Colleague reported me for phone usage - awkward!!

[AmyRuby]

I work in a fairly large office and there’s a very much ‘common sense’ approach to personal phone usage. No one sits at their desk and takes lengthy personal calls, but management accept there will be times people need to check/use their phones briefly and that for anything longer, they’ll step away from their desk or wait for breaks and lunch.

I had my 1:1 with my Manager today who told me that someone has reported to her that I’ve conversed with delivery drivers using my ring doorbell whilst at my desk - I simply say ‘please leave that round the side’ if no one’s in. I try to schedule deliveries for my WFH days but can’t always control that so it’s only a handful of
times this has happened.

My manager was clear she doesn’t have an issue with my phone usage and obviously she can’t tell me who reported it, although I have an idea.

This person will have known our manager will have had to say something to me - am I wrong to find them reporting this a bit pathetic? It just risks an awkward atmosphere when we are generally a fairly harmonious team.

My old manager used to do this all the bloody time!

If someone felt the need to report you, you must be quite annoying so maybe be more aware of what you're doing going forward. I agree with PP that your manager if giving you a subtle heads up

This! I had a manger tell me someone else had “commented on my nose piercing and said it made me look unprofessional” turns out it was her that thought that. Weird because some of the older women in the office had nose rings and it wasn’t an issue but me being 21 at the time she seemed to have an issue with me

I did wonder this too, what would you do if you didn't have a ring door bell?

Did they say they don’t have an issue with you taking ring calls at your desk or with your phone usage as a whole?

I don’t care about normal phone usage if the work gets done but I would have to raise answering ring calls at a desk because they play out loud and disrupt everyone else.

Yes this would do my nut in

It’s pathetic, your boss knows it’s pathetic. Those calls are very short. No big deal.

What you boss IS telling you … watch your back … You have a rat in the office and your boss wants you to know the rat is watching you. And you boss doesn’t want rat-face in their office … ratting on you.

On a side note, when am upstairs in my house and my neighbours ring doorbell goes when a delivery is being attempted. I can hear her loud and clear!! It is quite annoying and loud to be honest

The thing is the person who was annoyed with op taking the call, could (if they exist) have said to op by the way I find it really distracting could you take your call into the hallway etc.

i think it’s being called snitching because if someone’s really annoyed by op actions the grown up thing to do would speak to op in a polite respectful manner. Rather that running to op manager straight on the off. It feels childish to me.

But what I find more bizarre is the manager refusing to manage the situation either way. Odd

I’d tell the nosy twat politely that if s/he has any views on your phone calls, s/he can come directly to you.

Feels like there’s far more to this than your post ..

If you have an idea who it is, casually drop into the conversation that you got pulled up on it and your manager doesn’t see an issue, let them know subtly that it’s not an issue

Christ, I'd be looking for a new job. Can't be doing with treating employees like they are at school.

To add another perspective, my manager would (and has) absolutely tell me if someone else had complained about me. Not because it's actually what the manager thinks, but because the manager loves drama and wants to be seen as 'supportive' when actually they're a poor manager.

I had this last year for refusing to do some work that would have been illegal and compromised me. Someone (I know who even though I wasn't told a name) complained and my boss made a big fuss of flying in to 'back me up', when it was just her feeding into the drama she loves so much.

I would pay it no mind.

But that's exactly the problem, it is childish. Even if decent managers want to act grown up, companies can opt to conveniently forget all discretion/common sense and take issue with small misgivings, especially around the time of financial struggles. Scenarios like this have become formal warnings, and worse. It's pathetic, but some workplaces are very pathetic.

If she doesn't have an issue why is she telling you

Don't do this.

Or- just stop using your phone so much at work.

But why? She's clearly not abusing the privilege, just being a normal person who takes under a minute to resolve life stuff every now and again.

All this snitch talk is rubbish. Your manager is annoyed with you

we've all had the 'put it in the blue bin' conversations at work. This seems more than this

Non event.

If you are using your phone moderately your manager will side with you.
If you are not they will catch you eventually.

Your colleague is within their right to voice any concern they have to management and the manager has dealt with it. This is what happens in the workplace probably more often than you realise.

It is a bit odd that your manager has mentioned it to you. When I was in management I only relayed complaints to colleagues if thought that the complaint was well founded.

Perhaps your version of moderate use is not the same as most other peoples.

We have a no phone policy at work. It’s unprofessional and we’d never get anything done. Emergencies can be done through the landline and staff are encouraged to give school and family that number.

As an ex-employer I used to get very irritated when staff were missing calls for the business when making or taking personal calls. In fact in the early days of WiFi, I discovered that they had all signed in to the work wifi which we only used for the card payment machine and it was interfering with payments ( low data speed and limited data). What they didn’t know was that I could see who was using the WiFi. So we had a blanket ban. They had to use their own data.

I also discovered they were using the business wifi for personal email accounts, after a major virus took out our system when someone opened their email that too was stopped.

If you are using the works wifi to make calls etc it may be that IT have informed her of your frequent use. It’s very easy to monitor who is using data. Even easier if you use a works mobile.

My manager would have done the sane as yours and also wouldn't have had an issue with the phone use. However, I would rather they didn't tell me as it makes me second guess everyone!

I wonder is it specific to the doorbell rather than phone use? Ring conversations are on speaker, not like a phone call, so the colleagues have to hear the delivery driver also. And if it's like my crackly staticy one you usually have to speak quite loudly and repeat yourself for the delivery person to hear you. I would find that irritating in an office personally.

Suggest you re-read the OP's post.

OP isnt sat there all day faffing with their phone - so unless you have proof that they are, have a day off and do us all a favour. 🙄🤦‍♂️