Timekeeping for Federal contractors

[mtbc]

I have worked for three businesses that were primarily Federal contractors. Auditors are sent in to ensure that the businesses are following the accounting rules, as set by statute. A primary concern is that the business is not making undue profit off the taxpayer and, of course, a leading expense is labor.

The first employer was small indeed. The rules mostly made sense to me there. One was to average forty hours per week, with scope for that average to move above or below that, but only to some extent, and one could work oppositely to balance it out. One worked, one recorded one's time. Time spent working on projects was charged to those. Other time, like in general business meetings, or writing grant proposals, was charged to overhead codes. If work benefited multiple projects, one typically charged it to the first that had been committed to, the thinking presumably being that it then needed done anyway regardless of if the second was awarded, so why should the second pay toward it?

The next employer was a little odder. They worked similarly except for that, if one worked over forty hours in any week, one lost those extra hours. Counterproductively, this made me a lot more careful about trying to avoid overtime. I was pleased to eventually resign having averaged less than forty-one hours per week over my tenure. Whereas, at my previous job, I had sometimes worked stretches of fifty-hour weeks when needs must. I vaguely recall that they were more keen to split work across projects where relevant. Charging overhead was fine but one needed management approval to charge more than a given fraction of one's time to it, this limit was set reasonably achievably in my case.

My current job is odder still. When an accounting boundary approaches were are to guess and record our time ahead of doing the work. It is somewhat amendable after the fact, at least. This is an odd month indeed in that, tomorrow morning, I must enter my time for the rest of the month. (The fiscal year starts on October 1st.) They annoy me somewhat in, at the end of each business quarter, having me lose extra hours I averaged over forty; I would mind less but my vacation entitlement is less than at previous employers. To a large extent, overhead tasks are simply split across projects: there is very little scope for minions or lower management to charge overhead. Overhead tasks do come up: for instance, this morning, they encouraged us to attend a couple of hours' worth of material related to charitable giving, and I am soon due a cybersecurity training refresher.

I wish these later places worked like my first employer, that one fit how I think.

Comments

[shadowkat]

Interesting. I do labor rate and overtime negotiations at my current job. So have some familiarity. Also, I'm an hourly employee - but the telework from home schedule has thrown over time out the window. No one is allowed to charge or ask for it. If you clock in overtime - it's not counted. I did, and it wasn't counted. Why? No way for them to track it.

I have co-workers who worked on a Saturday, or worked util 7 or 8 at night, or later, but can't get overtime. The overtime is really just comp time or "vacation hours" -- which the newer workers require, since they have almost no vacation time. I've four weeks and one day, so not an issue.
[Another reason not to leave current job - currently have 21 days vacation time, four personnel days, and am due to get five more days vacation time, and another personal day in another year.]

It does vary per occupation. Most unions will push for time and a half, but in our contracts we remove overhead. You can't charge overhead and profit on premium time. Which the worker may not notice, but it does impact the business who employs or contracts out that worker.

[mtbc]

Oh dear, yes, the telework aspect is an annoying pain in that regard. (I'm salaried but of course the Federal government need the hours to figure how much was spent on their projects.) My current employer does have a means of borrowing a week's vacation, I believe, that is useful for new hires. I'm also not in the category of employee that is in a union, we have others that are, I don't know if those are exactly the hourly ones.

[wpadmirer]

Working for a State University of very different. I did that for 10 years and anything that was federal grant had to be accounted for in such annoying ways, and often because of things like the end of the fiscal year, you were guessing. I hated it.

But that's the way it works.

You have my deepest sympathy.

[mtbc]

Thank you, I'm glad there are only limited ways I have to deal with it in this particular job! Were I running a small business, it's with great hesitation that I'd consider taking a cost-plus government contract.