Glossary

Anomaly — a record that does not match the expected pattern. Includes system faults, queues and forgotten clock-outs as well as anything deliberate, which is why it is not a synonym for misconduct.

Buddy punching — one person clocking in for another. The only category that is unambiguously what "time theft" implies, and the smallest in most measured operations.

Comparator — someone else who did the same thing. Whether they were treated the same is the evidential core of most successful challenges.

Punch window — accepting a clock-in within a period either side of the shift start. Removes most of the motive for early punching and for buddy punching, at no cost.

Rounding neutrality — whether rounding favours neither side over time. Testable in ten minutes by comparing aggregate raw against aggregate paid.

Structural cause — a feature of the arrangements that produces the behaviour being measured: a terminal at one entrance, a queue at shift change, a break room down a corridor.

System failure — a refused punch, an offline terminal, a lost connection. Not time theft, and a large share of what gets counted as such.

Time theft — an employer-side term covering six different things, one of which is misconduct, one of which is the employer's own system, and one of which is not measurable.

Wage theft — the mirror term: unpaid working time, non-neutral rounding, deducted breaks that were worked. In most measured comparisons the larger figure.

Terms used loosely

"Productivity" in this context usually means keyboard input, which measures typing rather than work.

"Proof" applied to timestamp data overstates it. The record raises a question; corroboration answers it.

"Theft" in a disciplinary letter implies dishonesty, which is a higher bar and affects future employment. Describe the conduct instead.

"Industry average" for time theft is a survey of a different sector scaled to your headcount.

How to read these notes

Start with what the term covers if this is being discussed and nobody has separated the six categories.

Start with sizing it if a purchase is being proposed.

Start with the investigation section if a specific case is live.

Start with the other direction if you want the number that changes the conversation.

Nothing here is legal advice, and the notes say so where it matters.

On the absence of numbers

How to treat any figure in this collection.

No industry percentages are quoted, deliberately. They are surveys of other sectors scaled to headcount, and they include categories that are not what the term implies.

No savings figures, because they depend entirely on which of the six you have.

Where a relationship is stated — that the unpaid column is usually larger, that anomalies have seven causes — that is the part worth relying on.

Every number worth having is one you produced.

Turn the boundary into a test

For a concrete product reference, a practical team scenario can help turn this boundary into a test. Verify the current behaviour with representative fields and record what reaches the destination.