Company lists 5 rules for employees to avoid 'time clock fraud': 'Use restroom before work'. Viral post

According to the Reddit post, some of the other acts that could also lead to a  time clock fraud included failing to secure personal items in a locker before punching in or not taking off coats/jackets before commencing work. (Representational Image).

Companies are always looking for employees who can spend most of their time at a workplace in completing the work assigned to them within the deadline and achieve the desired results.

However, in some cases, organisations can stretch their rules to such an extent that it could leave employees baffled. Recently, a Reddit user shared an image of a memo issued by a company with five points listed on it, one of which urged staffers to use restrooms before starting work in a bid to not commit "time clock fraud".

Some of the other tips suggested were making sure to take coats/jackets off before commencing work and securing personal items in a locker before punching in.

The memo described "time clock fraud" as "whenever an employee does something while punched in that is unrelated to work (while not on a 15-minute break)."

The company memo describing what constituted a time clock fraud. (Image credit: Reddit/antiwork).

The Reddit post, which went viral, saw a lot of user comments who shared their own experiences of having to manage work time and break time inside a workplace.

"This used to anger me at my last job. It was a huge warehouse, and it would usually take 2-4 min to get to the break room. We were expected to be back at our stations when the bell rang, exactly 15 minutes after our break started. So basically, we had a 10-minute break and 5 minutes of walking," one user wrote.

"Funny how they don’t mention the time clock fraud of telling you to work over a scheduled hour or work through breaks," a second user wrote.

Rules of such nature at organisations can reduce the motivation to work significantly and a survey conducted by Salesforce in 2023 revealed that 43 per cent of Indian professionals spent a large chunk of time appearing to be busy, instead of using the time to do quality work.