my employer fined me $90 for being late

by Alison Green on January 20, 2025

I’m off for the holiday, so here’s an older post from the archives. This was originally published in 2018.

A reader writes:

My company has a ridiculous late fine policy: you will be fined $2 for every minute, starting from 9:01 a.m. So if you come in at 9:05 a.m., that’s $10 you gotta pay up in cash. (This is not somewhere where down-to-the-minute coverage would be essential. It’s just typical deskbound, back-end work. I can see why the receptionist who gets the calls will need to be there smack on the dot, but the rest of us — not really.)

I’ve been here for over a year, and have been fined maybe three times. They were for 9:01 a.m., 9:02 a.m. and 9:08 a.m. I was intensely annoyed and embarrassed, but okay, I can still absorb the $2-$16 financial pinch.

I hate this policy because it nickel and dimes employees down to the first minute, and at a very high rate. I hate this policy because coming in at 9:01 a.m. does not makes you any less productive than the dude who came in at 9:00 a.m., whose bloody computer is still starting up.

A few days ago, I overslept for the first time. I somehow slept through my usual TWO alarms and woke up with a start at 8:30 a.m. — an hour late. I immediately texted my manager that I had overslept and asked if it was possible to get an emergency, UNPAID, half-day leave. I had calculated that coming in an hour late would result in a $120 fine, which is painfully difficult for me to absorb. I’m a junior employee.

My manager said no. She wanted me to come in anyway because “it’s the right thing to do.” I cried some tears of frustration, but told her okay and rushed like hell down, but not before racking up 45 minutes worth of late fine — $90.

Alison, I understand that she wants me to be punished accordingly. I accept that sleeping through two alarms was all on me.

At the same time — and I don’t know if this matters — I’m a relatively high performer at work. I truly enjoy what I do and do a decent job at it. I just received a glowing annual appraisal and got publicly commended by the director, in spite of my young age (this is my first job out of college) and junior position. Furthermore, I work overtime every day because my workload is high, even though we don’t get any overtime pay. And I’m not chronically late — this was my first time oversleeping.

And yet, my manager rejected my request for an UNPAID, half-day leave. Technically, she is right and I deserved it. But I don’t think being rigidly strict here was warranted. Am I just entitled for feeling this way? If you divide my monthly salary by 30 days, $90 is what I earn in one day. I will have to cough up an entire day’s salary (worth three weeks of lunch expenses!) for this, and my manager was cool with that? I’m fuming, yet I don’t know if I have the right to be.

Part of me wants to talk about this with my manager to see if it could’ve been handled differently — if I could’ve been given the unpaid, half-day leave. Is this worth revisiting with her about, and if so, how should I approach it?

This is utter bullshit.

I am IRATE over this.

If you’re not in a job where coverage matters (like one where you need to answer phones or meet with clients starting at a precise time), then it really, really doesn’t matter if you’re two minutes late. I would think it was ridiculous for a manager even just to have a stern talk with someone for being two minutes late in a job where it doesn’t have any practical impact — but fining you?

No.

You are a professional adult holding down a professional job. The entire concept of fining you is offensive and ridiculous.

If your manager has a problem with your time of arrival, she can do what a decent manager would do and talk to you about it. If it continues after that, she can decide what the consequences are. But they need to be normal work consequences (up to and including firing you if it’s that big of a deal, although I’m skeptical that it should be) — it can’t be digging through your wallet and taking whatever cash she finds there, or insisting you cut off two inches of your hair, or that you change your name to Xavier Sebastian Pumpernickel. And it can’t be making you turn over your own money for the privilege of working there.

Or at least it shouldn’t be.

Legally, though, in a lot of cases it would be allowed. I talked with employment lawyer Donna Ballman, author of the excellent book Stand Up For Yourself Without Getting Fired, who agreed that federal law does allow this, as long the fine doesn’t take your pay for that period below minimum wage. But she noted that you might live in a state that prohibits it, and it’s worth checking into that. Also, if you’re non-exempt, they can dock your pay for the actual time you were late … although if you’re exempt, that docking could negate your exempt status, make you effectively non-exempt, and mean that you’d be entitled to overtime pay when you work over 40 hours in a week. (There’s an explanation about exempt and non-exempt here, but the gist is that “exempt” is a government classification meaning that the nature of the work you do makes you exempt from receiving overtime pay. If you’re exempt, they can’t dock your pay when you work fewer hours. If they do that anyway, they can end up owing you overtime pay, including retroactively.)

