock in at 10:22, it would round you to 10:15 (thus, incurring incidental overtime). If you clock OUT at 10:37, it rounds you down to 10:30, but if you clock out at 10:38, it will round you up to 10:45.

Thank you for your response; I just don't understand WHY they would round either up or down, rather than clock us in or out at the actual time.

[Sour Lemon]

Agree with klone. It's also possible that they want you to work for seven minutes before they have to start paying you IF they actually expect you to clock in early, but after the rounding time.

[smf0903]

We used to have a 7-minute rule: we couldn't clock in at say, 07:22 if we're scheduled to start at 07:30 because they went by quarter hours. Now we can't clock in any earlier than 2 minutes before our start time.

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN]

Thank you for your response; I just don't understand WHY they would round either up or down, rather than clock us in or out at the actual time.

It's so you get a little wiggle room, so you don't have to wait until exactly 1030 to clock in.

[Nurseinprocess]

Where I work you can clock in 12 minutes early, but you won't get any extra pay for that, it just ensures we all clock in on time. We can clock out 12 minutes early if have given report on all our pts. A few of my coworkers have their phone alarms set to go off 12 minutes early and we all head to the time clock and punch in on time (early, lol).

[morte, LPN, LVN]

I worked for one corp. that expected a fourteen minute donation of your time every shift. that was report time. 7.5 hour shifts, not 8

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

Thank you for your response; I just don't understand WHY they would round either up or down, rather than clock us in or out at the actual time.

It's for payroll purposes because they round to the 1/4 of an hr.

[opalbee]

Okay, thanks for all of your comments. I'd never seen or heard of clocking in in such a complicated manner, so it had me confused.

[mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN]

we have the opposite. We are not supposed to clock in before 6:57 but no later than 7:00. Insane. We are not supposed to clock out earlier than 1930, they count a 30 min lunch. Not that I ever get done giving report before 1930.

[iluvivt, BSN, RN]

It's not that difficult once you get used to it.I actually love it because if I am running late I know I have 7 extra mins as long as I clock in my 0937 I will not be considered late or lose any pay. Same rules apply for lunch breaks but don't take advantage of that by clocking out and back in so you get extra minutes on both ends.Some employers watch for consistent patterns.Give it a try....you may like it!