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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.
At my place of employment a petroleum refinery, the official policy is that cameras of any kind are banned, but this is never enforced because every employee's cell phone has a camera.
Officially we also aren't supposed to use cell phone inside the refinery.
I use my cell phone to browse the web, listen to podcasts/audiobooks, and watch videos, all the time while at work. It is the kind of job that normally has a lot of down time.
As long as you put the phone away when supervisors come around, cell phone usage is not an issue.
I think it's a good thing for an employer to not be so anal-retentive about cell phone use, so long as someone isn't Angry Birding it all day while the work piles up. It's the year 2015, after all. Expecting productivity is one thing and totally understandable, expecting someone to keep their phone in their locker and be completely out of touch 100% for a 4 hour stretch, especially when they may have to answer a call from their child's school etc, is nuts. (And no, I don't consider giving a work number instead to be an acceptable alternative, it's much easier for someone like a school secretary to not have to manage or call a dozen different numbers for each person trying to track them down. Making it all one number, the cell, makes it much easier.)
I work as a cashier, and I use my phone periodically--even right in front of customers on occasion. After all, they use theirs--and the ones who apologize for it and say "I'm sorry for being rude," I tell them--hey, I don't think you're rude at all, it doesn't bother me in the least, because it in fact doesn't. Often-times it's my wife calling before leaving her job and heading home, as she works a different shift than I do, and if I wait until breaktime to call her, it's too late. I'm very quick with those calls, typically 25 seconds, I'm very much in a "make it quick" frame of mind.
Also, I'm very quick overall throughout the day, and even come in on days off if someone calls in sick etc, in such cases I'm the go-to person. I figure the least management can do is give me a little latitude with a quick call and the occasional text, and they do in fact give me that latitude. I also, during "downtime," sometimes do things such as jot down a quick note for an item on my shopping list, I figure what's the difference in my doing that vs someone else who writes it down on a piece of paper. (Me--if I go the paper route, it's gone, I lose paperwork in seconds.) I track my finances in my phone, if my wife mentions having spent $30 at a store using the bankcard, I may quickly keypunch that in, I figure what's the difference in my doing that vs someone else writing it down in a check register--so long as, either way, you do such in such a way that it isn't interrupting your work duties.
Heck, I even sometimes use my phone in work-related matters, such as having the UPC codes for products with funny barcodes which the machine can't scan because the dumb vendor is always putting their shipping sticker all over the barcode and it takes forever to scrape it off (not the 5 seconds you may think it does). One day, with a certain product of that type we sell all the time, I peeled the sticker off during a dead period and saved that UPC code in my phone, so that when that product appeared again, instead of having to go through all that trouble, I could simply extract the UPC code from my phone and keyboard it in, all much quicker than if I fussed with the sticker everytime. (And yes, if I wrote it down, that scrap of paper is GONE.)
Those sorts of things are what, to me, bosses need to understand. It's the year 2015. People use their phones for such PDA functions. Heck I even keep my childrens' social security numbers and health insurance numbers in the notes of my phone. That's what people do in the year 2015, and I think bosses need to understand--and yes, employees need to understand that such latitude being given doesn't make it OK to goof off when you're supposed to be working. I imagine certain employees who do that have ruined it for us responsible ones. Then again I think sometimes managers make "blanket" policies that punish honest people for what dishonest persons do, rather than giving honest people some reasonable latitude. This isn't grade school.
My company has a very strict policy regarding cell phone and Internet usage for personal reasons. We can only use our cell phones during breaks and lunch. As far as using the computers to access the Internet on non-work-related websites, the company has blocked a lot of them including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Gmail, Yahoo and even Wikipedia. I personally don't have a problem with it, especially since I'm an hourly employee (most staff at my company are hourly while management personnel are salaried). I figure that if I'm on company time, they expect me to be working.
My company has a very strict policy regarding cell phone and Internet usage for personal reasons. We can only use our cell phones during breaks and lunch. As far as using the computers to access the Internet on non-work-related websites, the company has blocked a lot of them including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Gmail, Yahoo and even Wikipedia. I personally don't have a problem with it, especially since I'm an hourly employee (most staff at my company are hourly while management personnel are salaried). I figure that if I'm on company time, they expect me to be working.
I agree 100%. I would probably go bonkers at work if I, say, forgot to pay a credit card bill or something and HAD to do it during the day at work. It's good to know I can just log into my account, pay, and not have it in the back of my mind for the entire day.
I agree with this as well. Some people are meant to follow, and others, to lead. A lot of posters on C-D are the sheep, which is why they're so eager to be put into their kennels, herded, etc. I assume these people cannot be trusted to be productive AND check their cellphone every once in a while.
