Manager insists all personal phone calls be directed to them in an effort to stop employees needing their phones at work, predictably backfires: 'No phones allowed at work, tell them to call me directly!'

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    4 7 M 0
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    No phones allowed at work, tell them to call me directly! M I work in healthcare where phones are not to be used while on the floor caring for patients etc., for privacy/WHS reasons, which is fine and understandable. Most of us have our phones on us or in the break room, and don't use them unless on break or away from patient care areas. None of us check our phones while busy and if they do, will always get called out for it by other staff.
  • 03
    We were all recently in a meeting where we were told we are no longer allowed to have our phones on us, as it is a distraction and against policy, meaning not to be used unless we are out of the unit or off hospital grounds. A few people piped up and said they had young kids in care where their phone was the direct communication for the carers, or there are issues at home that they needed to have their phone to have quick contact if needed, even if it was left in their hand bag and
  • 04
    could be checked on breaks. Not only that, but we have a half hour unpaid lunch break where we should be able to use our phones as we see fit, but this was also denied as it's still in a healthcare setting and could cause WHS issues. Now I know working in healthcare and personal mobile phones don't mix as it really is against policy, however the issue with denying us complete access was a total over reaction. The issues with requiring quick and direct contact with home or other outside work cont
  • 05
    told if the issues were that bad at home, we shouldn't be at work. Many people were a bit taken a back by this saying a lot of the home issues are resolved by a quick text back and not allowing us access to our phones while at work was a bit unreasonable. Our manager said if that is the case, we can give people her direct work number and for contact to go through her and she will relay the message to us or give the phone to us to talk to whoever is calling.
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    So, cue malicious compliance. We all gave our at home/spouses/carers/schools/etc, the direct work line to call for any reason if they are unable to get in contact with us directly, and the phone started ringing continuously.
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    First was a lady who's husband needed approval for a big financial decision at home. The next was a vet calling to tell a co-worker their dog needed to be put down. I got a call from my children's day care saying my son had been bitten and was bleeding (mandatory reporting policy). There were several other phone calls within the span of a few hours with my manager running to find us to relay messages or pull us off the floor so we could speak to the callers, wasting more time than if we were all
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    The next day we were told we can have access to our phones while on break and to please tell our home contacts to stop calling the managers phone. It took a few days for everyone to get the message, meaning there were still many unnecessary calls coming through, but it made it obvious that the need for communication lines to be open at home was important.
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    mr78rpm I think those last phone calls that came through were necessary, sort of the last taps of the hammer on the nails in the lid of that coffin. What a dumb idea that was. How could running EVERYTHING through one person ever be efficient?
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    [deleted] Happened at the warehouse I worked in. I was a union organizer at the sorting facility for that delivery company with the brown uniforms. Our sorting warehouse passed this no cell phone rule. I had guys who ladies were going to go into labor any minute, grandparents with cancer, that kind of stuff. Management wouldn't budge.
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    This came to screeching halt when the guy who missed his little kids opportunity to get a kidney transplant find out that the Sup stopped passing on messages because productivity. Guy got arrested after he took a tire iron to the Sup's face.
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    The local and the shift were so outraged that they threatened to walk out en masse after trashing all the sorting equipment. And after explaining what when on to the local, our Pres called the warehouse boss and told him that he was gonna do a press release with our media spokesperson and was gonna cover our legal expenses. The policy ended that day.
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    MarkHirsbrunner My work had this rule. Hardly anybody followed it, but I was new, still a temp, and I gave the emergency contact number to my family. Then one afternoon a manager came to me and said, extremely apologetically, that my special needs daughter (sensory disorder, 11) had called the emergency line and left a message saying she was sick and needed to be picked up...5 hours
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    earlier. By the time they told me, school was already out. I called her, she was in the nurses office for two hours. They eventually convinced her to call her mother, a methamphetamine addict without custody of her (and I had given them specific directions that she was NOT allowed to pick up my daughter), my daughter apologizing and saying she told them repeatedly that she wasn't supposed to have mom pick her up.
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    Fortunately, mom could not be reached. Eventually they convinced her she was ok to go back to class and finish her day. I was furious with both my work and my school. I let my anger loose when I talked to the school over them telling her to call a non- custodial parent who they were warned was not safe. I didn't want to lose my job so I did my best to keep it down when I talked to HR about it, but I started tearing up and eventually broke down - it had been an extremely stressful
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    time, only a few months before I lost my job and the house I had been living in for 12 years, had to move to a cheap 1 BR apartment after taking a job that paid 2/3 of my old one... Fortunately they had empathy and they told me I could have my phone in the contact center as long as I kept it on silent and out of sight - which was what everybody else did despite it supposedly being a firable. offense. Dumb me for following rules.
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    Four years and a few promotions later, I'm one of the admins responsible for keeping an eye on the emergency line. Nobody uses. it.
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    wind-river7 One of the best malicious compliance I have ever read! Awesome!
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    yParticle [shocked pikachu] Hospitals have always allowed pagers on your person, so why not incoming text messages?
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    [deleted] And here kids, is another perfect example of someone being promoted to the level of their own incompetence.

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