CBC News Interview: What is 'time theft' and why are some employers so worked up about it?

This article was originally published in CBC News.

It's a tense issue as companies monitor what remote employees are doing

It may be a new year, but many employers are still relying on an old tool for evaluating productivity.

That would be the clock — against which so much of work is measured, despite ongoing changes in how, where and when work gets done.

Employers and employees can sometimes butt heads over what happens on company time, but in severe cases, an employee could be accused of time theft. And this issue is growing more contentious as employers monitor what remote workers are doing outside of the confines of traditional offices. 

"Time theft is arguably an even bigger issue for employers at this time than it has been before," said Nadia Zaman, an employment lawyer with Rudner Law in Markham, Ont.

Not what you're paid to be doing

Time theft encompasses a broad range of behaviours — anything from taking longer-than-scheduled breaks or logging off early, to using work hours to do household tasks — all of which an employer would view as being contrary to what one should be doing while getting paid to work.

"Time theft is really when the person actually should be working and they're not," said Janet Candido, a Toronto-based HR consultant. "They're actively doing something else."

Zaman, looking through an employment-law lens, said it's essentially "when an employee is paid for work that they have not performed," or for time in which they were not actually working.

Many people might find themselves occasionally guilty, especially with the distractions of remote work. But the problem — and when it really becomes time theft — is when it becomes habitual.

Nita Chhinzer, an associate professor in the University of Guelph's department of management, said organizations go through a series of steps when cases of alleged time theft are identified. Once it's documented, that usually leads to progressive discipline, she said.

"It leads to a verbal warning, followed by a written warning, followed by dismissal in some cases," she said.

But Chhinzer said there are organizations that take a harder line that "theft is theft," and act decisively.

A headline-making case in Hamilton a decade ago, for instance, saw the southwestern Ontario city investigate and then take disciplinary action against dozens of municipal road workers it suspected of infractions that included time theft.

There were reports of road workers spending as little as two hours a day on the job. Some staff were fired, but most got their jobs back after arbitration.

An ongoing tension

Working life changed for millions of Canadians in 2020, when the pandemic forced organizations to send people home in a hurry. That left workers and employers having to adjust to the new circumstances.

"It's more of a problem with people working remotely, certainly," said Candido.

Zaman said there's not a lot of case law involving time theft disputes and remote work to point to yet. But the issue of time theft goes back further than that. The Canadian Legal Information Institute website (a database of legal documents) has well over 300 entries dating back to 1996 that mention the term.

"It's actually been around for a while," said Candido, who recalls advising clients, prior to the pandemic, on addressing the issue of people watching videos on cellphones during their workday.

News stories in recent years have revealed allegations of time theft being raised by a variety of employers — including an accounting firm, restaurants and municipal planning departments, and involving allegations ranging from employees billing for time they had not worked to people using their work time to conduct personal errands. 

Zaman said time theft is a broad issue that may be raised in a variety of contexts and jobs.

"Typically we see it more in the context of hourly employees because of the nature of the work. But it doesn't mean that it can't happen for salaried employees," she said.

Why the clock keeps ticking

For many employers, the clock has long been a mainstay of how they keep tabs on what's getting done.

"Most employers don't know how to measure productivity in any other way," said Candido, the HR expert, noting that stance has spurred more of them to employ software to monitor the activity of employees who are working at home.

Organizations are using such tools to determine if the person who has logged onto their computer is actually doing work, she said. Just last week, The Canadian Press reported that a tribunal ordered a British Columbia accountant to pay her former employer more than $2,600 after a tracking software showed she engaged in time theft while working from home.

The University of Guelph's Chhinzer said this approach is rooted in "legacy thinking" about jobs being built around a strict schedule and a defined exchange of a certain amount of money for a certain amount of time worked.

"That's how we have thought about jobs for so long," said Chhinzer, who recently wrote in The Conversation Canada about the flaws of such clock-focused thinking.

It's also not the way that a lot of knowledge workers go about their work, she said.

"If we can find ways to be more productive, then we should still be compensated and rewarded to the same level for completing the work, without being penalized for our productivity," she said.

Eroded trust

Paul Hutton, who works out of the Greater Toronto area, is a director in a private-sector company — a job that involves managing dozens of employees.

With a background in sales, he says he's long been used to working in an environment where people were successfully working outside an office.

While he says he gets that some companies may have previously had concerns about having people working from home, it's clear to him that it can work.

"You can achieve results ... you can do this remotely," he said, noting it involves putting trust in employees.

