Hi Sally,
What is the “proper” way to handle employee cell phones and usage in the office?
It is often abused, without regard to management.
Sincerely,
Dr. Rinewald
Hi Dr. Rinewald,
The proper way to handle cell phone and usage in the office is for you as the owner of the business to decide what your policy will be and then insert it as a page in your employee policy manual, call a meeting of all employees, announce the new policy, pass out the page to be inserted into their copy of the policy manual and have them all sign a “new” document stating that they have read and acknowledge all policies in the manual.
I would then ask them if there were any questions and there really shouldn’t be any and meeting is adjourned.
Now, if I owned a dental practice, my policy would be that all cell phones are to be placed in the “central designated” area of the office, which is by the back door, upon arrival and start of their work day. I would install a nice “docking station” that charges it for them. Cell phones would not be able to be on their person nor near their person during the work day. They are allotted breaks during the day and their lunch hour where they can retrieve their cell phones.
Listen, I go back to the days when there were no cell phones and if the assistant’s child was sick or something urgent, then the school or child or spouse called the front office person and the employee was either retrieved or a message was taken.
That should be the policy. My opinion is that it is totally unacceptable for employees to use the time I am paying them for to receive text or email messages. Stealing of time is no different than stealing postage.
I sure hope this helps!
Sally