Ryanair Employees Banned From Charging Cell Phones At Work

from the assistant-TO-the-regional-manager dept

Europe's high flying discount airline, Ryanair, has decided to ban cell phone charging at work. Though the company spokesperson claims that "nobody has batted an eyelid" in reference to the new policy, it could be that the employees are too incredulous to comment. Whether this policy is meant to be a cost savings or to reinforce a "good work ethic," it is simply silly. Ryanair workers will now have to rely on hand-crank generators to charge their phones, which I'm sure will have a much bigger affect on productivity.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    wip, 21 Apr 2005 @ 4:59pm

    or maybe employees will get the hint

    and leave their cell phones at home. Cell phones at work do not improve productivity any more than an X-box improves productivity.

    Message to the cell phone junkies to stunned to speak: do your work at work and your idle chit chat at home.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Spunkster21, 22 Apr 2005 @ 6:53am

      Re: or maybe employees will get the hint

      I think it is highly dependent on the type of work you do.

      I'm a consultant and telling me to leave my phone at home would MASSIVELY reduce productivity, as it would for many other professions.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Mike (profile), 22 Apr 2005 @ 7:55am

      Re: or maybe employees will get the hint

      Considering that many workers prefer to use their mobile phone to their office phone, this seems particularly silly.

      Who said people were using their cell phones for idle chit chat at work? If so, then punish *that*. Not the charging of cell phones.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        wip, 22 Apr 2005 @ 8:28pm

        Re: or maybe employees will get the hint

        If your job requires a phone, you have already got one on your desk. If not, you should be working and not using your personal phone.

        Banning employees from using company electricity to charge their personal equipment seems like a sensible thing to do. How is that any different from banning people from charging their model airplane batteries or their camera batteries at work?

        If the company thinks you need a cellphone to do your job (not likely for anyone that works behind a desk), then more than likely they issued one to you and this story is not about you.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          Mike (profile), 22 Apr 2005 @ 10:40pm

          Re: or maybe employees will get the hint

          Of course, these are the same "personal phones" that the bosses have no problem calling you on to reach you during your personal time.

          How is that any different from banning people from charging their model airplane batteries or their camera batteries at work?

          First of all, I had no idea work places did ban that sort of thing. Everywhere I've worked I doubt anyone would have cared if you were charging those things at work. You haven't explained why it's "sensible" at all. The electricity "cost" is tiny -- and the benefit from keeping workers happy and not worried about rushing out of the office to do something at home more than pays up for the tiny electricity charge.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

          • identicon
            wip, 23 Apr 2005 @ 11:15am

            Re: or maybe employees will get the hint

            arguing that a company should foot the bill for charging your personal stuff because it reduces productivity is not sensible. arguing that employees will need to leave work to charge their personal stuff as a result is not sensible either.

            Just because cell phones are ubiquitous does not mean they are productivity enhancers. The point that I am making is that these things are mostly non-work distractions and it is a sensible thing for a company to remove non-work distractions from the workplace. Especially when the company is a barebones low cost company that prides itself on low priced service. Why squander price on a non-essential distraction?

            Most jobs do not require cell phones. On call people, on the road people obviously do require cell phones, but that is the minority. The rest are people talking to their friends, because business associates call your work number not your private personal number.

            If business people are calling you on your personal phone, that is your fault. The company provides a phone that you could use, that is available during work hours. If you choose to give out your personal number instead of your work number, it is your fault that you get business calls during personal time.

            link to this | view in chronology ]

            • identicon
              thecaptain, 25 Apr 2005 @ 4:50am

              Re: or maybe employees will get the hint

              Wow...I hope I never ever work for someone like you.

              link to this | view in chronology ]

              • identicon
                Mr S Hasier, 25 Apr 2005 @ 2:08pm

                Re: or maybe employees will get the hint

                1./ Negligible electricity savings.
                2./ Not all their staff have mobiles at work.
                3./ Arrogant & Ignorant PR dept.
                4./ The main issue is time saved from hourly payed staff( don't fabricate bull about electricity )
                5./ Only allow mobiles to be used if associated with the tasks to hand
                6./ Read the internet

                e.g. http://www.ryan-be-fair.org/
                ps. google gave a plentyfull supply of hits bad mouthing you, wonder what that means ;) or is it coincidence?
                pps I can't believe someone registered a paid domain name to slag you off. LOL

                Site quote -->

                Norwegian unions block Ryanair recruitment

                Belgian tribunal finds against Ryanair

                ITF supplies personal flightlog for cabin and flightdeck crew

                Judge rules injunction against Ryanair disciplinary action

                Union pressure successful in Spain

                Pilots win major court victory over Ryanair!

                link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Oliver Wendell Jones, 22 Apr 2005 @ 7:54am

    It might be for security

    My cell phone, a PalmOne Treo 600 is also a PDA with a SD memory card. My charger is also a USB Sync cable and draws power from the PC. By clicking a couple times on the scren of my phone I can activate an application that makes my SD card show up as a removable drive on the PC and allows me to copy data back and forth.

    If I were the wrong type of person, I could easily add a virus to the PC or smuggle information out of the computer and onto my phone.

    If the company has a similar no iPods, no flash drives, etc. policy, this new policy would make more sense.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.