Manager And Team Leader Said Staff Should Be Ten Minutes Early For Shifts, So This Hardworking Employee Took Offense To Their Demanding Approach

Liberty Canlas

4 weeks ago

Man wearing head phones looking at a computer screen in an office

Pexels/Reddit

Some companies expect too much from overworked staff.

This employee was one minute early for work, but his laptop unexpectedly updated, making him 10 minutes late to start work. So his supervisors sent a message saying all staff should always be 10 minutes early in case there are system updates.

Is that fair? Read the full story below and weigh in.

Lovely message from team leader

I started working for my current employer at the end of October. I am currently in my 7th week.

We rotate shifts, so in November I was on 8–4s, and this month, 9–5s. As I live about a 40-minute drive away in the morning, I set off an hour before I start work to make sure I get to work on time, with plenty of time to spare.

Today, traffic was crazy, and I got to my desk with one minute to spare. I am usually at my desk 10 minutes before my shift starts. I opened my laptop and was ready to go by 9:00 a.m., and suddenly my laptop decided it was going to do a seven-minute update that I could not postpone.

The girl to my right, who has been with the company for over a year, was slightly later than me getting to her desk and was ready to go maybe one minute past 9:00 a.m. She also got the update message that could not be avoided.

My manager sits behind me. When she noticed that both myself and my colleague had laptop updates, she said that we should get to our desks earlier to make sure any updates are done and we are ready to go at the time we are supposed to start.

The whole staff received an email about being early and starting work on time.

I took issue with this, as, as far as I am concerned, anything I do prior to my start time is not for them to dictate.

I understand and appreciate that I should have my headset on and be ready to go for my start time; this only takes a moment. However, to suggest that we should come in earlier in case there is a 5–10 minute update that we cannot postpone is, to me, is pushing it, really.

Whilst the update was happening, I took a bite out of a pain au chocolat. It was the only bite I had of it, as I was so busy until lunchtime that I never even thought to take another. The girl to my right had her breakfast whilst it was updating.

We then got a Teams message come through from the team leader, who sits at a desk about five metres away.

The team leader was saying that everyone is expected to be at their desk on time and ready to answer the phones; that we are all grown-ups and can manage our own time; and that it is unacceptable that we are sitting having breakfasts and not going on the phones until ten past nine.

This man feels his supervisors are being unreasonable.

I could not really believe what I was reading. Until this point, I had nothing but praise for my team leader and manager for how they have been with me and the team.

They fired three more senior members of the team for bullying in my first week, so to hear what the manager said, and then read the message from the team leader, was a surprise.

Either way, I do not think my colleague or I did anything wrong, and we got grief for it.

We did not ask the laptop to update; we did not have a choice. Then, to get a rubbish message like that really makes me second-guess what sort of environment I have joined.

Not to mention, almost every day I have finished late by my own choice, trying to get everything finished at a time when we are understaffed and have a lot of new starters who cannot do anything.

Extra unpaid 10 minutes of work? No, thanks.

Other people are sharing their two cents.

Some valid advice.