I'm working a temporary lawyer job and was asked earlier why I didn't clock 8 full hours yesterday and Monday. I told them it was because I worked over the weekend (at their request). We'd only agreed upon a certain number of hours per week, so if I put time in over the weekend that's going to reduce my weekday hours. They told me “in the future” I should keep my planned hours in a tracker so they could monitor them. Thing is – I DID that. If only they'd checked the tracker in the first place, they'd have seen I put in time over the weekend and wasn't doing full days in the beginning of the week.
I didn't get an apology or even an “oh, you're right. Heh.” They made every effort to keep the conversation framed as if it were somehow my fault.
And this is my problem with the work culture we have. It never feels collaborative. Even as a so called professional, I'm made to feel like my soul belongs to the people who pay me.