topic Re: HOW BOSSES HANDLE PERSONAL PHONES AT WORK in Community Chat

HOW BOSSES HANDLE PERSONAL PHONES AT WORK

fortune — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 13:33:57 GMT

Since people left to their own devices are spending company money being paid to do personal business on iphones, how are your (or other) bosses handling this?

Re: HOW BOSSES HANDLE PERSONAL PHONES AT WORK

Still Raining — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 13:36:42 GMT

If it is a company phone, HR will have the rules.

Re: HOW BOSSES HANDLE PERSONAL PHONES AT WORK

riley1 — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 13:37:06 GMT

Its not only phones, they are using the computers to check personal emails, play games and shop.

When my hubby had his business, cell phone use was not allowed.

Re: HOW BOSSES HANDLE PERSONAL PHONES AT WORK

qbetzforreal — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 13:43:41 GMT

I have a business phone.

Re: HOW BOSSES HANDLE PERSONAL PHONES AT WORK

Lipstickdiva — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 13:45:34 GMT

I don't understand what you are asking? Are you asking about people using company time and a company phone for personal business or are you asking about people using their personal phone for company business?

I don't have a company cell phone and I never make personal calls on our company landline. However I do make and get business calls on my personal phone.

Re: HOW BOSSES HANDLE PERSONAL PHONES AT WORK

CelticCrafter — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 13:48:33 GMT

You don't use a company computer or company phone for personal stuff.

They can check it all, without you knowing, if they choose to do so.

Re: HOW BOSSES HANDLE PERSONAL PHONES AT WORK

fortune — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 13:51:11 GMT

I guess I wasn't clear with my question. I'm talking about using personal iphones at work to do personal stuff. Some offices have a real problem with people on their own phones most of the day!!! How do bosses handle paying or not paying employees for personal stuff during company time?

Re: HOW BOSSES HANDLE PERSONAL PHONES AT WORK

Desertdi — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 13:54:42 GMT

At most places I have worked, PERSONAL phones had to be turned off. However, use of company phones to check on children, elderly family members, etc., was allowed.

Company computers were not allowed for things like porn or gambling, but if you had "down time", it was OK to check email.

I was a Notary........and did everyone's personal papers, even the bosses.

Re: HOW BOSSES HANDLE PERSONAL PHONES AT WORK

fortune — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 13:54:50 GMT

@riley1 wrote:
Its not only phones, they are using the computers to check personal emails, play games and shop.

When my hubby had his business, cell phone use was not allowed.

@riley1

How did he handle enforcing this? It's a real problem at my friend's office. She says people will quit if they can't be on their own iphones.

Re: HOW BOSSES HANDLE PERSONAL PHONES AT WORK

Alter Ego — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 13:58:14 GMT

No restrictions on using personal phones.

Certain websites on company computers are blocked for security purposes (social media, outside email, gambling, etc). Since I don’t really work for the company, but for the person who runs it, it’s a little annoying because I sometimes need to access those sites for my job. So, I use my cell phone. Everyone tends to work long hours so sometimes you need to handle personal items during work hours; they would care if you weren’t getting your job done and maybe if it was excessive. But, I’ve never seen any particular policy about it.

Re: HOW BOSSES HANDLE PERSONAL PHONES AT WORK

software — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 14:04:43 GMT

@fortune wrote:
I guess I wasn't clear with my question. I'm talking about using personal iphones at work to do personal stuff. Some offices have a real problem with people on their own phones most of the day!!! How do bosses handle paying or not paying employees for personal stuff during company time?

If they are not doing their job, I guess the boss can choose to pay them their final check & boot them out the door.

Several jobs I've had, most of my work was done by lunch, it's not because I was so efficient, it was just the nature of the job. We were forbidden to use a personal phone, the company phone or the computer for personal business. I outright told my boss you are not cutting me off from the world while I'm at work. He had called me in his office for being on a call with a family member one afternoon. He never brought it up again but I also did not abuse the rule. I broke it but didn't abuse it.

I would never work somewhere with ridiculous rules. You can fire me for not doing my job, but not for a dumb arbitrary rule.

