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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to keep my mobile phone on at work

70 replies

crazedupmom · 01/02/2012 01:03

I work as bank staff so I could be at a number of establishments.
Its impossible to give one number for people to call me in a family emergency.
I therefore give everyone my mobile number.
I have a child at school who suffers from IBS and a number of occasions they have had to ring me because he hasn,t been well.
He is also making his own way to school in the mornings I need to know he can get me in a emergency.
The company I work for are not allowing them on the premises.
What are your thoughts on this.

OP posts:

redridingwolf · 01/02/2012 11:33

Pushy - yes, pagers still exist!

Butkin · 01/02/2012 11:38

We've always been allowed our mobiles in our office. Sometimes not only do we receive personal calls but sometimes clients call us on them if that is the number they have saved on their phones.

Mobiles are the way forwards. One of my colleagues doesn't have a ground line anymore.

We can also use Skype via our computers for work related items.

I think if anybody started using them excessively for personal reasons then eyebrows would be raised but we don't because we've all got our jobs to do and have a mature outlook.

Kladdkaka · 01/02/2012 11:40

Some places don't allow them for security reasons. My husband isn't allowed to take one into certain places he works in.

lifesalongsong · 01/02/2012 12:11

I think the employer does have a point, I assume you are a care or medical worker and whilst you may not answer anything other than a call from school if they allow everyone to have a mobile there will be lots of people who will be distracted from work.

If you were caring for me or a member of my family I would expect your full attention to be on the job. There are lots of people who seem to be unable to function without being on the phone for half the day, it can't all be emergency calls.

jellybeans · 01/02/2012 12:12

YANBU. You should be contactable in an emergency and if you are often in different places you should be allowed a mobile, on silent, to check every now and then. Just my opinion but i wouldn't be able to manage without one and would worry all the time.

NinkyNonker · 01/02/2012 12:20

I think you would be being unreasonable to expect to answer your phone while working, so make sure you have an answer machine message and as such you will never get the issue of a family member just ringing for a chat, you just check your messages when you are on a break.

IUseTooMuchKitchenRoll · 01/02/2012 12:24

I'm with Trois, my phone stays in my bra on vibrate too.

Even so, there would be times when it is very difficult to answer, but I would if the school number came up no matter how difficult it is. I don't have the sort of Job where it would be completely impossible though.

However I do sometimes go swimming when the dc are at school, so I'm completely uncontactable then. But that's why the school also has the dc's Dads number, dh's number and my Mums number.

IloveJudgeJudy · 01/02/2012 12:33

My DC's school no longer has a medical room. I presume this is because they expect parents to be contactable at all times. I work in a school and keep my phone on silent and check at breaktimes. Your work are not going to frisk you, are they?

hermionestranger · 01/02/2012 12:37

He's not going to die? Wrong, wrong, wrong. When Ds1 was at nursery he came down with what was thought to be meningitis. Luckily because I had my phone they got hold of me. Next call was the ambulance. So YANBU. I always have my phone with me now and will not give t up for any reason. When i was at work I kept it on vibrate and only answered if it was nursery/school.

hermionestranger · 01/02/2012 12:39

I should add that my job had me all over the terminal and more often than not the main office numbers were unmanned, so pointless giving as an emergency number.

OnlyANinja · 01/02/2012 12:46

If your phone is in your bra do you have
1- very large breasts
2- a very small phone
3 - an unsightly lump
4 - extremely loose-fitting clothes?

mrspnut · 01/02/2012 12:47

Neither I nor my OH are allowed our mobile phones at work, we work in secure environments and as such there are no portable data devices allowed including ipods, flash drives or phones.
Pagers are allowed after being security checked but the penalty for having a phone inside the secure area is prison so we do stick to the rules.
The school is well aware of the situation and if they cannot get either of us via our desk phones then they have the number of the switchboard and they can put out a tannoy announcement.

