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I agree with njbest, it is an antiquated policy. People carry cell phones these days, deal with it. Just because they use a cell phone at work does not automatically make them the most unproductive.
While you are complaining about productivity, is it productive of managers to be patrolling the floor trying to catch people with cell phones?
Do you have a no talking policy on the floor too? Coworkers chit chatting with each other is also unproductive.
Your the manager so you are free to set whichever policies you wish, but keep employee morale in mind. People that enjoy where they work will be more productive. If you run the business like a prison camp, people will leave. While you may have hundreds of people lining up now for a job, once the economy gets better they will bolt. When they do, you'll be left with the bottom of the barrel type of workers.
People are missing the point of the policy on so many levels, I'm not sure where to start.
1. We cannot have a cell phone policy for one set of workers and another policy for another set of workers. You guys talk about morale - do you know the morale nightmare the inconsistent application of a policy creates? Here's a clue: it's bad.
2. Speaking of morale, ours has improved since we put more controls on the phones because people like rules. Our workforce is not the most mature, so like children, they appreciate boundaries (as long as the rules are enforced consistently.)
I've had several people comment to me and HR 'thank you' for putting controls on the phones. If people can be trusted to use the phones wisely, then our rules wouldn't need to exist. Unfortunately...
3. Thursday, I caught one of my employees texting on his phone as he was
walking around the corner. He was so focused on his texting, that he literally bumped into me. Suppose that instead of bumping into me, he bumped into seven thousand pound Raymond lift? I would have squished employee guts all over my racks, and OSHA all over my a@#. The phone is a safety issue, but I guess that is not a concern working at a call center.
As for people saying that controlling phones is being a dictator, or even futile, I say you would probably change your tune if you were in my business and had my workforce. Regarding our management style, we are the global leader in our industry, and our stock is up 7X in the last 2 years, so we are doing something right. Thanks for your thoughts on the matter.
I agree with njbest, it is an antiquated policy. People carry cell phones these days, deal with it. Just because they use a cell phone at work does not automatically make them the most unproductive.
While you are complaining about productivity, is it productive of managers to be patrolling the floor trying to catch people with cell phones?
Do you have a no talking policy on the floor too? Coworkers chit chatting with each other is also unproductive.
Your the manager so you are free to set whichever policies you wish, but keep employee morale in mind. People that enjoy where they work will be more productive. If you run the business like a prison camp, people will leave. While you may have hundreds of people lining up now for a job, once the economy gets better they will bolt. When they do, you'll be left with the bottom of the barrel type of workers.
This goes for the draconian policy of not allowing employees to go outside to smoke on company property during their breaks.
Luckily for me, when my company instituted this policy, I was able to retire within 6 months.....and I did.
People are missing the point of the policy on so many levels, I'm not sure where to start.
I think we get each others point, we just disagree.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dallascaper
We cannot have a cell phone policy for one set of workers and another policy for another set of workers.
Who suggested that?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dallascaper
Our workforce is not the most mature, so like children, they appreciate boundaries (as long as the rules are enforced consistently.)
I think this problem would eventually go away if you were to implement a 5% annual layoff policy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dallascaper
3. Thursday, I caught one of my employees texting on his phone as he was
walking around the corner. He was so focused on his texting, that he literally bumped into me. Suppose that instead of bumping into me, he bumped into seven thousand pound Raymond lift? I would have squished employee guts all over my racks, and OSHA all over my a@#. The phone is a safety issue, but I guess that is not a concern working at a call center.
Texting is not the issue, the real problem is that he created a safety issue by not paying attention to where he was walking. Same thing would have happened if he was reading a book.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dallascaper
As for people saying that controlling phones is being a dictator, or even futile, I say you would probably change your tune if you were in my business and had my workforce.
Your tune may work on the immature low quality employees, but it certainly doesn't work for the rest of us. I'd have no problem moving on.
I find it astounding how so many find it acceptable to screw around on your phones while at work. Of course this attitude in the American workforce is partially the reason why so many major companies are moving operations overseas. Why deal with the BS self-righteous attitude of Americans when you can go elsewhere, implement policies and enforce them, not have to worry about frivolous lawsuits because somebody's feelings were hurt when they were fired for not following company policy and on top of that they will work cheaper.
There is a real issue with work ethic in this country and it is getting drastically worse. You can call the policies antiquated if you wish but when you, your child, or someone you know has their job moved overseas to an asian country where their work ethics are strong, they are completely focused on the task at hand while at work and give their employer 110%; look at your cell phone along with the other things you screwed around with at work and start wishing you would have put it away and focused on work a little more.
