not allowing cell phones at work

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What do you think of this? Do they do this at your job?

They want to start doing this where my mother works because some people are talking on their phones too much during work hours. They want people to hand them in at the beginning of their shift and get them back when they leave. If they actually start doing that my mother will just leave it home. Why have it there if she can't even use it?

She got it for if I needed to call her for an emergency. Once before she had it I tried to call her job and never got through because the people there said they did not know who she was and could not get a message for her to call me.

That's the problem. There's no doubt that people keep phones on them for emergencies, however, people do abuse that privilege.

At my job, for instance, they sneak off into the rooms are back areas and just yap on their phones without doing their work. I often have to go looking for them because they're hidden somewhere. It's annoying.

I don't have a job yet, but I remember that in school that is a rule.
When I was 11 I had my first cell phone and they immediately told me that I had to turn it off during school hours at the beginning of 6th grade.
I didn't do that because I needed the cell phone to call my father or mother when I didn't want to stay ay school and I wanted them to come and get me from school (at the time I had a lot of panic attacks) and I didn't want to use the school telephone becuse I had to go down where there was a lot of noise.
So I got into the toilette and called my mother or father from there.
I stopped when I was 14 because my panic attacks got less frequent and if I had one the teachers were willing to go down and call my parents themselves.

My father at work is allowed to use cellphones during work hours (I know because sometimes I've called him) and his co-workers even use computer and tablets during work hours.

I wouldn't like a job that wouldn't allow me to use a cellphone.
What if someone needed to call them for some important stuff, or I needed to call someone?

I wish my company forbade private mobiles during work-hours. There are stationary phones in the office that family members can use to get hold of the employees in case of emergency. I am sick and tired of how people sit and play games and chat on FB and even just text all through their work-shift.
On the other hand, I also wish my company handed out company cell-phones for business use. I don't enjoy paying for business-calls from my private phone when I am not in the office.

That time I tied to call my mother at work and had no way to get through to her really freaked me out.

Not long before that incident my grandmother passed away and before that she couldn't be home alone so I was with her every day when my mother was at work. If there had been a medical emergency with my grandmother I had no way to get in touch with my mother because the number by the phone to call her at work wouldn't tell her or even admit that she worked there. She didn't have a cell phone yet then.

I was just lucky that my mother was home when my grandmother collapsed and went to the hospital because otherwise I would have had to deal with that all by myself.

Good idea in principle, clearly a bad idea in practice.
A better idea would be that staff are not permitted to make outgoing calls on their mobile phones except in emergencies, or during breaks.
Allow incoming calls, but again, only for emergencies, phone's should be kept on silent, or diverted to voicemail.
Clearly there needs to be a level of understanding for those that have family issues, genuine problems requiring access to communication etc, but this needs to be balanced against the need to keep people concentrating on the job.
There is no easy solution to this, but at the end of the day, employers have the right to decide when it is appropriate to allow access to communication. Some industries have a genuine need to keep this under control, but it should always be open to appropriate negotiation.

I would actually like it. I don't like getting calls. I don't like talking to people when they are texting and not paying attention to me.

I understand the reason, however I have issues with the turn it in policy. What guarantee can they provide it will be secure?

I wish more places did it.

If you need to be reached in an emergency, the employer should give you a number the party can call and they will IMMEDIATELY get you. In the past, such people just got a pager for that purpose.

I use my phone all 8 hours every day for music. If they took my phone away I wouldn't be able to focus on my work. I need to have the ability to access Pandora and get a variety of classical music. If I needed to buy all of the music for an ipod or something I would need hundreds of dollars of music. Right now I am debating on paying the pandora fee for pandora one since they limited me to 40 hours. Iheart radio just isn't as good.

I also text during the day. I see no difference with texting a few people and those who walk around the office and chat with other people. I'm only being disturbed by myself instead of other's being disturbed by me. My co-worker should start texting because she always comes over to talk and it's never just a quick chat (different from the one in my rant). I don't notice too many people taking personal calls on their cell phones in my office. Of course, most people don't even come to my office but instead telecommute. I wish I could do that...

No such restrictions in my open-plan office. Quick personal calls on the desk phone or mobile (cell) are not an issue with the powers-that-be as far as I can tell. I guess it's because people in my area make a point of moving outwith the working area when taking or making a personal mobile call and no one yaks loudly on their desk phone.
I don't have a problem with this either.

What drives me up the wall is people's all-too-audible ring tones. Especially ones which play snatches of pop music. It's a fashion I have never understood nor why people will pay money for them. It hasn't been a problem where I am for a year or so but for a long time we had people who would go to a meeting and leave their mobile on their desk where a text alert or missed call alert would annoy everyone in earshot until they came back. One time I answered a phone on the sixth time it rang and explained to the caller that the person wasn't available. That stopped further calls.

It's a simple case of manners IMHO. Most people have them but the few that don't risk meaning everyone gets effectively punished.

My own ancient phone has been on vibrate alert for as long as I can remember.

Nope they don't do this at my job. Phones should only be used for during breaks. What did people do differently before everyone had cell phones? Probably called work and left the message and would give it to the worker for them to call you back.

I am on the fence about this because I can see both sides.

My job requires that I carry a cell phone with me at all times. Since I'd never owned one before, they had to buy one for me.

Good deal, right?

Wrong!

I have to be careful about whom I call, especially long-distance, since the bean-counters get an itemized bill...

If the company has a job requirement that you carry a cell phone at all times, then they should pay for it. But be sure to do only company business on it and get something else for personal use if you desire a phone for personal use.

But that can have another drawback as they now think you are able to be "on call" 24/7, which is a bad predicament if they call at night or other time you are trying to decompress.

Hanyo - How often do you need to call your mother in an emergency situation?

I don't know. Not often. Maybe I call her at work once or twice a month max? There are times when she doesn't make or receive calls on her cell phone for weeks at a time. If I can I try to wait until I know it's her lunch time so I'm not interrupting her work.

If they do take phones away my mother wouldn't be the only one to be mad about it. There are others there not abusing the privilege also, one example being a single mother that would be unreachable if her kid's school wanted to call her with a problem. At this point it's just a few people at most that talk on their phone all day long and are ruining it for others.