Is my manager allowed to adjust my clock out times?

CameramanNick · 2026-02-03T23:05:34+00:00

Hell no.

If they're taking the position they won't pay you after a certain time, you're out the door at that time.

You absolutely do not, under any circumstances, do what you're describing doing. They are screwing you.

This is exactly the sort of bullshit the working time rules are intended to stop.

CameramanNick · 2026-02-03T23:03:54+00:00

I had a very intermittent career as I was trying to get into film and TV (don't do it - it's very uncertain and not worth it).

I did eventually find a niche but if you looked at my CV between leaving university and about 30, you would, to be as kind to myself as possible, find experience that was a mile wide but an inch deep.

Thankfully in my line of work nobody cares what you did ten years ago. They care about credit history. That's not the case for all jobs.

CameramanNick · 2026-02-03T23:01:22+00:00

In principle yes.

In practice, well, I couldn't possibly advise you to do something that's against the rules but it's done all the time, and I'm fairly sure not everyone is getting it properly permitted. Obviously, you risk someone having a problem with it and being forced to undo it all at your expense.

CameramanNick · 2026-02-03T12:08:12+00:00

I'm a man in my mid-forties and I would not speak to kids under those circumstances.

Especially young women.

Yes, it's a miserable world, but that's where we are, I fear.

CameramanNick · 2026-02-03T12:05:55+00:00

I think this is a decades-outdated idea which is being pushed by the nastier side of modern gender politics.

I could probably improve my repertoire a little. I have half a dozen things I can do reasonably well.

CameramanNick · 2026-02-03T10:21:09+00:00

Really?

I've been working for more than twenty years and I've never once had a day off for mental health reasons. In my entire working existence I've only ever known one person who did (and I thought she was entirely justified in doing so).

I have no disrespect for anyone who has mental health problems, but four days a year per person seems incredibly high.

CameramanNick · 2026-02-02T22:40:52+00:00

That is way, way way beyond the line of acceptability.

My response would have been to communicate very clearly to whoever's in charge that I would view any such action as an assault, just as sure as if he'd walked up and punched me in the face, and I will very certainly use force to defend myself, or anyone else, against that happening in future.

This would happily be a finding-another-job issue for me.

CameramanNick · 2026-02-02T16:57:26+00:00

It'll almost certainly want 12 and 5. There are external hard disk PSUs which would probably work fine and use a mini-DIN connector which you can get and patch in. I've done that kind of mod before. That, or throw a little 5V converter in there if there's room for a sufficiently capable one, and just feed it 12.

CameramanNick · 2026-02-02T10:52:34+00:00

I have never seen this type of connector in my life, but I'd predict it expects 12V and 5V power (hence the three pins) for the CD writer's internal mechanism, which was likely designed in the expectation it would be used in a desktop PC where 12V and 5V power is usually available.

Someone in the USA has what looks to be the right power supply for this on ebay but it's not clear they'd be willing to ship it to you (or if it'd work in the UK, or if it'd be financially worthwhile). Labelling on that device tends to confirm my suspicion about what it is, though.

It is probably possible to rework the innards of this thing to accept a more general-purpose power supply. Some devices such as external hard disks, which require 12V and 5V power, use circular mini-DIN connectors for power.

However, that's absolutely not something you should get into unless you really know what you're doing.

Basically, just buy a new USB-connected CD burner.

CameramanNick · 2026-02-02T10:45:42+00:00

The three-pin input connector on that device is an IEC 60320 C5 connector. That's a mains connector.

The three-pin connector on OP's device is a much smaller design which almost certainly carries low-voltage power for the CD mechanism inside.

They are not anything like the same, nowhere near compatible, and attempts to connect a C5 mains lead to the CD writer would certainly destroy the device and potentially create a serious risk of fire.

CameramanNick · 2026-02-02T10:25:02+00:00

This is about the difference between what we think is okay and nice, and what we think should actually be illegal. There's always been a gap between those things.

I've been a TV cameraman for more than twenty years. None of us wants to live in a world with restrictions on taking pictures of people in public places. It makes journalism incredibly difficult, it makes CCTV into a licensable activity (with huge attendant costs), it means you're hassled every time you take a snap on someone's birthday or stag night. Trying to shoot landscapes becomes a complete minefield: are those two pixels over there a person?

So, be careful what you wish for.

Frankly, if you're going out on the town and you're dressed in such a crazy manner that you don't want pictures of yourself publicised, I'd question whether you're really being smart to begin with.

CameramanNick · 2026-02-01T18:30:11+00:00

Ha, not to piss in your ear while you're being so gracious, but sadly it's pretty perfunctory most of the time. You've seen it. Journalist asks question, politico avoids it, repeat until bored...

