Right to disconnect

I've been landline free for going on 7 years now. No more interrupted dinners due to unsolicited telemarketers, not to mention the monthly service fee I'm no longer forking over.

The only area where cellphone use concerns me is while driving. I'm sure there is enough technology available to disable cellphone communications while a vehicle is moving, and I'd love to see that technology become standard.

Of course... there are other nuisances I've learned to live with. I don't get bent out of shape like I used to when the lady in the checkout line is talking to someone on her cellphone, or the rare instance when a cellphone might ring in a movie theater. I think that (at least in my everyday travels and experiences) the cellphone etiquette has improved a lot over the past few years.

I'm also able to text old friends over in England and maintain contact with them on occasion without having to email or spend money to call. It's nice that I can FaceTime with my daughter in the evenings some weeks when I'm missing her... or that I can put in an address on my iPhone GPS and get to where I need to go without printing directions off the internet or having to purchase an aftermarket GPS system. And the bluetooth/handsfree feature enables me to plug in the music I want to listen to, instead of listening to the garbage coming out of the radio speakers via FM and listening to endless stupid commercials.

And I can do those things while being responsible, be it standing in a line at a grocery or behind the wheel of a moving vehicle.

Discourteous and disrespectful people will always be discourteous and disrespectful, with or without a mobile phone glued to their ears. Or, for that matter, social media and a keyboard. Same concept.

Some people just don't deserve the air they breath, regardless of whatever technology they're abusing.

Laws or no laws when I was in business (working for others) they would be ape shit if I did not take their Emails and calls at all times. Same as I would be for those that worked for me.

Fortunately I went into business for myself before the age of 24/7 communication such as cell phones, Email, etc. so landlines were all I had to deal with.

Worst inventions ever...cell phone and email. At work I'm on the road and I ask these idiots I work with to call me or text me....They completely ignore me and reply through email. Often times I'm runnin and gunnin...no time to log into email and at the end of a 14 hour day I'm not going to either. Then they wonder why I don't anser the emails...once again I tell them to call or text....another email reply. They are afraid to respond one on one....They want to copy the word with email. I get inundated with shit.

Release

No, they ARE that stupid. A lot if times it's an order for a customer they get for the next day. Needless to say because of their stupidity the customer doesn't get the order.

I tell them this...They don't learn. You can't fix stupid.

You should see them make a mess out of a group text.. it ends up being Abbott and Costello's " who's on first" bit.

Disconnecting...we would get SO much more work done.

Before I retired, my employer offered me and others in my position across the state a cell phone. Several took them and were constantly harassed by both their employees and their superiors. It was "strongly suggested" that I and others who declined should take one as well but I refused after asking if I took one would I be expected to answer it when away from work. Their response was yes, if I took it I would be expected to answer it whenever I was called. I ended the conversation by offering to take one when they paid me to carry it during off hours. My contract called for me to be paid if I had to come in after work hours so I put in for that pay when, after they called the golf course clubhouse and the clubhouse personnel caught me when I played a hole near it, so I called them on my cell phone. They took up 45 minutes of my time and my 4-some went on without me while I was on the phone. My OT pay for talking them through a problem for 45 minutes was denied. They told me, "If you would have come back to work to solve the problem, you would have been eligible for the pay but since you handled it by phone you were not eligible to be paid." It still would have taken the 45 minutes to solve the problem but I would have also taken me another 45 minutes (each way) for me to drive back to work to handle it. My contract also called for me to have been paid "mileage" for each mile I would have driven to go back to work in this situation but they couldn't see that so from then on, no paid cell phone for me unless I got paid to carry it. If you took one you couldn't make personal calls on it... so you had to carry it and your personal cell phone.

As with work-related functions, I see no reason to acquire a mobile phone for that purpose exclusively.

But as a parent with kids, who these days in particular, only more and more seem willing to communicate via texting/cellphone exclusively, then obviously there's an entirely different aspect that must be considered. If you're not in that situation, then obviously that doesn't pertain to you.

Landlines will soon be a thing of the past. We might as well accept it, otherwise be on the outside looking in. That's where things are heading, just as computer technology has also made normal correspondence via written letters nearly obsolete. To deny it is just refusing to accept reality of where we are.

I'm inclined to take the good with the bad and stay in touch with my kids. With work, however, it's an entirely different situation and I understand fully the usual grievances. It just comes down to what one is willing to accept and/or sacrifice.

mulegolf

Christ...sounds like us to some degree.

We used to be suppiled a company cell phone and they would pay the bill. It was one of those "everything" plans so they didn't care about personal use. I didn't have my own phone at the time so this was great. I still called it my "work" phone and told them that. Therefore at night and at 4 am when these guys would call me I would have it on silent and call them back when MY day began.

A few years ago the company in a midst of taking away holidays, 401k match, decided to take away the company issued phones and tell us to get our own phones and you could submit the bill as a "personal liable cell phone". I still submit my whole bill on an "everything" plan and its not questioned.

A few people balked and the company was having a heart attack...pretty funny...they expect everyone to fall in line. I still shut mine off, or if my boss asks me I tell him it went dead etc... hey, they gave up the right to cell phone questions when they made us buy our own. I've had the same one 3 years now. I wont upgrade until its dead.

I do not get work e-mails at home, I don't even know where to go to log in other than on a city computer. Apparently some do not quite understand how e-mail works. The "office" will send us important messages in an e-mail, when we are out responding to calls. Then, in between doing our actual job, we have to write a memo explaining why we did not complete an administrative task that was sent in said e-mail. If they call me when off duty, it goes to voice mail, if it is important I return the call. If it is a call-in for an incident, 911 calls me, and I know it is them. I answer that because it is a recording, I then have to call 911 ( on an administrative line) and tell them I am responding.

Release
16 hours ago

mulegolf
What kind of idiot would implement that rule for carrying a company cell phone.
They could be liable for the overtime plus penalty.

That would be State of Minnesota, MN State Patrol.