Manager Bans Mobile Phones During Work Hours, Insists All Calls Go Through Her, Staff Maliciously Complies

I'm not even able to manage my internet use in an acceptable way while working ;) Hello boredpanda

I've seen men AND women viewing porn at work, playing games, and all sorts of other dumb things - you may want to rethink that statement...

I don't think you've ever worked if you think that.

You clearly have not worked with many grown adults.

It's not even treating them like children, most schools don't have a blanket ban on cellphones nowadays (sure they might take it away if a specific kid is using it at an inappropriate time, or otherwise punish a kid for using it at an inappropriate time, but not a blanket ban). Heck some prisons have begun to allow cellphones! So, it's treating them as less than children, and less than prisoners. In my opinion, if you can't trust an employee to regulate their attention and not use their cellphone at inappropriate times, you can't trust them to regulate their attention without a cellphone. And an employee that can not self-regulate their attention makes for dangerous situations - so yeah, fire any specific person that can't. But banning cellphones does nothing to help the issue.

The other side of the coin is if you act like children, expect to be treated like children. OP said themselves that personal cell phone use is against policy, probably as a legal requirement. They're complaining that they're being forced to comply with policy, probably because they clearly demonstrated they couldn't be trusted to do it on their own.

I think more so you run the risk of losing a portion of your work force, especially in this day and time.

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A 2017 survey from staffing firm OfficeTeam found the average office employee spends 56 minutes per day using their cell phone during work hours for non-work activity, adding up to just under five hours a week of lost productivity, per employee.

Yeah, my area it would take someone making $44/hr for a single income family, or a second job to make up whatever shortfall. Tis a shame. Luckily, my wife abhors the thought of not working, so it's never been concern for us 😂

Kate Jones, you're not the Devil's Advocate here. I can agree with you about hospital staff, sometimes, being on their phones, uneccesarrily. I suffered a Stroke and was in a Rehabilitation Center, last year. I would press the call button, and would be waiting 30 minutes or more(longest was 1 hour and 45 minutes). All the while, I could see staff walking back and forth, either on their phone or talking through their smart watches. Since I was nonverbal, at the time, I wasn't able to verbally call out for help. It got so bad that I would have to text my husband to have him call the Center's Reception Desk and overhead page the tech or nurse, to the room. Yes, phones are huge distractions for some people. I suffered several falls because the techs just had to respond to a text or a comment to their Social Media post, while they were supposed to be assisting me with transfering from bed to wheelchair. In my honest opinion, phone should be in your locker unless on break/lunch.

You can't assume they were using their phone for talking or texting. On a daily basis nurses need to look up medication compatibilities, side effects, sensitivities, dose calculations, disease treatments, lab tests, just to name a few. All this while being constantly understaffed and increasing workloads. Nurses double check doctor's orders. If the doctor makes a mistake such as ordering the wrong dose of a medicine, the Nurse is responsible. I worked on numerous hospital floors including critical Care units before smartphones. It would have been invaluable to have this pint-sized computer in my pocket on shift. So much time was wasted running from patient rooms back to the nurses station to look up information in books, manuals, or on a desktop computer. Time that could have been spent with patients care.

I feel for you. As an ICU nurse I can see that they did not respect you need to privacy and dignity, when placing a Cather, the staff should have closed the door/curtains around you and then proceed with the procedure. On the other hand, my mobile phone is essential in helping me with all aspects of caring. From using the flashlight at night, putting some soothing music to my delirious patient, Googling a new medicine or procedure, giving directions to a relative of a patient that needs to come to visit them from out of town to using the calculator to help me with a tricky prescription. As long as my phone is sanitised regularly and I don't use it for social networking, there is nothing wrong with them. In fact, my hospital has iPad and phones for us to use, for the same purposes so we don't use ours, and free wifi too!

Geez, as much as I hate the stigma of phone usage at work, yours and Tanya's scenarios seem to actually need a rule set in place to not allow phones during work. At least until they learn when it's appropriate.

I agree with this. Healthcare workers shouldn't feel entitled to access to their personal distractions throughout the day. I suppose it can depend on what your of care you're doing but I was never allowed to have my phone anywhere near me while I worked in my military clinic. Occasionally spouses or caregivers called the front desk if something were important, but 100% of our focus was patient care.

It wasn't that long ago that personal calls at work could get you fired no matter what they were about.

Unfortunately, many places have eliminated the position that took those calls or reassigned tasks and the workload would overwhelm handling those calls.