__________________________________________________________________
Happy Punch the Clock Day everyone!
This holiday celebrates the system of calculating employee work hours through the Punch Clock system and it's invention. On this holiday you are encouraged to share a day of celebration at your work place. Management needs to have plenty of coffee, tea and doughnuts in the break room so you and all your work mates can get together on your coffee break and celebrate the punch clock.
__________________________________________________________________
Origin of this Holiday
Our research did not find the creator, or the origin of this day. It is possible this holiday may of been created by the greeting card industry because we find reference to it on greeting card sites that say-
This holiday is referred to as a "National" day- However, we did not find any congressional records or presidential proclamations for this day. Even though we didn't, this is still a holiday that is publicized to celebrate. So enjoy the day and have fun with it.
___________________________________________________________
What is a Time Clock?
"A time clock, sometimes known as a clock card machine or punch clock or time recorder, is a mechanical (or electronic) timepiece used to assist in tracking the hours an employee of a company worked. In regards to mechanical time clocks this was accomplished by inserting a heavy paper card, called a time card, into a slot on the time clock. When the time card hit a contact at the rear of the slot, the machine would print day and time information on the card. This allowed a timekeeper to have an official record of the hours an employee worked to calculate and pay an employee."
History of the Time Clock
"The first time clock was invented in November 20, 1888, by Willard Bundy, a jeweler in Auburn, New York. A year later his brother, Harlow Bundy, organized the Bundy Manufacturing Company, and began mass producing time clocks." "Bundy Manufacturing, along with two other time equipment businesses, was consolidated into the International Time Recording Company (ITR)." "In 1911 ITR and two other companies were merged, forming Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation (CTR), which would later change its name to IBM." "In 1958 IBM's Time Equipment Division was sold to the Simplex Time Recorder Company." "The time cards usually had the workdays and time in and time out areas marked on them so that employees could "punch in" or "punch out" in the correct place. The employee was responsible to line up the correct area of the card to be punched with an indicator on the time card. Software applications offer such a system."
The first punch-card system to be linked to a Z80 microprocessor was developed by Kronos Incorporated in the late 1970s and introduced as a product in 1979. In the 1990s, time clocks started to move away from the mechanical version to computer based, electronic time tracking systems. On these systems, the employee either enters an employee number, swipes a magnetic stripe card, or brings an RFID tag into proximity with a reader, or uses some other device to identify the employee to the system. Based on the system being used, the employee then enters what should be recorded. This could be "punching in", "punching out", lunch breaks, reason for leaving early, or any other type of information the employer requires.
___________________________________________________________
Other January Holidays around the world
___________________________________________________________
Resource Links:
When is this holiday celebrated?
Punch the Clock Day is celebrated annually on January 27 in the United States!
Photo Left: Time clock, made by National Time Recorder Co. Ltd. of Blackfirars, London at Wookey Hole Caves museum. photo by: Rodw
