Why tracking employee hours is dumb

(MoneyWatch) Dear Evil HR Lady,

We have a part-time pastor at our church who is required to work 30 hours a week. He has signed a contract that states he only works 30 hour weeks. He is an "exempt" employee.

He doesn't tell the personnel people in our church when he is on vacation or when he is taking sick leave. My question is, how do we know how to calculate his vacation and sick leave if he won't give us this information?

If it's important to track his hours, then tell him, "You need to fill out this time card, mark your hours, and indicate sick days and vacation time." And then if he doesn't do it, you fire him. Harsh? Sure. But if it's that important to you, then you have to make a consequence for disobeying. 

Does this solution sound stupid to you? I hope so, because it is stupid. 

So, stop and take a step back. Why is it important that you track an exempt employee? Is he not getting his work done? Is he not available when he's needed? Does he not show up for scheduled meetings? Has church attendance (or whatever he's responsible for) dropped? 

If any of the above is happening, are you attempting to fix the problem by tracking his hours? Lots of managers do that ("You're not getting your work done! Stop taking long lunches!") But the problem isn't the long lunch -- it's the not getting your work done. 

• I'm exempt, but my boss tracks every minute
• How to be a better manager in 9 minutes
• Why don't companies get rid of micro-managers?

Instead of lowering the boom, sit down with him with him and say, "Pastor Bob, our parishioners expect someone to be in the church during posted hours. If you're not going to be here and we don't know, it can cause problems. For instance, last week the teen group leaders tried to hold their planning meeting, but couldn't get into the church because you weren't here and they didn't have a key."

Or: "One of the expectations of this job is that you visit any church member who is in the hospital. You didn't see the last person who was sick and she feels really neglected. She's been a member here for 22 years, and you dropped the ball on this one."

Or: "You are allotted 14 vacation days per year. When you're on vacation, the office staff needs to be aware, so we know how to direct your calls. It's a real problem if we leave a message on your voice mail and you don't pick it up for three days because you're on vacation or out sick."

What you're doing here is addressing the real problem. And for exempt employees, that isn't the number of hours they work or what time they come in the door; rather, it's the results of those actions that is the problem. 

The boss needs to sit down and address the actual problem, not the lack of time sheets. When you solve those issues, there will be no need for a time sheet. If you can't solve those problems, then perhaps he's not the right fit for the job.

Have a workplace dilemma? Send your questions to [e-mail].

Photo courtesy of Flickr user William Warby

[Super-HR-Ninja]

Check your state laws before you ditch time records of exempt employees! Here in Nevada employers are required to keep records of all employees, not just non-exempt.

[nurse_goodbody]

This is a classic example of why I am a fan of ROWE, Results Only Work Environment. It's 2012 people. Of course, if you want to stay in 1955 or 1986 that is your choice.

[mainelysweet]

HR_Help - the question was answered. And I guess my question in return would be - do you track hours worked OVER 30 or 40 or 50, etc.? You manage performance and outcome, not hours. And you treat professionals like adults and, well, like professionals. People live up to the expectations you have of them - both good and bad. Suzanne is spot on with all of this.

[hr_help]

"Interesting" replies/comments. Not one answered the question submitted. The question was how to track hours worked for the purposes of calculating accrued vacation and sick leave.
Without a time card/sheet/record being submitted, the employer would have to "assume" the employee worked exactly 30 hours/week.
And, given that he is not informing the church when he is absent for vacation or sick leave, the church has not way to debit his accruals for time taken as vacation or sick leave.
Thus, his accrual balances will continue to be credited, never debited; and, the liability to the church for accrued but unused vacation pay at the time employment ends will become larger and larger.
A time card/sheet/record should be required.
Next time, it may the question asked should be answered.

[Suzanne Lucas]

You aren't required to accrue vacation that way. In fact, I highly recommend against it for an exempt employee.

[stodgers]

Actually, you are required in several states to accrue vacation time or it is all assumed to be fully accrued. For instance, in the state of California, if you 'give' an employee 14 days of vacation, and they leave the company without any tracking showing they've taken time, then you owe them 14 paid days. If you have a monthly accrual, capped at a set amount (usually 1.5 times the annual amount), you only have to pay them the accrued amount. And if you don't cap the accrual, after two years, if they leave, you owe them 28 days. And so on...

I agree, this response is a bit short-sighted on the business implications of the financial liabilities involved.

[SamSmitty]

There are times when it is defiantly appropriate to track your employee's hours whether they are exempt or non-exempt. In situations where their worked hours are billable to a client, you do in fact, want to be able to prove that those where hours actually worked. It is also helpful when you need to understand the amount of time a project takes in order to be able to properly bid the next project.

However, tracking the hours of an exempt employee for no reason other than to make sure they are working 40 hours a week is ridiculous. It creates an environment of resentment to the system. Exempt employees are not rewarded with extra pay when they work a 60 hour week, so why would you want to dock them PTO if they take off 3 hours early one day to attend their child's school event or visit the Doctor? It all comes out in the wash. Companies should reserve docking PTO and tracking your exempt employees for complete days off.

We have all experienced what happens when you create an environment where people are expected to occupy a chair for 8 hours a day, just visit a DMV office or other Government entity.

[kolsakovsky]

Comparing hours in a chair to dedication is really a false metric. There are plenty of people who put in their full 40 hour weeks and then some, but they're just keeping the seat warm and doing the bare minimum.

It's the person who seems to know when everyone else comes in and leaves, so they get there five minutes before and leave five minutes after. Or who set a time for sending out emails so they go at different points late in the evening, or early in the morning. If you look like you're putting in tons of hours, you MUST be dedicated and busy, right?

Suzanne hits it on the head - you'll just get people putting in seat time, knowing that's the metric people are looking at, and figuring they must be some kind of awesome by putting in the time.

[Suzanne Lucas]

I love the old set a time for sending out emails trick!

Bad management breeds bad performance. Period.

[jeannutson]

A sound advice,but there are times one needs to track the actual number of hours employees spend on the job as compared to the total number of hours they are expected to work to determine some facts such as dedication and to make other important decisions.

[Suzanne Lucas]

I would think that as long as performance is high and you can find the person when needed, it wouldn't matter how many hours they are putting in.

If you're rating your employees on their "dedication" by looking at hours worked, you'll find employees sitting in their cubes pretending to work so you'll think they are awesome.

[mecury69]

Well said Suzanne.