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.

You have to investigate. You can't just write it off without action otherwise this complainer could have a case against the manager. And let the OP know someone is watching them ...

Nobody has reported you. Your manager is pissed off and has seen/heared you doing it and doesn’t have the balls to say it to you and so they have decided to use an imaginary 3rd party complaint as a way of raising it.

I sit next to a friend at work, she answers her doorbell, she also answers texts and has many sneaky peeks at Facebook. She still gets her work done each day in the main but anyone else saw her phone usage they would most definitely report her. I really enjoy working with this woman, we have banter through the day and wouldn't ever report her. Its our managers job to manage the team. I honestly don't think that she realises that once she has answered the doorbell, automatically checks her messages while her phone is in her hand, is then down the rabbit hole of Facebook that's she is on her phone much longer than the original quick call. Maybe some of this is what's happening to the OP and that's what's annoying someone. Nothing beats the woman I used to have to take things over to, and actually tap her on the shoulder as she had earphones in watching TV on her phone!

One the one hand, I agree wholeheartedly. However, they may just work in an incredibly old fashioned working environment. They are describing how things would have been done a few decades ago whe we still treated staff like naughty children.

What the OP's manager should have done was to treat tĺhe claim about phone use as a grievance. An investigation would have taken place and the claims ratified or refuted. Then they would have dealt with at the appropriate time. Nothing new should be dropped into a performance review, especially nothing vague. But most managers can only work within the frameworks they are given, in the culture that surrounds them - it takes a lot to do your own thing

The OP didn't appear to suspect her manager and suspected another colleague, so not likely to be the manager. The colleague may be stressed and annoyed with OP distracting them.

I'm a little ashamed to say I used to grass people up who were regularly on their phones but only because they were very loud and disruptive. I did request them to be less distracting first though but they just ignored me.

I sometimes work with staff who were born from a certain hot country who are on their personal phone for hours and ignore the office phone. I have to ask them to reduce the taking of the mick.

That is ridiculous - it was a matter relating to home security, and I can't see any employer objecting to that.

It does seem silly that the manager told you about it, since it may make you feel uncomfortable and suspicious about all your colleagues. Perhaps she thought you ought to know, but, in my view, it could create a bad atmosphere and, in turn, affect staff morale.

It sounds like your Manager hasn't got a problem but is giving you the heads up that there is someone tittle tattling & for you to be careful. Take heed & try to be as discreet as you can when using your phone & only use it when absolutely necessary.

I loath snitches with an absolute passion. As manager If there was a real snitch I would have given them down the banks and told them to get on with their own work. If I was the OP I would set up a trap to catch the snitch out, then let it be known throughout the team that there was a tattle tale on board.