Thank you! Glad you like it.

I’m a trainer and I have to remind fellow trainers that learners in class might very well be taking notes when they have their laptops open and are typing away during class. They are not all surfing the web, checking email, or otherwise goofing off.

It is best to assume that staff are adults until proven otherwise. This always-on-the-phone employee is getting his work done – so, to me, there isn’t a problem.

Now, I could see if he had direct reports who might misinterpret his behavior; then, it might be worth pointing out to him that appearances matter; but, that doesn’t seem to be the case here.

I totally agree with you. Some companies have policies where “no phones while working” is very strict, but the majority of places, especially casual offices have this rule of thumb that if it’s an important call then answer your phone and step out to take the call if it’s something you’d like to keep personal. If someone tells you that it seems you’re on the phone a lot, then I’d appreciate the feedback, and like you said make more of an effort to keep the phone down or away while working.

I’ve been at my current job about 4 months now. At my 3 months, my boss had a casual ‘how’s it going’ kind of chat. She had nothing but praise for my work, but did give me some feedback in a non-threatening way – it seemed like whenever her or her boss walked by, I would be on my personal mobile. Which, although I’m not actually on it all the time, it did seem like the 3-4 times I picked it up were exactly those times when someone would walk by! She said she wasn’t worried because I got my work done and she was more than happy with me, but wanted to give me a heads up as her boss had made a passing comment and she didn’t want it to escalate. I appreciated hearing it, as I also didn’t want to upset anyone and I’ve since made a bigger effort to not pick it up while at my desk.

if it’s done in an open, honest, and non-threatening way, with good intentions behind it, I can’t imagine anyone getting upset over it.

Mangement seems too timid to ask. Maybe they don’t want to kill the golden goose.

They should adopt the attitude of Civil War army general US Grant, who was informed that one of his top, winning commanders was seen drinking to excess. Grant quipped that they find out his brand of whiskey and give it to the other commanders.

This manager is miffed that TopGuy is more than meeting expectations with seemingly only part of his attention. They should be interested in how he is doing this, or pay him more money to produce even more. Instead, they really are hypocrits, being more concerned with conformity than production.

Casual cultures can be wonderful things, but it can encourage slack attitudes for some. Would it also work to walk in to his office and ask for an update on what he is working on? See if he’s on task? I personally would also outright (in a casual sorta way) ask what app he is using right now. And then start the conversation about what is appropriate at work, what isn’t, what is better left to break times, etc. This could be tied into the progress of the project he is currently working on. It’s possible that he just worked his tail off & has the project almost done, and is taking a bit of a break. It is also possible that he hasn’t started the project because he is playing candy crush on his phone.

Honestly, as long as his performance is top-notch and you don’t have clients coming in (who may perceive this badly), I wouldn’t worry about it.

Yeah, duh. If he’s playing Candy Crush all day it’s a big thing. Don’t know why I didn’t think of that.