Tough question. Most times when people are using their cell phones at work, it is for personal reasons. If it is being done blatantly or obviously, it can be a real rub for the management staff. They are essentially using company time for personal stuff — not fair to the employer.
I know several companies that have banned the use of cell phones from the workplace, allowing them only at break time and at lunch. I personally think that this should be the appropriate goal. It is not just an issue with people being on their cell phones, but if they ring or beep with a text message while someone is on the phone with the client, it can be distracting. The other issue that is starting to arise is texting, which does not place the cell phone in someone’s ear, and can be done in their lap — being even more covert. The strong majority of all of this is personal and is taking away from the business. Cell phones should be kept out of sight, and not on desks where people can see incoming text messages, etc. Distractions are costly to business.
I think you know I am an advocate of promoting culture rather than rules. If you can have a companywide or departmentwide discussion on this whole issue and ask them to respect their business time and use cell phones only at breaks and at lunch, unless there’s an emergency, it could go a long way towards everyone being committed to not using them during work. If that fails, then a policy or a rule is the next best choice.
Some businesses do allow personal phone calls if they are kept short. This is the other way to go with it — by saying that cell phones are allowed for very brief phone calls but anything lengthy should be done at break or at lunchtime.
If it is one person who seems to be abusing their work time on the cell phone, then I would take the approach of having a discussion with that person. Sometimesthe resultant “buzz” is enough to get everybody to stop.
If there are people in your operation who use their cell phones for work, enforcement is much easier, because if the employer has given them the cell phone, the records are available to the employer to check personal versus business use.
Bottom line, the excessive personal use of cell phones and texting during working hours is a drain to the productivity of the business, and can be career threatening to the individual abusing the privilege.
With all of the ways to communicate, relationship building is not an either — or game. Many times, it is a combination. I have always believed that the face-to-face and personal touch is the absolute best way to build relationships, and that has not changed in my view. However, with our reach stretching across the country and throughout the world, that face-to-face interaction becomes much more challenging. Telephone conversations are second, because two people have an actual exchange and discussion. You can hear the other person’s reaction and respond accordingly.
All this does not eliminate the power of social media for staying in touch with people. With the 24/7 harried world we live in, sometimes a quick touch is better than nothing. Many people avoid phone calls because they fear they will get hung up too long. It is up to the individual to determine which is the best medium to use. Frankly, I enjoy seeing LinkedIn status updates about the people in my network, and I occasionally respond to them. The same goes for Facebook. Actually these Social Mediums have replaced the group list joke e-mails that just about everyone hates receiving.
Bottom line, it really depends on how much you need to stay in touch with your clients and prospects, how they prefer to receive communication, and the amount of time you have to put into it. The rules are changing, and no one really knows what they are…
According to TechDirt.com, some psychiatrists have been pushing hard to have internet addiction officially classified in the psychiatrist’s bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The American Psychiatric Association recently proposed its new changes for DSM-5, the first update since 1994. Andinternet addiction is actually being considered
Read more…
Check out this post… http://www.basexblog.com/2010/04/08/am-i-a-supertasker/
Here’s an excerpt from our friends at Basex, the research firm:
…A recent study conducted by psychologists at the University of Utah was designed to examine the extent to which subjects could talk on a mobile phone and drive at the same time.
The study found that 97.5% of the subjects’ driving was significantly impaired while on the phone, meaning they took an average of 20% longer to hit the brakes when necessary. Word recall dropped 11% and math accuracy dropped 3%. Read more…
RePrinting: BASEX:COMMENTARY-OF-THE-WEEK BY JONATHAN B. SPIRA
E-MAIL: REPORTS OF MY DEMISE ARE PREMATURE
It is both premature and foolhardy to proclaim that e-mail’s reign as “king of communications” is over as a recent Wall Street Journal article trumpets.
Not that e-mail is the best communications medium for everything; indeed we know very well it isn’t.
Instead, e-mail has, in the past 15 years in particular, become that path of least resistance for almost everything that transpires within an organization.
Update status? Send an e-mail to a few hundred of one’s closest colleagues.
Finish a report? Send another e-mail to a few hundred of one’s closest colleagues.