"Trust and honesty are critical," said Zaman, the employment lawyer, noting they may be even more so in situations where someone works outside of an office.

From Candido's perspective, the working world is seeing a broader erosion of the relationship between employers and their employees "starting with the pandemic and it's just getting worse and worse."

Should you care if your employees are happy?

There is such a thing as the Global Happiness Report, and it was released at the World Government Summit earlier this year. Among other things, it notes that in the workplace, employee happiness has a marked impact on productivity, and companies with higher levels of employee well-being tend to do better in terms of stock market performance and growth. It makes a compelling business case for promoting worker wellbeing and employers should pay attention.  

While it’s not news that higher levels of wellbeing – in terms of job satisfaction – is associated with higher morale and thus productivity, what is new is the recognition that an employee’s emotional state at work can drive performance. This concept is based on the Emotion theory that suggests higher levels of positive emotions will lead to better performance when it comes to creativity, interpersonal tasks and decision making.  

So, what does this mean, practically speaking, and should happiness be a responsibility of employers?

Are your employees happy?

While they certainly don’t bear 100% of the responsibility, employers do play a role in supporting an employee’s happiness. To a certain extent, the business’ success depends on it, given that employee wellbeing ultimately has an impact on your bottom line. A look at the business indicators will often reveal whether something is amiss – or whether improvements can be made. If your company is not meeting its key performance goals or achieving your strategy, if turnover is high, recruitment efforts are difficult or customer loyalty is low, then there’s likely a problem you need to address.

Employees need to connect with their co-workers and this requires time for social interaction. They need adequate vacation time, a supportive environment, resources to effectively do their job and, ideally, autonomy over their schedule. All of this is determined by the culture that an employer dictates, which always comes from the top.

For example, if a leader is miserable and doesn’t communicate or engage with anyone beyond the executive team, doesn’t care about his/her employees or tolerates toxic behaviour, this will permeate across the organization. Furthermore, people pay attention to what you do, not what you say, and will spot a discrepancy between the two. A CEO or manager who espouses work-life balance yet sends emails after working hours is signalling to employees that they are expected to respond right away. If you never take time off or work through lunches, if you don’t champion wellbeing or provide a supportive environment, employees will notice and believe that is what is expected of them.

 People who aren’t happy at work are only doing the bare minimum or enough to get by. By contrast, the report shows that a “meaningful increase in well-being yields, on average, an increase in productivity of about 10%.” What’s more, positive emotions lead to higher levels of creativity and cognitive flexibility – meaning happy employees have a greater number of diverse thoughts and ideas that contribute more value to the business.

What you can do

Having the right culture in place is a good starting point, but happiness isn’t just defined by table tennis in the lunch room. A benchmarking survey can establish a baseline of happiness and tease out areas for improvement. These can be repeated at intervals to measure the impact of any new strategies that have been implemented. Use questions that point to factors of wellbeing, such as: “what opportunities exist to connect with your co-workers?”, “do you feel you are appropriately recognized for your contribution to your department?”, and “do you feel you have an adequate work/life balance?”

Employers can look to the top small and medium employers (SMEs) in Canada who are leading the way when it comes to HR innovation and alternative work options. This includes a holistic approach to employee wellbeing, everything from financial counselling, career development and flexible health plans to maternity and parental leave top-up payments. Additional initiatives to consider include:

·       Wellness programs - These can be very effective, and many don’t have a large price tag attached. It can be as simple as lunch and learns on health topics, yoga classes, or even access to online tools that address a wide range of mental and physical issues that can negatively impact performance.  These programs indicate an interest in your employees’ wellbeing.  It is important that the executive(s) participate in the wellness activities to tangibly demonstrate their commitment, otherwise it’s an empty gesture. 

·       Policies for work-life balance - It’s critical to implement – and champion – wellbeing. Jobs are designed to be done during a regular 8-hour workday, without requiring consistent overtime. Make sure that employees use their vacation time. Assuming someone is already well or fairly compensated, increasing their salary is not the only lever for adjusting happiness and works only in the short term. Respecting the need for employees to have adequate downtime does more to impact employee well being in the long term.

·       Employee recognition - Good communication and involving employees as much as possible are best practices that contribute to their sense of purpose in the organization. Ensure a good match between their skills and the work they do, and how it aligns to the overall company purpose. Implement robust, authentic recognition programs that show you value their contribution.  Such practices must be authentic otherwise employees will perceive them to be manipulative.

