So, one of the many, many causes of concern which came out of the Dec. 4th meeting was the assertion by HR that one second late is considered tardy. This made no sense to me and follow up questions directed towards the HR person during the meeting went unanswered. In my best Nancy Drew manner, I started asking questions about this policy.
What I found out is that one second is not considered tardy for your paycheck. If you sign in up to 6 MINUTES late, you will not be docked. If you sign in seven minutes late, your paycheck will be docked 15 minutes. It seems people are paid in increments of 15 so that is why it is 15 minutes. “We can never make those minutes up, even if we work until 7 o’clock at night,” was the comment from a 1708 member who has to do this signing in business. There is no overtime and no way to “make-up” minutes.
Imagine, you are a conscientious employee and in order to beat the long line at the scanner, you log in 5 minutes early for 49 weeks of the year. That means you are working over 20 hours which you are not getting paid for. You can’t log out early just because you logged in early. One month CTA has surprise construction but because you are conscientious, you have planned for those discrepancies. Still, you are 7 minutes late 5 times that month. Now, you are docked for an hour and fifteen minutes and you are going to have a disciplinary meeting. Perhaps in the first disciplinary meeting you are given a warning but it can progress so that 3 bad months over 15 years (just another hypothetical) could lead to terminations. Is it any wonder people are mad about this system? And the demeanor of the HR representative at that meeting showed a complete lack of regard for the people questioning this policy.
Even when talking to another HWC employee who only has to scan in once a day, there are problems. At least once every few days/pay periods, the scanner doesn’t correctly work and the employee’s hours are reported as incomplete. Then the employee has his/her supervisor sign off and then the time sheets can be submitted. That is one employee. Imagine all the employees having supervisors signing off on this? Can you imagine when faculty have to do this? Not only is this system a morale crusher, it is a time waster!
One of my colleagues said today that everyone from the 11th floor to the basement is working towards the success of our students. I do not believe that people were trying to cheat the system so shamefully that this biometrics system had to be put in. As far as I can tell, the biometrics system implementation insults the people working hardest for our students. The 11th floor inability to understand that and to empathize with our staff shows their complete disconnect from the reality of the people actually SERVING the STUDENTS. We expect this callous disregard for CCC employees from District, but to have it come from upstairs is disheartening.
Feel free to comment, please remember, you can be anonymous in the comments. Also, please feel free to correct my information. I channeled Nancy Drew but I’m well aware that sleuthing is not my strongest skill.
The Harold Lounge 
Agreed! Our head of HR, Valerie “Goode” is anything but good. She is rude, obnoxious, and condescending. I have heard numerous stories of her unprofessionalism towards employees. How she ever got a job in Human Resources is beyond me. Our head of security, Milton Owens, is another one that needs to go. The attitude from these people of “because we said so” just does not work with anyone over the age of five. It seems impossible for anyone “in charge” to talk to us like adults. That whole meeting only served to exemplify the total disconnect between those on the 11th floor and those of us that actually do the work of educating and supporting our students.
Biometrics is institutionalized racism. Look at who has to sign in 4 times, who has to sign in 1 time. Not only that, the poorest paid people are the most penalized people under this system. Morale crusher is right!
I ran into one of the people I talked to about biometrics today. When I asked if this person and the person’s colleagues might comment on this post I was told no. When I asked why not, I was told fear. I reminded the person that posts could be anonymous. It didn’t matter. There was some belief that IG, District, the 11th floor or others could find out who posted and that people’s jobs could be in jeopardy. Even with my reassurance, it didn’t matter. How awful that there is this environment of fear, at least for some. I hear about biometrics from so many people and how it has negatively impacted their work and their pride in what they do. The idea that people feel like they can’t communicate about this issue is very sad.