Close of play

When someone who feels like they have authority for something makes stupidly arbitrary rules with little thought to how ridiculous the rules are, my spidey-senses tingle.

Oh all right, they don’t. What really happens is that I get irate and whine and moan to people about how stupid the rules are. It is your turn, dear blog readers.

A case in point is the timesheet system at work. Until recently, I could submit my timesheet for the week on the following Monday morning. No problems there.

Recently, it was decided that you had to have your timesheet in by close of play (undefined) Friday instead. Ok. Not a big problem. It would be nice if a time was given, but still. I can have the timesheet in by the time I finish work, and I can do it as my last task of the day, so that it accurately reflects the time I’ll be leaving.

Last Friday, I got a snotty email at 14:29 from someone whom I have never heard of saying that my timesheet was late. It is now apparently policy (no communication has been sent in this regard to anyone) for the business unit that I work in to have your timesheet for the week submitted by noon on Friday. This, the email continued, was to allow the sender to run a report on timesheets, to see who hadn’t submitted one.

Ummm…..

You can see why I’m mad at this, can’t you?

Firstly, I only need to submit it before noon so that someone can run a report to see if I have submitted it. Not because they need to have the report to someone by 2pm Friday. They can’t apparently run the report at the wonderful close of play Friday like other business units, because, I suspect, the person that runs the report wants have a feeling of huge power, and frankly can’t be arsed to stay late on Friday to run the report then.

Secondly, by noon on Friday, I can’t tell you what time I’ll be leaving at close of play. Therefore, any timesheet I submit is at best a guess. It may not be wildly inaccurate, but it isn’t factually correct either, especially as we have to account for our time in 15 minute intervals. My Aspie logic doesn’t like circumstances like this – it feels like I’m fibbing and thus I feel uncomfortable doing it. Is it even legal to submit a timesheet for time I haven’t worked yet?

The whole system is patently crackers.

I have to assume that it works something like this:

The company I work for is large. It has well over 100,000 employees. Times are tough, and money is tight. The folks at the top who run the business want to know how well they are utilising people resources. Fair enough. I imagine that they have asked their underlings to have a report on their table every Monday lunch time with the resourcing stats for the previous week.

These people, who invariably feel big and important too, have asked the people that work for them to gather the stats. They’ve probably told them they need them first thing Monday morning, just so they can be sure that they’ve got them in time to show to the big bosses.

These people in turn tell their lines of business managers to get the reports to them by close of play (there’s that wonderful phrase again) Friday. Most of the l-o-b managers can do this without a problem (or more likely on Sunday afternoon via their VPN connection to work), but a few decide that they need a bit of extra time and tell their staff they need to have it in by noon. Oh, and it isn’t half a power trip to tell your staff that they must have their timesheets in by noon on Friday or else they have a black mark against their name for it being late. A fantastic power trip, and one that makes you feel like you are doing your bit to keep your manager and their manager and the bosses at the top happy. Look! Look! I used my own initiative to ensure you got your numbers in time! What a good chap I am!

Like The Emperor and his New Clothes, however, I can see that he is naked, and actually looks like an idiot. I’m not the only one in this case. The rest of the business can manage to set a close of play Friday deadline and make it work. What’s more, their figures are likely to be accurate – and surely that’s what the business is really looking for?

I mean really – you may as well tell me that my timesheet has to be in by close of play Thursday for the week. It’s unlikely to be any less of a guess, is it?

No related posts.