Donna also pointed out: “The other thing I’d say you’d have to look at is the reason the employee was late. If it was to care for a sick child, spouse or parent, then punishing them might violate FMLA. If it related to a disability, then they might be violating the Americans With Disabilities Act. If it’s applied unevenly, then other discrimination laws could kick in. I’d say an employer doing this is, number one, a terrible employer, and, number two, taking a huge risk that they are violating some law.”

As for what you can do here …

First, it’s worth looking into the potential legal issues Donna raises. If there’s a legal violation here, your employers deserves to have someone pursue it.

Second, look into whether you’re correctly classified as exempt. You said you don’t get overtime pay even when you work overtime, which means they’re treating you as exempt. I would bet good money that they’ve misclassified you (which many employers do), especially considering that this is your first job out of school and first jobs often don’t meet the bar to be exempt. And if that’s the case, they owe you a ton of overtime back pay. Even if you ultimately choose not to pursue that, it would be really handy leverage to have in any discussions about the fining.

Third, recalibrate your expectations. Because this is your first job after college, you might be thinking this is more acceptable than it actually is. But it’s not normal to treated salaried professionals this way. It’s not something you should expect to find at future jobs. It’s not something you should be okay with now.

And you have every right to be fuming about that $90 fine. You are not being entitled. You are being absolutely, entirely reasonable.

So fourth, go back and talk to your manager. Say something like this: “I’m asking you to waive this $90 fine. $90 is what I earn in a day. I can’t afford to pay back an entire day’s salary. I work overtime every day, and it makes no sense for me to work long hours when I’m not given even a minute of leeway on the other end. I’m not chronically late, and I do excellent work. I don’t think I should be subject to a financial hardship for a one-time occurrence.”

Fifth, consider pushing back on this entire abhorrent policy with a group of your coworkers. People have unionized over less.

* I make a commission if you use that Amazon link.

Read an update to this letter here.

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{ 88 comments }

{ 88 comments… read them below or add one }

  2. CityMouse*

    “Hey, why can’t we retain people?”

    Especially your highest performers or experienced workers who have options.

    Reply ↓
  3. Amber Rose*

    I’d quit this job so fast my resignation would on someone’s desk before I even wrote it. Time and space would warp around the force of my fury.

    I get that everyone has different tolerance levels for what they’ll put up with, but yikes and wow and wtf.

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    1. Pastor Petty Labelle*

      I’d come in half an hour late, with my resignation written and say “yeah here’s my payment for my fine.”

      Yes really do it. You don’t want these people as a reference anyway. What are they going to say – Often late to work. Which other companies will take as a problem not ONE OR TWO MINUTES.

      Reply ↓
    1. Education Mic*

      I’m a little confused by the advice. i would think, even with the advice given here, that if OP was exempt, it is illegal. They could use it to change her exempt status instead but obviously that’s not what’s happening and I’m sure they wouldn’t have actually agreed if she pushed back.

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      1. Funko Pops Day*

        Yeah, IANAL, but I was wondering about whether subtracting a *full day’s pay* would actually start to violate the rules about having to pay exempt workers for a full week whether or not they worked every day in it:
        “An employer must pay an exempt employee the full predetermined salary amount “free and clear” for any week in which the employee performs any work without regard to the number of days or hours worked.” https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/70-flsa-furloughs

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    2. Elbe*

      It’s sad that what ultimately led them to scrapping the policy was bad Glassdoor reviews, of all things. They’re perfectly fine doing something so outrageously bad that most people would assume it’s illegal. Yet, they flinch when they feel it could reflect poorly on them.

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    2. FrivYeti*

      As near as I can tell, the loophole is that the fine can’t take your pay for the pay *period* below minimum wage, not the pay for the *day*. LW makes about $90 per day, which is $900 per pay period (and works out to about $11.25 per hour.) A single fine of $90 thus drops the pay period pay to $810, or about $10.12 per hour, which is still above minimum wage.

