At the hell hole where I work, there are no steadfast rules about anything. There are three people who seem to get about 50% of ALL calls to the business. 99% of these calls are personal. The first thing I wonder is: Can’t these guys live without talking to their SO’s for nine hours? What can possibly be so important that they have to call here 10-12 times a day?
Yes, you read that right. One woman gets at least 10 calls a day from her boyfriend. What the hell can they be talking about this many times?
Anyhoo, does your company have a rule about getting/making personal calls?
At every other place I’ve worked, that many non-emergency personal phone calls would have gotten these people fired for wasting company time.
As a supervisor, I have first had experience with “phone abuse”. While my company doesn’t have a written policy, we do frown upon abuse of a business phone. But what considered abuse is my issue. What may be any excessive amount of personal phone calls to me isn’t to my superior. My husband calls me once a day - when he arrives home from work and I ask if I should buy beer. A 3 1/2 minute conversation at most. One of my clerks, we’ll call her “Fugg”, has two daughters. One of which is seriously dependant on her mother even though she’s 17 years old. “Fugg” had to leave work early one afternoon to talk to her daughters teacher since daughter went nutty when she was assigned Night, by Elie Wiesel in English class. This girl has called her mother at least 6 times a day during the school year. Now that she is home for the summer, it has increased to 9 or 10 times a day. These calls are five minutes or more. I have documented and discussed with her phone usage, I feel it excessive. However, without something in writting, I have no basis unless it affects her work performance (or so I am told confidentially by the labor relations guy). Hell, I can think of 10 more things that affect her job performance more but I won’t go there.
My company’s policy on phone calls is the same as internet usage. Excessive use for non-business related items is grounds for disciplinary action or dismissal. Problem is, there is no guideline for what is considered to be excessive. We had a guy get fired not too long ago for excessive internet use but nobody knows what that is until it is too late. It seems to be a handy way to get rid of people that you don’t want around for whatever reason.
Personally, as a former manager, if it isn’t affecting job performance/productivity, I never cared. If someone is getting 50 calls a day but still doing their job and doing it well, so be it. I’ve seen people with personal phone calls every ten minutes do a better job than someone who’s phone never rings.
People should be judged on the end result of what they were hired to do, not their image while in the office (unless customers/clients are in the area).
What is business usage? Many of my phone calls are from people I know in the business who are personal friends who work for other companies. As often as not they are calling to stay in touch, set up a lunch (or a boozer) or are calling to ask me how I’d handle a certain problem in software, hardware, interpretation or even a business problem with a partner.
It’s a two-way street, for the most part, as I feel free to draw upon the same body of people myself. Nevertheless, most of those sort of calls amount to me or my counterpart devoting time paid for by the company to freely providing my professional expertise towards solving a problem for what is ultimately one of our competitors, with no immediate reward to the company conceivable.
Many of these relationships never bear any other than personal rewards, but ultimately some bring together the right connection at the right time. My company would be foolish if they started tracking phone time and making us account for it. Fortunately, they know that.
What is business usage? Many of my phone calls are from people I know in the business who are personal friends who work for other companies or who remain independent. As often as not they are calling to stay in touch, set up a lunch (or a boozer) or are calling to ask me how I’d handle a certain problem in software, hardware, interpretation or even a business problem with a partner.
It’s a two-way street, for the most part, as I feel free to draw upon the same body of people myself. Nevertheless, most of those sort of calls amount to me or my counterpart devoting time paid for by the company to freely providing my professional expertise towards solving a problem for what is ultimately one of our competitors, with no immediate reward to the company conceivable.
Many of these relationships never bear any other than personal rewards, but ultimately some bring together the right connection at the right time. My company would be foolish if they started tracking phone time and making us account for it. Fortunately, they know that.
Oh mercy am I familiar with this problem. At my place one of my fellow employees gets and makes numerous phone calls every single frickin’ day, all involving various women. Which astounds me no end as he resembles a barely evolved anthropoid of some sort. He actually gets mad, cursing and slamming objects, when work comes in because it cuts into his phone time.
Policy says no excessive use but doesn’t really define what that is.
I’d complain to the supervisor except I’d have to wait until he’s finished his many personal calls.