Requiring professional employees to sign in and out

[philfromtexas]

I am the business manager for a newly formed charter high school and answer to the President of the School Board.  My background includes 40 years as a professional accountant, most of those years in aerospace accounting with major government contractors.

The President of the School Board and the interim principal both support and are directing that faculty and staff employees physically sign in and out on a timesheet form which will be located in the school's main office. The reason given for using this method is to insure and know that the teachers are in their class rooms before or when students arrive. The timesheet will be kept in a binder easily located in the office. An office staff person will somehow use this sign in sheet to track sick and vacation leave. If an employee is habitually late, the first measure of dealing with the employee is the experience of the employee having to "face the music" when signing in late in the office.

I don't agree with this approach and method for many reasons to list but I will mention a few.  One, the faculty is made up of individuals with college and master degrees and at least one PhD.  They are professionals with years of experience. To start the school year requiring them to sign in and out is to say school management does not trust them. Bad way to build moral. The school office is a very busy place in the mornings and what will prevent employee A for signing in for employee B? What measures will be taken to protect the binder since it will be used by one staff member to say how much sick and vacation time remains?  One person having this responsibility is a critical point of failure. The proper way for dealing with an employee about any issue regarding their performance is in private with the supervisor or manager not out in the market place.  Another reason is that the President has indicated that some kind of reduction in pay might be taken for an employee who is tardy on a regular basis.  If the employee is classified as exempt, this action could result in reclassifying the employee to non-exempt and thereby making the employee eligible for overtime, past and future.  Another reason is that there are many good inexpensive timekeeping systems available that will provide useful reports and thereby removing the critical point of failure of all the timekeeping records being in the hands of one employee.  We use ADP for payroll processing and ADP offers an excellent timekeeping system for about $60 a month but the President says that money could be spent better elsewhere.  And a final reason I disagree with this approach is that the President is taking away a management decision that belongs to me.  He needs to back away and stop managing the school.  This role belongs to the business manager and principal, both reporting to the President of the School Board.

This is a tough one.  Thanks,

philformtexas

[TMF]

There is probably little if anything to add.
Bureaucracy of that kind is common. Particularly with bosses that are not in control, or in organizations that are not of the business kind.
The one or two organizations I used to work in and that demanded employees to sing in and sign out, were quite ineffective and that was the only kind of control employed as bosses there had not much clue as how to control the real work effects, so they had to resort to "time control". Though I'm not telling it's happening with all such organizations, just my experience.

What measures will be taken to protect the binder since it will be used by one staff member to say how much sick and vacation time remains?

Not sure if that works that way in US, where I'm from we always get an official signed paper for vacation (signed by boss) or sick leave (signed by doc), so that if the payroll staff or employee responsible for tracking it, will make an error, I have the papers to prove them wrong.

Generally, IMHO the timesheets are not that big thing on their own, unless they are a vanguard of further bureaucratic provisions to come from the side of your boss.

Just on a sidenote, my father used to work in school environment, and he changed soon, claiming that the "management" there just thinks completely differently from the management people in business and government environments that he was used to work with.

[philfromtexas]

Thanks for your comments.  I believe you hit the bull' eye by the comment "that the "management" there just thinks completely differently from the management people in business and government environments that he was used to work with."  It is hard to get someone like that to change their thinking.

Thanks again-helpful.

philfromtexas