Some office systems are so frustrating!

If you have to clock in and out at work, and if the time clock rounds to the nearest quarter hour, would you learn how to work this system to your advantage?

This employee learned how to use this policy to her advantage, and she’s sharing all the details!

Check out the full story.

Round my hours? Ok, thanks.

I work at a place where many people are salary, but there are also people on a time clock.

Most of the time clock employees have a factory worker kind of position, so that makes a lot of sense.

Then there are mainly office workers, like me, who are on a punch clock due to our positions.

Office workers on the time clock generally have their time checked by supervisors who don’t really care about some overtime.

This is where it gets weird…

Anyway, we used to have a pay service (which also provided a time clock) that would log the minute you used the machine. It would calculate your time based on the minute you punched in or out.

I thought this was a pretty good idea; it made sense to me.

Then, as the title implies, this was no longer the case.

Our company switched to a a different payroll service and had a different time clock. The new service began to round my time to the nearest quarter hour.

She was so confused at first!

It took me a couple paychecks to finally figure out what was happening.

I saw that it clearly rounded to the nearest quarter hour, but I assumed, at first, that it was counting every minute and rounding.

No, it was rounding up or down from the minute you used the clock.

I was annoyed by this at first.

I was especially annoyed that there was another rule where the clock would always round up to the next quarter hour during the first clock-in of the day. I saw no reason for the clock to round, it is a computer and the math is easy.

She knew how to find her way around it…

Eventually, realized that the new rules were made for the dozens of production workers. They have to begin working at, and start being payed for, a certain time; so they have to clock in a little early.

They also take their lunches all around the same time. The new time clock rules make a lot of sense… for them.

I work in the office, and I don’t have a strict schedule. If I wanted to blow through lunch and leave early, I’m allowed. I can take lunch at 11 or 2 or whenever, nobody cares.

I have work to do and I do it. I know that I’m very lucky to be in this situation, but my relationship with HR regarding this time clock started on the wrong foot.

She finally figured it out!

Cue Malicious Compliance.

Knowing that it makes no difference to my pay if I clock in at 8:01 or 8:15, if I’m running a little late in the morning, I’ll just calm down and take an extra minute.

That’s FUN!

For lunch, I’ll usually now clock out at something like 12:08 and then clock back in at like 12:51. That’s 43 minutes to eat, but it only counts as 30 minutes as far as the time clock cares.

Then when I leave, if I’m leaving at 5 for example, I’ll clock out at like 5:08, which counts as 5:15.

I gently expressed a dissatisfaction with the rounding clock when I first learned about it, so I don’t really feel on the hook for this.

She got it right!

They can come and tell me outright if they want me to change these practices.

I usually squeeze some overtime out every week because of this system.

GEEZ! That sounds clever!

She really learned how to use the time clock to her advantage!

This user wants to know what the system is called because they hate theirs as well!

This user shares how the rounding system at their workplace works.

This user is glad she found a clever way around the time clock.

This user shares how things were at their old job.

This user thinks every time clock does this thing.

She found a way to make the policy work to her advantage!

Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.