About Me

My photo
Nazareth, Pa., United States
Showing posts with label timeclocks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label timeclocks. Show all posts

Thursday, October 20, 2016

About Those Timeclocks

Punch clocks are standard fare for Northampton County employees who work at the jail or Gracedale. Not at the courthouse. When he was Executive, Gene Hartzell used to stand at the door at 8:30 every morning, and tease employees who were late. Wayne Grube liked to do that, too. He'd look at his watch and  ask,"What time is it?" Amy Trapp has a different approach. She installed a punch clock on the third floor for her own staff. you can expect to see more of them in the near future. 

County workers view these with suspicion. Bob Werner, who'd like to be Executive himself, tried to make Trapp look like the heavy.  He conveniently forgot that the idea came from Council itself, a point that Acting Administrator Cathy Allen made. It followed an audit by the Controller of Public Works. She said it is actually an "unfunded mandate" from Council because she has to scrounge for the money to buy clocks. "I know the employees are not excited or happy about this, but we need to capture time," said Allen.    

But Trapp likes the idea. She wants every worker who is overtime eligible, union or nonunion, to punch a time clock. It is actually not a punch clock but a fingerprint clock which would prevent one person from signing in for another unless he chops off that person's finger. 

At the courthouse, the timeclock on the third floor is used by any member of her staff who is over-time eligible. It also includes over-time eligible employees in the mail room, administrative services, Solicitor's office and County Council. She explained this is far more efficient than having a manager waste time filling out time sheets daily and weekly. 

The next phase will be a timeclock for PublicWorks, then Deputy Sheriffs.An employee will be able to clock in on any floor.

"It's great to have an idea, but if you can't get it to the people the right way, to the masses and get them to understand it, it is just an idea and will never go any further," condescended Werner.

Each employee received individual raining,said Allen.but Werner complained it should be written. 

"It's great for theft of time," said Ken Kraft..