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This is a post that I think is going to generate a lot of snarly replies "don't like it, don't work there" and "you knew it was like that when you started work there" and "what's with you people & your phones, you can't put them down for a minute." I hope it doesn't turn into that, I am looking for a measured & reasonable discussion about this.
Short version: how do you ask about cell phone policies in advance without it seeming like you're one of those who will be playing games on your phone all day, when you simply are wanting it to be ok if you answer an occasional call from your spouse or child's school etc?
Long version:
I'm looking work & eager to return to work but I am concerned about the current climate in some places of work regarding cellular phone usage. Frankly I think it goes way overboard sometimes. I fully understand--please, make sure you read this part before you reply with the usual--I FULLY UNDERSTAND the idea that you're at work to WORK, not to play Angry Birds or Words With Friends, or to spend half the day talking on the phone about how your weekend was, how your favorite sports team is doing, etc. Reading your friends' social media posts--no no no, save it for break. I get that. I agree with all of that.
However, I think it goes way too far sometimes. Some places don't take into account that it's the year 2013 and people use their phones for a lot of things, many of them "PDA functions" of practical things such as managing your appointments, saving/looking up your password or child's social security number in the "memopad' or "notes" section, etc. I use the "memos/notes" a lot because I lose papers very quickly & I MUST enter such information into "memos/notes" to avoid it being lost. My child's social numbers, insurance account numbers, info about a local handyman plumber who does work on the cheap, recipes (I cook quite a bit), number of a person who is always needing kids' clothes & they will take our old clothes off of our hands, the license plate & VIN numbers for our 2 cars, the car's insurance policy number, it's all in there as "memos/notes." I don't do papers.
Anymore people use their phone just to see what time it is. A parent with a child may receive an occasional call from their child's school about an early let-out due to the electricity being out, vs them calling your WORK number for that as they did in the old days. Yet for some reason, despite this, you get places of work that throw the mother of all fits if they see a cell phone, even just for a blip, even if the person is very productive & does very quality work.
It makes no sense to me. A prior job I had, in a call center, was awful about this. They even would become very juvenile & insulting about it & seek to publicly shame someone "caught in the act" & would encourage others to laugh at them like it was funny. What really made no sense was that if someone was, say, reading a book or magazine during "downtime" (when there were no calls) or even yelling "WAZZZUP!!" to their buddies from across the room, it was fine--but the minute you even glanced at your phone for a microsecond, it was as if you had made a pass at the boss's daughter in front of him. I find such policies just totally beyond ridiculous. The people glancing at their phone for a minute isn't being anymore distracted from their job than someone reading a book or a magazine is. They ought to be handled the same way.
Not all places are like that. My last job, they were so easy-going that people would be constantly showing off their fart apps on their phones etc, and no one thought anything of it. It was great. Yet, this is the thing, I was productive. If my boss came to me with a scratch-pad of numbers needing a spreadsheet done for a meeting he was having in an hour, then only a call from my wife etc would be answered, & even then very quickly. (If she called while the boss was talking to me, even that was ignored & I'd call back after meeting with the boss & let her know I had to be quick because the boss had given me something to do he needed done pronto.) Anything else was ignored or delayed in whatever way. Her brother, my brother-in-law, loved chatting with me via text a lot, but if I was at work and ESPECIALLY in scenarios as this one, if I did reply it was something like "busy at work try me in 2 hours" and that was it. That was NO time for doing anything but your work, period, no one had to tell me, I got it done, and quickly.
Now, my children are in school, and I hardly get any phone calls about them, but occasionally I do. Just last week I found out by reading a Facebook feed from the local news that the school was letting out early due to the water being off. I otherwise probably would've found out from a phone call. That is the sort of thing I need to be able to communicate about. I can understand the need to focus on your work, but such things should be free & clear for parents to deal with vs being told you can't use your phone at all except during break etc.
