Your comment reminds me of a company where I worked for a while. Me and a bunch of other colleagues always arrived around 8:05, due to public transport it was either that our always being in late. So we usually logged in, which took 15 minutes to get to a working desktop, grabbed some coffee and started work around 8:20. As we had no contact with customers, we packed our stuff around 16:55 and left a few minutes early as that would save half an hour of waiting at the station. We’d otherwise be just in time to see our train leave, bloody annoying.
Smokers were allowed 15 minutes of smoking time, on top of the regular break. None of our group smoked, so the end result was getting home a bit earlier while still putting in more hours than required.
At some point somebody took offence to us leaving a bit early, so it was decided that was no longer allowed. We tried to argue that we start earlier, have no smoking breaks, but all in vain. So, from that point on we came in at 8:05, had our coffee until 8:30 at which point we logged in, had another cup while we waited and started work at 8:45. We took our lunch break, ended it with a walk and added the smoking time to that. Shame though that everybody always seemed to forget their cigarettes.
Helps by the way that it is illegal here to expect people to be in early to prepare for work. Slow computers? That’s not the problem of the employee. Preparation is work and must be paid as such.
Your comment reminds me of a company where I worked for a while. Me and a bunch of other colleagues always arrived around 8:05, due to public transport it was either that our always being in late. So we usually logged in, which took 15 minutes to get to a working desktop, grabbed some coffee and started work around 8:20. As we had no contact with customers, we packed our stuff around 16:55 and left a few minutes early as that would save half an hour of waiting at the station. We’d otherwise be just in time to see our train leave, bloody annoying.
Smokers were allowed 15 minutes of smoking time, on top of the regular break. None of our group smoked, so the end result was getting home a bit earlier while still putting in more hours than required.
At some point somebody took offence to us leaving a bit early, so it was decided that was no longer allowed. We tried to argue that we start earlier, have no smoking breaks, but all in vain. So, from that point on we came in at 8:05, had our coffee until 8:30 at which point we logged in, had another cup while we waited and started work at 8:45. We took our lunch break, ended it with a walk and added the smoking time to that. Shame though that everybody always seemed to forget their cigarettes.
Helps by the way that it is illegal here to expect people to be in early to prepare for work. Slow computers? That’s not the problem of the employee. Preparation is work and must be paid as such.