I have seen the impact of employee happiness on company performance in practice. One client I worked with had an ineffective management team that did not display good work behaviours, which created an unpleasant work environment that resulted in poor financial performance. When that team was removed, those who stepped up into the roles had better attitudes, better work ethic and better relationships with staff. It quickly became obvious that employees were more relaxed, happier and had more clarity around their roles. Firm profitability and employee productivity went way up very quickly with virtually no turnover. In another organization, we adopted a focus on results which included a flexible work schedule, telecommuting and an unlimited vacation policy.  Far from being taken advantage of, our biggest problem that has resulted is that we have to chase people to use the time off. 

Ensuring employee happiness doesn’t mean giving them everything they want. It means providing the tools, resources and environment in which they can do the best job they can, recognizing their contributions and having adequate supports in place to enhance their wellbeing. The ROI is the happy result on your bottom line.  

Workplace Today: Troubled skies: Airlines may have important HR issues to resolve

This article originally appeared in the July 2017 issue of Workplace Today

The airline industry has suffered a spate of negative issues lately, notably the two passenger confrontations on United and American Airlines flights, followed by a seemingly sharp increase of customer complaints against other airlines for similarly poor experiences. While this resulted in a public relations nightmare for those organizations, it may likely point to a deeper, underlying HR issue. What is going on in companies where employees go to extreme measures to enforce company rules and in the process, mishandle customers?

There could be several reasons and, no doubt, there’s always the outliers, from the otherwise good employee who just has a one-off, really bad day, to one with a possible mental health issue or simply a random employee who decides this will be their ultimate form of resignation. But more often, poor behaviour can be indicative of a dysfunctional culture within the organization.

Corporate culture is usually established at the top, and the responsibility lies with senior leaders to ensure that any problems are quickly addressed and resolved. But often CEOs may be so removed from the day-to-day environment, and they may not have the particular skill set personally – or on the board – to anticipate or identify HR issues, let alone how to solve them. Blame is often placed elsewhere and trickles down, which only reinforces a systemic culture problem. Too many policies, procedures or useless evaluations, a lack of candid communication and transparency, or not listening to employee feedback are only some things that can create toxic environments. When it comes to understanding whether you may have HR issues that need to be addressed, consider the following:

Classic conditioning. We repeat the behaviours for which we are rewarded. Whether implicit or explicit, if the corporate culture prizes rules and adherence to them, and those employees who enforce the rules are generally rewarded, then they will more readily apply this to others as well. Rigid rules result in a lack of autonomy and ability to think flexibly. On the other hand, if the culture promotes an inclusive and shared vision of success where employees are valued, they will be more motivated to go the extra mile to ensure happy customers.

Doing unto others. Conversely, if employees are routinely treated harshly or feel that supervisors don’t care about them, most often their resentment may cause them to treat coworkers or customers in the same manner. A focus on rules, process and efficiency that is prioritized above employee and customer wellbeing can result a toxic corporate culture. Managers who focus on supervising rather than coaching or mentoring, and leave little or no room for feedback and discussion, will not foster positive relationships with their staff. Nor do they set a good example for the employee.

Don’t pay lip service. Especially in hospitality, good customer service needs to be seen as a clear priority by the executive team, not just something that’s paid lip service. If you want to ensure your employees provide good customer service, involve them in defining what those service standards are. They are the ones closest to the front line and in the best position to know what matters to your customers and what their pain points are. Through their direct experience, the may know how to best address your customers concerns. Invite them to share their learnings with others on the team.

Prioritize training. Don’t just set an expectation of excellence without supporting it. Ongoing training and support of employees on how to appropriately handle frustrated customers and diffuse charged situations is important. As with anything, practice makes perfect. Establish a regular training program with role-playing, brainstorming, and case studies, so that these skills are constantly honed and updated. A company-wide email reminding employees of the customer service standards doesn’t cut it. Set a standard internally for how mistakes are handled by providing supportive, calm assistance. Berating or throwing an employee under the bus to please a customer will not likely yield a positive result – or display problem solving best practice.

Pay attention. To how your employees are behaving. We live in a world of increased demand, stress and expectation, with an inverse proportion of time, patience and reward. This paradigm is perhaps felt most by those in customer-facing roles, who may deal with hundreds or even thousands of different people, and personalities, each day. Check in with them regularly and when they start showing signs of stress, pull them off the front line and let them diffuse their stress with non-customer facing tasks.

As with anything, you can’t get to the heart of a problem and fix it without talking about it and addressing it truthfully. Culture problems can usually be resolved when management has the courage to face issues openly and provide the right tools, and environment, that will foster real and positive change.