My main question. In light of all of this, my thing is that I would really like to be able to ask up-front what a job's position or "climate" or "culture" is like regarding such things before agreeing to work there, but yet I don't want it appearing that by asking "how much do you people care if I have to use my phone once in a while" that I'm one of "those" people who's going to be playing Words With Friends or chit-chatting about my weekend etc instead of actually working. Again, when it's time to work, I WORK. The phone goes on vibrate & "wazup" texts etc are ignored or replied with "busy at work try me in 2 hours" (and that will be just with my brother-in-law, it's not like I'm deluged with 20 of them a minute). Facebook replies are ignored, the phone is on vibrate. All I want is the leeway to quickly handle a call from school or my wife etc, and also if they, say, give me a login ID for their system, enter that into the "notes" on my phone because in paper form it's as good as gone.
How do you ask about such things without it appearing that you're asking for permission to be a goof-off, because again, that's NOT what I'm doing? (Again, please read this post carefully.) Maybe, if it has to do with storing work logins & such, such places might not throw a fit if I go "semi-retro" & pick up a vintage Palm Pilot PDA on eBay & use that for such things? (Again, if I write it down, IT'S GONE.)
Again, I DO NOT want any "you're at work to WORK buddy, put the blankety-blank phone away you moron" type of posts. Again, where it regards focusing on your work as the priority vs social media-ing all day or texting "wazzup" all day, I AGREE. Read the post, READ. I just don't think I should have to ignore a quick 2 minute phone call from my wife or from my child's school, or that it should be a problem if I store my work IDs etc in there (or a vintage Palm Pilot PDA) instead of on scraps of paper that will be lost.
If you're that worried about it, just ask what the policy on occasional personal calls is. If they are going to drop you from consideration for the question, then you probably don't want to work there anyway.
Long post, forgive me for asking, but why can't you just keep the phone away and let them call the business if it is urgent? That's what we used to do before cell phones.
I don't think I'd ask about it. I've never worked for a company that didn't allow personal calls in cases of emergency. I can see them not wanting you to put PWs in your phone though. Even writing them down in some places is considered a security breach.
Also, why can't you take your phone with you to check on this when you take a rest room break or grab a soda/coffee or something? I guess I don't see why you should make an issue out of something in an interview that isn't really an issue.
If you're that worried about it, just ask what the policy on occasional personal calls is. If they are going to drop you from consideration for the question, then you probably don't want to work there anyway.
I agree with you fully, if a company is that anal, you probably don't want to work there. I know that call centers are out, & it's weird, I don't know when they got so bad about that, I recall working for one in 1997 & if my pager went off (on vibrate) I could glance at it to see what it said, so long as I didn't call back on a cell phone at the desk etc.
The place I mentioned, at that time my child was in a "conservatorship" arrangement, we didn't have custody, this "conservator" would periodically contact me via text about when we could see her & sometimes would offer us extra visitation time. Such texts I needed to reply to QUICKLY, because we intended to go to court to end that arrangement & have our child home with us 100% (which we eventually did, and we won), and this person was in contact with the court system & could vouch for how seriously we took any offers of extra visitation. I wanted a clear track record of timely & enthusiastic responses and thus I would ignore the company's policies & text back anyway "on the sly." Heck, everyone did it there, I saw it all the time.
For the past couple of years my child in school would act up & the school would have to call me to talk about this. I didn't want my mother-in-law being the one because she was too soft on our child & excusing her behavior, when I wanted her disciplined for it. I wasn't working then so I could take such calls. Now, it's not like that at all, the only calls I'm getting are ones saying their clothes became dirty due to an accident & can someone bring by a change of outfit etc, or a quick call "your child's snacks are low, can you drop off a box of crackers tomorrow" etc, that sort of thing. Such calls might can wait until break, but if it's a "school is out early due to the storm" I absolutely ought to be able to take such calls.