The fact is that we use e-mail opportunistically rather than with an understanding as to what the impact of its use might be.
Sending that status report to those few hundred colleagues actually cost the organization ca. 24 hours in lost time when one calculates the few minutes each person spent opening the e-mail he didn’t need to receive in the first place – plus the “recovery time,” which is the time it takes to get back to where one was in the task that was interrupted.
The result of all of our communications (and it isn’t just e-mail) is Information Overload, a problem that costs the U.S. economy ca. $900 billion per annum. On August 12, Information Overload Awareness Day was observed around the world with meetings and discussions (see http://www.basexblog.com/2009/07/09/information-overload-awareness-day/).
But that’s just one day – each additional day that we don’t address the problem of Information Overload and take steps to lessen its impact costs billions.
Companies can take steps to lower their exposure to Information Overload (an article about what can be done may be found at
http://www.basexblog.com/2009/04/23/lowering-your-information-overload-exposure/)
but even raising awareness of the problem and understanding the impact of overusing such tools as e-mail can make a big difference.
This Analyst Opinion is also available online at http://www.basexblog.com/2009/10/15/e-mail-reports-of-my-demise-are-premature/
Jonathan B. Spira is CEO and Chief Analyst at Basex. He can be reached at jspira@basex.com
Hey folks–the best way for you to manage your email is to practice self discipline. Here is a great article published in Entrepreneur & Self-Employed Business Journal by Brian Tracy that you should read:
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There is one special quality that you can develop that will guarantee you greater success, accomplishment and happiness in life.
Of a thousand principles for success developed over the ages, this one quality or practice will do more to assure that you accomplish wonderful things with your life than anything else. This quality is so important that, if you don’t develop it to a high degree, it is impossible for you to ever achieve what you are truly capable of achieving.
The quality that I am talking about is the quality of self-discipline. It is a habit, a practice, a philosophy and a way of living. All successful men and women are highly disciplined in the important work that they do. All unsuccessful men and women are undisciplined and unable to control their behaviors and their appetites. And when you develop the same levels of high, personal discipline possessed by the most successful people in our society, you will very soon begin to achieve the same results that they do.
All great success in life is preceded by long, sustained periods of focused effort on a single goal, the most important goal, with the determination to stay with it until it is complete. Throughout history, we find that every man or woman who achieved anything lasting and worthwhile, had engaged in long, often unappreciated hours, weeks, months and even years of concentrated, disciplined work, in a particular direction.
Fortunately the quality of self-discipline is something that you can learn by continuous practice, over and over, until you master it. Once you have mastered the ability to delay gratification, the ability to discipline yourself to keep your attention focused on the most important task in front of you, there is virtually no goal that you cannot accomplish and no task that you cannot complete.
Successful people engage in activities that are goal-achieving. Unsuccessful people engage in activities that are tension-reliving. Successful people discipline themselves to have dinner before dessert. Unsuccessful people prefer to have dessert most of the time.
Successful people plan their work, and work their plan. They take the time to think through their responsibilities before they begin. They make clear decisions which they then implement immediately. They get a lot more done in a shorter period of time than the average person. And it all has to do with their disciplines.
Perhaps the most important benefit of self-discipline is the personal benefit that you receive. Every act of self-discipline increases your self-esteem. It gives you a feeling of personal power and accomplishment. Each time you discipline yourself to persist in the face of distractions, diversions, and disappointments, you feel better about yourself. As you continue to discipline yourself, you achieve more and more in life. As you achieve more things, you feel more like a winner. Your self-confidence goes up. You feel happier about yourself. You get more done and you have more energy. You earn the respect and esteem of the people around you. You get more rapid promotions and are paid more money. You live in a nicer house, drive a nicer car, and wear nicer clothes. You get a natural high from the thrill of achievement. And the more things that you achieve as the result of employing your personal habits of effectiveness and productivity, the more eager you are to achieve even higher and better tasks. Your life gets onto an upward spiral of success and happiness. You feel great about yourself most of the time.
Every act of self-discipline strengthens every other discipline in your life. Every weakness of self-discipline weakens your other disciplines as well. When you make a habit of disciplining yourself in little things, like flossing your teeth every night, you’ll soon become able to discipline yourself to accomplish even larger things, like working long, long hours to bring a major task to completion.
