Saturday, February 5, 2011

Common Sense

I am beginning to seriously wonder what some people are thinking these days. With the economy in its present state and unemployment levels as high as they are, what are people thinking.

Have/has the army of unemployed lost their ever-loving minds. Back in the day when many of us first started working we may have had a uniform of sorts to wear for our job and certain rules that we were required to follow while at work. I remember working for McDonald's in the early 80's. Their mantra at the time was, "If you have time to lean, you have time to clean." It really keep you focused on the job at hand. No hanging out in the lobby chatting with friends. Get the tasks done that you were assigned and then find other ways to help out. It was a job not a time to have a party and socialize.

If you wanted to call someone while you were at work, you were generally out of luck. Should a friend drop by you just couldn't stop and do nothing. Perhaps the best you could do was have a note passed to you to read later. Making a call generally involved hoping in the car and finding a pay phone.

Today virtually everyone is available 24/7, either by email, text, or cell phone. Many people have forgotten that there are time when you need to simply put the phone down and get the job done!

As an employee you cannot expect to be paid by your employer for ignoring your job while you text away the day with family and friends. It's not going to happen. Yes, it all depends on what type of work you are doing and the rules that your employer has in place. But generally, if you are working with the public your phone needs to be off or on vibrate and out of sight while you are on the clock. It is not an unreasonable expectation of your employer for you to not take personal calls or happily chat away by texting during your work hours.

Save it for lunch or break times. You are a grown up and can wait until then. Now we all know that on the rare occasion there is a true emergency. There is such a thing as a business phone that can be called! Wake up people. Who in their right mind would be upset and quit a job over not being able to text at work.

Who would have thought that things would get to that point. Like Nike's slogan says, "Just Do It!"

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