      It *should* absolutely be illegal, but it looks like the fines would have to stretch into the hundreds to hit a legal cap (depending on the state you’re in.)

      Reply ↓
      1. bamcheeks*

        But how it is not not paying someone for their work, or reducing their pay retroactively? If a company can decide to dock people’s pay, what use is is legislation mandating that people have to be paid for hours worked at the agreed salary? If the law only cares if someone’s pay falls below the minimum wage, then wouldn’t that effectively mean any employer could decide to only pay people for 4 days out of five as long as it still meant their pay was above minimum wage?

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        1. Elbe*

          The fine policy is probably part of the work agreement. If the LW was notified of the policy prior to being late for the first time, then it would be considered part of the pay structure that both parties agreed to. So, it wouldn’t be retroactively reducing pay and as long as the pay structure doesn’t dip below minimum wage it would be valid.

          I can understand why it’s technically legal, but it’s still so horrible. No decent or reasonable person would think that this is fair.

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        2. Qwerty*

          It is meant to be used for serious violations, involve a lot more paperwork, and be deducted directly from the paycheck (not have the accountants show up at your desk and insist on cash, as the update indicates). Its more along the lines of partially reimbursing the company rather than punishment – like employee theft or causing compliance fines through intentional acts (rather than mistakes).

          But to answer your second question – your employer can’t arbitratily decide “we’re not going to pay bamcheeks for Friday this week” but they can decide to decrease your compensation to 80% going forward as long as it stays above minimum wage. Or if you committed a serious violation where the fine happens to be equivalent to one day’s wages, it would be deducted from the next paycheck rather than a specific day.

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          1. Vio*

            Yeah the bit about accountants collecting the fines in cash makes me suspect there’s little or no paperwork reflecting these ‘fines’ and that the possibility of legal action may have also been a factor in them being scrapped. Obviously they wouldn’t want to say that though since that might give the employees the idea to actually take legal action. I really hope somebody at least looked into the legality because I just have the feeling this company owed a lot of people a lot of money.

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  6. Stuart Foote*

    I once had a crazy, intense sales job (that was 100% commission). One employee, Ted, racked up great sales numbers, but was a slightly odd guy and a little out of step with the “coffee’s for closers” environment of the office and drove the owner crazy. Once I had to go into the owner’s office and saw a writeup of Ted’s offenses–prominent among them was arriving at work 1-2 minutes late a few times. He was punished for another offense by being deprived of compensation for one of his deals (which was at least $3-4k).

    He later left the company, did very well, and then returned to work for the same owner that had bullied him so aggressively. Life is weird. I was glad to leave that place.

    Reply ↓
    1. Vio*

      I really hope that when he returned there was a much better deal for him that basically made it clear that the owner realised their mistake and begged Ted to come back. I must be in an optimistic mood.

      Reply ↓
    1. Observer*

      I wish this were merely sarcasm. I don’t know the laws today, but I recall having a conversation with a (then) recent immigrant who was having a hard time wrapping their head around US workplace norms. One of the things that they were having an issue understanding was why US employers don’t simply lock the doors to their offices / building and have security refuse to allow people to leave without permission from their supervisors if they have an issue with staff? I had to explain that this was totally illegal in the US, and that it presented a clear and present danger to people. I really hope that things have changed in that country, but who knows.

      Reply ↓
  8. CJ*

    Am I the only one here who thinks if we sat OP down and asked about all of the company policies and social dynamics, we’d find an absolute wall of wasps?

    OP, this isn’t normal. This isn’t anywhere near normal. I’m joking about interrogating you in public, but you need to sit down with someone you trust – a good friend, a mentor who’s not in this company, maybe a college prof you’re still in contact with, even a second email to our esteemed host – and do a “Normal or Not” check on your company policies. And then you need to proceed your career from there.

    Reply ↓
    1. Elbe*

      Yeah, I think having someone on such a low salary is a huge red flag by itself. Even in a low cost of living area, it would be a real hardship to take home that amount while working over 40/week.

