8.5/day hours required for Maxiflex users, could 1/2 lunch be done at home?

[Anonymous]

It depends on agency. We are not required to take lunch. This happened after several similarly situated agencies did away with lunch requirements.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this really being tracked? I know our building you only swipe in each morning.

I'm at a swipe-in, swipe-out HQ. That said, do you really want to risk timecard fraud?

We had this very question come up at an RTO office hour, and our HR staff was unequivocal that 8 hours means 8.5 plus a lunch break in the middle. No gaming the system to leave "early".

I don’t want to risk time card fraud, but I also don’t want to be treated like a child.

This. We had someone do this years ago and got disciplined out of that behavior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this really being tracked? I know our building you only swipe in each morning.

I'm at a swipe-in, swipe-out HQ. That said, do you really want to risk timecard fraud?

We had this very question come up at an RTO office hour, and our HR staff was unequivocal that 8 hours means 8.5 plus a lunch break in the middle. No gaming the system to leave "early".

I don’t want to risk time card fraud, but I also don’t want to be treated like a child.

But are you in management or an hourly/non exempt employee?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought we had to take the unpaid lunch during the day and could not put it at the end of the day.

This.

There is NO statutory requirement for when you take a lunch break. The ONLY statutory requirement surrounding work hours come from 5 U.S.C. § 6101 and 5 C.F.R. Part 610, which sets the 8-hour/day standard for full-time employees. The exact timing and rules around meal breaks come from agency policy or collective bargaining agreements. If your agency is silent on this, and you are a NBU, DO NOT ask the question. If you are a BU employee, check what your CBA says. If your agency requires meal time be taken to supplement your day at the office by an additional 1/2 hour, you could potentially challenge them on what statutory authority they used to come up with the requirement. ... Just sayin' since this Administration is so big on ONLY doing things that are statutorily mandated ...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this really being tracked? I know our building you only swipe in each morning.

I'm at a swipe-in, swipe-out HQ. That said, do you really want to risk timecard fraud?

We had this very question come up at an RTO office hour, and our HR staff was unequivocal that 8 hours means 8.5 plus a lunch break in the middle. No gaming the system to leave "early".

I don’t want to risk time card fraud, but I also don’t want to be treated like a child.

This. We had someone do this years ago and got disciplined out of that behavior.

It is NOT time card fraud to leave for lunch after you have completed your full 8 hours. If you're not completing an 8-hour day (or the various daily hours requirement for the type of schedule you keep), then I can see a time card fraud situation. Otherwise, it's just what gets told to the federal employee who doesn't get in the habit of digging for details.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought we had to take the unpaid lunch during the day and could not put it at the end of the day.

This.

There is NO statutory requirement for when you take a lunch break. The ONLY statutory requirement surrounding work hours come from 5 U.S.C. § 6101 and 5 C.F.R. Part 610, which sets the 8-hour/day standard for full-time employees. The exact timing and rules around meal breaks come from agency policy or collective bargaining agreements. If your agency is silent on this, and you are a NBU, DO NOT ask the question. If you are a BU employee, check what your CBA says. If your agency requires meal time be taken to supplement your day at the office by an additional 1/2 hour, you could potentially challenge them on what statutory authority they used to come up with the requirement. ... Just sayin' since this Administration is so big on ONLY doing things that are statutorily mandated ...

This is interesting. Like another poster, I always thought it was time card fraud. I don't know if now is a good time to challenge anything, but if I make it through, I may raise this with our management.

[Anonymous]

How is it time card fraud? My time card says I worked 8 hours. Which I did. It says nothing about lunch or when lunch was taken.

The CBA has a whole discussion about lunch. So I guess one could be guilty of violating the CBA? I’d love for the agency to accuse me of that, when they threw the CBA out the window weeks ago!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No allowed and technically you must take a 1/2 hour break/lunch after 5 hours at work. It can be less than 5 hours but it can't be more.

That’s crazy. I get in at 6am and often eat 12 or 1. I used to eat at 2pm but now that I get off at 2:30 I can’t do that any longer. Most of the time I just don’t eat a lunch at work and work gets a free 30 min out of me. Thanks union!

[Anonymous]

Dh’s entire large agency got rid of this bogus extra 30 min years ago. They even sent out an email regarding it.

I also think it’s problematic from a religious perspective. What about those of us fasting all day this month? Government just gets extra time out of us even though we aren’t eating or taking a break?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this really being tracked? I know our building you only swipe in each morning.

I'm at a swipe-in, swipe-out HQ. That said, do you really want to risk timecard fraud?

We had this very question come up at an RTO office hour, and our HR staff was unequivocal that 8 hours means 8.5 plus a lunch break in the middle. No gaming the system to leave "early".

I don’t want to risk time card fraud, but I also don’t want to be treated like a child.

This. We had someone do this years ago and got disciplined out of that behavior.

As a supervisor if I know about it, I’d have to counsel or discipline the employee. Please don’t put your supervisors in that position. You can’t leave early even if you aren’t eating.

Nothing riles me up more than my bogus 30 min I’m forced to take. I’m not in a CBU either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this really being tracked? I know our building you only swipe in each morning.

I'm at a swipe-in, swipe-out HQ. That said, do you really want to risk timecard fraud?

