Insulting HR E-Mail: "Don't Ever Leave 5 or 10 Minutes Early. Be Punctual." (employer, job)

[SquareBetterThanAll]

Comes back to the culture of the environment you're in, which from my experience is not only on a company level but can also vary from department to department. I've worked in both. Some can be extremely anal about attendance. Others could care less as long as you meet whatever benchmarks are established for you. Part of it does come down to whether you are an exempt or non-exempt employee as well. It sounds like your organization probably swings more to the anal side of things, and if they are strict in that respect they have probably had people abusing any flexibility they may have had. Also, unfortunately, there always seems to be those other employees who want to complain about what everyone else is doing, whether or not it even matters, and sometimes that leads to e-mails like the above.

[CSD610]

As a group email I'm not sure why it bothers you so much.
If you are punctual and do not leave early it should be treated as any other not related to you group email and deleted.

[Osito]

You know whether or not you're following the rules. Ignore it.

[katie45]

With so many employees believing they can routinely come in late or leave early and it's no big deal, I can understand and appreciate why the email was issued.

Since the email was distributed to everyone, don't worry about it unless you're one of those who makes up their own rules.

[HeyHowdy]

Originally Posted by KicktheCan

HR at my job just sent out this insulting e-mail that would have been more appropriate for teenagers just getting a taste of the work world. I will paraphrase its contents, which basically amounted to: "Plan your day so you are punctual. And never ever leave 5 or 10 minutes early. Over a year, that's 20 hours of unpaid time."

I've bee working for a LONG time in professional capacities and never have encountered an e-mail like this. Am I crazy, or is this e-mail crazy?!

Edited to Add: This was not sent to me individually, but to a large group of employees in general.

Neither but I think it's crazy that this email is sending you so far over the edge...

[Frihed89]

If they have to write letters like this, their business is screwed. Get out while you can.

[blisterpeanuts]

They should single out the individuals who are slipping out early and talk to them, and not blanket-condemn the entire staff. Or better yet, they should shut the heck up and leave the staff alone. Judge people not by their adherence to an arbitrary schedule but by their performance. If I'm getting my work done and I leave early one day, late the next, which is the way I tend to be, then everyone should be happy.

[Bo]

Originally Posted by charlygal

Sending a group email is management's cop out to directly confronting individual wrongdoers.

This. If you know you're not part of the problem, then you weren't the intended target for the message.

If management is so concerned by this, suggest they consider installing time clocks to monitor employees' work hours. My workplace has time clocks that require a fingerprint scan to punch in and out. That prevents people from doing time clock punches for their buddies who left early or arrived late.

[maniac77]

I agree this email is unprofessional. It doesn't surprise me though. It's a classic HR passive aggressive strategy to send an email to everyone instead of confronting the actual time thieves.

[joe from dayton]

I don't know whether they are addressing one person or if they believe there is a more widespread pattern of abuse. In this case I want to know the actual text, not the paraphrase, as I don't see a "never ever" memo coming from a HR professional. It is perfectly reasonable for them to expect you to stay until quitting time unless you have approval from your supervisor to cut out a few minutes early so you can deal with an issue.