IUseTooMuchKitchenRoll · 01/02/2012 12:51

My iPhone goes down the side of my 34c bra. Sometimes there is a little bump where it is, if I'm wearing a figure hugging top, but I have big hair so I don't think it notices too much.

lifesalongsong · 01/02/2012 12:55

OnlyANinja

Also how do you check who's calling you before you decide to answer if your phone is in your bra - do you have different vibrations allocated to different callers or a kind of Morse code ringtone?

I can't help thinking that the world has gorn slightly mad if we can't go for a swim without ensuring that the school has three different emergency contacts. for the vast majority of us there is a negligable chance on needing to be conatcted and those who know its likely will probaqbly have adequate arrangements.

TroublesomeEx · 01/02/2012 13:04

Iuse I was running with the image and before arriving at 80s perm big hair, I was at bushy underarms. Sorry.

IUseTooMuchKitchenRoll · 01/02/2012 13:07

Definitely not busy armpits, but my hair does the big 80s perm thing naturally without any help from me. This is one of the bonuses!

IUseTooMuchKitchenRoll · 01/02/2012 13:08

Bushy, not busy! Not sure which of those would be worse

StepAwayFromTheEcclesCakes · 01/02/2012 13:08

as someone else said, many places where working with public or vulnerable people or children ban them so no one can take pictures / video of anything and break confidentiality, or for abuse etc. remember the nursery worker with one who took awful pics of kids being abused? there is usually a reason and lots of good ideas for still being in contact. whatever did we do without being contactable 24/7 ????

Sandalwood · 01/02/2012 13:40

Yes, get a pager (if they still exist).

PowderMum · 01/02/2012 22:00

Like MrsPNut, my DP cannot have a mobile onsite for any reason, having inside his 'bra' would result in a major issue. He does have a direct line and has been known to answer it on the odd occasion :)
I have both a mobile and direct line plus an excellent team who will find me wherever I am in an emergency if a call come in via the main switchboard. But beware this doesn't work if the school choose not to call the correct numbers.

My experience - DD had a medical 'emergency' at school so as I later found out they tried my DP first, then my home phone (I work full time), then my direct line (I was in a meeting room) to reach me. Never tried my mobile or the main number which are listed as my main contacts.

They told my DD that they had tried all the numbers but couldn't get any response fortunately because she was not that ill she just pulled out her phone and gave them my sister's number. They wouldn't let her make the call.

Of course I have requested that they update their records again so maybe next time they will reach me.

ilovesooty · 01/02/2012 22:09

Your work are not going to frisk you, are they?

I do some of my work in prisons and they most certainly do.

SugarPasteHedgehog · 01/02/2012 22:15

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

thepeoplesprincess · 01/02/2012 22:24

YANBU. Kids do get hurt/properly ill at school and what parents used to do in the old days was get home from shopping to find their child had been in A&E for the past three hours.....

Also, I'm sure on any decent phone these days you could program a profile that only rings when the school/cm is on the phone.

Also, also, my mum works for a home care agency and she spends more time at work on her phone to them than actually working. So confidentiality is certainly not a given in a caring/support work role.

MrsDmitriTippensKrushnic · 01/02/2012 22:29

There's a difference between not allowing phones for security/protection reasons and just not allowing them because they don't want employees using them on company time. It's hard to say whether the OP is unreasonable without knowing which category they fall under.

My company officially doesn't allow mobiles, but in practice everybody carries them albeit on silent. Getting messages via the main switchboard is notoriously difficult, I've had enough emergency phone calls from the school (DS2 has asthma) that I'm not risking a message getting lost. I can see why they keep the rule though, there are some people that will definitely take the piss.

hatesponge · 01/02/2012 22:41

My company don't officially allow mobiles.

My DS's school insist on having both a mobile and landline number for me. I have been told previously by them that if they are unable to contact me for over an hour, they will contact Social Services. They expect to be able to speak to me whenever they phone, or for me to call back very soon thereafter.

So, I have a choice between risking a disciplinary, or SS involvement. I choose the former.

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