And yes, I lose scrap papers easily, even if I have a binder, so a PDA or notes on a smartphone are a MUST for things like logins & passwords etc. A lot of people are like that, the whole PDA industry certainly didn't sprout up just because I alone lose paper scraps.
This is a post that I think is going to generate a lot of snarly replies "don't like it, don't work there" and "you knew it was like that when you started work there" and "what's with you people & your phones, you can't put them down for a minute." I hope it doesn't turn into that, I am looking for a measured & reasonable discussion about this.
Short version: how do you ask about cell phone policies in advance without it seeming like you're one of those who will be playing games on your phone all day, when you simply are wanting it to be ok if you answer an occasional call from your spouse or child's school etc?
Long version:
I'm looking work & eager to return to work but I am concerned about the current climate in some places of work regarding cellular phone usage. Frankly I think it goes way overboard sometimes. I fully understand--please, make sure you read this part before you reply with the usual--I FULLY UNDERSTAND the idea that you're at work to WORK, not to play Angry Birds or Words With Friends, or to spend half the day talking on the phone about how your weekend was, how your favorite sports team is doing, etc. Reading your friends' social media posts--no no no, save it for break. I get that. I agree with all of that.
However, I think it goes way too far sometimes. Some places don't take into account that it's the year 2013 and people use their phones for a lot of things, many of them "PDA functions" of practical things such as managing your appointments, saving/looking up your password or child's social security number in the "memopad' or "notes" section, etc. I use the "memos/notes" a lot because I lose papers very quickly & I MUST enter such information into "memos/notes" to avoid it being lost. My child's social numbers, insurance account numbers, info about a local handyman plumber who does work on the cheap, recipes (I cook quite a bit), number of a person who is always needing kids' clothes & they will take our old clothes off of our hands, the license plate & VIN numbers for our 2 cars, the car's insurance policy number, it's all in there as "memos/notes." I don't do papers.
Anymore people use their phone just to see what time it is. A parent with a child may receive an occasional call from their child's school about an early let-out due to the electricity being out, vs them calling your WORK number for that as they did in the old days. Yet for some reason, despite this, you get places of work that throw the mother of all fits if they see a cell phone, even just for a blip, even if the person is very productive & does very quality work.
It makes no sense to me. A prior job I had, in a call center, was awful about this. They even would become very juvenile & insulting about it & seek to publicly shame someone "caught in the act" & would encourage others to laugh at them like it was funny. What really made no sense was that if someone was, say, reading a book or magazine during "downtime" (when there were no calls) or even yelling "WAZZZUP!!" to their buddies from across the room, it was fine--but the minute you even glanced at your phone for a microsecond, it was as if you had made a pass at the boss's daughter in front of him. I find such policies just totally beyond ridiculous. The people glancing at their phone for a minute isn't being anymore distracted from their job than someone reading a book or a magazine is. They ought to be handled the same way.
Not all places are like that. My last job, they were so easy-going that people would be constantly showing off their fart apps on their phones etc, and no one thought anything of it. It was great. Yet, this is the thing, I was productive. If my boss came to me with a scratch-pad of numbers needing a spreadsheet done for a meeting he was having in an hour, then only a call from my wife etc would be answered, & even then very quickly. (If she called while the boss was talking to me, even that was ignored & I'd call back after meeting with the boss & let her know I had to be quick because the boss had given me something to do he needed done pronto.) Anything else was ignored or delayed in whatever way. Her brother, my brother-in-law, loved chatting with me via text a lot, but if I was at work and ESPECIALLY in scenarios as this one, if I did reply it was something like "busy at work try me in 2 hours" and that was it. That was NO time for doing anything but your work, period, no one had to tell me, I got it done, and quickly.
Now, my children are in school, and I hardly get any phone calls about them, but occasionally I do. Just last week I found out by reading a Facebook feed from the local news that the school was letting out early due to the water being off. I otherwise probably would've found out from a phone call. That is the sort of thing I need to be able to communicate about. I can understand the need to focus on your work, but such things should be free & clear for parents to deal with vs being told you can't use your phone at all except during break etc.
