Lunch Breaks

[xclusive]

Originally Posted by seabee24

A related question,

For those that don't send your normal daily time out with a crew

How many have set break times and how many let their guys take breaks when they feel like? I had a situation multiple times with the same crew, I would pull up with them standing around and was told they were taken lunch. Even at 10 am. In not sure how much of that was the truth or not.

Another larger company gives their guys a set time. If the supervisor pulls up and people are standing around the crew leader is written up, and he can't use the excuse he's on break
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My guys take lunch anywhere between 11:30a - 1p. If I pulled up at 10am and was told they were taking lunch I would laugh my a$$ off. That is why GPS tracking is also a good idea. If they are taking more breaks than allowed you are losing money and need to correct the issue.

[seabee24]

Well this crew normally brings their lunch, and they are a construction crew, so GPS wouldn't help in this case.

It just seemed odd. The crew leader is an older Mexican guy, hard worker, honest guy as much as I can tell. But he is also lacking the drive to "motivate" his crew...aka kicking them in the ass. So it's hard to say if he is taking advantage of me or not.

One idea that we had, we are hoping that our phones will have the ability to punch in/out. Thus if I pull up, see guys standing around, they should be punched out. If not there's a problem

[shark1611]

Originally Posted by seabee24

Well this crew normally brings their lunch, and they are a construction crew, so GPS wouldn't help in this case.

It just seemed odd. The crew leader is an older Mexican guy, hard worker, honest guy as much as I can tell. But he is also lacking the drive to "motivate" his crew...aka kicking them in the ass. So it's hard to say if he is taking advantage of me or not.

One idea that we had, we are hoping that our phones will have the ability to punch in/out. Thus if I pull up, see guys standing around, they should be punched out. If not there's a problem

Now I like that idea. Do not want to be a micro, but I have found that if I am not with them the jobs do not seem to be taken care of as fast. When I see three or more trash items from different stores I know they have had just that many stops. All this has been a great help. I know it all comes down to managment and having the right people, but sometimes I do feel we are not being efficient as we could. Some of the cell phone use drives me nuts as well.

[corey4671]

Originally Posted by seabee24

Well this crew normally brings their lunch, and they are a construction crew, so GPS wouldn't help in this case.

It just seemed odd. The crew leader is an older Mexican guy, hard worker, honest guy as much as I can tell. But he is also lacking the drive to "motivate" his crew...aka kicking them in the ass. So it's hard to say if he is taking advantage of me or not.

One idea that we had, we are hoping that our phones will have the ability to punch in/out. Thus if I pull up, see guys standing around, they should be punched out. If not there's a problem

hmmm...could you have an email address...like a yahoo account that each employee could text an email to from their phone saying clock in, out lunch, in lunch, clock out. Could that not work as a sort of time card? Just thinking out loud off the cuff here.

[seabee24]

Originally Posted by corey4671

hmmm...could you have an email address...like a yahoo account that each employee could text an email to from their phone saying clock in, out lunch, in lunch, clock out. Could that not work as a sort of time card? Just thinking out loud off the cuff here.

That's not a bad idea actually. I could even think of some easy administrative things that could be solved with that

[Five Points]

My first yrs we just ate on the road between sites, never stopped. Now the route is soo much tighter we usually stop for a quick break between jobs.I find when you are hitting many places in a day you don't need to break for very long.

When its hotter we break more often. Ill buy cold drinks sometimes. I buy coffee alot. And I buy breakfast once a week.Friday or sat mornings. In the spring we work long days so I often buy a pizza slice and pop for supper.

I always pay the guys from the time they get there in the morning till we back at night.

Now in the summer we sometimes land a landscape job of some sort that may take a day or two. Those days we seem to take two breaks and a half hr lunch. I guess thats because we know we are working a set amount of hours. With mowing we dont go home till the list is done. If its done too early I will start the next days list.

[scott martoccia]

We allow a 30min lunch break for each crew. It is not important to me when they take their break. It will depend on what makes the most sense. For example if they are working at a group of properties and will not finish until 1:30 then they wait till then. Each property is job tracked on their daily work order so I can see plain as day what is going on, when and how long lunch break is taken.