Now bosses take smartphones from office employees in bid to boost productivity and avoid them wasting time checking social media during working hours
- Offices to start cracking down on employees using phones during working hours
- Smartphones could be taken away to boost productivity and stop time wasting
- Employers reportedly do not trust staff to stay away from social media at work
Using a mobile phone at work could soon be banned by employers as firms try to boost productivity, unions have warned.
A crackdown on social media and texting during work hours could soon be enforced by bosses sick of workers constantly using their devices.
It is thought the move is a bid to stop employees wasting time checking social media as some managers do not trust their staff to exercise self-control.
Unions have warned the new policy is a ‘new front for friction’ between workers and organisations.
Retailers such as Tesco and some call centres already make their employee put phones in their lockers, but the practice is now spreading to offices.
The ploy by such organisations is to avoid the use of mobile phones while serving customers.
Office employees could be banned from using their phones during work hours under new policies designed to boost productivity
Nannies are also increasingly being given smartphone clauses in their contracts that ban ‘unauthorised use during working hours’.
Cafe staff at the British Library also have to reportedly surrender their phones to their supervisor.
Prospect, the union for clerical workers that represents some staff at the British Library, has voiced concerns about the shift in attitudes.
Anita Prazmowska, professor of international history at the London School of Economics, wrote a letter to the Guardian complaining about the practice after witnessing a supervisor collecting employees’ phones.
Mike Clancy, its general secretary, of Prospect, said technology could actually improve customer service, not hinder it.
He told the Times: ‘Rigid controls over phone use, where no clear security and safety issues are involved, risks being rigid worker control, reflecting a culture that lacks trust.
The move to stop smartphone use at work could see employees and managers at loggerheads
‘Used in the right way tech has the power to be both empowering and to improve services and productivity. But we can’t let employers have total control over when, where, and how tech is used at work.’
The warning comes as West Yorkshire marketing firm boss Gerard O’Shaughnessy posted a job demanding no ‘phone addicts’.
He said he is fed up with ‘snowflake’ workers who are obsessed with their phones and using social media.
The 48-year-old said: ‘We’ve had girls have complete meltdowns when they’ve come to work and been told they need to put their phone in a box.
‘Others have said it’s almost breaching their human rights, their right to be connected to their phone, it’s almost like a separation anxiety.’