Breaks and personal phones - advice/opinions

[OrangeSunset]

Not an issue, yet. Just seeking some advise/opinions.

I manage a small team and have two ‘niggles’ to iron out.

Some have work and personal phones, some have only work phones which they use for personal too.
Breaks - we have been fairly informal about breaks, some people always have one, some people never do, work through lunch and leave ‘earlier’. This results in an exodus quite early in my opinion. As an aside, I feel that those who are still working 4pm-6pm end up more ‘up against it’ than those who start work 7.30am to 9am as the tasks of the day need finishing.

Team has grown significantly in last year. And we now have young people in the team. I want to ensure we are being fair, consistent and meeting business need. And that we are setting clear expectations for new folk.

Some comments have been made by others re personal phones and use during the day. Some of the personal phone users have been asked to put them away, but in return have pointed out that others have personal stuff on their work phones. Fair enough.

What I want to do is the following;
Personal phones away except for at breaks. Clarity for those with one handset that they aren’t expected to use it for personal reasons except at breaks in interests of fairness.
A mandatory break of at least 30mins away from desk except in exceptional circs. For some this will mean getting to work 30mins earlier or staying 30mins later than they do currently. We do 8 hr day excl breaks.

All the above covered by contracts and policies. BUT it is a change to the way we have done things.

First, am I being reasonable? Two, how do I do this without p’ing everyone off?

I hear you regarding if they weren't checking their phone then the extra 10 mins might not be needed but this is real life and we all know the workday is unpredictable. The last thing you want is people working to rule and being totally inflexible on those occasions you might need them. Your issue with the phones sounds entirely based on personal preference rather than anything else. There are now 5 generations in the workforce all with different expectations and I think you'll find without being flexible you will lose the good will of some of them.

Again, harsh. I haven’t done any ‘nannying and dictating’. I am mulling over an issue and how to deal with it before proceeding.

On occasion, people from other teams have mentioned to me that ‘so and so seems to be on their phone’. They are doing themselves a disservice as it allows a perception to form that they are lazy, when they may be nothing of the sort. But, people from other trams cannot easily judge productivity/output. They can (and do) judge perceived attitude.

I also haven’t said the team as a whole is unproductive. I have said that the same people who leave on the dot and expect to have their phone in sight at all times are the same ones who complain (not to me) about lack of progression. It’s about the whole picture. I have also said that this thread has bought home to me that I need to be honest with those people about their performance, in the round.

I think it's perfectly reasonable to ask staff not to use phones for personal use during work hours unless it's an emergency. I can't see how it's draconian. There are loads of jobs where people have to manage without using their phones. It's not difficult. You can easily set phones up to allow calls from particular numbers so anyone needing you in an emergency can get through.

It sounds like where you work is similar to my office. We have huge flexibility around work times - 7 hour days, be in by 10.30, don’t leave before 3.30, lunch 30 mins to 2 hours any time 12-2.30. Can work shorter than 7 hours if work longer on other days. Most people are in 8.30-9.30, most leave 4.30-5.30. Most work 7-7.5 hours, most do similar timings each day.

Works fine most of the time, flexibility both ways (eg normally work 10-5.30 but happy to come in at 9 for a particular meeting but might leave at 4 one day for a school show). Some people do exact hours, some work 10 hour days. Some take smoking breaks. Some take ages making cups of tea. Some check their phones several times a day. Sometimes people work through lunch hour occasionally to meet an urgent deadline.

Some then resent what others do. As long as they get the work done then as a manager I am fairly relaxed but will have a word if taking the piss, eg rest of team working incredibly hard to meet a deadline, they stroll in at 10.30, make a cup of tea, check phone, work for half hour, take fag break, work an hour, take 2 hour lunch, ... I also make it clear that if they are interested in promotion then they need to do more than the absolute minimum - though it’s not mainly about hours, it’s about attitude and working as a team.

So eventually getting to your questions:

1. Yes enforce 30 min break.
2. Ask for feedback (by email or in appraisals) about if flexibility re start/ end times causing issues and feed back to team in team meeting and ask for their suggestions if there is a problem.
3. Reiterate that while you are a flexible employer, personal messages should only be looked at in breaks or if absolutely necessary. I find it helpful to think “would it be seen to be ok to take/make this if it was a call not text” so ok to make quick call to tell spouse you have to stay late, ok to take call from garage re them needing to change your brake pads, not ok to discuss your plans for going out Friday or your friends’ boyfriend problems.

I think it's perfectly reasonable to ask staff not to use phones for personal use during work hours unless it's an emergency. I can't see how it's draconian.

