Community Chat

[software]

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@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?

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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.

[haddon9]

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.

[Lipstickdiva]

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. 

[Mj12]

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.

[alicedee]

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.

[brandiwine]

@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. 

[Pook]

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.    

[morganjen]

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

[ThinkingOutLoud]

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)

[MomCat]

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.