When you go on a run, you’re generally expected to call the office after you’ve picked up or dropped off whatever it is you were supposed to to drop off or pick up.
(I’m not sure how they did this before cell phones. Did you go out with a roll of quarters in your pocket?)
Anyway, I don’t usually call right away. Instead, I wait until I’m out on the road, and probably down the freeway a bit.
My thinking is this: the office assumes the call takes place half-way through the trip, right? If it takes twenty minutes to get the payroll company, then reasonably it will take twenty minutes back.
So, if I’m already on the road when I call, to them, it seems like it took me twenty-five minutes. Since I’m already five minutes closer to the office, that gives me ten minutes to dick around. Or, I get back early, and I get credit for being efficient.
Win-win.
Ten minutes doesn’t sound like much, but then, you don’t have my boss.
And imagine you’re delivering a half dozen scripts around West LA. It starts to add up. Sometimes, I’ll do personal stuff on my way to wherever, and then I’ll have a good long time to just relax away from the office.
I don’t know if I’m actually fooling anybody (it’s not like I can ask my boss), but I wonder if other people do it, too?
3 Responses
Ah, that’s the saddest one, isn’t it? I mean, you must be doing something wrong if your employees would prefer sitting in a parking garage to coming in the office.
I don’t have to call to check in but I will run an errand for myself here and there. Or I will sit in my car for a few minutes just to keep out of the office.