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What you still don't seem to understand is that an employer isn't going to waste time and money trying to sift through problem employees. That, and when there are problem employees, people will start crying foul when some workers are allowed phones and some are not. It makes business sense to eliminate them to start with.
In other words, punish good employees for what bad employees do. I know what you mean, but to do that is bad policy. It's easier, it's also lazy. Instead, you punish the bad for what they do. Someone is falling behind in their work & they're always on their phone or always fooling around chit-chatting with other employees too much, tell them they need to focus on their work more and on their leisure activities less. Simple. To punish everyone across the board for what a few do would like castrating all men at birth because of the ones who rape.
Quote:
Originally Posted by aliss2
You keep looking at this from the view of a cell phone addicted employee, rather than from the common sense employer's position.
I don't consider it an addiction to say that an occasional phone call from your child's school or your spouse is a call you should be able to take. I don't consider it an addiction to say that if other employees are able to look at a book or magazine during idle time then you'd like the same courtesy with your phone, or that if you're not allowed to peak at your phone then they in like manner shouldn't be eating up company time reading a book/magazine. I don't consider it an addiction if an employee gives you a phone number of a babysitter or cheap plumber etc while chit-chatting at the water cooler (assuming such chit-chatting is okay in & of itself) and you spend maybe 45-75 seconds entering it into your phone's "notes" section so you don't lose it. I don't consider it an addiction to look at your phone to see what time it is with the same level of frequency as someone else would look at their watch.
If you are talking about someone that has to look at their phone every few minutes all day long to the detriment of their work, then I'd agree--yes, that's addiction. If someone is doing that, yes, address it, otherwise, I say, leave the employees alone & stop being petty about something that means nothing in the end. Dress codes don't bother me, being expected to be on time doesn't bother me, shaving doesn't bother me, but acting like it's still "Little House on the Prairie" & we're all communicating by telegraph is just lunacy. Maybe we should just pull out IBM Selectric Typewriters, Kor-Ec-Type and punch-card readers while we're at it.
In other words, punish good employees for what bad employees do. I know what you mean, but to do that is bad policy. It's easier, it's also lazy. Instead, you punish the bad for what they do. Someone is falling behind in their work & they're always on their phone or always fooling around chit-chatting with other employees too much, tell them they need to focus on their work more and on their leisure activities less. Simple. To punish everyone across the board for what a few do would like castrating all men at birth because of the ones who rape.
"Lazy" to monitor employees and pick out who is a "good cell phone user" and who is a "bad cell phone user"? No, it's called making better use of company times and resources.
Again with the apples to oranges comparisons. Not all "punishments" are equal and most people would consider personal cell phone use during company time a privilege, not a punishment.
A no-cell phone policy to minimize wasteful personal cell phone use has no relation to castrate 3.5 billion males because of sexual assault. That is so ridiculous, bordering on histrionic and trolling. Good day to you, I'm done with the absurdity.
A no-cell phone policy to minimize wasteful personal cell phone use has no relation to castrate 3.5 billion males because of sexual assault. That is so ridiculous, bordering on histrionic and trolling. Good day to you, I'm done with the absurdity.
already repped you for another post but this is certainly worthy, too!!
OP - what about the suggestion of forwarding your cell phone to your work phone?
If one does this as a means of sort of subterfuge, to loophole around the nonsense so as to save your job but to still be able for people to get a hold of you, then I can somewhat see that as a workaround, much as I've stated with regards to using a Palm Pilot for storing work-related notes, vs having to write them down. Ideally you ought to just be able to enter them into your phone, but at least with such work-related notes you have them in an electronic device where they're stored so you're not having to deal with paper scraps. (In a way, having them in a Palm Pilot may actually be better in that such helps you keep work & personal life separate.)
The thing I can't get away from, though, is why should a person HAVE to forward the number to their work phone vs just letting their cell phone do it? Why should they have to engage in such subterfuge? Why shouldn't they just be able to answer their own phone to start with? If you think about it logically, what difference does it make whether your work phone or your personal phone is ringing, with regards to the same call? The issue is the distraction due to a personal issue, not which electric box does the ringing. Companies are overlooking the obvious--phones anymore are as ubiquitous as wallets & watches (they even are making smartphones with NFC etc to act as wallets themselves at approved vendors so you don't have to carry a credit card), and as much of a none issue at least with mature people anyway. To treat them like roaches in a house is just silly.
Heck, in fact, actually you'd think having the cell phone ring would be better, as you're not using a company resource (the phone line) for a personal deal. On top of that, it's another thing to have to remember, to engage forwarding upon arrival but yet you have to remember to disengage it upon departure or else all your calls to go to your work phone now that you're home. And all over what--a company having a mentally deranged conniption fit over a device that's harmless & ubiquitous to practically just about everyone, which is now anymore as common as a wallet or a purse? It's beyond stupid.
