Anyone else's job this strict?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Recently my employer released a new policy regarding cell phones. I work in transit, and in the wake of some recent tragic accidents many transit agencies have gotten exponentially stricter about cell phone rules.

As of this month, our policy (called the ‘No Phone Zone’) bars a transit operator from even having a phone on, in addition to any other non-work electronic device, while in the bus/train. What that means is that not only can you not (obviously) use a cell phone/ipod/etc while driving, you can’t even have it on or even out of a bag while in the vehicle. The only exception to all of this is employer-issued phones/radios/etc. This leads to some potentially crazy situations, for example.

A driver is on his break. He takes the phone out of his bag (he’s not even allowed to have the turned-off phone in his pocket) to walk out of the bus to use the phone outside of the bus (legit if he’s on a break). He just violated the rules. why? because the device was outside of a bag while he was in the bus. The penalty?

Ten days suspension, without pay, reccomendation for termation. that’s for the first offense.

Get caught using a device while behind the wheel? thirty days suspension, without pay, reccomendation for termination.

My coworkers think this is incredibly draconian. I actually have quietly approved their new stricter rules, for selfish reasons. Why? Because I feel that the people that are the most likely to get caught are the people who are the most careless/flout the rules. Since I am in danger of being laid off (which works out by seniority, and not based on conduct) I would much rather see them let go people who break rules rather than someone like me who is able to follow rules, even convoluted ones like this.

Its not like you can’t work around them to reasonable levels. So we’re not allowed to have the phone out or in our pocket while in the bus? Fine, get a little camera bag with a lanyard, put the phone in the little bag, hang it on the coathook behind the driver’s seat while driving, and when you want to use the phone, take the tiny bag and carry it out of the bus, being careful not to take the phone out until you are outside of the vehicle.

2

Incubus, those rules don’t strike me as draconian given the profession. They’d be draconian in an office job, but not for a bus driver.

3

I also agree with those rules.

4

Ok. Like I said, I don’t have a problem with it because with a bit of creativity anyone can avoid getting in trouble without flouting the rules behind the supervisor’s back (put the phone in a damn bag, keep it off, talk on the phone outside the bus, etc) but many of my coworkers are reacting as though they have to submit random cavity searches to the supervisors and people are screeching ‘arbitration!’ :rolleyes:

5

I once worked at the Bose headquarters as a systems analyst which had some very odd and strictly enforced rules. You absolutely not have a camera inside the campus and, God forbid, if you took a picture of anything, you would be immediately fired for it. I didn’t even work in the research buildings. You also had to take breaks with all of your team members. That means that the boss would call you for a morning break, a lunch break, and an afternoon break and you had to sit at the same table with all of your bosses and coworkers to chat. Eating anything at your desk was forbidden and having water bottles was controversial but often tolerated. Dr. Bose is a billionaire so I assume he knows what he is doing but boy was that strange.

6

No they’re not. You do not NEED to use a cell phone. 10 years ago you got along without them just fine.

You don’t need to be in constant communication with people. If you need to make a call find a pay phone. Oh yeah I know the argument, I can’t find one. Are you looking, are you really looking. I’d bet not.

I’ve had people say this you know what? They’re wrong.

Instead of crying over reasonable rules, why not use your time to read a book, organize your thought or stop the idea that you’re the center of the world and people can’t get along without you for a period of time.

Unless you’re a brain surgeon on call or stuck in traffic in a car that’s broken down you don’t need a cell phone.

The REAL reason is that you oppose the rules is you want to goof off on work time. You are making excuses such as the “break” time, simply to justify to yourself how unfair a rule that really doesn’t effect you.

Fact is jobs are hard to find. Two, you don’t need to be in constant communication. Three, if this is the biggest problem you’re facing today, deal with it, 'cause you have WAY too much time on your hands, and evidently you’ve filled it by convincing yourself meanless blather on a cell phone is necessary.

Now I am not picking on the original poster. I’m sure 90% of the people feel that way. But c’mon what I’m saying is you gotta know when to fight your battles and when to just say “Ok I don’t like it but I’ll live with it.”

If it’s that important to you to talk on yourself then you need to take a stand quit your job and find one that allows you to. I’m serious, for example, I’m gay and I’ve lost jobs because of it. I’ve quit jobs because of it. And you know what, today those places don’t have those rules, and yes it’s a result of me and others like me who took huge money losses because they have principles and ideals worth the sacrafice. I know it worked 'cause many of those places later asked me to come back, for which I said “No, thank you.”

My point is not to belittle but to show you this is really a meanless thing in the scope of things. Just learn you’re not the center of the world, find a nice way to spend your time, (try a book on tape) and deal with it.

7

Hey, where I work, even bringing a cellphone into the workplace can lead to you being fired.

And if you bring it in and give it to the wrong person, you could be criminally prosecuted.

That’s strict!

[sub]I work in a maximum security prison[/sub]

8

I hope not, because he said in the OP that he approves of the new rules.

9

I had a temporary job as an Alternate Assessment Scorer. (This means that for those students, sometimes defined legally as 1% of the population, too coginitively disabled to handle a standardized test, even with accommodations, they still have to have some kind of assessment, mostly for the purposes of teacher accountability. I was one of many who scored them.)

They seriously threatened that if one more person failed to turn off their cell phone, they would search purses and pockets and ban cell phones from the building.

