Phone ban at work - childcare worry

[s88]

My manager has recently implemented a phone ban in our office .

This is due to new starters taking advantage and being on them more than they should be. Ruining it for everyone else.

My worry now is that I have a 2 year old in nursery 3 days a week and if there was an issue with my child,the nursery would not be able to contact me.

We do not have a direct phone number in our office for them to call on only a premium rate number which you are on hold for around 20 minutes.

I do not think I am being unreasonable to want my phone , on silent, even restricted if need be, to be able to be reached by my childcare provider .

Am I being OTT or valid point?

I had a,similar issue at a previous job. I needed to have my phone on because we didn't have direct dial nos. and my DC school insisted on being able to contact me at all times - if they ever had to wait more than 30mims for callback they would inform social services. So only using my phone at lunchtimes simply wasn't an option.

As such I had a very frank chat with my manager, said I was not prepared to be reported to SS because of their office policy and that I would have my phone on me, but on silent/ vibrate. This was accepted - failing which I'd have had to look for another job and sue for unfair dismissal.

It sounds unreasonable to ban mobile phones if there's no other way for nursery to contact you in an emergency.

I would explain the situation to manager - pointing out that they need an emergency contact number for you as well as DH in case they can't get through to DH / DH is away. If something serious did happen shortly after drop off then not seeing the missed calls from nursery for 5 hours is too long.

Ask what the policy is for employees being able to receive emergency messages from nursery / school. You're unlikely to be the only employee they'll ever have in this position.
Will they will install a direct line in your office so nursery can call that number in an emergency? Or should you can give them manager's mobile number as your work emergency contact number?

As they've said mobiles are to be left in the corridor, ask what security arrangements are in place to protect your property.
Will they install lockers so that you can keep your property secure? What happens if your phone is stolen? Will work's insurance pay to replace your mobile phone if someone steals it from the corridor while you're at work?

I would be wary of sneaking a mobile phone into work in a bra or a sock or whatever. If they've banned mobiles and they catch you smuggling one into the office, they might treat that as a disciplinary offence.

I think the issue is that there is no direct line rather than the mobile ban. Schools ban their staff from having their mobiles with them, but they do have direct number even if it's only staff who use it.

Would your boss allow a pager? Or a really basic mobile phone that is just a phone with no Facebook, camera or access to Internet? It's worth having the conversation.

Tell them you need it on incase of a child care emergency. Leave it in your desk and tell them you're only answering if it's a call from your child care providers.

I'm sure that's not even legal.

I've looked, there's no law on this.

It has to be written in the companies policies in order for them to enforce it though.

As a policy which is likely to affect women disproportionally more than men this IS indirect sex discrimination....

A very close friend of mine 's daughter had a stroke at nursery. A rare event obviously, but these things do happen. You really do need to be contactable.

My own son didn't go to nursery but he did go to childminder. He had a lot of wheezing issues as a child and we were constantly at hospital. It was essential that I could contact or be contacted by his childminder.

Your situation absolutely needs resolving. This is not an acceptable situation.

As a policy which is likely to affect women disproportionally more than men this IS indirect sex discrimination

It isn't a policy that is likely to affect women more, unless there are only women in the office.

There are a whole host of reasons why someone may need to be contacted in an emergency!

There are a lot more women than men who are single parents with sole parental responsibility though, so it probably is a more difficult situation for more women than men.

There are a lot more women than men who are single parents with sole parental responsibility though, so it probably is a more difficult situation for more women than men.

But having DC is only one sort of emergency, that is my point.

Yes, that's true, I see what you mean. I was only thinking of childcare because that was specifically what the OP had talked about.

But yes, you're right.

If all else fails, you can still get pagers (hello, 1991). My husband carried one while he was in a mobile-free environment and I was heavily pregnant, it worked perfectly.

If you want to take issue with the policy you'd have much more success pointing out that people have all kinds of caring duties. It's not just parents by any means.

'the paper' talking about phones in bras causing breast cancer is the rag you'd expect. There's no evidence at all. The poor lady concerned has got cancer due to the usual cause, bad luck.

get a non-brick phone and give the number to the nursery. Set it to silent and keep it in a pocket. It will last two weeks between charges.

and look for another job because the business model of yours is a disaster.

I do understand the no mobiles rule - we had to introduce similar in a precious workplace as some people couldn't concentrate on work for 5 minutes without checking facebook (or Mumsnet ). Is there seriously NO landline at all where you work - don't you have an HR department or main reception? If this is the case, then the company sounds slightly dodgy.........

Previous - it certainly wasn't precious!

For pities sake, don't go to the union or make this into a bigger deal that it has to be. Just have a sensible conversation with your manager to talk about what arrangements you can put in place to have access to your phone or otherwise for your child's nursery to contact you.

There wouldn't be any point in giving the managers number. There's a phone ban. So manager should also leave bag and phone in the corridor. Unless of course there's double standards going on.

We have a phone ban. If we are expecting a call, we leave phone with reception and say you are expecting a call from x.

I would do that. And get all colleagues to do it as well. They might soon look at getting
A phone line in.

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I worked in a call centre.

I agree that they have not implemented this reasonably

We had a phone ban due to piss taking. Each team wound up with a dedicated mobile on the pod kept in the managers in tray. Would that help, if they agreed?

Also, you should have lockers the arrangement for your personal items is woefully inadequate.

I don't think a mobile phone ban is unreasonable, it is standard in many workplaces, but surely the company could run to a cheap no frills mobile that could be kept on the manager's desk so staff could be contactable in emergencies?

my DC school insisted on being able to contact me at all times - if they ever had to wait more than 30mims for callback they would inform social services

goodness me what did schools do in the days before mobile phones? How ridiculous.

OP - your company must have an HR team if it's quite a big company. Ask them for advice. Otherwise, is email an option as people have suggested? I prefer email to phone contact and even in an emergency I'm likely to see it straight away as I work from home with my gmail on a tab all the time.

What an awful workplace both for employees and for their customers. Still, I suppose the shareholders are cosy and well looked after.

Shocked at the outcry over a poster not being allowed to access their personal mobile phone - one which is completely unnecessary for work purposes, whilst on paid working time.

Yes, the company's communication system is flawed (a call centre with a 20 minute, premium-rate wait time?! No robust way to contact that site in an emergency - neither indicate a well thought out setup).

However, the company is well within their rights to disallow use of personal, non-essential for work mobiles on their own time and premises. And of course they're not responsible for insuring an employees' property, when that employee chooses to bring to work something they're prohibited to keep with them.

OP, of course you shouldn't take the advice to find ways to breach company policy surreptitiously. That would be a disciplinary offence, and would paint you in a bad light. There are business benefits to improving the contactability in your building - highlight these sensibly and robustly so that your employer takes appropriate action. I'm certain (call centre/communications tech is my background) that there will be a way to do this with your existing architecture, so your employer won't need to go to the expense of additional/separate phone lines etc.

Goodness me that we should expect people to be treated as human beings with worries and responsibilities outside of work. That their minds should be on anything else but the company, the client and the shareholder. A break every 5 hours?! What do you do when you have your period? Does the boss need to know you may need extra trips to the loo? Etc etc.