So at every place I've worked at, including my old coffee shop (same company, different store) I would clock in when I was supposed to, go to the back and put my apron on and my bag away, and hop on the floor. I've never had an issue with managers over this until recently. Sometimes if I saw it was busy or if I was there early enough, I'd wait to clock in after I was done or I would only clock in a minute or two early. I have never been reprimanded for this.
I did that another day at a store I transfered to one day (I walked in about 2 ish minutes early, clocked in at the back at my time, and put my things away. I was one minute late.) And then walked out to the floor. The manager brought me over, acting like I did something seriously wrong, and told me “I don't know if your other stores let you do that, but here you're late and it's a write up if you aren't on the floor at your scheduled clock in time.”
Sure, fine, whatever. The act of what she did itself is fine, I've been management for a few years and I get it. But I don't appreciate threats, and I don't think being written up for that (in the future) is legal or appropriate. Every other store I've worked at so far could care less, and I've seen multiple other people do the same thing. The SM (store manager) where I work has even told me not to have work conversations with her at the store unless I'm clocked in, because she considers it to be a theft of my time. She's never had a problem with me, and didn't threaten me for the single time I came in late. (We both had a mixup because of the company scheduling app not working. I still technically came in an hour early.)
But yeah. If anyone can find anything relating to this or let me know, that would be awesome. It's no problem if I'm wrong, it might have just been a thing in my state and not the one I've moved to.