Help me! What to do about too many personal calls

Lola815

What can I do about employees getting too many personal calls at work. We tried to make it emergency only calls, but that didn't work. Sometimes it just gets out of control! Any suggestions??

Dasher

This is a performance/discipline issue. It is not possible to devote proper time and attention to the job while talking excessively on personal matters. I agree it can be sticky but I have found it best to handle it straight on, including verbal and written warnings.

Janet

I agree with the discipline response. Just be sure you discipline consistently for EEs who abuse time in other ways; e.g., excessive smoke breaks, long lunches, etc.

Zoo Keeper

We solved the problem of personal phone calls in one department by first routing all incoming calls to the receptionist for distribution. Employees were informed that they may receive all the personal calls they wanted as long as they clocked out first. Personal calls all but stopped once the policy was enforced.

dhnyct

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 07-11-02 AT 08:33AM (CST)[/font][p]Referring back to Janet's post, do your ee's clock out for smoke breaks, etc.?

Not knowing the size and nature of your business, how does the receptionist determine calls to be personal, as ee's/friends/family can sometimes be very creative? Do you also monitor outgoing calls?

It would be very difficult for our office to enforce a strict policy. The guidelines address the term "excessive", but that can be very subjective.

Ruskanen

I have never liked the term "smoke break". To me, a non-smoker, it insinuates that smokers get extra breaks that non smokers don't get. Everyone should get "breaks" to do what they want...phone calls, fresh air, a walk down the hallway. Smokers should not get extra smoke breaks.

phbair

Is it relevant to inquire, does this policy apply accross the board, to managers as well as all rank and file employees? Distinctions can always be made, but for a manager to manage, s/he must also be setting an example worthy of following. If a manager, or a "specially-privileged employee," spends hours making personal phone calls, that is a signal to others that the practice is acceptable.
That said, I think a more humane focus would be on how employees taking personal calls affects the ability to complete the employer's work in a timely fashion. If the calls aren't interfering with work-related calls, costing the employer anything, shifting work to other unwilling employees, and the employees are still getting their work done in a timely manner, where's the harm? Our jobs keep most of us at work for a long time, usually during the time of day when banks and other businesses also have their operating hours. If employees are to accomplish any necessary personal tasks via telephone, like scheduling appointments, a daytime call is often the only option.

HS

Lola,

We have a policy in place and enforce it for all employees regardless. I'd suggest putting together some type of no tolerance policy against excessive personal calls. As long as you are treating everyone equally and not singling out anyone, it should help with the problem. If you have a progressive disciplinary policy, use it. If you don't, create one. This way you counsel the employee, verbally warn them, write it up, suspend, then fire. Do you have the ability to print a phone log? Sometimes the employee stops when they "see" just how much of their day is spent on personal phone calls. A minute here and there do add up. I've had employees suprised that they've spent so much time on the phone during the course of a week.

One last note...your supervisors and managers...need to MANAGE. I've found that if they don't peek their head out of their office every so often, problems start to arise. Employees are less apt to "take advantage" when their supervisor "walks the floor" every so often.

Good Luck

Lori B

I agree with HS.

Side note from earlier posts: making people punch out for personal calls or other breaks seems appealing but has its pitfalls. The FLSA won't allow you to dock pay for someone on a break of 20 minutes or less....If the phone calls, smoke breaks, other breaks, etc, are less than 20 minutes, you have just opened up another, perhaps bigger can of worms.

Lori

HS

How right you are Lori. Our people are allowed two 15 min "comfort breaks", however they can't punch out because they are paid for that time. Again it goes back to our managers to "manage" the time taken by using an internal log or something to that effect.

B_Jackson

I wish to add a question to the discussion. Are the employees using only company phone lines, or are they using cell phones, and do they continue to work when using the cell phone?

Lola815

The ones who have them use cell phones, direct lines, etc. I think that most people stop working when they are on the phone with non-work related phone calls.

Making employees keep calls to breaks and lunch only is a great idea for hourly employees, but our salaired employees don't have two designated 15 minute breaks, and they are the ones with cell phones and direct line, so how do you handle them? Or can you just ignore the salaired and focus on the hourly?

HS

>Making employees keep calls to breaks and lunch only is a great idea
>for hourly employees, but our salaired employees don't have two
>designated 15 minute breaks, and they are the ones with cell phones
>and direct line, so how do you handle them? Or can you just ignore
>the salaired and focus on the hourly?

Lola,

Again it goes back to your policy and procedures that are in place. They are there for not only your hourly employees, but for ALL employees. Do you have a way to print a log of all the calls (if it's the company phone?) If not, it again comes back to your managers to "manage" their employees by making themselves aware of how much time any employee is spending on personal business, be it phone calls or other personal issues. I would never 'ignore' a problem hoping it'll go away. It may seem like we're running a daycare at times, but if your employees want to act like children, we need to treat them as such. I hate to sound so harsh, but we're dealing with the same issues at my company. It usually comes down to a manager who 'ignored' the problem for so long that now it's a problem when they try to enforce the rules that were there all along. Then they come to HR saying, "well why can't we just fire them? They've been doing this for (months, years, etc.)." Talk about what I dislike about the job! Trying to make a manager understand that without documentation to back up our claim...well you all know, it's like talking to a brick wall.

I'm off my soap box now, sorry for ranting. Guess I needed it today.

x:-8

Lola815

Thanks for your help. I have a meeting with all the manager's next week, so I will bring this up and hopefully get their help with it.

We can't get a log from our phone system, so that is out of the question.

Don D

And just think, not too many years ago we were struggling with what to do about pagers going off all day long, distracting employees and causing workers to rush to the phone for a personal call. Little did we know that right around the corner was a little phone you could hang on your belt or stuff in your purse that would keep you occupied off and on all day long.