Timekeeping

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The Bean Counters now have us using a time keeping program (web-based, of course).

When, last month, we were told at our functional unit's group meeting that we were about to start doing this, we were assured it wasn't because they don't trust us.

Do we do chargebacks to our internal customers? No.

Uh-huh.

In addition to being so granular that I have about 40 different time categories to account for, across 10 different business units, we are required to always account for at least 8 hours every day, either to projects or to personal time, regardless of how many hours we spend total for the week. Do we have official categories assigned to specific activities? Not exactly -- lots of categories but no official word on how or what we are to charge things to.

Today, after hitting 40 hours late Thursday (slow week) I found myself at 1 PM with 45 hours for the week but only 5 hours for the day. So I was forced to enter 3 hours of personal time when I left so I could pad the day to 8 hours.

As my supervisor put it when I pointed this out, "Thank you sir, could I have another one?"

Comments

Dr Ralph said…
There is indeed a category set aside specifically for keeping up with your time. There is even a category called "unscheduled tasks" which is presumably for using the john, picking your nose, and other similar activities.

These people miss nothing. What good is a bean counter without his beans?
1:12 PM
Dan Brekke said…
Boy, it would be fun to come up with categories for this software. I'd make "voiding" a category, with a choice of "No. 1" and "No. 2." Which is precisely the reason no one would ask me to help develop such software.
10:22 AM
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