What does it mean to clock in?

Answer 1

The meaning for "to clock in" goes back about a century when an actual clock with a time stamp or punch was used to mark a time card for employees.

The card would show the clock's stamp of when an employee arrived, went to and returned from lunch, and when they went home at the end of the day.

The term is commonly used today in most English speaking countries, and the way to "clock in" is still very similar, if not exactly the same, as when it began. Although much of the clocking in is done by computer now and is much harder to falsify than the old stamp method when a friend could clock you in when he clocked in himself.

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As one who had to use the system in a factory in the 1980s (last century!) I can also say the clock could be used to time the work itself as well as your presence in the building. In our case, a batch-production machine-shop, each machinist had his own attendance-card, but also collected a similar card for each task, write the Job Number on it and clock on and off the task. In this way the accounts department could calculate the labour-charge elements of the products' selling-costs.

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I work now for a company using flexi-time, which obviously places all staff on trust, but in theory anyone could be tracked via a computer record generated by the door security system in which employee has a coded, magnetic fob like a USB stick, plus PIN, to unlock the door.