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Child Item

Confiscating phone without notifying

SSII

Hello there,
Just wondering are managers allowed to take a phone without informing you that they took it?
Had a situation like this with a coworker who left his phone to charge, when later he couldn't find his phone and he assumed that it was stolen. He left in a panic looking for his phone just to realize that the manager took his phone in his office without telling him.
Is this normal?

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bren2002

Company phone or private one?

Goat the dote

I imagine it would depend on what the work mobile phone policy was?

o1s1n

Is it a work phone or a personal phone?

I remember my old company had a 'clean desk' policy and one of the main things on it was leaving laptops unlocked or phones unattended. Items would be confiscated and a meeting with HR arranged.

However, it was rarely phones as they were personal phones and people tend to kick up a stink (and quite rightly too!)

elperello

No.
What sort of workplace is it?

SSII

He left his personal phone to charge in a drawer.

jimmycrackcorm

Did the manager say why he took it? It could likely be just for safekeeping.

Teyla Emmagan

SSII wrote:

He left his personal phone to charge in a drawer.

That's just so weird

Goat the dote

Teyla Emmagan wrote: »

That's just so weird

Chances are they’re not meant to have mobile phones in work... I worked in a place like that and there was a lot of shady practice like phones in drawers and drawers being regularly opened to “find something” (ie check the phone)

Wanderer2010

Teyla Emmagan wrote: »

That's just so weird

Why? I work in an open plan office, people are allowed to have their phones, sometimes they charge them and keep them in their drawer. Not weird at all. Depends on how strict your workplace is surely.

ludite

SSII wrote: »

Hello there,
Just wondering are managers allowed to take a phone without informing you that they took it?
Had a situation like this with a coworker who left his phone to charge, when later he couldn't find his phone and he assumed that it was stolen. He left in a panic looking for his phone just to realize that the manager took his phone in his office without telling him.
Is this normal?

Did he take it with the intention of find him to give it back to him because he thought he'd forgotten it? Otherwise this is not ok. What's that manager like usually?

Kiith

Did the manager say why s/he took the phone? I'd be pretty pissed if someone took my personal phone off my desk.

Sebastian Dangerfield

In my last job, Facilities would walk around in the evening and check desks at random for unlocked drawers, or files left on desks. If they found an unlocked drawer, they confiscated the contents and you had to go up like a bold child to ask for it back the next day.

Sounds like a similar arrangement - the fact that it was a phone might be irrelevant. Among the contents of my desk were a box of Weetabix and a bottle of whiskey Id won as a prize, they took it all.

Peatys

Wanderer2010 wrote: »

Why? I work in an open plan office, people are allowed to have their phones, sometimes they charge them and keep them in their drawer. Not weird at all. Depends on how strict your workplace is surely.

Id guess they meant it's weird that they went into a drawer after the phone..

Alun

Some of these so-called "workplaces" sound more like kindergartens to me. Who on earth would willingly work somewhere like that?

Sebastian Dangerfield

Alun wrote: »

Some of these so-called "workplaces" sound more like kindergartens to me. Who on earth would willingly work somewhere like that?

We also used to get warnings from Facilities if we were seen walking from the canteen to our desks with an uncovered cup.

Facilities were very popular

super_furry

Sebastian Dangerfield wrote: »

We also used to get warnings from Facilities if we were seen walking from the canteen to our desks with an uncovered cup.

Facilities were very popular

Where was this? Stalingrad?

Peatys

Sebastian Dangerfield wrote: »

In my last job, Facilities would walk around in the evening and check desks at random for unlocked drawers, or files left on desks. If they found an unlocked drawer, they confiscated the contents and you had to go up like a bold child to ask for it back the next day.

Sounds like a similar arrangement - the fact that it was a phone might be irrelevant. Among the contents of my desk were a box of Weetabix and a bottle of whiskey Id won as a prize, they took it all.

Security in Amgen in Dun Laoire take anything that's not nailed down. They leave a manifest of what they took, which you have to get signed by your manager and bring to security where you get retrained/retested in corporate security.

frag420

ha ha this happened to my housemate last year. The last time it happened they took something sensitive from the drawer along with everything else, files, phone charger,docs etc.

