Mobile phones and employees

[A1an]

like it or not mobile phones are now a part of modern life, as long as the user is not causing a safety issue or reducing production/wasting company time I cant see a problem.

getting arsey about private phone use may well backfire on you.

 

[kiwi pom]

Perhaps worth saying, there have been a lot of threads on here about how hard it is to get good staff. So if you do have good staff and they are sensible with phone use maybe not worth rocking the boat too much.
On the other hand if you employ a complete waster it may be a good way to get rid of them.

 

[Old Boar]

As I saw a young lad race past with a trailer loaded with stone, phone glued to his ear, I wondered about his employers insurance. I wondered if it is worth having a word with his employer and mentioning the cost of an accident. He then hit the edge of the road and we now have an new ditch for quite a way!
I then wondered if his insurance covered cleaning the tractor seat...

 

[Lofty1984]

As I saw a young lad race past with a trailer loaded with stone, phone glued to his ear, I wondered about his employers insurance. I wondered if it is worth having a word with his employer and mentioning the cost of an accident. He then hit the edge of the road and we now have an new ditch for quite a way!
I then wondered if his insurance covered cleaning the tractor seat...

If you didn't have stones protecting your grass verge he wouldn't of needed to be so far over the side of the road

 

[Lincs Lass]

As I saw a young lad race past with a trailer loaded with stone, phone glued to his ear, I wondered about his employers insurance. I wondered if it is worth having a word with his employer and mentioning the cost of an accident. He then hit the edge of the road and we now have an new ditch for quite a way!
I then wondered if his insurance covered cleaning the tractor seat...

See that everyday when the digester crew are running ,flat out through the village with phones firmly embedded

 

[Old Boar]

It was round the blind bend. The steering wheel needed to be turned. The nut behind the wheel did not do the necessary. I am sure the landowner there is happy to have a ditch to drain his field.

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

It was round the blind bend. The steering wheel needed to be turned. The nut behind the wheel did not do the necessary. I am sure the landowner there is happy to have a ditch to drain his field.

I frankly don't care if they plough themselves into the ditch or the neighboring field for good, one less oxygen thief on the planet. However for the good of other road users I hope they get the full force of the law if they get caught.

 

[Ali_Maxxum]

I think it must obviously say a lot about the people you're employing if you actually have to say something to them about them being on your phone, guess I'm lucky anyone I employ I know so they know not to be a dick. I have people on the phone but they aren't really costing me anything and are getting the job done and not causing a risk so I have nothing to complain about really....

I have no problem either because I take my calls, respond to texts and take the occasional snapshat....

 

[Skimmer]

Decent staff should be able to work out what's appropriate and what's not.

 

[FonterraFarmer]

As I saw a young lad race past with a trailer loaded with stone, phone glued to his ear, I wondered about his employers insurance. I wondered if it is worth having a word with his employer and mentioning the cost of an accident. He then hit the edge of the road and we now have an new ditch for quite a way!
I then wondered if his insurance covered cleaning the tractor seat...

Put them in a ROPS tractor, you can't use them because you can't hear anything over the tractor noise.

 

[Christoph1945]

An interesting thread and a most interesting dilemma. Being rather long in the tooth, with my working days far behind me, I am always impressed by modern technology and the way it has made life easier for all of us.

When I first started my working life; I would have to dig into my pocket for four large copper pennies and look for a big red phone box before I could even think of making a phone call; or ask permission to use the company land line. We had no calculators, computers, "or" mobile phones.

Moving forward in time; the chemical industry took up calculators to replace slide rules, computers to speed up mass calculations, and company radios to improve operations. My last years in the industry were taken up by handing over my job to a computer. Over fifty of us, at one small factory, were made redundant and thrown onto the scrap heap.

The technology didn't do all this on it's own. It was driven and assisted by the driving forces of the stock markets and their money men at the banks.

All that aside; I believe that you have a responsibility to you employees to lay down some basic rules that would include no use of mobile phones whilst operating machinery, or driving farm vehicles. You don't, of course, need me to tell you that distractions are killers.

 

[Christoph1945]

PS..............when I first started work, the only people that I knew with a phone line were our doctor, the police, the fire-brigade,
and the hospital!

 

[Pennine Ploughing]

just as a note to using a mobile phone while at work or any other time for that matter, a hgv driver last week had a bump, not his fault by a long way, had his phone looked at by the police to run a check on it,
and few weeks ago there was a fatal accident on a farm near here, a young man was driving a tractor and tanker through the farm yard, a co farm worker was run over and badly hurt, the emergency services were call to the farm, the injured worker was pronounced dead on the farm, first thing was the police took the drivers phone away with them,
now they can ask the network provider to give full details of usage of a back dated period say last 24/36/48 hours,
they can see what calls, texts and data usage you have used as and when in that time scale,
not only for how long or how often calls, data or texts, but can now tell if you were moving or stopped while on the phone,
this is done by varying signal strength from mast to mast, and in most cases can pin point you to within a 100 meters of your position at any 1 time,
so now if anything happens the first port of call on the phone, all they really need is your phone number to check on usage

 

[The Son]

Thanks all for the input, I am going to try a no phone policy on moving or working machinery, and a fair useage policy otherwise, and see how it works for the next few months.

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

Thanks all for the input, I am going to try a no phone policy on moving or working machinery, and a fair useage policy otherwise, and see how it works for the next few months.

That sounds like a very sensible approach. Don't forget to define what "fair use" is though

 

[yorkie]

Thanks all for the input, I am going to try a no phone policy on moving or working machinery, and a fair useage policy otherwise, and see how it works for the next few months.

Good look,have seen it in practise,every time you contact some one they either stop or ignore you and hope you will be practising same policy

 

[holywell farmer]

How do employers and employees deal with the above?

I am currently sorting out our Health & Safety on farm, and want to provide clear guidelines to employees on mobile phone use during work time.

I realise that they are part of modern society, and as lone workers they are useful for an emergency situation, there is also the need for me to contact them and vice versa.

Any ideas, or example policies that people are using?

In my industry in the building sites it's zero tolerance to using phones if your plant driver or labourer

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

In my industry in the building sites it's zero tolerance to using phones if your plant driver or labourer

They know they will get crucified by HSE. We live in another world.

 

[holywell farmer]

They know they will get crucified by HSE. We live in another world.

There are some who can use phones, gangers, fitters, site agent.

 

[michael N123]

Im reading this thread while spreading slurry