Frivolous lawsuits aren't anything new, but this is an eye-opener straight from annals of "office humor." It turns out that in the past year "several" companies, including UnitedHealthGroup, Cigna, and AT&T have had employee-filed lawsuits brought against them for unpaid time. That "unpaid time" is the minutes each day employees spend booting up and shutting down their computers (also their time-clocks), which they claim adds up to an astounding 15-30
per day. Astounding, that is, if you've never worked in a corporate office with a terrible IT department. If you have, you'll probably agree that this figure may, in some cases be on the mark, if not a little conservative. The employees claim they should be paid to work while the boot-ups and shut-downs are happening, since during that time they're doing tasks like paperwork or "arranging their calendar," while the companies counters that they're probably smoking, getting coffee, or talking to people. We're not really going to judge the veracity of these suits en masse -- we'll take them on a case-by-case basis, but there does seem to be something suspicious about this many people claiming to still use paper calendars.
[Via
Wired]
posted Nov 20th 2008 3:43PM
BRB, visiting HR.
what about all the time these employees spend on youtube, facebook, digg, etc?
we have a double standard here.
sorry man, you have to clock out before you enter the restroom
I wonder if Michael was aware of this at the Scranton Branch???
I'm part of one of those law suits! I'm sick and tired of the company I devoted years of my life, and all they do it keep to stomping on me, always trying to be and outsta
Sorry, my boss walked by... Anyhow, Yeah, Disgusting how companies STEAL employee time!
I don't understand why these companies aren't using timecards or cardswipe machines or something other than how long your computer is turned on. That seems like an awfully inaccurate way of keeping track of hours.
@ Testies
Outstanding commitment.
or fighting with the printer?
No.
No, man.
Shit, no, man!
PC LoadLetter... what the fuck does that mean?
It would be niiice to have that kind of job security.
What if we're still doing this when we're 50?
No, not again. I... why does it say paper jam when there is no paper jam? I swear to God, one of these days, I just kick this piece of shit out the window.
I believe you'd get your ass kicked saying something like that, man.
the way I see it, if it's time where you have to be at work, it's time you should be paid for. If they don't want to pay you to be there to turn your computer on and off, then they should have someone else do it for you.
No doubt. I used to work tech support for one of those large customer service mills. It was never about me wanting to get paid *extra* time, it was about the company being anal about my work time. See, they got paid by the call, so they wanted every minute I was at the office to include call time. That meant, if my work started at 3pm, I was to be at work at 2:45 to set up my workstation. See, I'd be doing work, but I'd only get paid *starting at 3*. Now I didn't leave my job because of it, but it wasn't as if they were sticklers for punctuality, they certainly didn't have any problem with me staying over an extra 15 minutes to shut down my workstation . . . so you see, they got an extra half hour of work out of me every day without compensation. The only solution to that, of course was to find a better job and quit that one. So yeah- it's not as outlandish as Engadget makes it out to be. People shouldn't have to do *any* work without being paid for it. And if they do, it should be their decision, not the company's.
I have a simple solution I used to use when I was hourly. Have 1 computer always on so people can clock in as soon as they are in the door. Then they clock out when they are done shutting down their machine.
How about companies just give me 10 grand for this solution instead of paying for there lawyers, I think I deserve it.
I wonder if you posted this comment while at work?
They may update their calendars on their phones. And also, 15 - 30 minutes a day is most definitely possible, especially on XP Pro. I remember once it took an hour to load up an instance of that operating system because my school doesnt allow us to save settings on their servers, and so it takes forever. I hate IT departments.
...my IT department has 2 teachers, and me (a student) running it, and most of the software is pirated with keygens and cracks. So don't hate on the non-existent IT department. It's tough finding keygens that aren't trojans y'know.
Wow, I love your IT department :P
ha-ha. you think that's bad.
im a student at a high school, its me and one teacher who does it.
no small feat for a school with 1600 kids, ~500 computers.
I think they shouldn't be paid for the time between keystrokes, either. Or when they're blinking. I mean, come on...do you really expect me to believe you're being productive when your eyes are closed?
It's really a thing that you would have to be in a call center type environment to know the negatives. They expect you to clock in on time and be ready to work...
It means you have to come into work 10- 15 minutes early. All in all it doesn't mean the IT or that the people working are lazy. It's just the software the comopany designed for billing takes long to load. I've worked for ISP's and Cellphone companies. I can tell you from my personal experience the computers are high end and it still takes 10-15 minutes just for the PC to run updates to 1 or 2 programs agents have to use....
Honestly most/all companies get around it by giving you 10 minutes off the phone/pc at the beginning while your computer starts.
If I were them, I'd be more worried about having only have of my monitor screen working
Jebus, are there really people who haven't been on the planet long enough to know that when you photograph a CRT, you get half an image because of the way it scans to refresh?
I feel old.
Wow. what a bunch of whiney bitches.
nahaga.. naga... nagonna work here anymore anyway...
I wouldn't say I've been MISSING work, Bob...
I sentence you to no less than 5 years in a federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison.
yeah, well i work in the IT department for a global company and the reason the computers are slow is because they HAVE to be full of security programs - antivirus, firewall, programs that stop users installing games, etc etc. also on mobile computers there are often encryption systems running to protect vital company data. its all there to protect the business and in a lot of cases the user of the system.
Or... the users have done something stupid to their PC (spyware or installed a bunch of junk that they shouldn't) or repeatedly put large files, large amount of files or both in locations there were told not to because it would slow down loading their roaming profile.
I tend to lean towards most computer errors are PEBKAC (Problem exists between keyboard and chair)... we that or bad coding on the part of our developers.
@Zargon
I thought it was "Most computer problems are a PICNIC (Problem in chair, not in computer)."
PICNIC would also be a valid error.
or if the user asks what the problem was you can tell them it was an ID ten T error (id10t)
Perfectly valid but that doesn't change the fact the user should be compensated for their time. The cost to the company for that boosted security is not just what it costs IT to implement it but what it costs the users in productivity. My corporate issued laptop takes 15 minutes from off to boot and in use to off, security prevents hibernation and we can't leave them in the office so my work hours start when it comes out of the bag and end when it it's back in. I can always add that 9 of that 10 minutes of shutdown time a day back into productivity by unplugging and yanking the battery but I suspect IT won't like the costs of replacing hardware...
I'm gonna make a virus and put it right in your finical software so it takes a fraction of a penny every time you use it. Why? Just to spite you.
Or that they are under ultra-strict IT people that set stupid policies that keep the software that they need from running.
Get it while you can, because those 3 second boot SSD computers are on the way!
Sure, if they aren't shared computers and if you don't use passwords.
omg, its a miracle. iEye said something and wasn't low ranked.
/me wonders how long that'll last
this crap happens at my work, I dont deal with it because im not hourly but I see it as a problem here for other people. ANd yes if our IT guy knew there a**hole from there ear maybe it would be better
Yeah, Cause you know what the hell you're talking about.
Knew their a**hole from their rear, eh?
As long as my TPS reports are done in time, and have cover sheets - I get paid. All else is trivial.
But did you get the memo?
I told those fudgepackers I liked Michael Bolton's music.
See .. another cost they can save by switching to Linux.
Well either that or by using standby.
Prob. would have been cheap to just buy them new machines!