Bit of a vent…
I work in the UK for a large company. Not really high up in the company, but probably classed as very junior exec level (65k salary + bonus). Based 99% at home, and have pretty flexible working so long as it aligns with priorities. I.e. if I need to start late or finish early then I can, so long as it doesn't significantly impact something else.
Since I started we were always required to comply with the working time directive, and the way we did that was every week we just logged a “general” number of hours – say to the nearest 15 mins per day – into an informal system, and that was that.
We've recently moved to a different section of the company though, and they use a full blown COTS time management system. So now we've been asked to “clock in” and “clock out” every day. This is literally down to the minute. So I'm at home, I've got to log in in the morning, then “clock on”, if I take more than the 30 minutes lunch (30m is automatically deducted) then I need to clock off for my lunch break and then clock back in afterwards etc. I nearly always take an hour so always have to do that.
I brought it up to my manager when we first moved and he said just do it as that's the system the department (many 1000's of employees) uses and they aren't going to change it for us. Company is well known and has been voted one of the tip employers in the UK in several polls, so it's not like it's some 2 man band in a garage somewhere.
Now I always work my contracted hours so it's not that, it just feels completely ancient and untrusting of the company. We're all professional office staff, not a bunch of students working on a packing line. Not only does this stupid system take at least a few minutes to load up, log in, navigate through to the clocking area etc. the whole concept just pains me massively (probably far more than it should!!).
Anyone else have to put up with such bullshit “untrust by stealth” tactics?