Is this normal in an office?

[rudeguy]

I've never worked in an office before. It was always a store or a call center or a factory of some kind.

So I'm used to working every minute of the day. When I get in I get a coffee and hit the bathroom before I punch in. The others seem to come in, punch in, grab coffee, check Facebook, chat a bit, then about an hour into the day they start work.

Now what they do doesn't affect me, I actually like how laid back things are, I'm just curious if this is how most offices work.

 

[Exterous]

I've never worked in an office before. It was always a store or a call center or a factory of some kind.

So I'm used to working every minute of the day. When I get in I get a coffee and hit the bathroom before I punch in. The others seem to come in, punch in, grab coffee, check Facebook, chat a bit, then about an hour into the day they start work.

Now what they do doesn't affect me, I actually like how laid back things are, I'm just curious if this is how most offices work.

Some yes, some no - I've worked in both types of places. Depends on the managers and workload.

 

[MontyAC]

I would think places that don't deal with the public are more laid back.

 

[RelaxTheMind]

in the 4 call centers i worked in (all major companies) the only people that stood around doing nothing were either on break, scarfing down scraps on their 30, got there early or stayed after or they are just management.

marketing company now i work mostly from home. if and when i do go to the office its as laid back as can be and pretty much what you described minus the coffee.

 

[Dankk]

Sounds about right to me. An average "working hour" at a non-public desk job involves 20 minutes of chatting, web surfing, standing up and stretching, grabbing a snack, using the bathroom, etc, etc. And then 40 minutes of actual work.

 

[Corporate Thug]

I've never worked in an office before. It was always a store or a call center or a factory of some kind.

So I'm used to working every minute of the day. When I get in I get a coffee and hit the bathroom before I punch in. The others seem to come in, punch in, grab coffee, check Facebook, chat a bit, then about an hour into the day they start work.

Now what they do doesn't affect me, I actually like how laid back things are, I'm just curious if this is how most offices work.

You're doing it wrong.

 

[Lifted]

Sounds about right to me. An average "working day" at a non-public desk job involves chatting, web surfing, standing up and stretching, grabbing a snack, using the bathroom, etc, etc. And then 40 minutes of actual work.

You were a wee bit off.

Wait, you work in an office and punch in? Are you in the office portion of a factory?

 

[Thebobo]

I've never worked in an office before. It was always a store or a call center or a factory of some kind.

So I'm used to working every minute of the day. When I get in I get a coffee and hit the bathroom before I punch in. The others seem to come in, punch in, grab coffee, check Facebook, chat a bit, then about an hour into the day they start work.

Now what they do doesn't affect me, I actually like how laid back things are, I'm just curious if this is how most offices work.

You have to ease into this work thing

 

[rudeguy]

You were a wee bit off.

Wait, you work in an office and punch in? Are you in the office portion of a factory?

I wasn't sure how to word that part. I have a spreadsheet that I punch my times into then I email it to my boss so I can get paid. So maybe that is punching in?

We do have a warehouse attached to the office. We only use about 20 percent of it though. We rent out another 50% and the rest is where the owner parks his car

 

[Lifted]

We do have a warehouse attached to the office. We only use about 20 percent of it though. We rent out another 50%

To Vance Refrigeration?

 

[PenguinPower]

You were a wee bit off.

Wait, you work in an office and punch in? Are you in the office portion of a factory?

Seriously? How do you suggest to accurately track non-exempt time?

All non-exempts in the office badge swipe in and out for day start, lunch start, lunch end, day end.

Edit: The above being said, no one faults the NEXs if the swipe, then go grab some coffee and whatever. My team usually swipes 7min prior to start and 5-7min after end so I'm only concerned if they have a 30 minute chatfest in the break room during the day.

 

[Dankk]

Seriously? How do you suggest to accurately track non-exempt time?

All non-exempts in the office badge swipe in and out for day start, lunch start, lunch end, day end.

Edit: The above being said, no one faults the NEXs if the swipe, then go grab some coffee and whatever. My team usually swipes 7min prior to start and 5-7min after end so I'm only concerned if they have a 30 minute chatfest in the break room during the day.

At my office, hourly employees use an internal company website to clock in/out via a web browser.

 

[PenguinPower]

At my office, hourly employees use an internal company website to clock in/out via a web browser.

Hmm...I see some issues, but it's still a punch in/out office environment, so it makes sense. I assume an individual emplid/pw?

 

[Dankk]

Hmm...I see some issues, but it's still a punch in/out office environment, so it makes sense. I assume an individual emplid/pw?

Correct, we log in with individual accounts.

I think Lifted was simply saying that "punching" is a bit archaic for an office environment. I don't think there's many people who do that anymore; in my case, using a computer to record time is more modern and elegant than punching a card (and to a lesser extent, swiping a badge).

 

[Doppel]

Sounds about right to me. An average "working hour" at a non-public desk job involves 20 minutes of chatting, web surfing, standing up and stretching, grabbing a snack, using the bathroom, etc, etc. And then 40 minutes of actual work.

