Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I see many people on their cell phones at work. Many times, they are watching videos or browsing the internet. I'm old school. Cell phones are a distraction, and not acceptable on the job. I see many people using them though, and it's not an issue though.
What is the norm these days? If there is a company policy against cell phone use, how well is it enforced?
Where I work, as long as work is moving along and getting done in a timely fashion, it's not an issue. At least, no one says anything.
No policy where I work. There is a problem with it. But no one does anything because the problem runs up the chain of command. Those who live in glass houses...
For my part, as much as I try to avoid it, I do see those who abuse it and I refuse to help them when they miss lunch or have to stay late. For all I know, they really have had an emergency for 3 hours a day for several years in a row. Not my business.
Your first verbal warning in orientation. Your second verbal warning is when you hit our dept and sit thru the first day of training where you not only read the policy, but it's given to you right along with the tardy and absence policy. I think being told twice is enough...the third time you get a PIP.
We are very, very strict on cell phone usage because of the nature of the job
Maybe you misunderstand the nature of a verbal warning. It occurs AFTER an infraction. Reading someone a list of 100 rules on the day of hire is NOT giving a verbal warning on those 100 rules. Just tell the truth and say your organization doesn't give verbal warnings at all, that all infractions of rules are firing offenses, and that these rules are more important than any other metric including productivity.
Maybe you misunderstand the nature of a verbal warning. It occurs AFTER an infraction. Reading someone a list of 100 rules on the day of hire is NOT giving a verbal warning on those 100 rules. Just tell the truth and say your organization doesn't give verbal warnings at all, that all infractions of rules are firing offenses, and that these rules are more important than any other metric including productivity.
I see many people on their cell phones at work. Many times, they are watching videos or browsing the internet. I'm old school. Cell phones are a distraction, and not acceptable on the job. I see many people using them though, and it's not an issue though.
What is the norm these days? If there is a company policy against cell phone use, how well is it enforced?
Where I work, as long as work is moving along and getting done in a timely fashion, it's not an issue. At least, no one says anything.
Times must have changed in the couple of months since I last worked in an office environment,then and even before then any place I've worked made sure you read the company policies regarding cell phone and internet and it was usually discouraged. A workplace is to work...unless you work at Facebook
Times must have changed in the couple of months since I last worked in an office environment,then and even before then any place I've worked made sure you read the company policies regarding cell phone and internet and it was usually discouraged. A workplace is to work...unless you work at Facebook
I think times HAVE changed - not in the last couple months, but definitely in the last few years. You may have worked at one of the last hold outs. Let's be serious though, the workplace has NEVER been just a place to work. The definition of acceptable extracurricular behavior has simply changed over time.
A lot of people use phones for company email at my company, so I'm not sure how well that would work.
We do have a "no texting" policy in our company manual. No joke. No TEXTING while working. It doesn't say crap about email, Facebook, watching porn, browsing the internet, talking on the phone, or anything else. Just NO TEXTING. I read every single word of the company manual.
The other day I was in the office and the President (whose office is next door to mine) walked past and said he just texted his wife about something.
I said sarcastically, "Ah, excuse me, the company manual explicitly forbids texting while working. This may result in disciplinary action."
He said, "But I wasn't working at that time. I was just texting my wife."
The vast majority of my weekly internet browsing (computer, not phone) comes at work. When our customers come in and need something handled we do it, but we're sitting at a computer essentially on-call most of the day, or at least on slow days. I have an earphone in most of the day as well, even when walking around the floors. But I'm not the only one and I leave one out so I can still hear people talking to me if need be.
At my place years ago Cell Phones while working wasn't a big deal, quickie check and back in your pocket but a few took advantage and got ALL cell phone use during working hours banned.
Like a lot of things, a few wreck it for everybody.
A lot of people use phones for company email at my company, so I'm not sure how well that would work.
We do have a "no texting" policy in our company manual. No joke. No TEXTING while working. It doesn't say crap about email, Facebook, watching porn, browsing the internet, talking on the phone, or anything else. Just NO TEXTING. I read every single word of the company manual.
The other day I was in the office and the President (whose office is next door to mine) walked past and said he just texted his wife about something.
I said sarcastically, "Ah, excuse me, the company manual explicitly forbids texting while working. This may result in disciplinary action."
He said, "But I wasn't working at that time. I was just texting my wife."
Wow you must be on good relations with that president...I had noticed that too at a job I was at but didn't dare challenge superiors;
I love this. If I ever do start up my business again, this policy would be front of the line. At least for hourly /non-exempt employees at minimum.
During New Hire/Orientation, you get one warning verbally AND in writing and I make you sign it. You will not use your personal cell phone OR browse the interent for non-job reasons during work hours. During lunch/break, fine. Call ends when your break ends. If you have an emergency - a TRUE emergency - they need to call you at the main work number. This is so that it can be tracked properly AND so that the employer knows that there's an emergency and properly plan resources.
First violation - PIP. I agree with this. We already warned you what would happen, so it's not a surprise. You will stay on the PIP for 3 months and show me that you understand.
A second violation during the PIP is instant dismissal. If the PIP has expired and you do it again, you're suspended without pay for a week.
A third violation at any point is instant dismissal.
Now, to support such a policy, I would have to invest in Websense (Which allows blocking and, if necessary, tracking of non-work sites), I would have to set up a break room with computers that allow limited access to the public internet but not to the internal network, which means a separate internet line. I would have to design a method that allows me to link their break/lunch time to their browsing time, so that it cuts them off the moment the break has ended. And I would probably have to set up core metrics to attach productivity to the instances they're using their phone.
IF I saw that a person hit their first violation yet they're the top performer on the floor, it means my metrics for performance are too low and I need to adjust them upward, clearly.
In any event, if it's an hourly position full time I expect 8 hours of work out of you.
For exempt employees it's a lot trickier because technically they are not required to put in 8 hours of work a day. For those I'd probably attach metrics to tasks - for whatever tasks are assigned that day, if one or more are not completed but could have been, and I see they were on their phone for an hour, the policy would apply (you sacrificed work time for your tasks to do the phone instead). In other words, get all of your tasks done, then I don't care what you do. As long as the work gets done.
This is the exact type of company no one wants to work for and they usually fail due to not being able to keep good people.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