I agree 100%. I would probably go bonkers at work if I, say, forgot to pay a credit card bill or something and HAD to do it during the day at work. It's good to know I can just log into my account, pay, and not have it in the back of my mind for the entire day.
This, indeed. Certain things like this don't "freeze frame" for people who are working. Say you are behind on your light bill, to where your bill goes past due, and you pay the past due to at least keep your lights on. It's not as good as having it CURRENT paid in full, but if at least the past-due amount is paid sufficiently quick, then at least you don't have to deal with the prospect of a shut-off.
Well let's say you forgot to pay this, and you're on the last day. If you pay it quickly early in the day once you notice, the payment may post in time to prevent a shut-off, but if you wait until breaktime, it may be too late. Isn't it much easier to focus on your work and move on ahead if you are able to quickly log in and pay this bill, knowing you probably dodged a shut-off and all its associated headaches, headaches which you'd go home to after a long day (and with it now probably too late to arrange a reconnection since the day is pretty much over)?
A good employer recognizes this, and provides latitude for people in such ways.
Now, granted, you can't be spending all day running errands and not working any, that goes without saying. There has to be a balance here. However, just as an employee shouldn't go to the extreme and run errands all day vs working, a good employer will provide a little latitude and leeway for something like this.
What happened to "an honest days pay for an honest days work?"
While, I can see making a quick call home to make sure that your 12 year old got off the bus and into the house safely, or calling your spouse to remind them to pick up a gallon of milk on the way home, or a few calls like that anything beyond that is, IMHO, ridiculous.
I don't know what kind of job or career you have Spedizzo but it is hard to imagine that it is an important or valuable or professional job if you say that you would not even work in a place where you are not allowed to "surf the internet" while being paid by your employer.
It still happens. In various professional industries, you have folks who do spend time on the internet, but still get stuff done, making their employers millions of dollars, etc. I worked with many people in front of computers, and they most certainly do not spend 8, straight, hours a day in front of them. You'd think when they take an average of 5 minutes of break for every hour, they're only 92% as efficient as as those other folks, but nope... those guys who take breaks end up getting more done.
Besides... "honest day's work" was always subjective. In some places, if you don't put in overtime, you're magically not a team player even though you're getting your work done as much as everyone else. In another case, they measure "butts in chairs". Someone was taking longer bathroom breaks, so he got dinged. His excuse? He had diarrhea. His supervisor didn't believe him. Later on, he got called out on that again, where the employee directed the supervisor to a stall in the restroom. It was a big, bowl of runny crap! The employee anticipated this would happen again, so this time, he didn't flush. Another employee who was in the stall next to him confirmed and heard the whole thing
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As others have posted.. yeah you want some "acceptable use policies" in place, but if you're in a job where you want to retain or attract the better employees, they'll just look for jobs where they do have these perks. You're going after bad employees, but at the cost of driving good ones away.
Quote:
Originally Posted by germaine2626
You are right. Perhaps, I am being narrow minded.
I'm picturing my doctor doing personal phone calls instead reading my case file, or my attorney watching & laughing at YouTube videos and charging me for that time, or the scientist doing cancer research spending all day goofing around and not even trying to cure my cancer, or the mechanic who should be fixing my car sending emails to his girlfriend and forgetting to tighten all the screws, or the sale clerk talking to her friend on her cell phone while a huge line waits at her check out station, or the chef making my lunch forgetting to put in all of the ingredients because he is reading the news on his Smartphone and on and on.
Or, I'm picturing the cost of service or item being raised because the business needs to hire extra employees because the current employees are spending so much time surfing the web that they don't get their work done.
I am a sub teacher at several HSs where they have rules about no cell phone usage during instructional time, but student after student after student thinks that it is OK and their absolute right for them to text, watch videos,and make calls while the teacher is teaching or they should be working. When I hear adults talking about this I immediate picture them as "special snowflakes" who feel that the rules do not apply to them.
But, I admit perhaps I am being old fashioned about it and businesses today really do not care about this issue, but I certainly hope that the prices that I pay for goods or services does not increase due to their lack of productivity on the job.
When those people are on the internet, then hopefully they're doing it during down time. If not, then I wouldn't really blame it on the cell phone, as it's more so a case of "not being able to perform". If you took away their cellphone, these folks can still find other distractions.
If working with someone doesn't work out, then don't work with them. Stipulating all of these conditions like no cell phones, no chit chat, etc., won't really resolve them.
I used to volunteer at children's VBS. There was another woman co-teaching the children's class with me. It was all 5 year olds. This woman texted constantly and didn't help me watch the kids. I felt she should have been relieved of her volunteer duties but I didn't know how to go about this. She one day just walked out of the classroom without even telling me and was gone for two hours. You just don't do this in childcare work.
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The employee anticipated this would happen again, so this time, he didn't flush. Another employee who was in the stall next to him confirmed and heard the whole thing 
