Micromanager bans personal phones at his IT team's desks, but his attempt at control backfires when there's a server crash at 4:45 PM on Friday: 'I was just following policy to avoid a write-up'

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Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Aug 23, 2025 6:00 AM EDT

If you're going to micromanage a team of competent employees, you'd better have a good reason. But it seems that when the nitpicky type of boss steps onto the IT service department floor, suddenly all of those hype-boss books replay in their minds, hypnotizing them into asserting themselves over their inferior employees by taking away privileges. What those leadership books neglect to tell you is that sometimes, your employees need a phone to be reached. 

Turns out, without a cellphone, managers can't get a hold of their employees in an emergency. So when this manager told his employees to leave their cell phones in the car, but never bothered to give anyone a work phone, chaos ensued. Maybe send a pigeon next time there's a server outage? 1929 called, they want their communication techniques back!

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  • Cheezburger Image 10544357888
    via SeventyFour

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Manager said "no phones during work hours, period." So I stopped answering his calls.
    via Mother_Soraka
  • I work IT support for a medium-sized company. We've always been allowed to have our phones at our desks, sometimes family emergencies happen, doctors call back, whatever. As long as we weren't scrolling social media all day, nobody cared.
    via Mother_Soraka
  • New manager comes in last month, sees one person checking a text, and loses it. Sends out an email: "EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY: No personal phones during work hours. They must be left in your car or locker. This means 9-5, NO EXCEPTIONS. Anyone caught with a phone will be written up" Okay sure boss...
    via Mother_Soraka
  • The thing is, our manager works from home three days a week. And when server issues pop up after hours or on weekends, guess how he contacts us? That's right, our personal phones. We don't have company phones.
    via Mother_Soraka
  • Friday afternoon, 4:45 pm. Major server issue. I see it, could fix it in 10 minutes, but my phone is in my car as per policy. I calmly finish my work at 5:00 and walk out.
    via Mother_Soraka
  • By the time I get to my car and check my phone at 5:15, I have 17 missed calls and a string of increasingly panicked texts from my manager. The server has been down for 30 minutes. Multiple departments cant do anything.
    via Mother_Soraka
  • I call him back: "Hey, just got to my car and saw your calls. Whats up?" He's furious (malding and seething), asking why I didnt answer. I remind him about the no phones policy. He says that's different, this was an emergency.
    via Mother_Soraka
  • I point out his email said "NO EXCEPTIONS" and I was just following policy to avoid a write-up. Monday morning? New email: "Personal phones are permitted at desks for emergency purposes." Back to normal then.
    via Mother_Soraka

  • Luckily for this workforce, their manager realized their bad call. Sometimes, a sweeping decision to wipe out all outside communication does just that, taking away a lifeline of connectivity that could have left the company in shambles. 

  • RJack151 "Sorry boss, I do not use my personal phone for company business. If I am required to answer calls after business hours, then I need a company phone and on-call pay."
    via RJack151
  • PAUL_DNAP Well played, do you not have a desk phone, or did that get replaced by teams like mine, and it all goes down with server issues? You really could have held out for a personal departmental mobile phone for emergencies - as the "you can use your phone at work, but only if it's me calling" is a bit of a thin win to be honest.
    via PAUL_DNAP
  • vossmanspal Left my phone in my locker and it went flat, my charger didn't work and that's why I'm calling you from home at 7pm, sorry boss but as per policy. These managers couldn't manage without s ing themselves. a
    via vossmanspal
  • Stage_Party. Did the same at the hospital I worked at. Banned phones so doctors couldn't contact us. Doctors complained and I explained, they went to management who changed the policy back.
    via Stage_Party
  • theUncleAwesome07 'Tis amazing how shortsightedness ALWAYS comes back to bite them in the a... always.
    via theUncleAwesome07
  • Special Loan8725. I would have responded on Monday. If I can't have my phone at work, and I don't have my phone at work, then when I have my phone I don't have work.
    via Special Loan8725
  • Geminii27 As far as any employer is concerned, I don't own a personal phone. They can issue me a company phone if they want to be able to contact me during hours I am being paid.
    via Geminii27

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boss worker micromanager employee manager job server work coworkers working it ceo employees technician supervisor workplace company coworker business
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