Background:
I work IT for the largest hospital in the state. A major issue at this hospital is it’s parking for employees. With the hospital being landlocked by houses/college campus/etc it can’t just add more. There are doctors who have been waitlisted multiple years to get a parking pass for the on-site parking structure.
The solution to this for the last 2 years has been a gravel parking lot about 2-3 miles away from the hospital itself. Everyone who doesn’t have a special parking pass is required to park here. They then have shuttles who are supposed to come every 5 minutes or so, pick up all passengers, and drive them to the hospital. In reality, you get a shuttle every 10-15 minutes.
There is no clock in machines at the parking lot, you can only clock in once onsite. What this means is if you park 5-10 minutes before your shift, your usually about 5 minutes late. The hospital does have a policy for pay where if your within 7 minutes 15 minute interval, you’ll get paid accordingly. Example: clock in at 8:05am, get paid like it’s 8:00am. Clock in at 8:08am, get paid like it’s 8:15am
The situation:
Today, the IT supervisor sends an updated attendance policy they are implementing. Typical point based system. 1.0 points for an half day missed up to full absence, 0.5 for any tardiness at all. Once you accumulate 8 points, formal warnings, everything after that slowly escalates to termination.
After asking the supervisor how this policy worked with the shuttle transportation the answer was “Allowances will be at the determination of management for special situations (inclement weather, OFFICIALLY NOTIFIED SHUTTLE DELAYS, etc)” and being even 1 minute late will get you a 0.5 point occurrence. Even though they will pay you for that minute per their pay policy.
As someone who parks 10-15 minutes before my shift start time, I don’t think I have ever been on site at the correct time. Do I just have crazy expectations here that I shouldn’t have to catch the prior shuttle (another 15-20 minutes earlier) and unpaid? Especially when the buses are completely random and not set in stone on times when they arrive?