How to keep your own record of hours and incidents

Wage and harassment cases often come down to whose record is better. Yours can be, with ten minutes a day.

Solange Dacosta, Partner, Rochester·6 min read

Use something that dates itself

A notes app, an email to your personal address, or a paper notebook you photograph each week. What matters is that each entry carries a date you didn't choose after the fact.

For hours

• The time you arrived and the time you left, not only the time on the clock
• Breaks you didn't get, and work you did from home
• Who scheduled you, and any message asking you to stay late

For incidents

• What happened, in the words that were used
• Who was there, and who you told afterward
• How it affected your work, your health or your pay

Keep it off work systems

Use your own phone and accounts. Don't copy company files you aren't allowed to take. If you're unsure what counts, ask us before you save it.

Bring it when we meet

Even a rough record makes the first meeting faster and the arithmetic clearer. We'll go through it with you, entry by entry.