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That is it right there. You are ASSUMING. First, you assume someone who peeks at a phone even for a nanosecond is an ADDICT. Maybe they have this funny thing about wanting to know if their child threw up a lung at school and someone has to go pick them up.
Listen helicopter parent, if your child has thrown up a lung at school, then let an ambulance take your child to the hospital. Or if it's not a crisis, then your child can spend the rest of the school day in the nurses office. Stop putting yourself on a pedestal. Geesh.
But maybe this is why the rest of us hardworking employees don't want co-workers who are so engrossed with their children's lives and want to leave work as soon as there is some faux crisis in their family's lives.
So there's been problems with some of the cashiers at work spending an excessive amount of time on their phones and it's been mentioned to me by management that if it continues they're going to start taking their phones at the start of the shift, locking them in the safe, and giving them back at lunch/after the shift is over. I do cashier from time to time, but I recently moved into a different position, and I also tend to limit my phone use to checking the actual time every now and then as the clocks on the registers are not accurate by a significant amount, so this doesn't really directly affect me, but I felt like asking about this because...that just doesn't seem like something they can really do does it? I'm not exactly the type to say "no, you can't do that" to my boss(es), I get along great with everyone I work with and am trying to work my way up through the company, but this just seems like a serious violation of sorts. Reprimand them, sure, but taking their phones away is a serious security and privacy issue. I know there have been times that I've been contacted via text while at work because of some sort of emergency. My girlfriend is a type 1 diabetic and there have been some times she's hit dangerous low levels or other family type emergencies. And I'm certain others at work have their own issues that may actually come up. This just seems...wrong.
Leave your car in the phone. Check the phone at breaks and at lunch.
What does your girlfriend having diabetes have to do with anything? A diabetic should be checking their blood at least 3 times a day. They can tell when their sugar starts to get low and their numbers are plunging, and eating something with sugar can take care of that.
Only people who don't eat and don't monitor their level end up needing medical assistance, in that case she calls 911 and not you. Whose more apt to get her sugar up? Paramedics who can give her a shot or you running over with a bag of sugar cookies?
That's a ridiculous excuse to have the phone on you at all times.
If something else comes up than your family can call the store.
I walked through a local shopping mall recently during a slow time. I was amazed at the number of young employees who were standing in the empty stores thumbing through their smartphones. There were a couple of them doing it while posted at the entrance to the store, a posting whose purpose I figure would be to encourage potential customers to come in and shop. I'm skeptical that they'd ever have spotted a potential customer while their nose was buried in their device.
Nobody I mean NOBODY needs a phone on them at work. Even if it's for "emergencies". If someone needs to get ahold of you in an emergency they will call your work number and the manager will relay the message. If it's a medical emergency they need to call an ambulance not you first.
People lived and worked for hundreds of years without cell phones it's no different today.
That doesn't always work, a few years ago I had a job where my hours took place BEFORE the business opened, so in an emergency, there is literally no way to get a message to anyone. My boss wasn't thrilled about people having cell phones for all of the reasons that have been mentioned, however, I explained that I had elderly parents, and need to have my phone. She understood and there was no problem, however I am an adult and can police myself.
That doesn't always work, a few years ago I had a job where my hours took place BEFORE the business opened, so in an emergency, there is literally no way to get a message to anyone. My boss wasn't thrilled about people having cell phones for all of the reasons that have been mentioned, however, I explained that I had elderly parents, and need to have my phone. She understood and there was no problem, however I am an adult and can police myself.
At the same time, to not work at all was not an option, that would've looked bad, and this is the thing--I would typically reply quickly something like "yes, would love it" and then DURING BREAK I would make arrangements for family to pick her up if I didn't get off of work in time. The interruption to my work was EXTREMELY minimal, and far less than if I had arranged for this person to instead call my work number and leave a message, then I check the message, then I call-back, don't get her, leave a message, she calls and has to leave another message, I callback and STILL get a voicemail, and then FINALLY after awhile I got a hold of her. That would've been far more of an interruption and probably would've caused this person to not even bother anymore. It made much more sense for her to text me and then I'd reply "yes of course would love too" and then BAM! it was over, and heck that sort of thing happened maybe once a week, otherwise my phone typically remained in my pocket.
The job I had at the time was also very anti-cell phone, but everyone, not just me, texted "on the sly" anyway, and frankly--good. We got a LOT of work done, we just needed to make such arrangements for just a minute. That's how it is nowadays, and the dinosaurs would do well to wake up and smell the coffee.
To the person who assumed I was in my 20s--again, you assumed, and you know that means you made an [bleep] out of you and me. In fact I'm in my 40s. Believe me, I well remember the pre-cell phone days, very well. I also remember how great it was that people could now get a hold of you, and you them, anywhere you were. That didn't mean you needed to, but it was certainly a wonderful ability and a vast improvement in any number of situations.
