Drivers need them and it speeds things up considerably for them to be able to call customers and use the mapping features on smart phones.
Kitchen crew does not need them. Can’t believe the crap that some younger employees think is just fine:
Standing there texting instead of answering the store phone.
Taking calls during shift.
Endless texting during shift.
We just had to let go an employee who is about 20 years old. Been told several times over the last several months to put the phone away. Told again last night. Not even a minute later the manager found the employee behind the oven texting!
We have got to the point of having signs around the kitchen and prep area that use of mobile phones during work is instant dismissal.
Experiencing exactly the same as you Steve.
Only time they are allowed to use them if they need to call their parents for a lift home.
Drivers can use them in their cars for GPS and if they use them while driving to and from deliveries, well I can’t control that.
My wife says we should get them to put their phones in the cupboard near the till as they start their shifts and collect at the end of the night but I’m not too sure on the legalities of that.
Real pain in the butt issue
Dave
It seems like there is no middle ground if employees have there phones it will end up being a problem. Side work seems to suffer the most the little things that could be done while there aren’t too many customers seemed to never get done. We had to adopt the " if I see a phone your going home" policy too.
For the most part employees are good about it. I really don’t mind if an employee sends and receives a couple of text messages during a shift as long as they are not ignoring a ringing phone to do it and it is not during the rush so I have avoided an absolute rule. It has been a while since we had an issue like the employee the other night but it does come up and will again.
I am amazed at some of the things that employees can convince themselves is just fine.
Here’s one for you with employee phones.
I had a cashier unplug my external hard drive (the one I use it to back up my system) to charge her friggen phone, I was not aware of this, until I had my POS server crash 5 minutes after opening a few days ago, and learned I had no back-up of anything.
So I just got a whole heck more strict on personal phones in my building
about a year ago I started making our employees put their phones on a portion of a shelf cleared off for this purpose, where I can see and randomly count the phones and match that number against the employees present. no one ever texted in plain sight,and personal calls would always go through the land line, as it was 10 years ago. I started doing this because employees went to the bathroom to text or post on Facebook (seriously!!). drivers would come back from deliveries and sit in their cars on the phone, instead of coming in to do dishes or take other deliveries. no phones allowed at work unless you`re on break.drivers get their phones only on out of town deliveries.we are in a small town and unless they are new most addresses can easily be found without a phone.
Im sort of tolerant of a few texts if its slow and theres not much going on. But if its an issue and they are texting too much or when its busy i say hey, i think the bathrooms need to be detailed, or guess what, tonight your going to clean out the grease trap.
basically i assign them a task in which they really hate as a way to get the memo across, that this needs to stop
one time, we had one of my best drivers for some reason was bored and drew a cock and balls on a ranch dipper cup lid, and forgot to throw it away.
well luckily i caught it before going to the customer, he was super embarrassed assumed he would be fired. I thought about it, realized that he really is a good guy wanted to teach him a lesson. Made him clean out the grease trap as punishment. He literally started throwing up while cleaning it out.
Since this i have yet to see another drawing of a cock and balls lol
I like the greasetrap punishment, sadly mine is a 2000 gallon underground system that requires a pump-truck to clean, I used to have a Mil-Surp gasmask that was used when I was at a location with an undersink model trap
Here’s a little trick that I found works well for discipline that doesn’t always fall on me , I let my more responsible employees handle it, basically using their “Peer Pressure” to straighten someone out.
I started doing this when we’d get someone no-show, or call-in for whatever reason, I refused to pick up the slack, I made my crew do it. They quickly realized that when a workmate calls in sick, it is them getting screwed, and they handle it through some unique shaming (which may or may not involve social media too)
This technique is working with phone usage and other screwing around too.
I guess I should mention that my lowest paid person is making over $14.50/hour, and the work is not that difficult, plus they each get 2 consecutive days off each week, so losing their position here would mean their pay gets cut in half if they go anyplace else.
Four months later… jump from phones to time-clock issues…! (year after year it is the same half dozen issues that come up in rotation)
Just had to give a written warning to a multi-year employee about clocking in for hours he was not scheduled to work. (coming in early) He had been warned verbally a couple of times last week and the week before and shown the written policy on the subject… guess what a new week and he clocked in 45 minutes early on Monday and 30 minutes early on Wednesday. Now if he does it again he fired.
i understand how this is a problem for most fully staffed places but since im the only person working the counter for most lunch shifts i would gladly have a staffer come in 45 minutes early so i can concentrate on the other tasks i have going on. (even if its just messing around on the think tank) Normally they walk in 5 to 10 minutes late.