January 27 is National Punch The Clock Day. Whoever would have thought such a day would be listed as a "holiday." Not that it has been officially declared as such, but someone has conceived this "day" as possibly a way to celebrate the "punch clock system of recording time worked" or as possibly a way to enrich the coffers of the greeting card industry.
The working man or woman was at the mercy of their employer for recording the hours and minutes that they worked on their paid job. If there was a dispute, the worker's opinion was "low man on the totem pole" and the supervisor's or business owner's opinion was "top gun."
"No job. No punch in or punch out. No check at the end of the week."
So when an industrious inventor (The first time clock was invented in November 20, 1888, by Willard Bundy, a jeweler in Auburn, New York.) designed the clock in the late 1880's whereby an employee could actually punch (or clock) in and out on the exact minute, the worker could no longer be taken advantage of by an unscrupulous employer. However, this matter of trust and distrust went both ways. So if you had an unscrupulous employee who cheated a bit recording the time worked when time worked was recorded by hand, the punch clock eliminated that.
The time-clock is often thought of as a device to prevent the padding of one's salary by cheating a bit on how much time one had actually worked. Or another means of making sure the work-place is kept strictly honest in dealing with employee-employer relationships. It is also considered a "blue-collar" work place device as opposed to one that is used in the white-collar work-a-day-world of professionals. It is considered offensive and unorthodox to require professionals to be required to "punch-in."
Now I prefer to look at the punch clock in the light of the half-full glass. You see, the economy is poor. The real issue today is not one of whose word can be trusted in the matter of time worked on the job. The matter at hand is simply a National Day of Celebration that I have a job and I CAN punch in and out on the punch clock.
No job. No punch in or punch out. No check at the end of the week.
Have a job? Punch in and punch out. Be thankful. Get a check at the end of the week. Your glass is half full if not completely full.
