1. Why do you think the managers at Qwest didn't seem to think of getting computers started as part of the employees' work?
2. How could HR professionals prevent this sort of misunderstanding?

Qwest Communications recently got in trouble when employees in its call center sued for unpaid overtime. Employees said they weren't being paid for starting work before their shifts officially began. Why did they do that? In some cases, they said, their managers asked them to come in before the start of their shift and start up their computers. In other cases, their daily job requirements were so challenging that the only way to meet the goals was for the computers to be up and running when their shift began.
Qwest defended itself on the grounds that it had a policy forbidding employees to work off the time clock. But the judge in the case said the company's actual practices, not the policy, were what the jury would need to consider. Companies that don't want to pay overtime rates for booting up computers have to build that work into employees' scheduled activities.