Mobile Phone Etiquette / Conventions at Work

[Flashback]

Ugh! I hate people who leave it on their desk, letting it ring out if they're not there to answer it.

Anyway, a friend of mine works for a company that does submarine R&D and they're on-site. They're not allowed to bring mobiles on site that have cameras in them.

 

[Maca44]

1. Turn it off (or silent) when in a meeting, and if it does ring in a meeting excuse yourself and leave the room to answer it.
2. Don't let it ring for 100 rings before answering it
3. Don't shout into the mouthpiece of the phone, its not necessary.
4. Repeat, turn it off in a meeting.

 

[anat0l]

Anyway, a friend of mine works for a company that does submarine R&D and they're on-site. They're not allowed to bring mobiles on site that have cameras in them.

We had a similar policy when I worked for a mining company for 3 months in PER. At that time, my mobile was a humble (but sufficient) Nokia 6108. It was quite a sight to see all the young inductees at the time panic because their current mobile phone was "prohibited" on site. (One person even said that he needed the phone because he has a separate business on the side and cannot go without.) Panic and panicked applications for exceptions ensued.

FWIW they will let you have a phone with camera but there are pretty tight restrictions on its use. Your tenure and rank had a lot to do with this (as with many other functions in the business), so certainly as a vacation placement engineer with no previous experience with the company, you had no chance of getting permission or an exception.


We get the odd person in the office who leaves their mobiles behind but forgets (not really, they don't do it, but not...."intentionally") to put their phone on silent. I've gotten used to knowing who the culprits are.....

 

[thegurio]

As its my work place i make the rules which is good and bad, and let's face it - for most of the younger generation its all texting anyway. For me i do have more than one as i run more than one business but it's the same rule for all of them. They will only ever get answered between 9 and 5 unless its friends or an important call which for the most part doesnt happen too often.

If i am with someone or otherwise engaging with someone for work purposes it never gets answered at all and is on silent. I think its very rude to do it and i want all of your attention if youre talking to me and i would hope you would do the same. In my office or others, if im working, it is not on silent but it is an "old phone" ring tone and it is on the first volume adjustment i.e. as low as it will possibly go as i cant always feel it and that way it doesnt intrude on anyones personal space. I always go out of the room and genreally out of the area that im in to answer it. If it rings i instantly put it on silent (press the volume button)If its on my desk it doesnt really matter as im the only one home and its sitting on its cradle and easy to see.

 

[JohnK]

Our office policy is no personal calls at work whether this is on your own mobile or company deskphone. But as usual people like to abuse the policy and love to distract others.

I guess it is OK if you are going to be on a personal call for a couple of minutes but some of the people are on the phone for 20-30 minutes easy. Not interested in listening to other peoples personal calls especially in Cantonese, Tagalog, Urdu, Afrikaans etc. Very annoying and extremely rude people who have no respect for others around them.

So I have my own policy. If personal calls start to annoy me I send an email to my boss who then sends out an email to everyone reminding them of company policy. Personal calls stop for a while and then start again. I am also allowed to go away and have a break if personal calls or too much noise starts to affect my productivity.

Anyone who thinks open plan environments are the way to conduct business is kidding themselves.

 

[anat0l]

Anyone who thinks open plan environments are the way to conduct business is kidding themselves.

Here we have a case where the human is at fault and not the system.

I like our open plan environment; we get our fair share of noise as you would expect, but everyone within understands that disturbing the peace too much is not the way to go. Personal calls are usually taken outside; offices can be negotiated for blocks of time in order to make extended or conference calls.

Ideally, everyone would have an office for themselves, but you have to admit that sound still travels through walls, and knowing how loud some Asians can talk, that gives no relief.

Where's the good ol' Cone Of Silence (TM) when you need it?

 

[Leumas]

Don't know about a 'cone of silence', but we used to have an unwritten rule that says if you've your headphones on, you shouldn't be disturbed. It's kind of like the 'Do not Disturb' sign.

 

[Flashback]

Don't know about a 'cone of silence', but we used to have an unwritten rule that says if you've your headphones on, you shouldn't be disturbed. It's kind of like the 'Do not Disturb' sign.

You're not a programmer are you? That's what all our programmers do...

 

[medhead]

Where's the good ol' Cone Of Silence (TM) when you need it?

Funny that's what we dubbed the "private" room at my current (almost previous) workplace. Sitting next to it I could hear just about ever word spoken. hence "cone of silence"