Can Offices and Cell Phones Peacefully Coexist?

Can Offices and Cell Phones Peacefully Coexist?


I recently read an interesting article about a local employer which was considering a policy banning cell phones and PDA’s within their office. The employer is worried about the productivity of workers who are being paid to work. Cell phones, text messaging and instant messaging are drains on employee time and focus, and to this employer represent a significant loss of potential income and profit. A reasonable point of view, don’t you think?

But one must balance that against, the needs of the individual staff members. Most would agree that being forbidden to bring their cell phones to work represents a level of basic distrust and seems more consistent with being treated like a “child”. Both are perceptions that no employer wants to foster.

In today’s work environment, a general policy/memo to all staff would circumvent the singling out of one staff member for their abuses, and set the stage for the situation to be corrected with disciplinary action and/or the possible loss of an employee. However, that equates to one abuser being the catalyst for change for the entire group, leaving both employees and employers with many questions. Is that fair? Does non-discipline of abuser equal more consistent group abuse? Does managerial failure to address the situation undermine employee faith in the leadership and internal structure of the company? For me, this brings memories of grammar school. Remember the days of the entire class being placed in “time out” while everyone waited for one classmate to admit to a wrong doing?

Personal managerial style comes into play here. It is always a good idea to treat others as you would like to be treated. Is the work getting done? Is there an underlying issue at home? Is it better to make a 45 second phone call daily to check on kids, or lose focus and concentration because you don’t know if your kids are ok? Does occasional cell phone usage free incoming lines from personal calls?

My advice? Address the specific problem with specific employee, and be consistent. Go through all of the steps of your company discipline process per the policies set forth in your employee handbook. If you don’t have an employee handbook, get one!

But be careful. New technology is ever changing and here to stay. You don’t want to write rules that don’t work for other staff-members in an effort to repair the behavior of an employee who won’t follow the new rules either.

-Lori Sacalis

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