      It seems really entitled for a company to think that employees who are taking home $90/day and are literally being fined for being even a minute late should pitch in after hours when needed.

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    2. Baunilha*

      Right. Some (but not all) places I’ve worked would dock payment if you were late, but that was proportional to the employee’s hourly wage. Even then, every single on these places had a 5-10 minute tolerance.
      Docking payment (or in this case, fining someone) for being A MINUTE late is just awful and bad on so many levels.

      Reply ↓
    3. Yay! I’m a llama again!*

      I k ow there was an update, but I feel we need another update now we’re years later. Especially since the first update was pretty much ‘they stopped doing this and everything else is fine!’ because I feel that with hindsight for the OP, everything wasn’t fine.

      Reply ↓
    2. Cohort1*

      I was thinking that if they’re so focused on the 9 am start time, the employees should be focused on the 5 pm end time. Forget working unpaid overtime. 5 pm? Pack it up and go home. Work not done? There’s always tomorrow.

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      1. Cohort1*

        At this company,they somehow know when someone is 60 sec. late, which implies there’s a punch-in time clock. Either that or they pay someone to stand at the door with an atomic clock linked time piece to write down names and numbers* as soon as that time piece clicks 9:01, which doesn’t sound very exempt. It screams hourly wage employee regardless of how accounting has it on the books. Such an employee would not be out of line to treat end time just like start time.

        *Can you image the frantic writing down of late scoundrels if the 3 or 4 people who had been stuck on the elevator all came in at once? What if #4, being last in line, gets zapped for another $2 because said employee wasn’t writing fast enough or because it just took that long for #1-3 to punch time cards?

        Reply ↓
        1. LifebeforeCorona*

          This practice infuriates me. I worked at a place with a time clock, you had to be clocked in before your shift but not more than 5 minutes early. This meant a hunger games scene as people waited around the time clock to check in within the time frame. You could be at the time clock but still clock in late because of the number of people ahead of you. That was the only job I quit without notice.

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  10. Elbe*

    I’m happy that that the update indicates that the LW ended up not having to pay this fine or any future fines.

    But what in the world is this company thinking? How can they justify fining someone more than they make for the same amount of time? If the LW is working full time, $90/day works out to $0.19 per minute. How does their time suddenly cost $2/min when they’re even one minute late?

    Normally, I’d assume that this is just a scam that the company is using to take back wages. But apparently they’re still obsessive about punctuality even when there’s no fine in place. I guess they just have extremely poor judgement.

    Reply ↓
    1. Observer*

      How does their time suddenly cost $2/min when they’re even one minute late?

      It doesn’t. And the company knows this. It’s clear that this is, as @CJ points out, a company that has a wall full of wasps, not just a nest. Keep in mind that one of the ideas here is to explicitly “punish” people for being late. That tells you everything you need to know, I think.

      Reply ↓
    2. Alton Brown's Evil Twin*

      Did they do a cost-benefit analysis of the time they wasted calculating the fines, sending a gaggle of accountants around, and then dealing with a mountain of cash that has to get deposited in the bank?

      Reply ↓
      1. I Have RBF*

        Accounting probably just used it to populate petty cash, or their “pizza fund”, and never entered it into the books.

        Reply ↓
    1. Generic Name*

      Same. I’m deeply curious how (or if) the accountants tracked that money in the books. Is there a line item for “employee fines”? Does the company report that to the IRS as revenue??

      I have a feeling that whole company is full of yikes. I’m glad OP loved their coworkers and what they did, but from personal experience, lots of functional workplaces have engaging work and nice coworkers.

      Reply ↓
      1. AnonInCanada*

        Same. I’m deeply curious how (or if) the accountants tracked that money in the books. Is there a line item for “employee fines”? Does the company report that to the IRS as revenue??

        I think we all came to the conclusion the first time this letter was posted (along with the update) that upper management was pocketing the money. Otherwise, why would they insist on these bullshit fines be paid in cash, and OP being denied being allowed to take the 1/2 day off when they realized how late they’re going to be.

