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Smart Watch banned at your job?
- Thread starter waloshin
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An employer that would restrict an employee in such a way using "distraction" as an excuse sounds like a bad employer. It sounds like a work environment built on mistrust and total control.
It sounds a little extreme to ban smartwatches. I'd be interest to know of any employers that actually do this.
Mine obviously doesn't. Even if they did, as an auditor, I work in the field at audit site most of the time, so it would be difficult to enforce.
Mine obviously doesn't. Even if they did, as an auditor, I work in the field at audit site most of the time, so it would be difficult to enforce.
We can't watch porn at my workplace ... I think it's ridiculous.
I work for a federal agency and there is no restriction despite our working almost exclusively with sensitive information.
Agreed.
However, would the fear of possible 'distraction' be the only reason - or excuse - that the use of such devices would be discouraged?
I'm at a government contractor. There is talk of updating the policy, but anything with picture/audio capture capacity would still not be allowed. So, I think the mic on the watch would be a no go. All we will be allowed to bring is fitbits and maybe iPod shuffles..
Really? Because we don't allow cellphones in our conference room during our weekly calls because people can't stop looking at them they are distracted and not listening to what people on the call are saying. That said I could understand employers who need there employees to pay attention 100% of the time banning them along with phones. Its not a bad employer its just some jobs actually require your attention.
Ohh look I'm driving a train... was that a speed limit sign? Oh well I missed it, whatever it was..
Well, this is an area where I think common sense and courtesy need to be used. Here, I will say that both @mobilehaathi and I have worked in the groves of academe, and the world of the university campus tends to be a lot more relaxed on such matters.
Personally, when I taught, I refused to tolerate the use of phones in class, and once had to throw a student out of class when that student insisted on taking a call.
Later, I worked for a while in the Parliament, as one of the editors of the Parliamentary Debates Office, and phones were absolutely prohibited - with good reason in the Parliamentary Committee Meeting rooms or the Parliamentary Chamber itself.
Likewise, I wouldn't permit them at a meeting, or conference; however, that also suggests that meetings be chaired, organised and run properly, and kept to a strict timetable.
Yeah, I do some work with the Feds (DOD/DS), and given the restrictions on bluetooth devices, phones, tethering, networks, USB drives, CDs, just about anything that can transmit/record/store/transport data, I'd suspect Smart Watches will fall under the same restrictions. Of course, that requires a policy update from the Federal government, so I'd assume we can expect that to be completed around 2020 (probably to the tune of several million dollars of contractors, research and documentation...)
Negligence is presumably already disallowed on the job whether or not it involves a phone. Disruptive behavior is presumably also worthy of censure. And I can appreciate the need to restrict devices that might record extremely sensitive material in some areas (I've worked at such a place; it was oppressive).
Well, there are plenty of times at work (and at school) where it is inappropriate to whip out your phone and start playing Candy Crush. But for that matter a phone is hardly required to be a bad worker/student: it's rather inappropriate to cross your legs and open up a newspaper while sitting two feet from an actively lecturing professor (I've seen that one; it didn't go well for the student).
I object to a blanket ban on these things simply because someone might use it inappropriately or rudely in some way. Why make simple possession a censurable offense? Presumably all the ways in which using your phone on the job inappropriately are already subject to scrutiny. Why pile on the charges?
I have no interest in banning devices from the classroom (or the lab, LOL, the thought is absurd), but that doesn't mean using those devices in a disruptive is allowed.
My company is pretty loose with phones on the job as most of us use our personal devices for work too. However, if your phone goes off in a meeting, you buy donuts for team for the first offense, bagels for the second and lunch for the third or more offenses. I work with dumb asses, I get a free lunch almost weekly. 
I'd personally ban phones, watches, smoking (outside of course), Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and general time wasting.
The many of the muppets I work with spend so little time actually working, anything to increase their productivity would be welcome.
Of course not helped by poor managers who don't know how to manage.
The many of the muppets I work with spend so little time actually working, anything to increase their productivity would be welcome.
Of course not helped by poor managers who don't know how to manage.
They are banned in certain parts of my office, we take credit card details from customers over the phone and that part of the office is secure no paper, no mobile phones etc.
In class, students were instructed - or requested politely - to turn off their phones - much like the theatre, or at a concert. Put them away in their bags for the duration of the class.
This is not school; they attend by choice and I dislike the lack of respect shown to their colleagues and to the lecturer if they wish to use phones or such devices in class. In around twenty years of teaching, the only time I ever lost my temper with a student was when that student (from an extraordinarily well off background) insisted on taking a phone call in class. And yes, I ordered the student out.
My company is pretty loose with phones on the job as most of us use our personal devices for work too. However, if your phone goes off in a meeting, you buy donuts for team for the first offense, bagels for the second and lunch for the third or more offenses. I work with dumb asses, I get a free lunch almost weekly.
That sounds reasonable, and a most productive policy.
Sometimes, I accept that it is not possible to ban phones; sometimes, during meetings people who had earlier been trying to set up important meetings with otter interlocutors, receive an important call. However, in that situation, the person receiving the call leaves the room where the meeting is taking place in order to take the call, and briefly apologises on their return.
I get a sense of frustration….
That makes sense.
Sounds entirely reasonable to me.
In fact I'd have done the same exact thing.
In truth, as with the use of mobile phones, iPads, and now, Apple watches, an awful lot of the potential issues around the use of (or the fact of simply having) such devices in a work place come down to matters such as common sense and basic courtesy and respect - respect for yourself, your colleagues, and your work setting.
I was just thinking of a similar example... see below.
I really do appreciate you libertarian philosophy in most situations here. I feel an exception to that is when the safety of others is imperative to the focus of the employee. For example, ~5 years ago in Boston we had an incident involving a train conductor distracted by his/her cell phone and rear-ending another train (I believe there have been others as well with buses, perhaps with other trains too). That resulted in the injury of passengers. Now, conductors (and all MBTA vehicle operators) are now banned from possessing cell phones onboard during their shifts. Without a ban on an item, such a cell phone in this case, you help eliminate the likelihood of a plausible accident. Will it prevent all such accidents? Maybe not. Will it lessen the risk? Probably, more so than the alternative.
There is the possibility a bus driver might keep their phone in their pocket and use it in a responsible fashion, such as after their shift. But I'd rather see the sacrifice of that liberty than see a bus collide with a train, killing and injuring dozens. That one time the driver decides to check his/her phone while driving could be the only time.
