help needed: employment issues.

[aaron]

Hi All, I have just had a very "interesting" discussion with my manager today and hoping if someone who understands the New-Zealand-way-of-doing-business can help me out here.
long story short:
my manager has asked me to put a time on very single work that I do, for instance: if i'm getting a quotation from a company, it takes me " 2 minutes" to write an email, then it takes another "5 minutes" for me to read the reply, thus my total input on this issue is "7 minutes". Example 2: if i'm to talk to a customer, it should take me 10mintes (give or take) to do the talk, then my total input on this work is "10 minutes". Same goes to so many others works that i do, the waiting time is exclusive from the consideration (let's say it takes 2 days for the quotation to come back to me, then I can't say I have been doing this work for 2 days which is fair enough).
why do I need to put a time on details like this? because the manager says that my working hrs on the employment contract is 40hr a week, this is how they keep track if i'm having enough workload to do, and I can only suggest the company to hire another one like me to help in the company once after adding those "minutes" together the total time that I worked exceed 40hrs a week, only in this case the company will hire another employee. (which basically means I need to keep working (non-stop) for every single "second" for 40hrs a week).
When I confronted my manager saying what company in the world would ask their employees to do things like " 2 minutes to write an email, 5 minutes to read the reply, if i'm writing 100 emails a week and doing nothing else, then i'm working 700 minutes this week", my manager replied that this is a very common business procedures in New Zealand.
so my question is that: do you know any company in New Zealand that is asking their employees to do things like this so that the company can measure the employee's work and value based on it? because to me this is just ridiculous.

[JandM]

I hope you get some helpful answers. (I'm not in the country and can't answer.) Just on a logical basis, are you also supposed to write in '2 minutes to fill in the log about how many minutes the work cost' every time, and if not, why not? It's also something you're being instructed to do in your working day by your employer.

In your place, I think I would talk to the Citizens' Advice Bureau. They may have something, based on NZ employment law, to tell you.

[aaron]

I hope you get some helpful answers. (I'm not in the country and can't answer.) Just on a logical basis, are you also supposed to write in '2 minutes to fill in the log about how many minutes the work cost' every time, and if not, why not? It's also something you're being instructed to do in your working day by your employer.

In your place, I think I would talk to the Citizens' Advice Bureau. They may have something, based on NZ employment law, to tell you.

thanks JandM, I will take actions when the time comes to that I need to protect myself.

[JandM]

Good for you. Wishing you the very best - this kind of thing is MOST uncomfortable, as I know from personal experience.

[Jinkello]

Hey Aaron,
I have a friend who works in the design industry and has to fill out time sheets by the minute as you have described above - its so that they can charge the client directly for their staff members time that they have spent on their project. (including minutes for emails/phone calls/quotes sent)
They do however have 'office administration' to fill up some space as expected for general work, clearing emails, writing your log/time sheet etc (so that you aren't having to work or write down EVERY minute of the day)

[YessicaCBO]

Hi aaron,

I do the same! It is a pain in the... we do it because we need to charge our client for their staff members time that we spent on their project...

is more for charging clients that mesuaring your work