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.

Yes this, how many times a day?

Well if her phone is away in her bag all day, why is she getting complaints about phone use!

Seriously - have a day off.

Any office brown noser can whine about colleagues doing things they dont like.

Clearly whoever made the complaint is a sour cunt that should be doing their own job rather than monitoring other peoples fone use.

Are you one of these jobsworths too?

🙄

Haha no, I own a business with 22 employees. It’s unprofessional to be messing on your phone when you’re supposed to be working.
im guessing by your sarky attitude you are an employee who likes being on your phone?
maybe you’re at work now lol

"It’s unprofessional to be messing on your phone when you’re supposed to be working."

Is it?

Tell that to an employee that may have cancer, waiting for a call from their oncologist etc.

Not all phone use in the workplace is detrimental or bad.

Thank god I dont work for you.

I would suggest that waiting for a call from your oncologist is quite niche and of course you would be allowed to answer your phone in that situation.
How ridiculous.

Agree with this.
Most people won't complain on the first instance as you'd assume it's a one off.

It's probably been more disruptive than OP realises.

I agree that it can be a bad thing, but it's usually the sign of a bigger problem - projects not going well, bad management culture etc.

I raised an issue with my manager about a particular team in the company having a spat over email with my colleague. This team behave very aggressively towards lots of people, and because of their position in the company, they can act as a blocker to progress almost all of the time.

I don't have the clout to say to the CEO, hey, have you ever considered that this team ruin everything? I can report where they've been nasty to an individual.

Thanks for confirming your inconsisties in phone use.

🤦‍♂️😂

Seriously??? 🙈

Sure.
Making sure the latest Shein delivery gets popped by the back gate is exactly the same level of importance as a call from an oncologist

Bad management. Raising an issue they have but are too spineless to admit it’s them, and creating a bad working environment, with discourse on the team. I’d lose respect for the manager, not my team mates.

Yeah it seems odd, I was in a job many years ago where someone had complained I had my personal email on my screen. I'd left it there from lunch because I was working on paper drawings at my layout desk. My manager was like 'I know you were working and not reading personal emails' so it seemed completely pointless. Saying that the person who reported me would also have been able to see I wasn't actually working on my computer so I guess common sense wasn't high on the list anywhere in that company.

Oh that's an interesting take I hadn't thought about!

Taking a phone call from your oncologist is worlds away from directing a delivery driver over the ring doorbell. I wouldn’t want to take a call from my oncologist in front of a room full of work colleagues. It is more appropriate to warn your manager and then take the call in private. Perfectly acceptable behaviour.

Why are you on here at 10.22am ? Not your lunch break that early is it?

Your manager didn't "have" to say anything to you at all, and if they really thought it was a none issue they wouldn't have. Manager is a coward hiding behind " I don't want to but I have to" but does absolutely want to fetch the message across to you.

So why did your manager raise it with you? Poor management, or hiding behind the complainer as the manager agrees. You hear lots of stuff as a manager, you filter it.

There was no colleague complaint - it's entirely the manager.

🤣🤣

Yeah sounds like your manager is giving you a warning so to speak.

Pat yourself on the back for completely missing the point.

Well done, round of applause 🤦‍♂️

Wow!
There's always someone who wants to go with the nuclear option! 😁

It’s 2025! Unless you’re in surgery or driving, or something similar then phones are just a part of life. It just have irked your manager as she has the ability NOT to say nothing to you, but chose to.

wish people would mind their own business when it comes to phone usage. Like, answering the doorbell isn’t “arguing with your husband”

they need to grow up.

It probably takes a lot less time though.

In a professional setting I would expect my employer not to mind at all if I take brief phone calls from my accountant/dentist/garage/gardener so long as I was getting my work done.
A professional is required to get a job done, not clock in for x hours a day. And I would also be checking, and sometimes responding to, work related emails when at home.