Your entire life is an on-going battle between the forces of doing what is right and necessary on the one hand and doing what is fun and easy on the other hand. It is a battle between the forces of discipline and the forces of ease or expediency. And when you develop the strength of character that gives you complete self-mastery, self-control and self-discipline, you feel wonderful about yourself. You develop a deep inner sense of strength and confidence. You replace positive thinking with positive knowing. You reach the point inside where you absolutely know that you can do whatever it takes to achieve any goal that you can set for yourself.
Self-discipline is its own reward. Not only does it pay off in terms of greater self-esteem and a more positive mental attitude, but it pays off throughout your life in terms of the goals that you achieve and the success that you attain in everything you do.
Self-discipline is a skill and a habit that can be learned by practice. Every time you practice a little self-discipline, you become stronger and stronger. Bit by bit, you become more capable of even greater disciplines. As you become a totally self-disciplined individual, your entire future opens up in front of you like a broad highway. Everything becomes possible for you and your future becomes unlimited.
Accomplish More in a Month Than Most People Accomplish in a Year. Take complete control of your time and your life. Get more done now.
Author Credit: Brian Tracy
Some people have actually enjoyed the information overload break created by traveling in an airplane.
The skies are not safe anymore! At least from information overload.
I was checking the wiki on AIRCELL, and found that at least eight airlines are installing or plan to install the ability for broadband connections while in the air. See the full WIKI for complete information.
Here are some of them:
On August 1, 2007, American Airlines partnered with Aircell to offer broadband on American’s flights. On September 13, 2007, Virgin America partnered with Aircell to add broadband capabilities to their flights.
On January 22, 2008, American Airlines completed the first aircraft installation of the Aircell Internet broadband connection at American’s Kansas City maintenance base. The airline plans to install and test the broadband technology in 2008 on all 15 of its Boeing 767-200 aircraft. The technology will provide customers an Internet connection, virtual private network (VPN) access and email capabilities.
On February 29, 2008, Aircell unveiled the product name as Gogo Inflight Internet.
On August 5, 2008, Delta Airlines announced it was installing Aircell’s Gogo Inflight system on all of its airplanes over the subsequent year.
On August 20, 2008, Aircell’s Gogo going went live on American Airlines. Aircell’s Gogo will be available to customers as a fee-based service in all cabins. Aircell will charge $12.95 on flights more than three hours, which include American’s Boeing 767-200 flights. Each paid Gogo session includes full Internet access.
On May 12, 2009, AirTran Airways announced it will install Aircell’s Gogo Inflight System on all of its airplanes by late July 2009.
And just a few days ago, July 23, US Aiways announced that it will install internet capabilities available to passengers on Airbus A321 aircraft starting in 2010 when flying over the U.S. mainland.
So much for that info overload break that some of us actually enjoy!
There was a very interesting article in the NY Times yesterday – on the front page of their business section.
I’m afraid I take issue with professor David E. Meyer’s comment, “The social norm is that you should respond within a couple of hours, if not immediately,” in your article “Smartphone Rises Fast From Gadget to Necessity“
One of the biggest challenges people face when it comes to information overload is the ability to manage work. Those who believe they must respond to email immediately become unable to complete other work. Fifty percent of American workers have their inboxes open constantly, inviting interruptions that cost them several hours every day.
I’d hardly consider expecting immediate responses a social norm. If it is, we are in BIG deep trouble that will only get deeper.
The fact is, most people who send an email generally expect a reply within 24 to 48 hours. If we buy the thought that immediate response is the social norm, work won’t get done. Stop this belief that it IS the norm. It can’t be. If it’s so urgent, pick up the phone!
I do agree that Meyer’s comment that balance is key is spot on. We should control technology – it shouldn’t control us. Off soapbox now.
Thank you,
Marsha Egan, author, Inbox Detox and the Habit of Email Excellence
Ok ok ok. So I AM a Dukie…
That doesn’t mean that this video doesn’t do a good job of articulating the challenges (or exasperation) that email overload brings us.
Here’s the video.
Here’s the related story.
(Go Blue Devils!)
