This little exchange happened on Twitter:
I thought the topic might be worth elaborating on, as “no overtime” seems to be a rare thing. It’s time to confess my undying love for our time clock:
Obviously, it’s not its looks that secured the clock my affection. In fact, whenever I take visitors on a tour through the sipgate offices, the time clock is an unexpected sight. An young-ish company with foosball, ping pong and hammocks and then a time clock? Isn’t that a bit backwards?
No, the time clock is what prevents me from working overtime! When I was working trust-based hours, I always did overtime. When there was something to finish, I would stay to finish it, but I wouldn’t leave earlier, when there was nothing immediate to do. I didn’t really keep track of my overtime so I was unsure, when it would have been okay to leave.
At my current workplace, whenever I swipe my little card in front of the time clock to check in or out it tells me if I’m on track for 40h a week or not. You see, the 40h week did not come about because factory owners in the early 1900s thought how nice it would be if everybody got home at a reasonable hour and had 2 days of weekend. No, it happened because Ford’s tests showed that humans have about 40h of productive work per week in them. Working more does not lead to more results. At least not middle and long term. That’s why we don’t want overtime at sipgate at all.
And we follow up on that directive. We talk to colleagues who work too much. Sometimes we force people to take their annual leave (which is 30 days btw. It’s beyond me how anyone gets by with less than 25 days of paid leave. Poor US folks…)
Despite the time clock we don’t have core hours. Everyone can arrive and leave at any time they want. That’s super practical for doctor’s appointments and such. You just have to co-ordinate with your team. Missing the daily stand up should be an exception, because otherwise it’s difficult to work together 😉
Some of our customer supporters works in shifts, staffing a hotline. They have to be on time for their shift. But other than that, we’re pretty free to distribute our time as it fits ours and the company’s needs.
What system is in place at your work? Do you like it?