TMAG will be the death of all of us

[RetailSlave]

Our stores have recently put in a new system called TMAG (Team Member at a Glance) which keeps track of clocking in for day and in and out for breaks, and then spits out automatic writeups. The margin that you can be late is...get this ONE MINUTE AND 59 SECONDS! There is escalating discipline up to and including termination. The Team Leader of the department and the Store Manager in Charge can delete a certain number of them, if they feel the circumstances warrant. Some Team Leaders are more lenient than others...for instance, there are people on 3rd shift stocking who are habitually late but they have "a good excuse" so they are forgiven.
On the other hand, they are making an example of the Service department and at the moment there are 3 people, me included, who are on the verge of losing our jobs. One girl had been having a lot of issues with her grandmother being ill and passing away, and the other girl and I have a very long commute. I have to go over two railway crossings no matter which way I go and the trains have a habit of slowing or even stopping across the track. In the little one-horse town I live in, there is only one way to get across town when the train blocks the tracks, and that involves a 20 minute detour thru the country. I also have to travel a winding two lane highway with few spots to pass...I seem to always get stuck behind some jerk travelling well below the speed limit, or farm equipment or a school bus stopping at every house to let off kids.
They say, "If you know you are going to be late call and we will change your shift so you won't get a writeup." That is great, except for most of my commute I don't have cell phone coverage, so if I am in that area I CAN'T call in.
It really pisses everyone off that the amount of time is so small and petty...if it was 5 minutes that would be reasonable and I wouldn't have most of my writeups. I liked it much better when it was left up to the Team Leaders whether discipline was given. It ticks me off that some people who don't do shit when they are there get away with it just because they get their happy little asses to work on time, but don't work once they get there. The company isn't losing anything when I am late...if I am a couple minutes late I make it up at the end of my shift or cut my meal or break short. The amount of time that I have worked off the clock when someone needed something should count for something.

In the almost 4 years I have worked there I only missed 4 days..one when I was so sick that I couldn't even stand up and 3 days when I totalled my truck...trying to come to work in a snowstorm. I have come in when I was sick as a dog and worked my whole shift, but I could lose my job over a few days when I was 2 or 3 minutes late. Crazy.

[Iris Kojiro]

Ohhhhh, the TMAG system. I think I read about that on page 159 of "How To Greatly Increase Employee Turnover Rates".

So what if the time clock is off or some extenuating circumstance has taken place? Disciplinary action cannot and should not be taken based on a series of hard-coded if/then statements.

[Gerrinson]

Reminds me of the grocery store that had the electronic time clock. When I worked there, the time clock was 5 minutes fast and you had to clock in no more than 1 minute before or after your shift start. Which means you had to be 5 minutes early. And the time clock was in a hallway all the way at the back of the store, so you not only have to be early, but you have to run the guantlet of customers in uniform to get there. Good times, good times...

[Iris Kojiro]

My night job has a time clock that is six or seven minutes fast. Our main clock (and the biggest one around the store) displays the correct time. I've never gone by the time clock, opting to go by the correct time (which also displays on our registers).

I occasionally get some crap about it from others, but management hasn't said anything about it.

[Dave1982]

At my store we have what's called a "Soft Clock" where we punch in and out at the registers, and it is incredibly picky about punching in from breaks/meals. If you're more than I think 90 seconds late, it admonishes you by saying.

"WARNING. To ensure customer satisfaction, please return on time. You are punching in late from a break."

Now, I can see having a tight margin on a 15 minute break, but under two minutes leeway on a 30 minute or 1 hour lunch break is a tad absurd. In fact, the system doesn't even allow for a 1 hour lunch, so you'll be "late" no matter what in that case.

THe good thing is it doesn't spit out automatic write-ups. Management reviews all the punches and they decide whether or not to do anything about it.

[OliviaLuka]

Cold Stone time will change without notice.
The first month that I worked there our clocks were nearly 15 minutes slow so I could stroll into work at my own leisure pretty much.
Then one day I went to clock in and the time was 3 minutes fast!
Whenever our credit card machine is reset, our clocks are too.

[Kiwi]

at the call centre we had that it would print your punches at the end of the day and your on time punches were black and normal sized font

your late punches were HUGE AND BRIGHT RED

the clock jumped forward 10-20 seconds when you hit the punch so you could be within the limit but because it jumped forward you are suddenly late and get a red punch

ive always had managers be sticklers for being back exactly on the 30 minute break, if I go at 12:01 and im not back at 12:31 I would get hell so I was better than most of my group but one girl quit in the first week because she got sick of being told off for being 30 seconds late for her break

[daleduke17]

Sounds like something my old job would incorporate.

The computer already makes the schedules for most of the store (and managers are only allowed to make a few changes), so why not let the computer handle writing people up?


The only computer I'd trust to be in charge would be Data. Lore would be cool, if he wasn't such an asshole.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

The computer already makes the schedules for most of the store (and managers are only allowed to make a few changes), so why not let the computer handle writing people up?

Well yeah. That way the managers don't have to get their hands dirty filling out write-ups, so they're free to keep their butts parked in their offices doing nothing.

"WARNING. To ensure customer satisfaction, please return on time. You are punching in late from a break."

WARNING: To ensure employee satsifaction (as if we can do that ), shut up before we toss the computer off the mezzanine floor to the cement floor below.

[bean]

TMAG in my store is something completely different - I think it stands for Team Member Awareness Group or something like that.

TMAG acts as a liaison between management and employees, in a nutshell. It's kind of pointless I think, all I've ever known the TMAG folks to do is run around putting up posters or occasionally paint the breakroom.