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      3. Antilles*

        The accountants absolutely do not track that money, it goes straight into the manager’s pockets off the books with no (official) knowledge by the accounting department.
        Why? Because if this was legitimate, they wouldn’t be requiring payment in cash; they’d accept a credit card, a personal check or just coordinate with you to adjust your next week’s paycheck accordingly to square things. But of course any of those methods would produce a paper trail and documentation so…nope, untraceable cash.

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        1. AnotherNerdInBoston*

          If it’s going into the manager’s pocket in cash, maybe rat the manager out to the IRS and the state income tax people, because for damn sure they’re not paying taxes on that money.

          Reply ↓
          1. Observer*

            This is not the US.

            But, yes, I would agree that tipping off the appropriate legal entity would be the way to go.

            And the bosses *know* this. That’s why there was never an “official” retraction of the policy. They were trying to avoid a paper trail.

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    2. LifebeforeCorona*

      Since the manager was insistent that the LW come in anyway, maybe they were getting a share of the fines. I would have looked at the time, calculated the fine and called in sick for the day. That’s assuming that the company gave sick days.

      Reply ↓
  12. StarTrek Nutcase*

    Pure insanity! I feel bad that anyone cooperated with this fine policy longer than it took to find another job. And hell would freeze over before I worked OT, breaks, or shorted my lunchtime. Full disclosure: I admittedly have always had an issue with “cutting off my nose to spite my face”.

    Reply ↓
  13. Charli*

    Everyone who’s ever worked at Menards?

    In fairness, Menards takes it out of your end of year bonus, so they never have to worry about dipping below minimum wage. It’s still an unbelievably ridiculous policy though.

    Reply ↓
    1. MsM*

      Or the hyper-punctual culture received a fatal blow in 2020 and any efforts to revive it have been shot down by employees who refuse to go back.

      Reply ↓
    3. Observer*

      Yes. The update made me a little sad. Because although the LW did at least hear the *some* of their workplace’s behavior was bad, they did not seem to realize *how* out of the norm of reasonable behavior this is.

      Reply ↓
  15. ThatGirl*

    I am eternally grateful that even when I worked service/retail jobs, nobody was *fining* me for being late. If I was late, that was on me, and I clocked in late.

    I did have one manager briefly who was a real micromanager and wanted to know if we were going to be late by more than like 5 minutes, but even then there were no fines involved; I was a contractor and in reality she probably wasn’t allowed to dictate my hours but oh well.

    Reply ↓
  16. duinath*

    …No. Absolutely not.

    This should not be legal at all. The fact it seemingly is legal is shocking. The idea that someone could fine you your whole days wages for being late is monstrous, and OP’s manager is the head of the hydra.

    This manager had OP believing it was only fair that they be “punished”.

    Anyone reading this, if you’re ever in a workplace that has a policy of fining workers for being late (or for… anything, almost. I cannot think of much that would be decent to fine workers for) do not invest in a future there, just look for a way out.

    This is not a healthy place for you, and it will twist your thinking, both about yourself and about your relationship to your job.

    They pay you to do a job. You don’t pay them. You are an adult, they don’t get to take your allowance, which is what this feels like.

    Entitled patronizing workplace. Manager to match. Run away.

    Reply ↓
  17. Office Plant Queen*

    I hope OP is working somewhere else now and has come to the realization of just how batshit this is! I’m betting that company almost exclusively employs recent grads because I cannot imagine someone with any other work experience would last more than a week. Not even retail is that stringent. And I’m betting the fines aren’t even close to the only thing wrong with this place

    Reply ↓
  19. learnedthehardway*

    I can understand not paying for time that is not worked (eg. if someone is 15 min late, they don’t get that 15 min as paid time), but FINING employees for being late?!??! That’s awful.

    Reply ↓
  21. WellRed*

    What I also found disturbing here was the OPs seeming acceptance of the notion of “punishment “ in the workplace.

    Reply ↓
    1. AnotherNerdInBoston*

      I grew up in a family that was so dysfunctional that we should have gotten our own parking spot at the mall. My dad was a definite authoritarian–if you’ve seen the film American Beauty, think Col. Fitts, that style. He also worked semi-skilled jobs for low quality employers his entire life, and transmitted some really messed up ideas to me about the world of work, the expectations employers would have of me, and the expectations I should have of my employer. Basically, “Don’t [mess] up, and don’t ask for anything, because if you don’t want that job, there’s ten guys standing behind you who do, and the boss won’t hesitate to kick your [body] to the curb and hire one of those other guys.”