That's what gets me. To me it is nothing less than mentally deranged to say that making personal phone calls on your work phone isn't a distraction, but that making them on your cell phone is. The issue is a person being taken away from their work due to non-work things and how that distracts them from their job. It makes no difference which electronic box does the ringing, none at all, and it is the height of schizophrenia to suggest that it does. Frankly, I consider it a form of discrimination analogous to racism--you know, all people of one color are horrible, while all people of another color are just perfect & wonderful. I thought we were trying to get away from that sort of thinking, but apparently we've replaced one form of discrimination with another.
Well, it makes sense really. What is the difference between an office phone ringing vs a cellular phone ringing, if it's the same sort of call going on?
Again, I do understand your suggestion with regards to it being a way to get by, a way to still be in touch & not have to give out your work number to everyone. In that respect, it's an understandable suggestion as a compromise. It's just that, aside from that it's something else to have to remember (turning it on in the morning, off in the afternoon), it's just asinine that you'd HAVE to. What in the WORLD is with people acting so hostile to the presence of something that anymore is as common as a wallet or purse?
At the risk of getting off-topic, I notice it's that way with a lot of things. Cell phones are to many people now what cigarettes were a generation or two ago--a group that's currently en vogue to bash and crucify. There is so much movement towards banning phones while driving, but NOTHING about educating people about paying attention in general & not letting other distractions such as the music system, eating, dealing with bratty kids in the backseat, staring at a cute jogger etc cause you to crash. Those things DO cause people to crash, just as often as cell phones do, but you hear NOTHING about it.
You hear people complain hard core about others using their phones at the dinner table, and to me, unless they're ringing loudly or unless you're on a date with them & they're ignoring you etc, frankly it's no one's business. Yet people are so intense in terms of their hatred over people who use them in such situations, or the check-out line, etc, even if they're not being noisy or holding anyone up. It makes no sense, really.
At work, I'm productive. You're at work primarily to work & I understand & agree with that. But treating employees with phones as if they're stealing office supplies or downloading porn at the company PC etc is simply ridiculous. I have kids at school, a wife who when not at work sometimes depends on my help over the phone to get something done yet it's ALWAYS brief and NOT EVER anymore than 1 single phone call on a given day, other people have similar issues & also have elderly parents etc. At one point my wife, after having given birth, became so ill she was in a psychiatric hospital for very severe post-partum depression, & the hospital called once while I was at work to tell me that she had been released & someone needed to come by 5 for her to be released by that day or else she'd be stuck there the entire weekend. I'm supposed to ignore phone calls like that? Are you freaking kidding me?
Believe me, even if a company is okay with such calls but nonetheless states that a person who's receiving too many such calls is too distracted to work & may need to take a leave of absence until such problems are more settled & not interrupting things at work as much, I can understand that. In my case I was getting such calls somewhat regularly for awhile but my boss was very understanding of that & I was very appreciative of that. After awhile they calmed down & that was most certainly fine by me. I appreciated that my boss stuck by me during that time & gave me the flexibility to handle such calls without acting like I had urinated on the pope or something. I really appreciated that, and again, once it calmed down, I was more than happy to not be receiving anymore such calls & to be able to focus solely on work while at work.
All places of work should be like that (again, exceptions for jobs such as a factory job on the assembly line or air traffic control etc.)
How would the public--not to mention the company's customers--judge a management team that would not allow an employee to take a call for help from an elderly parent in distress? What about the employee who desperately needs to hear the results of a medical test? Moderator cut: snip?
Amen, amen, amen! I could not have said it better myself.
LRH
Last edited by 7G9C4J2; 09-18-2013 at 11:04 AM..
Reason: Copyright violation - do not quote more than one or two sentences from copyrighted text
If a potential employer sees you expending as much energy and verbiage defending your cell phone use as we've seen here, you wont have to worry about using your cell phone at any job.
Larrytxeast, given how adamant you've been about this relatively minor issue, I think you need to be REALLY careful about the impression you make on job interviews, in general. You asked for opinions, you got them — and then you argued at great length with everyone who didn't totally agree with you, repeating your points over and over.
That might sound kind of harsh, but if you really are looking for a new job, please consider how it sounds when you don't let something go. Your point is that you are a responsible adult and you should be able to be trusted to use your time wisely. I get it. I really do. But as long as it's their company and not yours, I would be really careful about how I phrased topics that could be controversial between business owners/managers and people who would like to be hired. Unless, of course, you don't really need the job, in which case feel free to lecture companies with strict behavior policies on how they are "draconian."
You've posted a lot about cell phones, mostly long-winded rants about discrimination of cell phone users, etc. overblowing things with comments like "witch hunts", it seems you are probably one of those people who needs to put the damn phone away and come back to planet earth. While you are at it, get a thesaurus and dictionary (download it on your phone if you need it) so you can stop misusing terms such as draconian and witch hunts.
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