Agreed, except reverse your 20 and 40. And sometimes why don't you just turn that new 40 of slacking off into a 60.

What blue collar workers really probably don't realize is that not only do they make way less than white collar but they work way harder, too. The man is keeping an eye on you and/or you have a job that is very measurable (e.g. number of items produced per hour).

 

[slayer202]

I wasn't sure how to word that part. I have a spreadsheet that I punch my times into then I email it to my boss so I can get paid. So maybe that is punching in?

We do have a warehouse attached to the office. We only use about 20 percent of it though. We rent out another 50% and the rest is where the owner parks his car

what hours are you supposed to work? fill those into the spreadsheet, unless you're > 20 min or habitually late. coffee breaks are on their time, you don't need to get there early(just make sure you're finishing your work)

 

[PenguinPower]

Correct, we log in with individual accounts.

I think Lifted was simply saying that "punching" is a bit archaic for an office environment. I don't think there's many people who do that anymore; in my case, using a computer to record time is more modern and elegant than punching a card (and to a lesser extent, swiping a badge).

We actually use biometric punching to prevent fraudulent scans. And, yes, that was a problem. Our non-exempt comprise a wide population of dock workers to IT professionals.

 

[Dr. Zaus]

Agreed, except reverse your 20 and 40. And sometimes why don't you just turn that new 40 of slacking off into a 60.

This is why I have to work 12 hours a day!

 

[Lifted]

Seriously? How do you suggest to accurately track non-exempt time?

All non-exempts in the office badge swipe in and out for day start, lunch start, lunch end, day end.

Edit: The above being said, no one faults the NEXs if the swipe, then go grab some coffee and whatever. My team usually swipes 7min prior to start and 5-7min after end so I'm only concerned if they have a 30 minute chatfest in the break room during the day.

At project sites we have laborers use hand scanners to punch in as they are paid hourly, but I've yet to be in an office environment that makes you punch in, in any form. We have RFID access cards but nobody checks times as we are all salaried and are sometimes working late nights, or are at meetings or sites other than our office.

Actually I take that back. About 14 years ago I worked at a PPO that used the access cards for time tracking. It was a real pain and very factory like as everyone would pile up in the tiny entrance way in front of the elevators to swipe in. Come to think of it that was pretty indicative of the culture there, which is probably why nobody hung around for long.

 

[PenguinPower]

At project sites we have laborers use hand scanners to punch in as they are paid hourly, but I've yet to be in an office environment that makes you punch in, in any form. We have RFID access cards but nobody checks times as we are all salaried and are sometimes working late nights, or are at meetings or sites other than our office.

Actually I take that back. About 14 years ago I worked at a PPO that used the access cards for time tracking. It was a real pain and very factory like as everyone would pile up in the tiny entrance way in front of the elevators to swipe in. Come to think of it that was pretty indicative of the culture there, which is probably why nobody hung around for long.

Jesus H. Christ...salaried does not equal exempt. Probably the 1000th time I've said that in the past year.

We have a population of over 10,000 that does it quite well...not to mention efficiently and without detraction from production time...and it does a great job of weeding out the cheaters. We've had probably 3 in the past 4000 non-exempt/hourly swipes, but its theft of time all the same.

 

[Rhezuss]

Where I work it's like that:

- People come in at 8:42 am and say "Hi" to everyone they can, grab a coffee, talk about the shit they watched on the TV last evening, what they eat/cooked yeaterday, how annoying their kids are, how late they got to bed, how damn loaded they are at work and how they can't get the job done because their boss is the shit and they don't have what they need to work properly

- Then they start working but it's 25 minutes before breaktime so they go to the bathroom and grab another coffee

- Then it's breaktime and during breaktime they talk about how loaded they are and how they shouldn't even be in break

- Then 35 minutes later they get back at their office, take the 8-12 messages they had since morning because they were not at their office and cry about how their job is full of shit

- Then it's lunch time

- Rince and repeat all this am and pm until they get off work at 3:30pm

...

How office hours are 8:30 to 12:00 / 13:00 to 4:30...

I love people

 

[AreaCode707]

Geez, this thread makes me feel screwed for working at home. I typically have back to back calls from 7am to 5pm, a two hour break and then 2-3 hours of additional calls with APAC. Hopefully I can get email done while on the phone, but otherwise I get to do that in between. Nobody small talks on the phone typically - it's just awkward.

 

[TecHNooB]

At my last job, people were very good at switching between small-talk and actually getting shit done. I miss my job sometimes. Lot of good people where I worked.

 

[Ns1]

Yes it is. Where do you think we find the time to nef?




Also might be why I'm still at the office at 1030p ^_^

 

[Kadarin]

Salaried for us means that it really depends on the workload. We're in the middle of a maintenance window, so I'm actually working now. If the workload is light, the amount of neffing goes up dramatically.