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Cell phone policy at you or your H's work??
I work for my family's small business. We are a manufacturing company with a few production warehouses. Over the years, cell phone use has become really rampant and we are starting to think we need some sort of policy in place. We don?t want to be super strict? just maybe the ?norm.? So what is the norm? Do you or your H?s company have a cell phone / texting policy? What is it? If you have some sort of warehouse or production floor, is the policy the same as it is for the people in the offices? I?m very clueless when it comes to this (my background is elem. education!)
I don?t know if we need to flat out ban cell phones with a ?3 strikes you?re out? policy?. But we really need to curb their use. Also- not sure if it needs to be companywide. I sort of feel that is needs to be fair across the board. If the guys in the back cannot use their phones, then it needs to apply to us up front in the offices. I would love some feedback on this? we?re just starting to think their use needs to be curbed, yet we also understand it?s 2010? and everyone has and uses phones.
Re: Cell phone policy at you or your H's work??
My husband and I work in very different environments (both from each other and from what you are describing) but both of us have very lax cell phone policies at work.
I work in an office, in university recruiting/marketing. As long as we are getting our work done, it doesn't matter if we text or make personal calls on our cells (or work phones for that matter). But if we are swamped (which is often), it is common sense and expressed by both our director and our boss that we shouldn't using our cells. It has never really been much of a problem in our office, except for one co-worker who goes outside and talks on her cell at least 8 times a day, usually for around 10 minutes each. My boss has discussed her cell phone usage with her. I just try to keep it to a minimum and all has been fine.
My husband is a college coach and his cell is permantely attached to his hand. He's always calling travel ball/high school coaches, propsective players, his boss, his players, other coaches, whatever. Obviously his job is not the norm though. He'd actually probably get in trouble for not using his cell 24/7. Weird how different each industry is...
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My office is very strict, and we are not supposed to have our cells out or text during work, although not everyone follows that policy.
Some of my coworkers have their cells out on their desk and text during work, but I don't. When I was hired I was told texting during work was looked down upon.
Our cubicles are very open and not really private at all, and also the managers are always walking up and down my aisle, so it's not like I can really hide it. I've had my phone out when most of them were out of the office, but I didn't text much, just a few here and there to FI.
FI's office is a small company w/about 10 employees, and he is allowed to have his phone out at work and use it when he wants.
I think that as long as the work is getting done, you should be able to have your phone out.
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I would concentrate on personal time usage and focus less on the cell phone as a device. In my husband's small cleaning company, the rule is no using cell phones while working because they need to be paying attention to the equipment they are using, or the products they are cleaning with. And if they are cleaning in someone's house and the homeowner is there, definitely no cell phone use, he doesn't have any personal conversations between staff going on in front of a homeowner. If someone needs to make a cell phone call, they take a quick break from work or they use their lunch hour. If someone has to be in contact with someone, like a parent in case of an emergency, their phone is set to vibrate and they stop work to catch the call.
One office I worked in, the occasional personal call on a cell phone wasn't a problem as long as their quality and productivity of their work wasn't impacted. But the lunch room become a "no cell phone zone" because everyone talking on their phones disturbed others who wanted to relax or wind down during lunch. It's horrible to eat lunch, try to read and relax while forced to listen to someone non stop yap about their horrible date the night before.
Because my job is service-oriented, we have a "phone room" where we can take personal calls. We do keep them with us when running around downtown to other offices (we do courier runs as part of our job) just in case we need to call back to the office.
In my company, being caught playing with the phone when you should be working can be grounds for termination, depending on the severity of the situation. In my office, we are fairly laid back, but it's not out of control.
My sister and brother in law own a small manufacturing firm, and they prohibit the staff from using cell phones while not on break.They can have them on vibrate but can't answer or text. At first, it wasn't a big deal, but people abused it. They make exceptions when there is a situation that warrants.
Whatever guidelines/policy you create - I think it's just important to think about who is going to be enforcing it and what their cell phone usage is.
We had a head manager who knew cell phone use was out of control and issued a "cell phones must be kept in your locker except on breaks" mandate. But the head manager never did much direct day-to-day supervision in the dept and some of my direct supervisors would rather die than be parted from their iphones. So really we had a shiny new policy that was pretty much ignored overall. Personally, I text here and there, few times a shift and I never leave valuables in the locker room because of theft concerns.
