Now They're Banning All Mobile Phones At Work Too

from the communication-is-bad dept

Tue, Sep 23rd 2003 9:25am — Mike Masnick

Last week much was made of the story of a company in the UK banning the use of employee-to-employee email at work. Now, the mayor of a town in Wisconsin is looking to ban all personal mobile phones from the workplace. He's upset that people are getting personal phone calls (he's also upset that they trade stocks, but I'm not sure what that has to do with the mobile phones). Of course, should such a ban go into effect, those phone calls would immediately shift over to their office-lines - meaning that it will do nothing useful other than annoy city workers. Also, the mayor seems to ignore the fact that by taking a couple of personal phone calls a day, employees may be able to take care of things that they would otherwise need to leave the office for. Why is it that certain people seem to think that because a certain technology can be misused it needs to be completely banned (blocking out all of the valuable uses as well)? Trusting your employees can go a long way. If they're not getting their job done, that's one thing, but simply banning a technology because someone up top is upset about a few personal phone calls isn't exactly smart management. Found via textually.org.

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6 Comments

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Brenden, 23 Sep 2003 @ 10:51am

Give Technology to Those Who Need It Instead of Th
I noticed in the article that department heads will still be able to have cell phones. I'm sure that they won't take any personal calls whatsoever. So my understanding is that field workers who spend a lot of time out of their office or cubicle cannot have cell phones, but department heads who spend most of their time in their offices or in meetings can. This makes a lot of since. That also is very familiar to me. I have asked for a laptop to help me out with my job pointing out that I need a computer I can take with me to do parts of my job. I have yet to get one for budget reasons while most managers have laptops and some of those laptops have never left their office. I know that a laptop would have paid for itself by now. It's too bad organizations like to give technology to those who don't need it and deny (or prohibit) technology to those who do need it.
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Beck, 23 Sep 2003 @ 12:52pm

No Subject Given
This is even more stupid than laws that ban people from using cell phones while driving.

The mayor sounds like an idiot. What difference does it make if the personal call is on a cell phone or an office phone? Why shouldn't the employees be allowed to make personal calls at work? Does he assume that they have no other life than work? I guess if a kid is sick and the school needs to call they will have to wait until after 5:00.

The guy who is trading stocks will just have to learn to do it via the Internet.
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Cyke, 23 Sep 2003 @ 2:37pm

No Subject Given
Our workplace in Ohio has just this week also banned cell phones and pagers within the facility. Of course it is alright for anyone with a company supplied cell phone to use it how ever they see fit. Everyone is holding their breath hoping that the "emergency" phone call (especially during the night shift) never happens since many night time calls through the company system never get picked up till the next morning.
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AMetamorphosis, 23 Sep 2003 @ 2:44pm

Reasonable Plan
Our workplace just requires you to put your cell phone in vibrate mode and to keep personal calls less than 3 minutes ... seems like a reasonable plan to me.
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good for you!, 1 Apr 2008 @ 5:25pm

GOOD RIDDANCE!!
that should be fair~ i mean the banning of mobile phones at WORK!!! ahahahahaaahhaa they're banning it at school, why can't they ban it at work too? i mean, they have the power~~ if you know what i mean
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Wayne, 10 May 2011 @ 7:41am

Liability for Banning Personal Cell Phones
When it comes to personal cell phone use at work, security is of a concert. Company policies should insure personal cell phones are forbidden from the use of taking pictures or using them for business activities.
However, banning all personal cell phones can be a business liability.
If an employee is forbidden to have a personal cell phone or receive personal calls on company phones and a family emergency occurs, the company could be liable for any preventable result associate with the employees inability to deal with such an emergency.
The financial cost of such a libility as well as the publicity would not be worth a blanketed ban.
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