How to react to HR's mandate of work week hours? [closed]

Question

When the HR was giving the induction presentation around three months back for the post of trainee at a Software company to me, I explicitly asked them what are the timings?

HR: We bill our clients at 45-48 hours per week, so we expect that from our employees.

Me: Ok, I can come and go whenever I want as long as I maintain that time per week?

HR: Yes.

---

Today the HR called me.

HR: What time do you come in? and leave?

Me: Around so and so times

HR: Yes, I have noticed that and due to my busy schedule, I was not able to point it out to you. Do you think that is enough?

Me: umm, yes I do around 45 - 48 hours per week.

HR: Look, for trainees the time 9.30 sharp in the morning, as you are on the payroll we require trainees to be in by this time, I dont want to point out others, but so and so trainee come in at 9 and leave at 8 pm. (And yet they didnt say what is the official out time)

Me: (gone crazy) said OK, pointed out to that first day conversation(where they said about 45-48 hours per week) and left their cabin.

Now my question is, is this behaviour justified? I dont want to live in the office, I am given work, I get it done thats what matters to me, I have my life to live too. How to tackle this situation?

Edit- The justification they gave about telling 45-48 hours was that its for the employees, not trainees. (Another wtf)

Edit - IMPORTANT - I work in India, therefore there are significant differences from a cultural and legal perspective when compared to the USA or other NATO countries.

Update Third day after that conversation, reached at 9.50 (got late because of gym) and got a mail saying why were you late today. They are now keeping a close watch on me I guess. Is it time to talk to them and say give me some time to adjust to the new timings?

The conversation was as follows:

HR: Even after verbal discussion you were late, I need an explanation.

Me: Due to my gym session I was held up, sorry for that, will come at 9.30 AM tomorrow.

HR: What about the out time?

Me: 7.30 PM

HR: (took a while to reply) 10.30 to 7.30 is 9 hours, one hour for the break, so you are working 8 * 5 hours total. SE need to work for 48 hours, but you are trainee level, you need to put more extra efforts.

Me: (thinking that break is 30 mins, I came in at around 10 so it still is 45 but replied) Duly noted, I am already doing my best to complete all the work my supervisor is giving me, thanks for the heads up.

---

The irony is, just about 15 days ago I had a rather good offer from a much bigger company than this, but because it was in a different city I had to decline it. Never anticipated such a situation would arrive here.

Answer 1

In a professional career, always assume and act as if a simple misunderstanding has happened, not a deliberate act of misrepresentation. Regardless of what the truth of the matter is, it puts you in the right frame of mind to act professionally (and you always want to do that, even if you're the only one in the room doing so).

Answer 2

Consult your manager. If your manager is okay with what you are doing and is happy with the progress of your work, then HR doesn't have grounds for complaint. Unless HR can override your manager, that is.

Note:

it doesn't matter how many WTF's you add to your post - they don't change anything to the situation, except maybe give some of us a negative attitude toward you [OP subsequently edited this aspect of his post in response to feedback from @DavidNeuschultz's and me]

You are totally entitled to point out to HR that you worked your hours based on HR's presentation and that HR never pointed to a different work week rule until now. But if HR made a miscommunication, they are also entitled to correct it the first chance they get.

Answer 3

How many hours a week are you paid for, and how many are you working? What's your hourly rate for the hours that you are working? If you are not happy with it, try to take as much advantage of the job as you can (learning any technology you can, training courses etc. , they take as much advantage of you as they can so nothing immoral about it), while looking for a less evil company.

Answer 4

I am currently a Software Engineer on salary in the US.

The building's HR representative would prefer I come in earlier (I often come in after 11 and sometimes after noon), but my manager doesn't care at all, and it's his call, not HR's. He often comes in late as well, as does much of my team, so it doesn't actually affect our effectiveness as a group.

The opinion of the people you work for and with is more important than HR's. Despite HR's opinion about my punctuality, my managers are very happy with me and because of that I've been promoted several times in the last couple years.

It is definitely relevant that you are still in training. Here, we expect new team members to come in at about the same time as whoever is training them until the trainer feels like they can work on their own, at which time they make their own hours.

My contract doesn't include any specific hours, it simply says I need to perform my job duties to my manager's satisfaction.

