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Definitely not ok with me, as a supervisor or coworker. Even more so if they're tying up a line that's only to be used for business calls. It's also rude if a coworker, supervisor, or customer needs to speak with the employee about a work-related matter.
And not when your No. 1, second in command guy is talking to his mistress on his cellphone that his wife doesn't know about. Sheesh: the things I saw when I was a manager...how the previous blew up on that guy, eventually, was a sight to behold. He was sly, but not sly enough.
Generally, if I see my people spending too much time on cell phones (back in the day, used to be office phones in the mailroom and similar as they sought privacy), I start to wonder what their problem is, and might ask about it if I feel it is affecting their productivity.
...Because usually people on the phone for prolonged periods start to pull other crap like long lunches, arriving late, and leaving early. That's because we have unfolding drama: wife, husband, lover, child problems, money problems, the usual suspects. If that too starts to manifest, with everything else, we have an expectations alignment issue that a manager needs to confront with professionalism.
This reminds me of a former coworker who, without fail, would have looooong conversations at work on Fridays. I never clocked her time, but it was long enough for me to notice. And I know she wasn't getting work done because she was one of the lazier employees. It annoyed me at the time, but I miss working in an environment where you could conduct personal business and not have it be an issue.
I am a manager and no, would not let someone be on personal phone calls for 2-5 hours a day...every day.
You can't be hardcore and say "NO personal calls" because sometimes employees get calls from spouses, the day care center, etc, or they have to make a call that isn't business-related on the rare occasion. I run under the assumption that employees have lives outside of work. I'm fine with incidental use of the company phones/computers for personal business as long as they don't abuse it, and 99% of people won't. In the years that I've been a manager, I've only had one person who abused the privilege.
If the company doesn't have a "use of company assets" policy then this is a very good time to develop one. Googling "telephone use policy" will pull up some decent sample policies that can be adapted to fit a company's particular needs.
If I were the manager, I would simply sit the phone phreak down and explain to her that it's come to my attention that she is using the company's phone for extensive personal conversations. I would also then let her know that the company phone is for business and any personal use should be rare and brief.
That's just crazy she's on the phone that long. The phone person I had was on the phone for an hour a day...guess I didn't have it so bad .
I can hear the voice of my supervisor "if you have that much time to chatter on the phone, I guess I'm not giving you enough to do."
I made everyone aware that I did not want them calling me at work unless it's an emergency. Of course, that meant I levitated out of my chair in fear when someone said "hey Chin, it's for you. Guy says he's your husband." He was calling me from the emergency room, where he was being treated for a possible stroke. So, sometimes the diligence can backfire.
But, as a general rule, if you are that proficient at getting work done that you can spend 1/3 of the day on the phone, I'm going to give you more work to do.
How many people are replying to this thread while they are at work?
LOL Quite a few!
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