Time Keeping, Good Practice or just Demotivating?

Just recently I had experienced two incidents that made me question Time Keeping practices in a corporate environment.

Incident 1).

I had returned to my desk from my lunch break 15 minutes early. Upon returning, I was advised that there’s currently a meeting going on and that I should join in. I simply said I’m still on my lunch break and left it at that. I was later advised that the fact I pointed out I’m still on lunch was “rude” and I should have participated in the meeting even if I was on lunch. However, if I wasn’t in the building at the time, then I didn’t have to participate. The simple fact that I was around means I should have attended.

Incident 2). 

I had scheduled a quick meeting with my co-worker regarding a non-work related event during my 15-minute break. Unfortunately, the discussion went way over the 15-minutes I had initially allotted for. Upon my return I discovered  3 emails that literally counted the amount of time I was gone to the minute. (Granted, I was over my 15 minutes by quite a bit.) In the same emails I was advised although I don’t take my breaks, what I did was a huge no no. Again, I agree, I was gone for way too long.

Looking back on these two incidents really made me wonder:

Should I have come back from my break early? Or should I have come back from my break late?

It seems like either way I did it, it was wrong. Perhaps I should just stand outside the office building with an atomic timer watch to make sure I’m back at my desk at the exact second. Is this good management behaviour?

A bit of a precursor before you make judgement or comments:

• I don’t usually take my 15 minute breaks. They’re really short and are ineffective. So I prefer just sit there and do the work. An extra 30 minutes a day doesn’t usually kill me.
• I don’t bill the company the extra 30 minutes a day when I don’t take my break and I don’t leave early.
• I volunteer for Over Time shifts whenever I can help out.
• Based on my calculation, over the last year I have racked up over 23 days of break time. That’s 4.6 weeks of vacation time! Which is a lot more than the regular 3 weeks vacation time I’m given.
• The same day Incident 2 occurred I had stayed 30 minutes Over Time.