It is actually draconian, and impossible to manage when they have let the staff use their work phones for personal stuff.

Because it has been written into their policy, it makes it completely draconian that they are allowed to do it.

I would much rather work through lunch and leave early (on time). Surely that is up to me in an office job where I can get up and go to the loo or get a drink, it's not like I've up a crane on the Shard!

Sounds like you are trying to micro-manage. Is the work getting done, on time, to the requisite standard? If so, leave alone. If not, manage those people and those issues. General policies just breed resentment.

” I would much rather work through lunch and leave early (on time). Surely that is up to me in an office job where I can get up and go to the loo or get a drink, it's not like I've up a crane on the Shard!”

No, leaving work earlier than your contracted hours is not up to you. If your contracted hours are, say, 9am-5pm with an unpaid lunch break of 30 minutes, ie 7.5 hours a day, it is not ‘up to you’ to leave at 4.30 just because you have opted not to take the break your employer has to ensure you can take.

Whilst an employer can’t really literally force someone away from their desk for their break, it has to make sure breaks can be taken, and encourage that. By sanctioning the practice of working through and leaving work early instead, they are not doing that.

If people insist on working through, that’s their decision, but the practice of routinely allowing people to shorten their day by doing so is risky for the employer legally, as well as being bad practice from a wellbeing point of view.

I agree about breaks. As a manager, the phone issue is not a hill worth dying on. Most office based jobs now in my experience have the attitude that if the work is done and person isn't in customer view, a quick check of a message is okay. My work place tried to enforce no personal phone use during the day. What happened was everyone started working to rule, coming in two mins before start and leaving a minute after finish time and refusing to look at any work that came in after finish (which I agree with anyway).

I personally find that treating adults like adults has better results and if there is anyone abusing that, I deal with it separately rather than punishing everyone for one person. In your case it is even more complicated due to work and personal phone use blur, so I can see huge problems coming up if people point out those using their work phones for personal things. It is going to cause issues with office harmony that will mean extra work for you.

Your choice, but that is my experience

Ps. I saw a later post. There is no official dress code at work, or at any of the last few places I have worked at. Generally people avoid wearing ripped clothing or lots of slogans, but jeans and such are fine. I do find office spaces are becoming more relaxed these days overall, which I don't have a huge problem with really.

We all have our phones on our desks at work, I work in a mixed office of various grades and everyone uses their phones for messages, we just go outside to take calls so it doesn’t disturb others, I have an Apple Watch and that is also quite handy if messages flash up. Our workplace is quite lax and has flexitime and breaks when you want but everyone gets their work done.

you'd hate my current clients workplace.

We have our phone out, can use them when we want - shock horror I was watching the Rugby this morning whilst working.

Listening to music on our phones is almost universal.

I work 7am to 300pm but I have colleagues who do 10am to 630pm =- totally up to us. I don't take lunch - would rather leave earlier.

Most contracts are "professional working day" which means we are expected to our jobs professionally. Sometimes a person might only work 5 hours but then they will make it up at other times.

The point is, we are treated as adult professionals. So long as we get our jobs done, anything is allowed. Failure to do what is expected would cause issues.

I work in an IT support and project environment.

@OrangeSunset sorry it's not reasonable to ask them not to look at notifications on their personal phones. It's old school and patronising

So you wouldn't mind the the checkout assistant in sainsburys stopped scanning your shopping halfway through to look at a text?

How do you know staff turn off their personal alerts on a work mobile?

If I didn't have a work phone I'd think this would be unfair.

I need to be able to see if school calls me about my kids as my husband is usually unavailable (and far away). Is that acceptable?

Pissing about half the day on WhatsApp is not, but I think people should be able to have a quick check that no urgent messages have come through.

But, people from other trams cannot easily judge productivity/output. They can (and do) judge perceived attitude

It's none of their business. If you manage a team you manage. The others can pipe down. No doubt they're going out for smoking breaks, or taking ages on the loo, or making 10 cups of tea a day, or just daydreaming. I'd just be mentioning glasshouses and stones.

leaving work earlier than your contracted hours is not up to you

I'm surprised at you flowery, you didn't read my post correctly, though to be fair it was slightly ambiguous. I said leaving early (on time). That is, early being on time, not being an hour over my hours. I didn't say I'd leave at 4.30, but if my contracted hours are until 5pm, I don't expect to be made to take an hour for lunch and then told I have to stay until 6. I would rather take 20 mins for lunch, work efficiently, and leave at 5, my contracted time.