This was both because of confidentiality issues–especially since many cell phones also have a camera function-- and because it’s hard to concentrate when someone near you is talking on a cell phone.

People shaped up after they made the threat. The only cell phones that rang after that were those belonging to the folks in charge . . . which was amusing and irritating at once.

Given the confidentiality issues, we took breaks at the same time. It was funny sometimes watching how people spread out to arm’s length from each other and all got on their phones at once. Can’t be separated from communication for more than a couple of hours without pain. . .

10

I once worked at a place that had two S&G locks on the door. (This door was in a foyer that had a glass exterior door with a single key lock.) Each employee had the combination to one of the locks. No fewer than two people could be in the building at any time, unless there were zero people in it. After entering the building the alarm had to be disabled. Both (or two, if there were more) people had to sign the alarm log. Once inside, the rooms each had two S&G locks on the doors, and an alarm system. There were safes and/or secure rooms inside of the rooms with S&G locks. If there were only two people in a room and one needed to go out for whatever reason, both people had to leave and the room had to be secured.

This was before everyone had a mobile phone, so that wasn’t a problem. Cameras, radios, recording or non-recording tape players, electronic calculators, and basically any electronic device other than digital watches were verboten. (There were electronic calculators available inside of the facility, which could not be removed.)

11

Uh, no electronic devices would mean no book-on-tape, unless you keep your iPod/Walkman in a little baggie as you are leaving the bus.

I can certainly understand the restriction while driving, and even the restriction on keeping them in your pocket (even if it’s on vibrate mode, it could be distracting to the driver if he/she is wondering who is calling him/her), but a restriction on taking it out of the bag to leave the bus for break…yeah, that seems kind of dumb. Too many dumb rules and you don’t want to follow the reasonable ones, either.

I’m not allowed to use a cellphone at my job, either, but no one cares if I use it on my break or have it in my pocket.

12

My husband’s dad is a local city bus driver, and he says they also have a “no talking on cellphones while driving” rule, but it turns into something of a joke because the drivers are still expected to immediately answer any calls from dispatch.

At my husband’s work (construction safety), no one is allowed to listen to music while working because of the safety issue.

As for your co-workers’ screeching, I’m guessing you’re unionized. :slight_smile:

13

Where I work if you’re caught on the internet, you’re fired on the spot.

14

In my job, the only electronic devices I’m allowed to carry are a receive-only pager and my watch. Every once in awhile, I start getting aggravated about it, but then I usually consider whether I’d accept these conditions if I were unemployed and looking for a job. I would.

15

Even if it’s work-related? And if it’s never work-related, why give you access in the first place?

16

When I worked Armored, we had a company cell phone for company business on our shift. We were forbidden from having a cell phone with a camera on it, or any other sort of camera, while on duty. I never liked that, because I always figured the best defense against a suspicious person or vehicle was to take a picture of them. But the reason was because the number 1 perpetrator of armored courier robberies is…the armored couriers themselves. Fact is that more than 90% of armed truck robberies are inside jobs.

To be honest, my #1 peeve with co-workers, BY FAR, is taking personal calls on work hours. Because most of the people who do this don’t limit them to their breaks or lunch times. I’ve had far too many selfish jackoffs turn their backs on legitimate work issues or be late for important meetings because they’re on the phone with their friends or spouses just wasting time.

Hell, when I was a Security Officer, more than once I went running to an emergency, right past an idiot co-worker who was standing around talking on their damned phone. On one of those occasions, we had to work around one guy (who seriously should have been fired on the spot) because his personal call was more important than the police and ambulance that were speeding past his post.

17

I wish my transit system had this rule. Nothing makes you feel more safe than a driver not paying attention to the road as they roar down it, one had on the wheel, jabbering on a goddamn cell phone to their boyfriend. But then, in the years I took the bus, I saw drivers stopping for ten minutes during rush hour to get a cup of coffee and use the can, drivers stopping on the busiest street in town, again in rush hour, to get a sammich, drivers going off route and missing stops because they otherwise would have to wait for a light, drivers blowing right by passengers at stops, on and on…

18

We’re not given access to the internet in the general sense (all the desktops have only the icons for the programs we use on them. The program does access the internet itself, but it’s not a browser), but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t people clever enough to make an ie shortcut on the desktop and use it. There actually is a reason for the policy - since all of the work in the entire building is transfered via the internet, someone fooling around who managed to download a virus would lose the entire day’s work for hundreds of people. I assume it’s happened at least once given the level of paranoia.

19

School bus drivers in my state are prohibited from using cell phones while driving. But only then, and there’s no prohibition about having it on, or using it when parked.

It’s not uncommon at all for us to contact a driver by two way radio and ask them to call in the next time they clear their bus at a school, or the end of the route (when there are no kids on of course) after they’ve parked. If we have anything that’s going to take more than a couple sentences to communicate, that’s preferable to tying up a radio channel with 100 other drivers on it.

20

I sort of can’t quite get the logic of this:

A driver is on his break. He takes the phone out of his bag (he’s not even allowed to have the turned-off phone in his pocket) to walk out of the bus to use the phone outside of the bus (legit if he’s on a break). He just violated the rules. why? because the device was outside of a bag while he was in the bus. The penalty?

Ten days suspension, without pay, reccomendation for termation. that’s for the first offense.

Get caught using a device while behind the wheel? thirty days suspension, without pay, reccomendation for termination.
If you are going to get fired, what is the difference between one and two?