At the present time, employees who are using personal cell phones in work areas are generally seen by the direct supervisors as needing a heavier workload, and more work can usually be found very soon for those employees.
Do you have an internet usage policy? That could be helpful in creating guidelines as well.
If I were making a cell phone policy I would say NO CELL PHONE USE while at work. They can have them with them and check messages while on a break.
If someone had a true emergency I would think the person calling would know to call on the direct company line and of course the employee would be allowed to speak with the caller.
You've gotten a lot of good advice, especially thinking about how it will be enforced. Do you all do performance reviews? If you dont' have a strict policy but people know that they aren't supposed to be on tehir phones, if you know they do use their phones, then that can be addressed in a review. If it starts to impact their ability to get raises and promotions, they might actually think twice about using it too much!
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We have three different types of work areas at my company so the polices vary. In the more typical office environment (half offices, half cubes) cellphones are allowed. More than half of those people have company phones/blackberries so obviously they have them out/on them all the time. I do wish they would have some policy about keeping them on silent or at least lowering the volume because some people have really LOUD ring tones that to me are less than professional. I don't know of a policy about texting but I imagine it would be up to the managers to deal with if they felt someone was talking/texting excessively.
We have a call center and they are not allowed to have personal phones, which makes sense since they wear headsets and are on the phone all the time. They can only use personal phones on their breaks.
In the warehouse/manufacturing area they are not allowed to use personal phones except on breaks. The exceptions would be managers/supervisors who have company phones.
When I worked in a manufacturing facility, personal use of cell phones was strictly prohibited on the manufacturing floor. Our manufacturing staff were actually instructed to leave them in their lockers. Management was also instructed to minimize even any business use while in the manufacturing area.
There were no restrictions for office personnel, but in general we were asked to limit all personal calls -- cell or otherwise.
I'm going to suggest you look at it from a productiveness and a safety angle. If people are on the floor, working in production/manufacturing/driving machines, etc, it should be a given that they're not allowed to be on their cells. And if people are neglecting their work in the offices and are spending all their time playing on their phones or talking to friends or texting, that shouldn't be allowed either.
I think if you focus on the, "Could this potentially cost the company money?" question (in terms of liability, insurance, sales lost, etc), you'll have a clearer understanding of some of the things you need to consider. Also, not sure how it works for you in terms of insurance and if you have an agent or what, but they might have policies in mind, too, in regards to liability. Might not be a bad idea to put in a call to your agent, and that way, you have a person to blame in case people get upset.
For me, at work, if I'm not with clients or students, I'm allowed to talk on the phone at my own discretion. My H, he can talk, if he needs to, but it's better if he doesn't. I don't know if there's an official policy in place at his place of work. I usually just text him if I need to, or he'll text me.
Wow - this is a real eye opener for me (I live in England). I have never worked anywhere where mobiles are banned. We sometimes sit in meetings and text right through the meeting!! It's mostly to colleagues though slating the someone in the room
Taking a personal call at work is never frowned upon, but you'd not be jibber-jabbering on about your weekend/date/plans, it would normally be 'I'll be home at Xpm/can you pick up Y on your way home' and it's normally kept quite short. Most people use their work mobile as their personal phone (I keep mine separate though since I change jobs a bit and I hate having to tell people my new number). People in general don't abuse the 'taking personal calls' on work time freedom, which is nice. If you can't get through your workload because you spend too much time talking to your mates on the phone, then it would be noticed. SImilarly, if you are bored and on the phone to your mates all the time, you'd be given more work to do, but like I said, people don't abuse the freedom.
I also used to work at Nokia where we were positively encouraged to be on our mobiles
Safety: If you're operating heavy machinery or performing some action that could result in loss of life or maiming cells should be banned.
Rudeness: If you are dealing with the public face to face cell phones should never be touched in front of the customer.
Cubes: People will see you using a cell and think you're a slacker.
Private Office: Do what ever the fsck you want.
I fall in the Private Office category. My office has no windows and the door is solid without windows. I do what ever I want in the office. I text with my wife and take personal calls. However, my position does not demand that I be working every minute of every day. I can take a 20 minute call with the DW and not impact the productivity of the company.