Originally Posted by DeadHead

I'm at the point now where I just ask the captain before I turn the beacon on. I honestly could give a crap seeing as the extra minute I am trying to cheat the company on probably doesn't count seeing as most of our flights are scheduled overblock anyway.

I'll go out on a limb here and say that most of us are sick and tired of a constantly changing, dynamic block out time policy. (No later than D-0, no more than D-5, but not before Pre-Pushback Message, and only before the WDR, but, now, only when the aircraft is about to move imminently, hard focus on imminently/no standing definition of imminently).
Standing by for a flow chart........

I think the next big step is going to be towards reducing those scheduled block times, but make no mistake here gentlemen this is about cost reduction nothing more, nothing less. If they can improve the "latency" on the front end, then shaving off block times will follow without effecting our on time performance.

If the 4th floor wonder-kin can find a way to shave 5 minutes off of a majority of our flight block times, then that would translate to a significant cost savings from a labor standpoint. Just my two cents here, but I think that is the long term strategy. Just as they are looking at reducing the actual difference between transmitted block out time versus actual pushback, they are also looking at the difference between scheduled block time versus actual average block time.