Wondering if this counts as theft

[ssa_trad_cath]

I’m taking a bit of a rain-check on this issue, just to see what other people think. Nearly every day I’m in work 20 - 30 minutes early and I start working as soon as I arrive, without claiming overtime for it. My problem is mainly with Fridays. If the week’s work has dried up, it’s not uncommon to have little or nothing to do when I and my shift-partner go into work. If there is absolutely nothing to do, my shift-partner (who is also my immediate superior) usually decides for the both of us that we can leave early. Not just a few minutes, either, sometimes a couple of hours early. My company does allow for the possibility of “lieu time” in which for example, if someone has worked overtime they can take time off in lieu instead of claiming the money for it. Or they can work extra hours some days so that they can go early other days. I know that the extra time I put in without pay probably more than compensates for the time I go early but part of me still thinks that I’m being dishonest somehow. Am I just being scrupulous?

 

[fred_conty]

There are a few things to consider.
If you take off those 2 hours, and they find out you are missing, would that jepordize your job?
In some jobs, tho there is nothing to do, there may be something to do that is unexpected. Is this the case?
Do they definitely expected that you be there?
From time to time, do they need you for something else?
Would they be in trouble if their bosses found you absent?
If other workers found out about your absence, would that be a source trouble for them?
Is there anything else you might do, sharpen tools, inventory work, etc.?

Before my retirement, one of the most difficult times were those where I had to look busy when there wasn’t anything to do. And I was expected to do just that in case any of the top bosses came around. In my opinion, that was just a sheer waste of time, when I could have been reading something that would have improved my job performance. But there you are, an imperfect world.

 

[DoGodsBidding]

As a manager of others, I suggest you discuss this with your Boss. Where I work we allow flex-time, but I also want to know when someone is exercising their flex-time so that we are not caught short if we need them.

DGB

 

[DexUK]

On a purely numerical calculation, it looks like you’re putting in, on average, enough or more than enough hours of real work to match the hours that you’re being paid for. You certainly don’t seem to be stealing anything - by way of property or unjust enrichment for work that you didn’t do.

Secondly, you are being given permission to leave by a superior. That, in its own right, should salve your conscience.

If this is commonly occurring in your organisation, then I would suggest that the employer is allowing it by virtue of it being a common practise. If they’re not complaining about it and it’s not something you’re hiding from them, I don’t think you’ve got anything to worry about.

I can’t see a sin, and from an employment perspective, I think they’d have problems with telling you off about it. It’s not like you’d be leaving work early with jobs still to do on a Friday afternoon, is it?

 

[grandfather]

Am I just being scrupulous?

Yes!

 

[porthos11]

I’m taking a bit of a rain-check on this issue, just to see what other people think. Nearly every day I’m in work 20 - 30 minutes early and I start working as soon as I arrive, without claiming overtime for it. My problem is mainly with Fridays. If the week’s work has dried up, it’s not uncommon to have little or nothing to do when I and my shift-partner go into work. If there is absolutely nothing to do, my shift-partner (who is also my immediate superior) usually decides for the both of us that we can leave early. Not just a few minutes, either, sometimes a couple of hours early. My company does allow for the possibility of “lieu time” in which for example, if someone has worked overtime they can take time off in lieu instead of claiming the money for it. Or they can work extra hours some days so that they can go early other days. I know that the extra time I put in without pay probably more than compensates for the time I go early but part of me still thinks that I’m being dishonest somehow. Am I just being scrupulous?

Speak with your manager and ask the question.

 

[bmullins]

Definitely speak with the manager about it. I know a person who just recently was let go for doing exactly what her manager told her to do. It was something that seemed perfectly kosher, in fact everyone else was doing it too. When they fired her boss, they also fired her and several others in the same department. When they pointed out their boss had told them to do it, they said it was no excuse, they should have read their employee manual closer.