So, I've fired a kid who couldn't stay off the phone during work. After being warned 100 times he started taking lengthy bathroom breaks all day long. My other help would go in there afterwards and the lid would be down (kid never closed a lid in his life) LOL. I have a new guy who's been great for a month or so, but now is sliding into the same BS. Every time I walk out to the shop, phones in hand and then he slips it in his pocket. I lit him up about it so we'll see what happens. To me, it's the same as stealing out of the back room. Am I a shitty boss? Nuts?
No...when you are at work you are at work. It better be a fucking emergency if the wife rings my phone during the day.
I don`t allow phones in the shop. First, not paying people to text and play, next they are not focused on the work.
We have a zero phone policy at my work, and all employees sign a document stating they have read and are aware of the policy. (Aviation) If you are expecting a phone call or need to take a call/make a call you let your supervisor know and its never an issue to let someone take a call or make a call. Sometimes you need to handle some business or kids issues. But let the lead/boss know first. After that the phone goes back in the toolbox drawer until break /lunch whatever. Phones are a distraction and possible FOD issue for Aviation. Cant work distracted, Drop a phone in a fuel tank or loose it and now theres a problem. I would think the same would apply for any type hands on job.
I'm actually in the same industry and we adhere to these very same standards, but the union is strong. So a lot of the time management just gets steam rolled over if they tell anybody to put their phones away it's kind of absurd. This is the reason why your diaphragms and aircraft shafts take so damn long for turnaround/new production parts. None of these are young kids either. It has nothing to do with covid or material delay.... It has all to do with Lisa not minding her goddamn business about which support tech is not allowed/allowed to apply sermetel to the parts and slow the God damn process down. Hell, ppl openly browse Facebook and YouTube on work computers.
I spent many years working jobs where I had to sneak a peek because it was against the rules, but I was still gonna check my phone when there was downtime. Now I work a job where I'm currently typing this from my desk and my work pays for a dual sim phone that is both work and personal lines, so I'm on it quite a bit, but I'm still far ahead of any deadlines and frequently do work above what I'm asked. My thoughts are there's a big difference between checking your phone, and abusing work time, I probably lean towards the latter if I'm honest, but if otherwise there are no complaints about the work and there are no safety issues a check here or there is the same as a water break or a smoke break. If someone is sitting on their phone constantly and not working I think that's more of a work ethic problem and taking the phone away is just going to make them find other things to waste time on.
I gave an employee a company phone after years of working for me... told him he could use it for whatever off hours I didn’t care.... I walked out the door to tell him something and he was on the phone... he had the audacity to hold up his finger as to tell me “just a minute” he was leading a construction crew... I took the phone hung it up and fired his ass in front of the entire crew... phones were never an issue again...
With few exceptions, I think blanket no-phone policies are BS. I'm not going to miss an emergency call because of a policy. Everyone in my circle knows not to call or text when I'm at work unless it's urgent. Responsible employees should know better, so just fire those who can't behave like adults.
The work is never done. There is always something to do. I went off today because it's continually gotten worse. Today I went out to do a take off to order parts and he's texting Looks up and says I need this part...as we walk from the shop to the office his phone goes off 5 times. I give them a project and leave them alone. I don't stand over them all day because I have my own stuff to do. Were a little biz without a bunch of policy's. I try to take care of them best I can.
Firing after repeated warnings and maybe a disciplinary action or two is more than fair. IMO, people deserve to be allowed to fix their mistakes. And if they unable to address the mistakes, they aren't fit for the job. But it sounds like you struggle to be professional and may be a shitty boss because of it.
There's a time and place for everything, I've worked construction and knocked out quality jobs faster than anyone else by far and used my phone when needed to and never impacted the job in a negative way and I always made sure of it. We would also start work at 7am and work until whenever we finished the project which most times was after 5,5 days a week with only a 10 minute lunch so if I needed to take care of things like buying a car or scheduling like prescriptions I needed to use my phone while working.
I am a construction project manager for a medium sized residential/commercial construction company. I just use my personal phone for both work and home. I take evening and weekend phone calls and text from vendors and customers more than people think. If my wife wants to call me for a few minutes to go over what's for dinner during my day "work hours"... I am taking the call... but I make sure I have my chit in order every day too!