Federal Employee- Possible Timesheet Fraud

[Anonymous]

Report!!! Sounds intentional.

[Anonymous]

This is the OP. I did not report, though it weighed really heavy on my mind.

I worked in the private sector before joining the federal government and thought the sign-in/sign out was archaic when switched. It should be all about what you produce vs. the exact time you arrive. But in my experience, and what I've read on this forum, is that the federal government is a whole different story. I wish it were more like the private sector in many ways. Some of the things I see or what people complain about is really ridiculous. ("How dare they require me to be at work by 9:30!" "How dare they ask me to produce something without grammatical errors!" "There is no way we can meet this deadline (or the next one, or the next one) because of [weather, etc].")

I stay because the majority of the people I work with are very smart, professional, and friendly. And everyone there knows the rules. Timesheet stuff is very clear, archaic as it may be. I don't think it is unreasonable to look at the timesheet to see if someone is physically in the office. I think a lot of people do that if the matter is time sensitive and you haven't seen the person - are they in or not?

Anyway, I talked to my husband and brother, and both said don't report it. My brother was a contractor at another agency so has direct experience with this stuff. My brother agreed that reporting is the right thing to do, but since nothing would likely happen, it doesn't make sense to do. I am still irked thinking about- that I am now complicit in some of the very things I complain about. I don't know for certain if he commited intentional timesheet fraud, but I think it was highly likely and hope it surfaces with his supervisor.

By the way- yes, I completely understand that someone might forget to sign out one day. No biggie. But that nonsense of signing in your name as a placeholder with no time? Come on, now. That is not allowed.

[Anonymous]

I love how everyone is annoyed OP would even think about reporting this but then complains about the government inefficiencies

[Anonymous]

It's just a form of very slow stealing. No matter how you try to sugar coat it. I say this as a federal employee. (I’m really surprised by how much in the minority I seem to be, at least in this forum.) We get paid to do a job. Do it. If you don’t have enough to do, find something. There’s plenty to be done. Or give back the money you were paid in exchange for your work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Federal government time keeping world can be strange to outsiders. At my agency, you have to record all of the time you work, but it is not possible to record if you work more than 10 hours in a day or 80 hours in a pay period. Rules say you may not work past 7 pm or on weekends without getting special authorization. Every day you are required to take a 45 minute non-paid lunch break -- so a person's set hours are not 9-5 but 9 to 5:45. If your normal schedule is 8 hours, 9 to 5:45, rules say that to deviate from that schedule, you need to obtain prior permission; you cannot start work early or stay late without permission.

If you work more than 80 hours in a pay period you are entitled to "comp time", but before you work those hours, you have to request it by filling out forms and getting approving signatures.

In my office, my supervisor puts substance over form. You record you 8 hours, whether you worked 9 hours or 7 hour, you record 80 hours whether you worked 82 hours or 78 hours, because over time it averages out.

When I am getting ready for a hearing or engaged in litigation, you can be assured that I am working many more hours than the 80 hours recorded on my time sheet for the pay period.

I my office, everyone is a professional and no one has abused the system -- there is no need to do so as everyone has ample leave and the supervisor grants it when requested because people don't use leave in a way that hampers work.

It is a crazy system.

And I am on leave today.

Ours works this way too except we can't get authorized to work any comp time. There are weeks when I put in tons of extra hours to get projects done on time, even though I'm not suppose to work more than 80 hours a pay period. Because the attorneys we work with in the private sector seemingly work 24/7, I get e-mails at all times of the day and night and on weekends. I technically don't get compensated for responding to e-mails and calls after hours, even though I regularly do. I also almost never take more than a 20 minute lunch. My supervisor is fine with my leaving work a few hours early on occasion if things are slow. As long as all work gets done on time and all work produced is of high quality, my supervisor doesn't care when and where I do it. However, according to our T&A system, I'm suppose to be sitting in my office 8 hours- and only 8 hours- a day. A lot of work wouldn't get done on time if I actually operated like this.