Who does your time cards?

Published

Does your manager, your unit secretary or someone else do your time cards? If your unit secretary does them do you think it would be out of line for them to make snide comments about the amount of overtime you were getting? How about say you went home after a shift a couple of times and got called back in two or three times for a few hours due an emergency and the secretary asked you "what the hell you were up to?". Isn't the secretaries job to send such and such hours into payroll and if there is something out of line it is managements job to address it? I can totally understand that sometimes people punch in and forget to punch out and they might inquire about that but the other stuff seems out of line. I know a lot of people will mention "the book" and how you are supposed to write unusual time card situations in the book. However, overtime is authorized by management and has nothing to do with unit clerks and in this case is not written in "the book"and I could mention that the time card summary crosses the managers desk before it goes to payroll.

Specializes in Med-Surg.

People are human and it's not unreasonable not to expect comments rather than robotically doing their job and you shouldn't sweat the small stuff.

That said, "snide" comments and inappropriate comments should be dealt with. Anything wrong with going to her and asking her to stop making snide comments and if she has issues to refer them to the manager?

Our time cards are generally computerized with the manager approving them prior to going to payroll, no secretary involved.

Specializes in SRNA.

One particular unit secretary does our timecard adjustments. We write any adjustments that need to be made in our timecard adjustment book and she goes through every Sunday and makes the appropriate adjustments.

I think it would be inappropriate to make comments about how much or how little someone works. None of their business!

I think that you should politely confront the person making these comments and tell him/her that if she has a problem with something on your time card that she should report it to the manager whose job it IS to deal with any issues. Until then she can keep the comments to themselves since they may not know the whole picture. Definately talk to this person first before going to your manager. That way if it does elevate you look like you took the high road of trying to solve it with the "A to B" communication, you will have the upper hand.

Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ED.

I work at a huge facility with a massive bureaucracy so we don't do time cards, and our hours are totaled by a faceless bean counter in a little cubicle downstairs. That being said, I think the behaviors exhibited by your US that you described are out of line.

Specializes in OR.

She should stick to her job which is being a secretary and tell her if she doesn't mind her own business you will be taking this up with managment that authorized your OT!!!

Specializes in onc, M/S, hospice, nursing informatics.

My manager does time card edits, and she has also trained me to do them in her absence (or when she's overly busy). I wouldn't think of making a comment to anyone about their time. The only time I say anything is when someone puts in a false request for their time to be entered (i.e., they come in at 0700 and put in a "missed punch" request for 0645). Even then, the comment is to my boss, not the employee. Anything else would be inappropriate and a breach of the trust that my boss has placed upon me.

Specializes in O.R., ED, M/S.

Our unit secretary does ours and could care less about any of our time. She is only concerned about clock ins and outs. When the computer won't let her input then she will come to us and ask about a certain time. Other than that, she doesn't care.

Specializes in MS, OB, PEDI, VNA, TELEM.

my manager does it and constantly "forgets" to pay for differentials and oncall/charge pay.

Our unit secretary does ours and could care less about any of our time. She is only concerned about clock ins and outs. When the computer won't let her input then she will come to us and ask about a certain time. Other than that, she doesn't care.

Exactly as it should be. The person that brought up the overtime was asked, "is it coming out of your pocket or something that you should care".

+ Join the Discussion