      LW may be from a similar circumstance. I know that because of my dad, I went into the working world with no boundaries whatsoever and no ability to advocate for myself. I put up with a lot of BS from employers for a lot longer than I should have.

      Reply ↓
    2. MassMatt*

      It’s their 1st job out of college and sadly their expectations for work norms are warped by it. I hope they move on and have better employers.

      Reply ↓
    3. Observer*

      What I also found disturbing here was the OPs seeming acceptance of the notion of “punishment “ in the workplace.

      Very much so. That’s why I found the update a bit sad. They didn’t seem to realize just how out of line the whole idea was.

      Reply ↓
    4. Irish Teacher.*

      Yep and the part about how they “deserved it”. For…something that was pretty much beyond their control. They set alarms. It doesn’t sound like there was much they could have done differently. Sometimes things just happen that aren’t really anybody’s fault.

      Reply ↓
  22. Mark R*

    Unless you were paying me $120 hour and only for hours worked, I would have refused to pay the first time it happened. And I certainly would never have paid cash.

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  23. Overthinking It*

    letter writer earns $90 per day and was fined 90, which means she worked over 7 hours FOR FREE!? That can’t be legal. Time to get the wage/hr people involved.

    (Instead of requesting a half day unpaid leave – assuming you knew they would hold the linr on this – you should have just called in “sick” and taken a mental health day. Working where you do, I’m sure you needed one. )

    Reply ↓
    1. Observer*

      Instead of requesting a half day unpaid leave – assuming you knew they would hold the linr on this – you should have just called in “sick” and taken a mental health day

      The LW addressed that in the comments. Basically, they will not pay you if you don’t have a doctor’s note, even for a half a day.

      Yes, totally messed up.

      Reply ↓
  24. Overthinking It*

    Reading the update, sounds like OP was definitely misckassifued as exempt (not getting overtime but being punished fir being late) I still think think thr OP should report the . . .to whoever . . .get declassified, collect the back overtime, quit and use the overtime payment to live on while they find a better job.

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  25. Windy*

    if I called my boss and told her I overslept and would be very late, she’d just laugh and say “no problem. see you later.”

    I would quit OP’s job in a nanosecond. The disrespect for the employees is disgusting.

    Reply ↓
    1. MsM*

      I did that once. My boss was just like, “Clearly you need the sleep; take a personal day and I’ll see you tomorrow.”

      Reply ↓
  26. Sunflower*

    In the update, the OP said they scrapped this policy regarding fines but of course didn’t tell the employees. They only know about it by word of mouth. And it was only scrapped because of the reactions from outside the company; not their own employees.

    This makes me mad because it’s the same with my company. Not about fines, but because *they* don’t tell us anything. We learn by word of mouth and gossip too. And they also don’t care about our concerns and they only change things if the public reacts negatively. Their only concern is public backlash; not the wellbeing of the people who actually work for them.

    Yes, I’m trying to find a new job.

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    1. Banana Pyjamas*

      Reading the update made me realize how bananas a previous job was. I remember texting pictures when I knew I would be late (like the time I got parked in by a plow or the time I got stuck behind a street sweeper). I also called off a couple times on my way to work because I was unusually late due to atypical commute conditions because they were more upset about tardiness than absence. We were literally one step away from fined for being late.

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  27. Metal Gru*

    It has to be paid in CASH ? The manager (or a group of managers) is pocketing it, I’d put a large sum of money on it. I understand from the update that it got mentioned on external sites and was quietly stopped. I expect they thought they’d get caught so then it quietly went away. I would have taken it to HR or some other official department (accounts etc) to ask that it be deducted officially e
    rather than paid in cash. That would have flushed it out when they asked “what fine?”.

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  28. Frosty*

    I worked at a job where you’d get a “culpable absence” if you were sick, but also if you were late, regardless how late you were.

