It’s okay to have a glass of wine at dinner, but no be drinking on the job all day. And it’s not okay to be constantly texting at work, when you are not being paid to do it. When I train new workers, the first thing I tell them is “There are no devices allowed at the registers. You are here to work.”
I had one young man who, when he didn’t answer his cell phone, the person called him on the store’s landline and ask for him. I reported the incident, and he got fired.
So he was following the rules, you reported him for following the rules, and your boss fired him for following the rules? That’s pretty shitty all around.
No, one of the other rules is No personal calls on the store’s phone. I’m supposed to wait for him to bag an order while he is gabbing on the phone? I don’t think so.
Actually, I have a couple of friends who run breweries. It’s absolutely okay for them to be drinking on the job all day.
Does sorta sound odd, to fire the worker, for something his FRIEND did. I could imagine the employer inquiring whether it was an emergency and, if not, hanging up after telling the caller “no personal calls allowed.” Then tell the employee to tell friends not to call on landline.
The “no cell phone” had been a chronic problem with this person, and he had been warned. And he did not end the call on the landline with “I can’t talk now. Good-bye and do not call here again,” but talked for 6 minutes. That was just not acceptable.
I am so glad that you are not my boss. And I’m glad I don’t work a job where this kind of shit happens.
I’m glad I don’t work a job where this happens too- but that’s because I’m happy I no longer have the particular type of job where you get fired for this , not because there’s something terrible about this guy being fired. He works at a store, at a cash register , apparently as a bagger. There’s a couple of rules -“no devices at the register”, “no personal calls on the store’s phone”. He was told of the rules when he was hired, and he had been warned about cell phone use. He doesn’t answer his cell phone so his friend calls him on the stores landline.He doesn’t tell the friend he can’t talk , he doesn’t talk for a few seconds and then run to tell the manager he must leave due to an emergency. Instead, he talks for six minutes , very possibly leaving **Annie-Xmas ** and a line of customers waiting. It’s true all of this information wasn’t in Annie’s first post, but it was there before you posted. I’m wondering how long you would patiently wait for the bagger to finish his phone call and how many times you think he should get warned about this (after previous warnings about cell phone use) before the boss can fire him.
OK, but why couldn’t Annie have written him up? Why not just tell him don’t have his little friends calling the store and then threaten to fire him if someone called for him again?
I guess mercy no longer exists in modern day retail.
He didn’t get fired the first time he broke the cell phone rule, there were multiple warnings. And then he not only received a non-emergency call on the landline, but stayed on the phone for six minutes. I’m starting to wonder how far you think mercy should go - suppose he breaks a different rule each day. Should he just get warnings until he breaks the same one a second or third time, or is a general inability to follow the rules a good enough reason to fire him?
I missed the post where Annie provided that information. Mea culpa.
I can see how you’d think it was harsh if you missed that part.
Exactly, I’m lucky enough to have a new dating interest and we text quite a lot. We know each other’s schedules so I generally know when I’ll get a quick response from him. But, I also know that’s he’s got a life and sometimes responses get delayed. I know he glances at the messages to make sure they’re just the usual day to day chat and not something urgent.
I don’t ever deal with customers at my job, so texting at work is completely allowed. In fact, occasionally I get work related texts on my personal phone as it’s such a pain for someone with a question to log in remotely just to ask a quick question.
It’s quite better for office harmony for the three of us on night shift to text our friends rather than to overhear half of a personal conversation.
Back to the original question…
I’m a fairly regular user in that I glance at it frequently, sometimes goof off while waiting for a procedure to run, or whatever - and it’s usually with me. I use it for work purposes so it pretty much needs to be at hand all the time.
When I’m with other people, though (unless it’s family having a quick meal and we’re just “refueling” vs “dining”), I don’t have it out. I won’t have it out at the table, especially if we’re dining out - though there are times when we’ll be planning our next activities and we’ll use them as a tool for that. That’s an example of how having devices can be part of the social event.
At a party or whatever, oh hells no. The most I’d do is glance at the screen and if something seems urgent, apologize and deal with it (stepping aside if needed) as quickly as possible.
People will defend any use of a cell phone these days. Everything is so important. They have no sense of priorities.
Another person who was bagging for me suddenly walked off. When I had a break, I found her in the ladies room, texting. I immediately called the supervisor to the scene, who asked her what she was doing texting in the bathroom, when she was supposed to be working. Her excuse? “You won’t let me text at the register.”
And she got fired.
And then the whole store erupted into applause.
Before people jump on this post saying “It’s just texting.”, the underlying issue and reason for the termination is a disregard for policies and being able to follow directions from a manager/supervisor. This is a disciplinary issue that requires attention and dismissal if the employee continues.
Most companies/states are “At will”, termination at any time for any reason by either party. However most companies have a 2-3 strike policy requiring documentation and attempt to correct continuing problems with an employee. It doesn’t have the same exact issue, it just has to be proof of the employees inability/unwillingness to understand/undertake the requirements of the job or being unable/unwilling to follow policies/directions. But again, if it’s an At Will company, anytime for any reason expect for race or harrassment.
Personally, I’m from a pre-cellphone generation, and I think it’s rude to use your cellphone (with certain common-sense exceptions) during social occasions. If you have to answer an important phone call, it’s understandable. But really, if you were invited or invited me to a social occasion, you should engage with your hosts or other guests. As I said, there are special circumstances when it’s acceptable (I used to be on-call for work 24/7, and it was as a senior systems analyst, not as a doctor or fireman or other more important position, but I still was required by my job to respond to I.T.-related emergency call (often, if I was the one being called, it was not my ‘week’ to be the official guy on call, it was because it was a problem that others had already tried to handle and failed – I was kinda the technical guru). Note that I’ve had to drop everything and ask to borrow a friend’s computer to log in to work to handle some stuff (fortunately, they were mostly co-workers there). I’ve also had to abandon restaurant meals (including one New Years Eve) to rush back home so I could log in and work. In the case of the New Years experience, I had actually just ordered my meal, and a friend/co-worker got that meal to go for me and delivered it to the office. I worked almost that entire New Years eve into the wee hours of the morning.
Just letting you know because it’s not just emergency personnel who are sometimes required to interrupt social occasions for emergencies (granted, other people may not consider those events emergencies, but really, if I was being called, usually the business would be in trouble if I didn’t intervene).
BTW, my very first I.T. job, I was a programmer. I took my very first vacation on my own after college (to Acapulco) and I was literally required to call in every weekday morning to work. I.T. people in some jobs are kind of treated like slaves in some businesses. That changes sometimes the further you get from NY and NJ, but it really was true for a couple of my jobs.
Several folk have expressed opinions that some use of phones in social situations is rude/undesirable. Around the table or in certain social interactions are most often mentioned.
To those of you who feel that way, do you DO anything in such situations? Say anything to the phone user? Just stop associating with them? Just think less of them but change nothing? Change your opinion as to what is appropriate?
And to the phone users, how would you react to being asked not to use your phone? Do you realize/care that other people react unfavorably to your phone habits?
This one makes me glad I’m not in management anymore. Where I work, we have a very very strict rule about cell phones on the work floor. They cannot be seen at your desk. Ever. Automatic firing.
So the youngsters, and probably old folks too, take them on bathroom breaks, which means, that a quick pee turns into a 5 or 6 or 7 minutes of checking the phones. And with 4 stalls for about 200 people, there can be a line of jiggly women needing to get in those stalls