We had this very question come up at an RTO office hour, and our HR staff was unequivocal that 8 hours means 8.5 plus a lunch break in the middle. No gaming the system to leave "early".

I don’t want to risk time card fraud, but I also don’t want to be treated like a child.

This. We had someone do this years ago and got disciplined out of that behavior.

As a supervisor if I know about it, I’d have to counsel or discipline the employee. Please don’t put your supervisors in that position. You can’t leave early even if you aren’t eating.

Nothing riles me up more than my bogus 30 min I’m forced to take. I’m not in a CBU either.

Nothing riles me up more than having to comply with a CBA that management just illegally breached.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this really being tracked? I know our building you only swipe in each morning.

I'm at a swipe-in, swipe-out HQ. That said, do you really want to risk timecard fraud?

We had this very question come up at an RTO office hour, and our HR staff was unequivocal that 8 hours means 8.5 plus a lunch break in the middle. No gaming the system to leave "early".

I don’t want to risk time card fraud, but I also don’t want to be treated like a child.

This. We had someone do this years ago and got disciplined out of that behavior.

As a supervisor if I know about it, I’d have to counsel or discipline the employee. Please don’t put your supervisors in that position. You can’t leave early even if you aren’t eating.

Nothing riles me up more than my bogus 30 min I’m forced to take. I’m not in a CBU either.

Well then you're doing it for no reason either, so that shouldn't be on your staff. Do the research as the PP who posted the statutory authority noted and then go up your chain or directly to your HR contact and ask "why". That's what you owe your staff instead of "counseling or discipline" them. Dont be a bot and feign stupidity now that you know better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I personally think the 30 minute break is BS. It should be one hour mandatory. And must leave work station.

The one hour lunch is based on Science. Back years ago there was no lunch break, the workers fought for a lunch. To surprise of bosses over time they figured one hour was optimal for productivity as it gave them the proper mental and physical break to work hard all afternoon. Any shorter just meant unhappy tired workers in afternoon who are less productive.

Leave the workstation and go where? Eat in the bathroom? Or should we switch workstations and eat at someone else's desk? There's certainly no dining area in my building, they are cramming people into workspaces.

The 30 minute breaks is why you have no place to go. If you had one hour you have time to leave the building and go someplace to get lunch. You have time to work out in a gym, drop off drycleaning, visit a friend at another company for lunch, maybe spouse come in and you have lunch.

My old job with the one hour lunch. One Fridays since we "technically" had a 15 minute afternoon break no one really took they let us do one hour and 15 minute lunch on Friday. Literally when single I could do a lunch date, meet friends at other companies as gave me time to get over there, do an eye doctor appointment, run an errand or two, take a walk, go jogging. Heck sunbathe, go outside talk to spouse or mom on phone.

That company was great as we had the MANDATORY ONE HOUR LUNCH but we only had to work 7 HOURS a day. So we only work 35 and get paid for 40. I literally started work at 830am and ended work at 430 pm and still took a one hour lunch. I worked there 9 years so I keep in touch with people, after I quit. Years later they went to an 8 hour work day. Some nasty new CEO who made it an 8 hour work day and then people started trying to skip lunch or take only a 30 minute lunch as they canceled mandatory one hour lunch break.

Guess what they hired 40 percent more people than when we had the one hour break. People were way less productive in Afternoon. It became a nasty toxic place to work within a few months.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this really being tracked? I know our building you only swipe in each morning.

I'm at a swipe-in, swipe-out HQ. That said, do you really want to risk timecard fraud?

We had this very question come up at an RTO office hour, and our HR staff was unequivocal that 8 hours means 8.5 plus a lunch break in the middle. No gaming the system to leave "early".

I don’t want to risk time card fraud, but I also don’t want to be treated like a child.

This. We had someone do this years ago and got disciplined out of that behavior.

As a supervisor if I know about it, I’d have to counsel or discipline the employee. Please don’t put your supervisors in that position. You can’t leave early even if you aren’t eating.

Nothing riles me up more than my bogus 30 min I’m forced to take. I’m not in a CBU either.

labor laws and state laws a lunch break of at least 30 minutes is require by law for hourly employees

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this really being tracked? I know our building you only swipe in each morning.

I'm at a swipe-in, swipe-out HQ. That said, do you really want to risk timecard fraud?

We had this very question come up at an RTO office hour, and our HR staff was unequivocal that 8 hours means 8.5 plus a lunch break in the middle. No gaming the system to leave "early".

I don’t want to risk time card fraud, but I also don’t want to be treated like a child.

This. We had someone do this years ago and got disciplined out of that behavior.

As a supervisor if I know about it, I’d have to counsel or discipline the employee. Please don’t put your supervisors in that position. You can’t leave early even if you aren’t eating.

Nothing riles me up more than my bogus 30 min I’m forced to take. I’m not in a CBU either.

labor laws and state laws a lunch break of at least 30 minutes is require by law for hourly employees

Yes, true. And this could be why Unions cover it in their CBAs because it's likely for a wide swath of employees at an agency--maybe at the low GS levels. That's why it shouldn't be applied as a blanket policy to everyone who works at an agency. There should be some ability to utilize judgment in this scenario and allow employees to schedule their lunch (or not) as long as they've done the statutorily mandated 8 hour day.