Employees & Handphones

[Gonzo the Face]

Just a few years back before the current addiction to hand phones, my Thai employees, when having to receive or make calls had no difficuly in using the office phone or payphone.

Now with the current push and marketing programs by the mobile phone companies, just about any and all workers are able to afford and use a mobile phone. Here in lies the difficulty.

Does any else out there have employees who are making and receiving way too many calls during the work day? Too much employee time is being spent on non necessary phone calls and too little time is being directed to the employee responsibilities.

For the most part very few of these conversations are emergency or must "talk"now types of conversations, but more so the the line of "what are you wearing today" ; "do you know who I saw last night and with who" etc etc.

Is it only me or does any other employee see this happening. What are the solutions, if in fact it is not my own perception?

I am not a Simon Legre, and feel my employees are treated and paid way above the norm, both monetarily and with little perks, but I sense a great amount of the lack of self discipline. As in if I am looking or seem to be within hearing the caller may be told to call back, but if I am thought not to be near, then its ok to talk as long as they want or until I come into the area.

Gonzo

[chanchao]

Live with it.

If a particular employee really oversteps the mark then have a chat and see if non essential phone calls can be made outside of working hours.

And one thing you can instill on everyone is NOT answering the phone when they're talking about work with collegues, and especially with customers.

Turn off phones for meetings.

And so on.

Cheers,

Chanchao

[tigerbeer]

we dont allow usage of mobile phones at work period!. part of the rules of working here. if you are caught using the phone, we deduct 100 baht each time.

but they do sneak out to the restroom or something to chat but its normally less than 2 minutes affair. not sure which ones but heard that some big outlets also do not allow usage of mobile phones. they have to keep them in their lockers or something during working hours.

make it a rule that mobile phone usage is banned during working hours. if there is an emergency, they can always call the landlines.

if they are being payed more than average wages, they got no choice but to abide.

[earlofwindermere]

IN our workplace, we have just set the expectation that you do not talk on the phone for private conversation... unless you're on a break. It was tough for about 2 days but my staff quickly adjusted.

[meadish_sweetball]

I guess you have to set up rules about it so everybody is clear on what the policy is, and like tigerbeer said, make sure they understand that breaking these rules comes with a penalty.

[Gonzo the Face]

Live with it.

If a particular employee really oversteps the mark then have a chat and see if non essential phone calls can be made outside of working hours.

And one thing you can instill on everyone is NOT answering the phone when they're talking about work with collegues, and especially with customers.

Turn off phones for meetings.

And so on.

Cheers,

Chanchao

Thanks for the posts.

Chanchao, I am not sure it you are Thai, part Thai, or just an expat who has live here for enough years to absorb the culture , but the "live with it" sure sounds like a 'Mai Pen Rai' stance.

We have in fact set up rules for this emerging problem, trying to nip it in the bud , so to speak.

But along with the rule setting, we are trying to instill some sense of self discipline in the staff, that no phones while 'the boss' is here, is fine, but its more important to have the self dicipline to be 'no phones' when the boss is out of sight. No don't anyone take this as the phones cannot be used in proper instances and emergencies, but for them to understand that work time is work time and break time is break time.

Too many of the employees of this level lack greatly in the self discipline department. If they get caught using the phone at the wrong time it is almost mandatory to offer some type of lie as to why they were doing so.

Was just trying to see if others in business and commerce in the area were experienceing this problem.

Thanks for the input .

Gonzo

[chanchao]

> Chanchao, I am not sure it you are Thai, part Thai, or just an expat who has live

> here for enough years to absorb the culture , but the "live with it" sure sounds like a

> 'Mai Pen Rai' stance.

Yup. I don't know how serious this is, what the type of work is and how much actual time gets lost of course. If this is manual work where every phone call cuts into productivity then you obviously need to be more strict. And it would depend on the employee's overall attitude to work and productivity.. Like, if they routinely work an hour late then why complain about 30 minutes of phone calls..

> Too many of the employees of this level lack greatly in the self discipline

> department. If they get caught using the phone at the wrong time it is almost

> mandatory to offer some type of lie as to why they were doing so.

Hm. So far you haven't painted the picture of a really enjoyable work environment?

(Hard to say though without knowing if this is an office environment or a factory or service/hospitality related business.) I was assuming 'office'.

Cheers,

Chanchao

[Gonzo the Face]

Who sez we in Thailand are not up to date and with it ????

Looks to me like we are ahead of the game....

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-06-...hone-ring_x.htm

[penzman]

We don't have a problem yet but I've considered banning cellphones completely if the problem arises and having a landline available for all in case of emergency, which doesn't include tonight's soap opera's schedule change.