Check your contract to see what it says, and consult the person who actually makes the decision. Check to see if what they tell you is temporary because of your status as a trainee.

Whatever you do, remain calm, don't get angry, and present yourself as seeking information so that you may correctly perform your duties. I would be much happier with an employee who made sure to clarify with me than with one who got upset and tried to avoid further conflict.

Answer 5

First of all HR called you. That is already a warning sign. Things like these come and go, and I would make everything in my power for them to forget about me, even if it took staying in the office for 12 hours. Then little by little you shave and shape your hours back, making sure you leave at least the impression that you are doing what they want you to do, even if your are not.

Anything you do - don't stir the waters. You can't win HR.

Answer 6

You added in a comment:

have got all my work done as and when my supervisor has said. Sitting there with work is one thing, sitting there to finish hours is another

And I would agree but that's where you want to focus your response. You're willing to "do what it takes" and you simply need more to do then. Ask HR to whom you should inquire for more work when you've completed your tasks. If they can't give you someone who can direct you then (politely) ask "then what should I be doing during the rest of the time I'm here? I want my time here to be as productive and useful as possible".

It's their job to give you something to do unless they specifically tell you to find something else to do. But whatever they say, take them at their word in that regard. If they say "find something" then you ask everyone you can for something to help with.

Answer 7

If HR has come to you with this request, you have to understand first that you are in trouble. Someone has noticed that you don't seem to be working the hours they think you should be working. Some companies allow flexibility only until they think you have abused it. Your company thinks this or you would not have had that chat. Like it or not, you are not meeting their expectations and your job is at risk when that happens. This is something you need to fix immediately.

The easiest fix is to come in at 9:30 like you were requested to do. Then stay at work the hours you are supposed to be there. If you are wroking from home part of the time, you need to make that more visible with emails and chat sessions during the hours you are there so that people see you available and working. If people try to contact you and you are never around, they will decide you are not working even if you worked until midnight. So make sure that the work you are doing is clearly visible.

Make sure that you ask for more work when a task is finished not sit around waiting for it. In a place that expects such hours, the liklihood of there being no more work to do is probably less than 10%. If they didn't have a lot of work, they would not expect the hours they expect. In almost 40 years in the workplace I have had maybe two days when I had nothing to do and then I spent the time on professional development. There is ALWAYS something that needs to be done. It may not be something you particularly want to do but this is work, so do it anyway rather than sit around. They are paying you for full-time work, it is incumbent on you to make sure you deliver full-time work not "as much as I felt like" this week.

Your corporate culture is to require constant overtime. They told you this up front. 45 hours a week is a nine hour work day excluding lunch. So starting at 9:30 that means you have to stay until 7 pm. Every day. If you want to leave earlier than that, then get to work at 8 or 7:30. You need to make sure that you either do the hours (and do them visibly since you have appeared to be slacking.) or go get a job with hours more to your liking.

Answer 8

You have a contract, look inside it, ask a lawyer to check it. Whatever is not written there usually doesn't count and can't be changed without your consent.

In all contracts I had so far, core working times were defined, number of weekly hours, vacation days, everything.

You have different options:

• play by their new rules
• stick to the contract
• look for a new place to work
• start an own company

Options might be limited by how desperate you need the job, how easy it is to find a new one, or one option might lead to another, e.g. the second to the third.

Answer 9

As a fellow software engineer, who worked in multiple places. Here is my 2 cents.

I have worked in different work environments with companies of different sizes and culture. I would say there is not a one size fits all response to this situation. It depends on the company, their culture (institutional way of doing things, Team culture etc). Infact some time things differ within the same team as well. Here is how

Team 1: Our daily checkin was set at 11 am, thus team mates would come in by 10.30a, worked till later in the day. Some folks did the checkin on the call since we had team mates divided within multiple office locations. The coming and going policies were quite causal. Insistence was on to be at the 11 am checkin and updating the status on the project management tool.

Team 2: Daily checkin was set at 9 am, majority team mates in the primary location. I felt the insistence here was to be in person at the office at 9am and if you were not there then that was a little frowned upon.

Note: These were both teams under the same manager but different team leaders.

Thus I would say the best thing to do is to gauge what the rest of your team is doing especially the one's in your role like full time software engineer.Thus knowing what the precedent in the team is certainly helps.