Counting the Hours

We tend to think of counting as a straight-forward activity - one, two, three, how could anyone disagree? Yet many organizations have tension and disputes over how to count, especially something as seemingly simple as counting the number of hours somebody worked.

An engineering office had a 37.5 hour work week. Staff were expected to be in the office 7.5 hours per day working, not including lunch. From staff and management interviews, here are six areas where the company was experiencing a lot of tension:

1. One work group had gotten into the habit of taking coffee breaks mid-morning. During these breaks, they'd chat about a variety of things, including work. Their manager felt that this was productive time, since it helped build relationships and staff often came up with creative solutions to work issues during the relaxed interactions over coffee. Other managers didn't feel that coffee breaks should be allowed, and their employees were not allowed to count coffee time as work time. Dispute arose over whether the coffee-breakers should have to work longer days to make up for the time "lost" during coffee.
2. As part of their regular work day, some field staff would be required report to the central office, then drive ninety minutes out to a job site for the day. The drive TO the work site was considered part of their work day since they first met at the office, but the ninety minute drive back was "on their own time" since they were just driving home from work. Staff that stayed in the office worked for 7.5 hours. were productive for 7.5 hours and were paid for 7.5 hours. Staff that worked in the field put in 9 hours, were productive for 6 hours and were paid for 7.5 hours.
3. Other staff were required to travel to a nearby city, usually flying in and flying out the same day. The morning flight left at 6am, and their end of the day flight returned home at 7 pm. Counting the time from when they arrived at the terminal in the morning to when they left the terminal at the end of the day, their workday was 14.5 hours. They were paid for 7.5.
4. Yet other staff were required to travel to more distant cities, with four to six hours flying time, and usually with an overnight stay on Saturday to get cheaper air fares. Some staff loved this time away, others felt resentful that it took them away from their families, and wanted time-off in lieu for the time they were required to be away. Management paid them for the days they were working in the other cities, but didn't compensate in any way for the time away from home. Flight time that was outside regular work hours also wasn't considered work. Lots of tension and disagreement over this.
5. A few staff were able to work from home because of the nature of their jobs. Tension mounted from in-office staff who's requests to work from home had been denied; they felt their driving time to work should now be paid for, since they couldn't do anything else during that time and the work-from-home people were not required to commute as part of their jobs.
6. Managers would take staff out for lunch and dinner occasionally. Some managers would allow their staff to count this as work time, some would not. Tensions mounted.

These situations show how difficult it can be to count something as simple as hours of work. How much more difficult is it to measure more complicated tasks in ways that everyone can agree on?