    You could incur 6 culpables in a rolling 12 month calendar.

    This meant that if you heading to work and realized you’d be 2 minutes late, you might as well call in sick and take the entire day (paid). I still fail to see how this policy was beneficial because people called in “sick” all the time. Bus broke down? Baby threw up on my shirt? Can’t find my keys? I’m sick and not coming in.

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  29. Doreen*

    I’ve had jobs where employees were fined – but it was very different.

    1 They were union jobs and the fines were provided for in the contract.

    2 They were imposed at the end of a disciplinary process , just as termination, suspension and loss of vacation days might come at the end of the process.

    3 The employee chose how to pay the fine – they could write a check or have it deducted from one or more paychecks. It wasn’t collected in cash.

    4 No one would ever go through a disciplinary process every time a person was a couple of minutes late, so there wouldn’t be a fine every time.

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  30. MassMatt*

    My big question about this outrageous policy is where does the money for these fines GO?
    The manager’s pocket? Added to petty cash? In the update, the LW says they were waiting for accountants to come by to collect her fine so maybe it’s added to company revenue?

    The time wastage of having accountants come around to collect $2 fines each day makes this policy even more idiotic.

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  31. Lucifer*

    Original letter was printed November 2018, update was printed in early December 2019…God, I want to know how COVID-19 impacted that weirdo company. Did they pivot to working from home and if so, was the strict tardiness policy still in place? If they didn’t/couldn’t transition to remote work, and employees were still relying on public transit (whose schedules were cut like crazy at the height of the pandemic), then were said employees still penalized for having to rely on a train or bus that’s now running on the equivalent of a Sunday schedule? During Monday morning rush hour? With 1/3 its staff? And passengers who were ramping up their already unhinged behavior even more??? Because all of that is definitely going to make you five minutes late to work.

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  32. Momma Bear*

    I hope OP no longer works there. Sending photos of being stuck in the elevator so you don’t get dinged for being late is ridiculous. Funny how the company only changed the policy (per the update) after they were publicly shamed, but they were happy to let people think the policy stood to manipulate people. BEES EVERYWHERE.

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  34. r..*

    Besides the inanity of this the literal nickling&diming reminds me of a position I had more than a decade ago.

    I was an external contract employee and the employer had spend the months trying to make me take an internal position. I finally relented, and switched to internal per first (or so I thought) of January new year.

    For various reasons I ended up formally reporting directly to the VP for the area I was to work in; in this org VPs report to their responsible SVP, who then reports to the CEO. This should normally be high up enough in the reporting chain to convince people not to play silly goose games, but there we are.

    At that job we were paid at the middle of the month, for the entire month. Come the 16th of January, I found my salary off.

    I inquired on the difference, and was told by the HR headhoncho responsible for that particular branch of the organisation, in a quite haughty fashion, that I should have read my employment contract. My start date was the 2nd of January, not the 1st of January, so I was only getting 30/31 pay for the first month.

    The contract is normal in these parts of the world, but this type of shenanigans, not quite. To be honest I should have seen that, but I really didn’t think that someone would play silly buggers where they’re saving a single day of pay once but piss off the new employee royally in the first day. The cost/benefit ratio just seems … woeful.

    So I turn aroun and more or less tell them and my boss “Yeah, I didn’t see that, because frankly I didn’t think that someone would be penny-wise and pound-foolish in such a petty way. Considering that this is coming from high up in HR we obviously have fundamental differences on professional conduct. The differences appear sufficiently vast that I think it would be best if we went our separate ways per end of month; not because of that single day of pay, but because people who think this isba good idea are also making all sorts of decisions I am not keen to be party to.”

    Shocked Pikachu faces all around, and soon thereafter I get a call from the SVP what’s up. I tell them the story, and add a few pointed words what it says about their HR that they are trying to pull this with someone whose boss in a company of about 10000 employees is only two levels below the C-suite.

    There was a bit of awkward silence for a second or two, but lets just say I have it on good authority that the following convo between HR, SVP and a few others was considerably more awkward …

    I ended up staying there for three years, but some people held a grudge about it and I got tired of all the attempts, however feeble, to metaphorically bury a hatchet in my back.

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