'[It] cost them 100k': Workplace "no cellphone" policy costs employer $100k when employee maliciously complies

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Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Sep 25, 2024 12:00 PM EDT

Depending on your age, you probably had a teacher who constantly reprimanded students for having their phones out in class or even just the presence of any sort of technology or devices that they felt detracted from their lessons.

When you get out of school, you come to find that some managers operate in exactly the same way, seemingly confusing effective management with policing their workers as if they were still children. You've probably worked for one of these places or one of these micromanagers at some point who constantly track your phone usage, bathroom breaks, and even water-drinking habits as if their own job depends on it. 

This, of course, is sometimes a result of incompetence but can also be intentional, there's a pervasive and cynical idea within some schools of thought in business operation that speculates that a comfortable worker is an inefficient one, giving rise to practices like depriving them of a place to sit in order to ensure they're always moving and never comfortable.

And what is there to discourage employers from such cynical behavior? Such attitudes and policies do little to directly affect business operations outside of the grumblings of disgruntled workers, decreasing workplace morale and eventually leading to higher turnover. But, these aren't things that most organizations even pay attention to, so they continue with their distrusting ways rather than trusting and empowering their staff.

This overbearing workplace policy, however, did cost this employer directly when this contractor's inability to use their phone led to a stall in operations that cost the employer big time.

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  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 10408919552
    via Ave Calvar
  • 02
    Company doesnt allow me to have my phone, so i cost them 100k+ S originally posted this as a comment to a similar story as i had totally forgot it happened until reading that, the OP suggested i should share it as my own post so here it goes:
    via therandomuser84
  • 03
    I have worked in warehouses for years, a few years back i was a contractor. Companies would hire us and bring in 20+ people for a few weeks when they desperately needed help. I was a shift lead, usually the highest person on site and needed to talk to my boss regularly throughout the day on a company phone.
    via therandomuser84
  • 04
    One warehouse had a policy where only managers could have their phone on the floor, and technically i wasnt a manager. Everyone under me was instructed to leave them in their car or a locker. However i needed mine.
    via therandomuser84
  • 05
    One day i was talking on the phone to my boss and one of the managers for the company we were working for say me and demanded i hand him my phone, and i refused. He then threatened to kick me out, so i rounded up all my workers and said we are taking a break.
    via therandomuser84
  • 06
    We all go outside, and i tell my boss what happened. He comes to the site instantly and starts talking to their boss and tells him i need my phone on the floor, but since i dont have manager in my title they refuse. So my boss decided i cant do my job, so nobody under me can do theirs either. The end of the day the other company is we didnt get any work done, and
    via therandomuser84
  • 07
    decides to cancel our contract, which cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars because its written in the contract that they will have to pay to send us home before the original end date. We all still got paid, and got 2 weeks off before having to go somewhere else.
    via therandomuser84
  • 08
    soap_coals I used to work for a company that went the opposite way. In the call centre, every agent had the title "resolution manager" everyone else was a lead or a supervisor. So if you wanted to talk to a manager you were talking. to the employee with the least power in the company.
    via therandomuser84
  • 09
    Bigdavie A few years ago I was back door on nightsift for a large supermarket. During the night you receive deliveries of bread, milk, newspapers from third parties. While I am not unloading deliveries I am on the shop floor filling shelves. I can't hear the backdoor bell while on the shopfloor but it's OK since each night I take a managers internal mobile, which the drivers phone as they arrive.
    via therandomuser84
  • 10
    One night we are given a spot check by security. I am asked what was in my pockets. I replied keys and mobile. Security then told me I was not allowed to have a mobile or any keys except locker key. I tried to tell him that it was a store phone and that the keys included the forklift key but he would not let me finish, interrupting with 'no exceptions'. So I returned the phone to the office and the forklift key to my
    via therandomuser84
  • 11
    locker. The bread and milk drivers would only wait 15 mins to be let in before leaving, they would come back at the end of their run but that was well after the end of my shift. In the morning the store manager was a little upset that there was no bread, very little milk and none of the bulk stock that was kept on the racking was worked. I explained that security wouldn't listen. The
    via therandomuser84
  • 12
    security guard must have got in trouble as he tried to get me fired over a silly mistake I made while shopping in the store, which I immediately corrected when informed.
    via therandomuser84
  • 13
    Alistaire_ I work at a gas station, we just got a new policy that we can't do safe drops of more than $100. So now I drop my money anytime I'm prompted to, even if there's customers and it's busy. Thought about only doing $99 drops...
    via therandomuser84
  • 14
    b.. I am puzzled why your boss. didn't give you the new job title of "shift manager" on the spot
    via therandomuser84
  • 15
    Brother_Profe... Yep, that company sure showed you whos in charge. "Take your two weeks paid vacation and get out!" With the high number of short-sighted managers out there, how does capitalism even work?
    via therandomuser84
  • 16
    Seanie-b Your boss sounds like a great boss to work for. Was that the case always?
    via therandomuser84
  • 17
    crypticfreak I will never again work for a company with a no phone policy. I understand that jobs are places where we go to work, but a blanket 'no phone rule' is essentially treating me like a child.
    via therandomuser84
  • 18
    If an employee cannot stay off their phone then discipline them and them. alone. I have too many important things going on in my life and may need to glance at my phone very few hours.
    via therandomuser84
  • 19
    Exceptions: jobs where there are strict security protocols and procedures. Stuff like gov work or proprietary IP's/RnD. That gets a pass as it's not a personal attack against the employees it's to satisfy some requirement to do the work they do. That's just CMMC type stuff, really.
    via therandomuser84
  • 20
    TVotte It's too bad we have to rely on humans for management
    via therandomuser84
  • 21
    Javasteam I'm almost surprised OP's boss didn't go the other way and make up a new added title with O responsibilities or compensation. Manager of Non-Existent Catering or Manager of Outhouse Beautification Efforts. Technically then he would have Manager in his title.
    via therandomuser84

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