March 5, 2016
I saw this USA Today article about management rules regarding smartphone use, particularly during meetings:
It’s good to see this coming, but I am curious how many businesses are doing this. Does your business have a policy (written or unwritten) on this? Let me know in comments.
Michael
I work in a developing country in East Africa. it is typical of other countries in the continent in that the mobile and smartphone market is VERY dynamic. It has overcome the many decades of landline shortages and in this current era, smartphones are the main, and sometimes only, way of connecting to the Internet.
People and employees are wedded to their devices. My local manager came into my office the other day clutching all three of his current devices in one hand. The beep or vibration of a new message or update takes precedence over everything else. This happens not only in the employee’s own workplace, but at any meeting or discussion. Policemen/-women and security guards are on their phones much of the day, their attention is not on the job.
Another expat colleague and I share an office. We have implemented a protocol which is displayed on a notice just inside the door. It states that only Christian and I can use a smartphone in our office. Visitors must switch off their device or place it in silent mode. If they MUST take/make a call, they must leave our office.
Christian and I also have an arrangement that if one of us wants to make or take an extended call on smartphone of Skype, that person checks if this is ok with the other one.
During meetings and workshops we try to ask attendees to switch off or go to silent mode, and leave the meeting if they have to make/take a call. Few seem to be able to do that.
Personally, if anyone I am talking to starts using his/her smartphone I either carry on talking or walk away.
It is a constant battle. Here is a conversation I have had many times with other people.
My phone starts to ring. I ignore it, unless I am expecting a critical call in which case I ask the other person for permission for me to take the call.
Other person says, “Your phone is ringing or vibrating.”
Me: “Yes, i know.”
OP: “Aren’t you going to answer it?”
Me: “No.”
OP: “Why not?”
Me: “Because I am talking with you and it would be bad manners to interrupt and ignore you.”
My company doesn’t have a written policy on this, but I often teach classes and am well aware of the dangers of multitasking during training. We do have a policy during classes that if someone needs to respond to email or a phone call, that they take it out of the classroom to do it. Most adhere to this, while I do occasionally see people on their laptop and wonder what they are doing. This week I was fooled because I thought someone was not paying attention, but it turns out they were using their laptop to take notes because when asked, they had an in-depth response which they read back from their notes.
The one thing that drives me crazy is people that leave their notifications as audible. I’ve gotten to where it drives me nuts when I hear the stupid silly notification alerts. Who in the world thinks that other people want to hear silly notifications or worse, ring tones. All smartphones have a vibrate mode. Use it!
I recently decided to get an Apple Watch, and together with the iPhone its an excellent combination to help tame notifications. It forced me to dig into my phone’s notification settings and get specific about what I really wanted coming to my wrist. I use VIP settings to make sure that what is potentially interrupting me is very limited, and truly important. I find that checking my wrist is much less disruptive than pulling out my smartphone.