She knew that they had taken it but said nothing. When her director asked for said item she explained that someone stole it from her drawer and that she no longer had it along with everything else that was in the drawer. They checked camera and sure enough someone from facilities or IT had checked the drawers and removed all the stuff.

The director went ape **** as facilities/IT has taken it and kept it in an unsecured box in the facilities/IT office and that was the end of facilities opening peoples drawers in the office!!

Sebastian Dangerfield wrote: »

In my last job, Facilities would walk around in the evening and check desks at random for unlocked drawers, or files left on desks. If they found an unlocked drawer, they confiscated the contents and you had to go up like a bold child to ask for it back the next day.

Sounds like a similar arrangement - the fact that it was a phone might be irrelevant. Among the contents of my desk were a box of Weetabix and a bottle of whiskey Id won as a prize, they took it all.

gctest50

SSII wrote: »

He left his personal phone to charge in a drawer.

Fire risk

http://www.independent.ie/business/technology/tech-gaming/dublin-fire-brigade-issues-warning-about-charging-phones-34616674.html

.

SusieBlue

I would go ballistic if any of my colleagues/boss removed my personal phone from my desk or on my desk without my permission. Regardless of workplace policies its my personal property and its not on. I would be fuming.

SSII

The manager suffers from superiority complex. They don't want us to use phones but taking someones personal belongings without telling them is next level. The phone was not on him and he was not using it, he was just charging it.
If he is going to pontificate it at least he should have said something like "I'm taking your phone and you will have it back at the end of the shift''
Is this worth it to report to HR or I don't know, someone?

elperello

What exactly is the job description of someone who works in "facilities"?

gctest50

SSII wrote: »

The manager suffers from superiority complex. They don't want us to use phones but taking someones personal belongings without telling them is next level. The phone was not on him and he was not using it, he was just charging it.....

Charging it unattended, in a drawer.

Was there sheets of paper etc in the drawer ?

titan18

Sounds like an awful workplace. If someone is being unproductive by staring at the phone, fire them. Not taking them off people who have it on their desks but might only rarely use it or could be expecting a call relating to something important.

Imagine taking someone's phone as their partner was rushed to hospital or something like that, and they missed it.

Mena

Sebastian Dangerfield wrote: »

Alun wrote: »

Some of these so-called "workplaces" sound more like kindergartens to me. Who on earth would willingly work somewhere like that?

We also used to get warnings from Facilities if we were seen walking from the canteen to our desks with an uncovered cup.

Facilities were very popular

Have you seen what steaming hot coffee can do to skin? And of course then the company would be held liable.

Sebastian Dangerfield

Mena wrote: »

Have you seen what steaming hot coffee can do to skin? And of course then the company would be held liable.

Yes but Ive been holding cups a long time. Im quite good at it now

Fighting Tao

Did your friend read up the company policy about personal belongings or mobile phones in work? Without knowing the policy no one can say if it was right or wrong of the manager.

julyjane

I've also worked somewhere that didn't allow employees to walk around outside the canteen area with an uncovered cup. We were supplied with travel mugs. It was a health and safety policy because someone had spilled a drink in a corridor and not cleaned up the spillage and somebody else slipped on it

Vojera

As has been said above, it really depends on the company policy.

One of my friends works in a confidential environment and has to leave her personal belongings in a locker while she's working. Her phone would absolutely be confiscated if she had it in her workspace, even if it was in a drawer.

One of my colleagues used to work for Intel and he was telling us that they had a strict policy of putting all their drawings in a locked drawer and locking their computers, just to go to the toilet, and they were reprimanded for any breaches. Again, no personal phones allowed in.

So if it's a workplace like that where there are confidentiality issues, then the manager was absolutely in the right to confiscate the phone and I suspect your friend knows that.

However, if like many of us (myself included), your friend works somewhere that has no issue with personal phones on the desk then I would consider that very strange and would be asking for an explanation.

Birneybau

elperello wrote: »

What exactly is the job description of someone who works in "facilities"?

Tempted, very tempted...