Intent

This document explains the scheduling expectations for employees, including provisions for making schedule changes of different kinds.

Overview

E-mail is always the preferred method of contact.

Visit the Contact Information page to get more details.

We are committed to providing the best scheduling flexibility around. We ask for your participation to follow these basic guidelines. In return, we will be as flexible as possible with your desired work times!

Employees are provided a great deal of scheduling flexibility. In exchange for that flexibility, employees are expected to:

1. Be responsible to maintain an accurate schedule
2. Work all scheduled shifts in full, and
3. Communicate via e-mail promptly when schedule changes are needed or requested.

Failure to adhere to and respect these three basic principles is a big deal and we have more info about this on the “Scheduling Abuse” section later on.

All employees must have a recurring schedule (input on the My Availability page) of at least 16 hours per week, Monday through Friday. There is a higher minimum schedule requirement for those applying for remote work.

All employees must regularly monitor their schedule (as shown on the My Schedule page) every Monday as well as for every shift they work. Employees are expected to immediately report any timeclock discrepancies.

Scheduling On A Daily Basis

Please arrive to work or be working at the time shown on your My Schedule page.
This picture shows a shift start time of 9:00am.

Please ensure your begin & end times reflect the times you are actually working.
This picture shows the individual taking a 30-minute meal break. (Breaks can be much longer if desired).

You do not have to ask permission to take a break. Finish the job you’re working on and log out of the transcription software. For extended breaks, please also input the change on your My Schedule page.

It’s expected that all shifts are completed in full. If you schedule yourself for 4 hours in a day, please ensure that you work the full 4.0 hours. Working 3.99 of 4.0 hours does not count as working your shift in full.

Working more than your scheduled number of hours is nearly always acceptable, though at times we may not be able to approve it. Please request to add time on your My Schedule page before you work extra. That said, it is our earnest hope to approve as many of these requests as possible!

Side note: Suppose you are only available to work between 12:00 and 4:00, and you must leave immediately at 4:00. In this case, we recommend you sign up to work fewer than 4 hours, say 3.5 hours. In this manner, you are more likely to be totally finished with your shift by the time you have to leave.

Planning For Time Off

We finalize our schedules every Monday at 5:00pm for the next following week. If you want time off for appointments, midterms, finals, personal days, holidays, etc., etc., simply make sure that you input your schedule request prior to the request deadline. No explanation needed. We are committed to empowering you to create the schedule you want and the schedule that works for you. Please plan appropriately!

Employees are given guaranteed approval to fall below the 16-hour minimum provided it is not more frequent than once per four pay periods.

Employees who request or need to work fewer than 16 hours per week for multiple weeks should submit their request at least two weeks in advance.

On-Time Request Deadline For Guaranteed Approval

Picture showing the on-time request deadline.

Requests submitted before the On-Time Request Deadline will be guaranteed approved per the above.

Requests submitted after the On-Time Request Deadline are NOT guaranteed to be approved. See the sections below for how to handle requests which are not on-time.

Being Late/Early

In the event you know you will be late to your shift, please input a schedule request on your My Schedule Page before you are late.

Similarly, if you want to begin your shift early, please input a schedule request before you arrive to the office.

We may not always be able to approve all schedule requests to come in early/late. That said, it is our earnest hope to approve as many of these requests as possible!

An example of a schedule request reflecting starting a shift later.

An example of a schedule request reflecting starting a shift earlier.

Unable To Complete a Scheduled Shift

We realize that from time to time, you may not be able to complete a previously agreed-upon shift. When this happens, please immediately contact the office by e-mail once you suspect an issue.

• A. If you are able to work the same number of hours within the same day (ex: not able to complete a 3-hour shift at 9:00am, but able to start work at 6:00pm) then contacting the office is actually not necessary. Please input the request on your My Schedule page.
• B. If you are able to work a fraction of your scheduled shift within the same day (ex: not able to complete a 4-hour shift at 2:00pm, but able to work 3 hours at 11:00am) please input a schedule request to reflect working at a different time that day and also rescheduling the 1 incomplete hour. In order to have your request considered, you must contact the office. You may be required to work additional make-up hours.
• C. If you are not able to work your scheduled shift at all, please input a schedule request to reflect rescheduling your shift to future days on the My Schedule page. In order to have your request considered, you must contact the office. You may be required to work additional make-up hours.

Picture, B: Schedule request reflecting working earlier in the day and requesting to reschedule 1 hour to the following day.

Picture, C: Schedule request reflecting not working a shift and requesting to reschedule the shift over the next two days.

Make-Up Hours

Shifts which are not completed at their scheduled times create a negative impact to our customers. In recognizance of this, when requests are made past the on-time deadline which result in hours being rescheduled to a future day, additional make-up hours may be required.

Whether or not make-up hours are required depends on a variety of factors such as: amount of work we have from customers, frequency of an individual’s schedule requests, the total amount of hours for the request, and the delay between when a shift was originally scheduled and when a shift is requested to be rescheduled.

If you generally don’t make schedule requests past the on-time deadline, if you are able to reschedule the shift you missed over the next day or two, you can minimize the number of make-up hours which may be required.

Important Note: Make-up hours will never be required for the first schedule request within a pay period which moves hours from a single day to future day (or days), provided that request is made prior to being late and prior to being short on a shift.

Taking Breaks

While logged in to the transcription workstation, please remain at the workstation. Should you need to get up, please finish the job you’re on and log out before leaving your station.

Short breaks will count towards your total number of worked hours in the day. A short break is defined as logging out of Formalizer and returning to work (logging back in to Formalizer) within 10 minutes. Breaks which are longer than 10 minutes must be at least 30 minutes in duration. These 30-minute-or-longer breaks are considered meal or unpaid breaks. These can be longer than 30 minutes in duration.

Your Logged Hours page shows the percentage of time that you are clocked in and on break. The general guideline is to keep your break percentage at 4% or less (this is approximately two five-minute breaks or one ten-minute break per four-hour shift). Unpaid or meal breaks do not count towards this percentage.

Scheduling Abuse

A high frequency of late schedule changes, failure to complete hours, failure to complete make-up hours, not showing for a shift, egregious break/idle, or any other form of scheduling issues may result in disciplinary action up to and including termination and/or loss of all compensation incentives.

Moving hours around within the same day (coming in earlier/later) is not considered scheduling abuse.