Work demands employee pay for personal calls, employee demands payment for calls they take outside of working hours: 'I should be getting overtime each time I pick up the phone'

Mistakes and bad decisions happen, it's just a part of the decision making process. As Thomas Edison, the inventor of the lightbulb, famously said, "'I have not failed, but found 1000 ways to not make a light bulb." The quote and attribution varies, but it's usually something along those lines. And that remains true, you don't know and can't learn until you pick a direction and try, but where this becomes an issue is when people and organizations obstinately refuse to course correct, refusing to acknowledge scrutiny and criticism leveled against them and carrying down their erroneous path marching to their own folly.

Of course, there's another way this gets handled too where as soon as the authority realizes that they might have been wrong—still, rather than acknowledging that fact, they just sweep the policy or decision under the rug, never mentioning it again and pretending that it didn't exist in the first place. How an organization handles these situations is a good barometer for the culture they're purveying. And those embracing criticism, introspection, and accountability are more likely not to repeat the same mistakes and find positive growth.

While it seems a little brazen and messy to use your work phone for personal use, without a doubt this worker had a point. But when the bean counters were trying to wrangle extra beans (?) from their employees they forgot to consider the instances where the scales weren't balanced in their favor.

What's your experience? Have you or would you use a work phone for your private use?

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Posted by Brad Dickson