Fast-forward to now, and pretty much everyone has one now. Thus, expectations have changed, much as how when cars were invented they were free to space things father apart because now people could drive to them. Drive-thru restaurants came about. In this case, many people no longer bother with a home phone & answering machine with their other numbers in the message etc, they have just a cell phone & give that 1 number to everybody. If they change jobs, or their job's phone number changes, or they're working in a different location with a different number, no matter--no need to deal with any of that and tell everyone the different phone number.
Just as cars caused problems early-on, so have phones, no one denies that. However, you'd had to have been a real relic and dinosaur to scoff about how evil cars were back then and about how "we got along fine without cars for hundreds of years and we can still do that" etc. That was the new way of things now, and we figured out how to make it work via traffic laws and such vs just vilifying cars altogether. The same sort of thing should happen here.
Cell phones have no place in businesses during work periods.
REASON. To many employees spend too much time on their cell phones rather than working. They keep pulling out their cell phones and checking them for messages all the time. It is costing businesses a lot of lost time, and production, and this is not fair to the business.
When you are working, you are on the bosses dime. When you have breaks it is a different story. The way to make it work today as you say, is to ban cell phones from the work areas. Simple solution.
The employee can use their cell phone when they are on their time, not their bosses time.
The reason this has become necessary for a lot of businesses to ban cell phones, as some employees spend too much time on their cell phone on company time. The same goes for people in offices, that some employees just have to check their e-mail and facebook every little bit. Then of course they not only read, but have to answer. This should be a firing offense during work hours. It is the equivalent to, employees stopping work and going outside for some sun every little bit. Does the same type of disruption.
Sounds more like a management issue to me. If management can't enforce the rule without confiscating the phones, something's not right with their method of enforcement of the rules.
Need to check the time? Get a watch if you're not supposed to be on your cell.
And as far as kids/sick girlfriends, etc., not being able to contact you, does the employer not have an office phone? You give this number to you family as a way to reach you in case of emergency! What a concept, huh?
Bottom line is, your employer pays you to do a certain job, behave in a certain way. If something's against the rules, it's against the rules! So you don't do it!
Sounds more like a management issue to me. If management can't enforce the rule without confiscating the phones, something's not right with their method of enforcement of the rules.
Need to check the time? Get a watch if you're not supposed to be on your cell.
And as far as kids/sick girlfriends, etc., not being able to contact you, does the employer not have an office phone? You give this number to you family as a way to reach you in case of emergency! What a concept, huh?
Bottom line is, your employer pays you to do a certain job, behave in a certain way. If something's against the rules, it's against the rules! So you don't do it!
A better response: don't make STUPID rules and then think everyone is going to be an automaton and go along with something that is stupid and causes them problems.
To wit: yes you can give out your boss's number, but how much sense does that make to HAVE to do that when the person can just remember your own cell phone number? If your boss is away from their desk the call may not get to you for quite awhile by which time it could really cause a problem. It makes way more sense for people to handle those things themselves vs having their boss take on the responsibility of an unpaid secretary for personal matters. As long as you're not being buzzed every 5 seconds about silly things such as "who's the singer of that song that has that line in 'Blinded By The Light' that sounds like 'wrapped up like a douche?'" then what's the big deal? Be reasonable. (Thankfully my other job later on was way more than reasonable, and kudos to them.)
Read the example I gave, in that example, the person wouldn't have been prone to calling a boss's number and waiting for me to get back, they texted, I replied quickly, took maybe 10 seconds total reading and replying, then I followed through ON BREAK, and even that much probably happened once a week. Otherwise I was totally okay with having it tucked away--and they could get over it for all I cared, I'm not going to obey a rule that's stupid that could have cost me custody of my freaking child, and forgive me for trying to work there as best as I could regardless. You can choose to believe it wasn't really like that in terms of me only being on the phone that little bit, but it was. Beyond that, yes, if I look at it to see what time it is, big deal, that's what people do now and it's much ado about nothing. A boss who's that uptight is the one who's "wrapped up like a douche" and IS one if you ask me.
To me it sounds like the problem is an unmotivated workforce is the real problem. Of course many kids will gab away on the phone if they work in retail, can you blame them? There are people who will go on about how the employer pays them for their time and so forth...that's true but you get what you pay for. Does anyone here expect people to give a crap about a low wage job or one where the place is a cluster****? Maybe I'm too oldschool in my mentality but I was under the impression that respect is a two way street: if you jerk off your workforce they will either leave or respond in kind. Should employers expect any sort of respect or loyalty given the lack of reciprocation in the last generation or two? I can see why an employer would ban the use of a cell phone during actual working time but it should really be on an 'on your honor' arrangement. Checking the time is one thing; gabbing away is another.
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Whose more apt to get her sugar up? Paramedics who can give her a shot or you running over with a bag of sugar cookies?