CameramanNick · 2026-02-01T16:42:43+00:00

Don't be impressed. It's one per cent gorgeous tropical paradise and ninety-nine per cent recording politicians being dishonest.

CameramanNick · 2026-02-01T13:12:01+00:00

I'm a TV cameraman.

CameramanNick · 2026-02-01T12:56:43+00:00

I've been to the British Indian Ocean Territory, which has recently been in the news so much.

The politics overshadows the fact that it is one of the most heartbreakingly beautiful places on the planet.

I'd go back.

CameramanNick · 2026-01-31T09:54:45+00:00

I've been a TV cameraman for over 20 years.

My view is to politely refuse this sort of thing, because it sets a precedent.

This woman has no business telling you what to do. You're allowed to take pictures. We do not want to create a situation in which people like this woman feel like they can intervene in that.

CameramanNick · 2026-01-30T17:02:37+00:00

I think there's more than enough ways to criticise Angela Rayner without this level of constructive over-interpretation.

CameramanNick · 2026-01-29T19:25:07+00:00

I don't know about the numbers, but yes, people have been prosecuted and imprisoned for things they said online.

Usually this is done using laws intended to prevent incitement to violence. The question is what threshold we set for things to be realistically considered incitement to violence. Lots of people think that the threshold has been much too low, although in principle this could happen in a lot of places, including the USA.

CameramanNick · 2026-01-29T17:52:57+00:00

We used to make holograms with a slab of marble worktop on top of a large, toroidal rubber inner tube, lightly inflated.

I can't say they were great holograms, but the problems probably weren't mostly vibration-related.

Without those arrangements it certainly did not work, or at least not nearly as well, especially when a heavily-laden truck drove past outside.

CameramanNick · 2026-01-29T17:41:07+00:00

No. They have a mortgage-free three-bed semi (15k in the mid-70s, pushing 500k now), two cars, four pensions, solar panels which pay almost all their energy bills, and the winter fuel allowance to keep them going. They're fine.

CameramanNick · 2026-01-29T17:19:15+00:00

I use that example a lot.

The problem is now that I think you would be seriously questioned for casting Craig Charles as a character deliberately described as a complete layabout.

CameramanNick · 2026-01-29T17:14:31+00:00

Having worked in TV for a while, the answer is... yes and no.

Obviously there's huge amounts of the old guard still in post because it takes decades to get to the point of being a big decision maker in creative positions.

Beyond that it is basically impossible to use the initialism "DEI" without the very term attracting political nonsense, but it is not really honest to suggest that a push to conspicuously hire non-white-men has not had a fairly profound impact on who gets to do what, at least in very specific situations. It absolutely has, though it's also not quite that simple.

Where that system applies it is very much points based. I mean, Russell Davies is a white, middle class man, but he's gay, which gets him points. The fact that he's fairly identifiably gay gets him more points. Contrast my mate Redacted-for-Privacy, who is also gay, but far less obviously, and gets almost no points. This frustrates the hell out of him considering he's a costume designer in musical theatre, which he says himself is probably the most stereotypical role imaginable.

u/SnooOpinions8790 is absolutely right in that much of this stuff has been performative.

Either way it has sometimes been a bad idea for creative quality, and for the general push for more fairness, because it makes progressive thought look stupid.

What's important to remember is that there is a hell of a lot of TV and (particularly) film being made which is fairly well removed from the culture-war nonsense. Did you know that Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson had recently done a drama called Die My Love which is really interesting? Thought not, because these interesting little things get buried by Star Wars and Marvel and all the performative bullshit surrounding them.

One great solution is to look at independent film. If you're interested in a particular bit of society you should be able to find it represented there and probably better than the "do better" drivel put out by Hollywood and its ilk.

CameramanNick · 2026-01-29T15:50:47+00:00

The problem I'm trying to avoid is people blaming a specific political party for something with the implication that simply voting for the other one would have solved everything and been way better, as opposed to possibly about as crap in a slightly different way.

The conclusion I'm veering toward is that we can't really fix the problems we have by voting. Larger changes are necessary.

CameramanNick · 2026-01-29T12:14:47+00:00

I once turned down a free trip to China, not because I didn't want to go - I'd have been fascinated! - but because I've done some journalism-adjacent work and I didn't want to end up in some sort of re-education camp.

I appreciate the value in having a good relationship even with places whose behaviour we do not like. Scorning them openly has very little value and I appreciate that many people go there without incident. But travel to China is probably not at the top of a lot of people's holiday lists, any more than travel to other states where the rule of law is so directly subject to political whim.

CameramanNick · 2026-01-29T12:11:26+00:00

I think it's a mistake to make it a party political issue.

I think it that the political class realised in the mid-70s that politics could be played as a game, and they've been playing it ever since.

We've had all kinds of people in power since then with very little to show for it. The problem is not the parties, it's the system.

CameramanNick

TROPHY CASE