LITTLE ROCK — Here at work we have a new time-clock system, with which my long fingernails and I initially clashed.
Yes. Fashion and Technology had a fight - a fight that was settled by way of a street gangster’s gunpointing technique.
Perhaps I’d better explain.
It was years ago that we employees at Capitol and Scott were first told to record our comings and goings via a red-and-black wall contraption called the Kronos time clock.
Clocking in and out seemed a strange thing at the time for reporters and other hourly newsroom employees to have to do. Perhaps I should be honest and say “demeaning.” That’s how I felt, although the previous practice of filling out and signing black/gray/ white timecards probably didn’t afford us any more dignity.
Rocky at first, my relationship with Kronos eventually became uneventful, save for an occasional fussing at the machine when I did a bad badge swipe and it beeped at me. And save for the pure-D heck the newsroom timekeepers had trying to wade through the schedules of reporters like myself, who often had to provide time records for work done outside the newsroom at odd hours - as when I cover a social event for High Profile.
But things have been shaken up once again. Old Kronos is being snatched from our arms. New Kronos is taking its place.
The new clock is sleek, black, bigger. And it requires more than just a swipe of the badge. We have to place a designated fingertip on a reader that is then able to determine - via the “encrypted mathematical representation” of our digit’s digital image - that the person whose badge was just swiped is actually the person clocking in or out.
In other words, we are to not only swipe our badges to clock in and out. To put it rather bluntly, we are required to give the machine the finger.
The heralding of New Kronos came with a requirement to “get enrolled” in its system by registering one’s primary and secondary fingerprints so that their encrypted mathematical representations could be stored. “Kronos leaders” were assigned to help us accomplish this feat.
When my leader sent out the call, I showed up early to get the process over with. But getting it over with didn’t happen.
My Kronos leader tried. And tried again. And again. And yet again. Several more “agains.” But the machine claimed not to be able to read either of my index fingers.
“Is anybody else having this problem?” I asked, knowing what the answer would be.
“No, nobody else,” Kronos Leader answered.
I began to suspect that theproblem lay with the length of my fingernails, which did make it difficult to place either finger flat on the scanner. Visions of a future memo to employees danced in my head: “Due to the nature of the new Kronos biometric system and its technology, all women employees and guitar musicians must keep their fingernails trimmed to threesixteenths of an inch.”
That never happened, but a couple of days later, Kronos Leader tried again. Still no dice. Nobody said anything about fingernails needing to be cut. But expecting that ax (clipper?) to fall, I wondered if a planned March on Washington was in order.
Finally Kronos Leader sent me down to the payroll ladyto see if she’d have better luck with my fingertips. Seeing my problem, Payroll Lady gently took each index finger and tilted it in a position akin to the “side grip,” the way gangsters aim their guns. She then placed it on the fingerprint reader.
The time clock window, which all those times before had read “Failure” and “Not Enrolled” all those many times, now read “Accepted.”
Very anticlimactic. No march needed. So it’s on to giving the machine the finger ... and appearing to pretend I’m shooting it.
Via the clock and intranet, New Kronos will allow each of us to manage our own hours worked, keep up with vacation and sick leave and approve our own time at the end of the pay period. Reporters who work off-site will be able to clock in and out byphone.
I am happy for the newsroom supervisors who coordinate timekeeping, of course. Their jobs, once we get over our abject confusion, will be much easier. For that reason above others, I’m going to put on my “big girl” panties and embrace the change.
However, I have nicknamed the new clock HAL.
Same old e-mail method, though:
Style, Pages 53 on 09/26/2010