Re: HOW BOSSES HANDLE PERSONAL PHONES AT WORK

haddon9 — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 14:12:12 GMT

My son was given a business iPhone plus he has his own personal iPhone. He can and does use his personal phone while working (right now his company is still working from home).

However it's all about getting the job done. He's currently working on a project than needs to be finished up by Thursday.

Re: HOW BOSSES HANDLE PERSONAL PHONES AT WORK

Lipstickdiva — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 14:13:48 GMT

When I worked with a previous law firm, it was before cell phones. The bosses' views on personal phone usage was that they understood we were at work for a long period of time and sometimes it was going to be necessary to use the phone for personal business. However, they expected that company business came before personal business. If it became a problem, they would address it with an individual. And it did become a problem with one employee who consistently spent an hour plus on the phone talking to various family members and while she was yacking, she would neglect answering incoming calls.

I don't think personal cell usage is a problem here at all. I'm in my own office so they wouldn't know if I was on my phone or not unless my work wasn't getting done. Pretty much the attitude here is as long as you get your work done and aren't disruptive, they don't care what you are doing.

Re: HOW BOSSES HANDLE PERSONAL PHONES AT WORK

Mj12 — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 14:16:55 GMT

It must depend on the type of workplace. In our law firm, everyone (including the head of the firm) has iPhones and checks them throughout the day. We check our work email on our personal iPhones if we are away from our office (back when we were in the office). We text each other if someone is out and we need a quick answer on something. Occasionally our IT dept blocks some websites we actually need to navigate, so we go on our iPhones to work around it. (Point is for me, not everything done on a personal iPhone is personal business).

If I think of something I need to order on Amazon, I do that on my iPhone, it takes 1 minute. I also log on and work off-hours when needed, so I don't worry about it.

Re: HOW BOSSES HANDLE PERSONAL PHONES AT WORK

alicedee — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 14:19:13 GMT

I worked in offices for 40+ years...before cell phones. Never had a boss who said no personal calls at work. We were trusted to be professional....if our work was being done and nothing was being neglected, they saw no need to make rules about personal calls. People with a good work ethic don't abuse that kind of trust.

Re: HOW BOSSES HANDLE PERSONAL PHONES AT WORK

brandiwine — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 14:27:04 GMT

@fortune What about those with Android devices? I think it's up to bosses to make decisions about employee phone use. In our office we respected the fact we were being paid to work, not play. Now with people at home, they go for a walk, ride a bike, whatever and whenever they want. For many bosses it's about completing the job on time, being on the Zoom meeting, not about how it gets done.

Re: HOW BOSSES HANDLE PERSONAL PHONES AT WORK

Pook — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 15:24:40 GMT

I think, for the most part workers don't misuse the ability to use personal phones. Where I worked and was a supervisor, as long as the work got done and there was plenty of work no problem. Even before cell phones personal calls were allowed. There were a few times I had to have a discussion with workers about too much use of personal phones. We were not allowed to take pictures due to confidential issues.

Re: HOW BOSSES HANDLE PERSONAL PHONES AT WORK

morganjen — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 15:27:46 GMT

No restrictions, our boss is on hers a lot during the day.

Re: HOW BOSSES HANDLE PERSONAL PHONES AT WORK

ThinkingOutLoud — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 15:39:06 GMT

If I were the boss I'd consider:

~ sending out an email reminding them they're there to work and they have breaks/lunch for personal business

~ set up a meeting with all employees asking for ideas on how to resolve the issue

~ remind them that work phones/computers have tracking on them

~ set up a 'cell phone jail' - those who put their device in it (other than breaks/lunch) will get a bonus and those who don't won't (they still have a choice and this should weed out the offenders real quick)

Re: HOW BOSSES HANDLE PERSONAL PHONES AT WORK

MomCat — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 15:44:20 GMT

It was hard enough supervising before the cell phones became so common place. I can't even imagine what it is like now. It would drive me crazy to try to keep people productive with even more distractions. Don't kid yourself. If you are taking time to goof off on the phone, unless it's on a break or lunch hour, you are not focused enough on your job. No such thing as finishing your work in a couple of hours if you are being paid for more hours. That's company theft. A lot of employees spend a lot of time justifying behaviour. I've heard it all.