Work isn't a playground or a social scene, it is a place for getting work done. Socializing should be done after work in a social environment. If you will quit a job and go elsewhere because you are not allowed to play on your cellphone, you weren't a dedicated employee anyway, most likely are always looking for another job and might as well move on.
Of course some jobs involve idle time where the employee doesn't have anything to be doing. These types of jobs I don't see a problem with passing time with a cellphone. However, if you have a job with a work load, it is entirely unacceptable to be wasting time. Some of you that think you "get away with it", it may actually affect your future income in various ways in the form of lost promotions or raises. You will never know though, because your manager/supervisor probably isn't going to come up and tell you how you lost a raise due to wasting time at work.
Maybe if employers did not demand in excess of 40 hours per week, workers would have time to conduct their lives outside of work. Same with paltry vacation benefits (compared to Europe).
Corporations are greedy and expect robots to work for them, but guess what? They are flesh and blood people and when they die they aren't going to say, "I gave XTZ Corporation my everything!"
I find it astounding how so many find it acceptable to screw around on your phones while at work.
I'll take an employee that is texting and meeting their productivity/quality goals over the one that isn't texting and not meeting their goals. It's not hard to figure out who is the more profitable employee.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dijkstra
There is a real issue with work ethic in this country and it is getting drastically worse. You can call the policies antiquated if you wish but when you, your child, or someone you know has their job moved overseas to an asian country where their work ethics are strong, they are completely focused on the task at hand while at work and give their employer 110%; look at your cell phone along with the other things you screwed around with at work and start wishing you would have put it away and focused on work a little more.
Yeah, but are their people happy? Asia has one of the highest suicide rates in the world.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dijkstra
If you will quit a job and go elsewhere because you are not allowed to play on your cellphone, you weren't a dedicated employee anyway, most likely are always looking for another job and might as well move on.
While I never quit a job over the cell phone issue, I have quit jobs over similar issues. Unlike most Americans I haven't burdened myself with mountains of debt so I never had to be a slave to the job. Out of all the companies I've worked for I can only really say I was dedicated to my last one which was simply because I know my work was appreciated. I worked there 8 years and gave them 6 months notice so we could hire and train my replacement before I left.
I'll soon be 32 years old and consider myself early retired/self employed. I only really work about 20 hours a week on a hobby that happens to generate income.
Last edited by gvillager; 05-30-2011 at 10:55 PM..
Some of you that think you "get away with it", it may actually affect your future income in various ways in the form of lost promotions or raises. You will never know though, because your manager/supervisor probably isn't going to come up and tell you how you lost a raise due to wasting time at work.
Wrong. I just got promoted last year and I got a performance bonus during the middle of the recession when the company had put a freeze on raises. I'm not really getting away with anything. I still meet all the requirements expected of me. You keep making the assumption that people that use a cell phone at work are unproductive. A good manager can tell who the productive employees are.
Life does not cease to exist because someone goes to work. People have families, kids and things that go on through the day regarding this that they need to keep track off.
Quitting over a cell phone policy can be silly. But I'm sure the cell phone policy is just an example of the other slave camp type of policies that go on in your company. It's a two way street, people aren't going to do a good job for you if you treat them like crap. People don't live to work, they work to live.
Life does not cease to exist because someone goes to work. People have families, kids and things that go on through the day regarding this that they need to keep track off.
That is completely understandable. Family matters and concerns are one thing, goofing off on your facebook or surfing the web is another. We are talking about two completely different things.
I don't have a problem with someone taking care of family issues during business hours, that is life. What I, along with most others have an issue with is goofing off on nonessential social matters. You can say what you want, call it antiquated if you want but the fact of the matter is, it is just pure disrespect to the company you work for and bad work ethic. You will most likely start seeing more and more companies put cell phone policies in place in the future as there has been a lot of discussion on how much of an issue it is becoming.
It is sad that we even have to debate this issue. It speaks volumes about the degradation of work ethic among the latest generation of American workers.
It is sad that we even have to debate this issue. It speaks volumes about the degradation of work ethic among the latest generation of American workers.
I 100% agree with you on the work ethic issue. However, banning cellphones in the workplace is nothing more than a band-aide and really doesn't fix the problem. Low quality, lazy, and immature workers will still be low quality, lazy, and immature with or without their cell phones.
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