Federal Employee- Possible Timesheet Fraud

[Anonymous]

I work for a federal agency where we have flexible work schedules and sign-in/sign-out daily logs. I suspect a fellow employee may be entering fraudulent log in/out times yesterday and today. As of this morning, he had not signed out for yesterday. When he arrived mid-day today, he signed his name but had not entered an arrival time for today as of the time I left the office. He had, however, signed out for yesterday....entering the latest available time allowed as his sign-out time. Our bosses are out of the office this entire week. I noticed this all today when I was trying to figure out mid-morning whether or not he was in the office and would be around for a scheduled meeting.

I am really hoping there is a logical explanation for my observations. But there is some other background stuff that makes me think he is gaming the system. And that makes me really upset. What should I do? I am torn between minding my own business (what would come of bringing it up, anyway??), asking him directly about it (I am not his supervisor so this seems really awkward, though I think I would want someone to give me the benefit of the doubt and talk to me directly), or telling someone (who? my supervisor? his supervisor? hr?) what I observed and let then decide what, if anything, to do.

My conscience is eating at me (taxpayer dollars, and if I don't step up and say something aren't I just as bad in a way?). And I am personally floored that someone would do this if it really is what it seems.

[Anonymous]

Get a life OP. I am a fed too and can't stand people like you who clock watch!! Isn't it more important that the work gets done? Why does the clock matter so much? We aren't paid hourly, we're salary.

[Anonymous]

would you seeing what you saw mean you were snooping? if so, MYOB. if it was something you saw maybe just mention to his supervisor that "someone else" mentioned it to you and you were torn and could they just check out that everything is okay. you never want to have people think you are the police or looking to burn others. it makes them think worse of you so tread carefully.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work for a federal agency where we have flexible work schedules and sign-in/sign-out daily logs. I suspect a fellow employee may be entering fraudulent log in/out times yesterday and today. As of this morning, he had not signed out for yesterday. When he arrived mid-day today, he signed his name but had not entered an arrival time for today as of the time I left the office. He had, however, signed out for yesterday....entering the latest available time allowed as his sign-out time. Our bosses are out of the office this entire week. I noticed this all today when I was trying to figure out mid-morning whether or not he was in the office and would be around for a scheduled meeting.

I am really hoping there is a logical explanation for my observations. But there is some other background stuff that makes me think he is gaming the system. And that makes me really upset. What should I do? I am torn between minding my own business (what would come of bringing it up, anyway??), asking him directly about it (I am not his supervisor so this seems really awkward, though I think I would want someone to give me the benefit of the doubt and talk to me directly), or telling someone (who? my supervisor? his supervisor? hr?) what I observed and let then decide what, if anything, to do.

My conscience is eating at me (taxpayer dollars, and if I don't step up and say something aren't I just as bad in a way?). And I am personally floored that someone would do this if it really is what it seems.

No, I don't think this is true. I think you're just a nosy busybody. Why are you checking the logs so frequently? Do you also walk around your HOA with a measuring stick?

[Anonymous]

this is NOT your business. you really want to be that busybody who tracks time and tattles on her coworkers? maybe he has an arrangement with the boss that you don't know about. MYOB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Get a life OP. I am a fed too and can't stand people like you who clock watch!! Isn't it more important that the work gets done? Why does the clock matter so much? We aren't paid hourly, we're salary.

+1

MYOB

[Anonymous]

If you are not this person's supervisor then you need to MYOB.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Yikes! I guess I won't be saying anything!

This came up because I was trying to determine if he (and someone else) were actually in the office today. I wanted to know if we would be having our meeting or not and when I didn't see them at their desks all morning I checked the log to confirm they were out. I wasn't sure about their signatures, so I flipped to yesterday to see if i could identify their signstures/match for today and that's when I saw he hadn't signed out for yesterday and neither (as of mid-morning) were signed in for today.

I actually agree that it should be about the work. But the work is not getting done either! (That's the background info I alluded to in my original post.)

[Anonymous]

MYOB - I say this as a federal timekeeper. The supervisor will take care of it if need be.

[Anonymous]

And seriously- what agency has time logs?!! What an awful place! Do you have to clock in and out too? I've been a fed at 4 agencies.

[Anonymous]

Are they paid by the hour? If they are salaried who cares. If they are not doing their job, they should be managed out, whether they spend 5 hours a week in the office or 100.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And seriously- what agency has time logs?!! What an awful place! Do you have to clock in and out too? I've been a fed at 4 agencies.

The time logs are the clocking in and out. It's not so terrible; you get used to it. It's actually helpful to have it written down for the timesheet.

[Anonymous]

Wow, I'm shocked to know that federal employees don't consider cheating on their time cards to be stealing -- because as a tax payer I certainly do!!!! You all who are claiming OP should MYOB are part of the problem. I hate that people say to look the other way when someone cheats or steals. This is not an MYOB situation -- it's stealing our money, pure and simple.

OP, I would make an anonymous complaint. This guy is a thief. FYI -- my former bosses did this routinely. I know because I was in charge of time sheets. One would come in half an hour before everyone else, leave earlier than everyone else, take a half day every friday and every friday off as "flex pay." Scam. Other one would come in at 4:45 in the afternoon and claim an entire day. It's sickening. Hard to respect people like this. Please report them, OP -- we as taxpayers need to get rid of these cheats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are they paid by the hour? If they are salaried who cares. If they are not doing their job, they should be managed out, whether they spend 5 hours a week in the office or 100.

+1

The quality of the work product matters -- not just the 8-9 hrs a day in the office. Those days are behind us, thankfully.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get a life OP. I am a fed too and can't stand people like you who clock watch!! Isn't it more important that the work gets done? Why does the clock matter so much? We aren't paid hourly, we're salary.

+1

MYOB

+2... Surely your time could be better spent focusing on YOUR work rather than worrying about HIS schedule.