Boss bans phones in the workplace, employee complies until boss needs to reach her urgently: 'I wasn’t about to get written [up] for breaking a policy she just finished enforcing'

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Jun 12, 2025 2:00 PM EDT

One should be careful about enforcing rules without thinking things through first. That's why careful wording is always necessary before impulsively instituting a policy that either doesn't make sense or simply isn't practical.

When it comes to phone usage in the workplace, of course, employees should try to keep personal phone time to a minimum, but here's the reality of the situation. We need our phones in order to stay connected and to communicate with one another. Sometimes, emergencies happen, and people need to have their phones on just in case. Sometimes, technology is the best way to communicate with an employee if you need help with something. The point is that enforcing a "no phones" policy in the office is unlikely to work out in the end, both for the employees' personal lives and for their actual work in many cases. This is the reality of the age we are living in, so before you pick on your employees for using their phones during work hours, be sure to think twice first because they might actually be working…

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    Cheezburger Image 10516059904
    via Daniil Onischenko

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • Here, we have a manager who thought that her new “no phones” policy was a successful flexing of her authority over her team… that is, until she needed to contact someone on her team one day. The author opted not to answer, as it was during work hours and they wanted to “follow the rules.” That's what you get for enforcing an unrealistic policy, ma'am!

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    "My manager wanted no phones until she needed mine"

    A new policy was implemented was at my workplace where no personal phones would be allowed during work hours (on silent and out of sight) and I made sure to follow the rules
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    Turned off my phone, locked it in my locker before every shift, and went about my day.
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    And this continued till a few days later, my manager pulled me aside, annoyed asf and asked why I didn't answerher call said she needed to check something urgently with me.
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    I just told her I was following the phone policy. My phone had been away like we were told.
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    She didn't like that response. Tried to say I should have used "judgment" and answered if it was from her.
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    But I wasn't about to get written off for breaking a policy she just finished enforcing.
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    Funny thing is, after that, the "no phones" policy suddenly got very quiet. No more lectures. No more reminders. Pretty sure I wasn't the only one who let a few of her calls go to voicemail that week.
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    Cheezburger Image 10516060160
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    jennievh 15h ago How could you have used "judgment" anyway, if your phone was in your locker and off? You had no chance of hearing it. Stupid rule.
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    OkMarzipan3163 • 15h ago Maybe I and the people around me are spoiled, but if you can't be trusted to check in on your phone briefly a couple times a day, it's time to switch employers.
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    I'm amazed how often I have my phoenix out at work, whether it's to checkin like I said above, or use my calculator, etc. for work...even when I'm sitting in front of the computer.
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    My bosses don't care. They all do it. They just want you to be reasonable about it.
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    totembear • 15h ago They tried to do that too at my workplace then realised half the time we needed the phones to look up stuff since the work systems did not allow any internet connections only intranet. The policy got scrapped real fast for once.
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    StudioDroid • 15h ago I was working an AV job where there were some government security people standing by in each area. We got to chatting about phone
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    use on the job and this agent was saying that officially they were not to be using their personal devices when on duty. They were supposed to use their issued
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    radios for all comms. You could be written up if a supervisor saw you with your phone out, except those same supervisors were always texting the team members on their personal phones.
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    it was the old, "don't look at your phone ever, unless it is from me." Uh, like how do I know it is from you if I don't look at it. Doh!
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    CoderJoe1 • 15h ago If they're not paying at least a portion of your phone bill, you shouldn't do any work related tasks on your phone.
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    OldGroan 15h ago If she wants to call you during work hours you need to be provided with a work phone.
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boss workplace-stories work stories malicious compliance work workplace Horrible Bosses bad bosses funny work stories workplace malicious compliance
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