My main question. In light of all of this, my thing is that I would really like to be able to ask up-front what a job's position or "climate" or "culture" is like regarding such things before agreeing to work there, but yet I don't want it appearing that by asking "how much do you people care if I have to use my phone once in a while" that I'm one of "those" people who's going to be playing Words With Friends or chit-chatting about my weekend etc instead of actually working. Again, when it's time to work, I WORK. The phone goes on vibrate & "wazup" texts etc are ignored or replied with "busy at work try me in 2 hours" (and that will be just with my brother-in-law, it's not like I'm deluged with 20 of them a minute). Facebook replies are ignored, the phone is on vibrate. All I want is the leeway to quickly handle a call from school or my wife etc, and also if they, say, give me a login ID for their system, enter that into the "notes" on my phone because in paper form it's as good as gone.
How do you ask about such things without it appearing that you're asking for permission to be a goof-off, because again, that's NOT what I'm doing? (Again, please read this post carefully.) Maybe, if it has to do with storing work logins & such, such places might not throw a fit if I go "semi-retro" & pick up a vintage Palm Pilot PDA on eBay & use that for such things? (Again, if I write it down, IT'S GONE.)
Again, I DO NOT want any "you're at work to WORK buddy, put the blankety-blank phone away you moron" type of posts. Again, where it regards focusing on your work as the priority vs social media-ing all day or texting "wazzup" all day, I AGREE. Read the post, READ. I just don't think I should have to ignore a quick 2 minute phone call from my wife or from my child's school, or that it should be a problem if I store my work IDs etc in there (or a vintage Palm Pilot PDA) instead of on scraps of paper that will be lost.
LRH
Why can't the school just call you at your WORK number?
(aliss2) and (manderly6) It's okay (aliss2) that you asked, but the thing is, my reply is "who cares what we did before cell phones." What did we do before cars? What did we do before fax machines? Should we still be typing 15 page reports on typewriters instead of in Microsoft Word or Google Docs? What's the big deal anyway that someone wants to use their own phone for their school calling them vs the company phone? This whole thing of acting like it's akin to showing someone your private body parts is just a bunch of stupid nonsense if you ask me. Heck they ought to APPRECIATE that someone is using their phone vs tying up the company phone line.
Beyond that, though, there's many a good reason for having someone call your cell. First, the person doesn't have to remember but one number, not 3 different ones (home, cell, work, blah blah blah). Secondly you don't have to keep updating everybody with your new work number if your job changes (as has been the case with me a lot as I tend to do a lot of temp assignments that see me at different places periodically.) Thirdly, they get a hold of you more quickly. Fourth, they don't tie up the employer's phone lines and their secretary etc with personal phone calls. It's a GOOD thing. At the call center job I mentioned, you surely didn't want that front desk person ferrying around personal messages for the 100 or so of us who worked there, & also often-times it was necessary for the person to talk to the caller themselves, not reply back with a later phone call by which time it was too late.
(randomlikeme) That is okay if the company isn't one that meticulously logs everytime you go to the bathroom or grab a soda/coffee etc. If you can do such "in the flow" of that & not be pestured about it, that's a decent compromise. Ideally, I don't think it should bother them so much anyway, this whole acting like someone pulling out a phone is like they're pulling out a gun or a pin-up calendar of bikini-clad women is just ridiculous to me. (But as long as I can handle my business, I can live with that which I don't agree with.)
Approach it more from a work standpoint - ask about their mobile device policy. Do they allow employees' to use personal phones for business or is that prohibited, do they provide mobile devices etc. Their answers may give you an indication of the culture - "uh...people don't usually use their phone at work" vs. "sure! we have a BYOD policy and the IT department can help setup your phone to access work resources"....
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