Hey peeps, these days the most important gadget in our lives is our phone. Yes because our
phone consumes a great deal of our time. No matter if you're a teenager or if you are
an adult or even if you are middle aged, your phone seems to be your first priority. It
seems to be precious and it's so hard to get off it. Yes that's a real problem. Well, yes
let's accept the truth; it's really hard to get off our phones. Sometimes we make pledges
like, okay I’m not going to touch my phone till tomorrow but we just can't do it because
we need it and we are addicted to our phones. The only way we feel connected to the world
is through it. So that's the reason, we all love our cellphones. Your family and friends
can reach you at any time and for anything, isn't that great? No matter where you are,
but what if you're at work? What is the use of cellphones at work? And how should we use
it there? Are there any rules about using the cellphone at work? Do you know that we
all tend to overuse the cellphone at our workplace? And this is a big no-no because your cellphone
can distract you from doing your work and may be it can even annoy your boss and your
coworkers. so today I have for you, 6 tips about using cellphones at workplace and these
tips are going to help you find out, how, when and where should you use your cellphone
at your workplace and they will also tell you how, where and when you should not use
your cellphone at your workplace. So this is Skillopedia, the place to learn skills
for the real world and I am Michelle and here are some rules that you should follow when
using cellphones at your workplace.
So the first rule that I have for you about using cellphones at workplace is, turn your
ringer off. So having your phone ring loudly with Shakira’s hips don't lie at a meeting
or a presentation is beyond embarrassing and you may have had that experience if you don't
turn your ringer off. So if you have your cellphone with you at work, don't let it ring
out loud. That can really irritate people and if you don't want to turn it off completely,
then the better thing would be that at least you set it to the silent mode or to vibration.
The sounds of different ringtones playing all the time can be really irritating for
your bosses and for your co- employees. So make sure that you turn your ringer off next
time when you are at your workplace.
The next tip that I have for you is, use your cellphone only for important calls. So if
you have your cellphone at work only use it for important calls. Okay now you would wanna
ask me which call is an important call? So here I go, the school nurse calling to say
that your child is ill is an important call. your child calling to say he is arrived home
safely from school, that is also an important call and any of the family emergencies that
you need to deal with immediately is also an important call and these are the only calls
that you should attend at work. Now let's look at what are the not so important calls
at work. Your friend calling you to chat with you about your child or to chat with you about
her own child is not important or your child calling to say that he spilled coffee on the
bed, well that's also not important and your mom calling to tell you cousin Lily is getting
married in a month is definitely not important. All of these calls can wait until you’re
done with work or until you are on a break. So I hope that now you have it clearly in
your mind that which calls are important and which calls are not. So make sure that you
take only important calls at work.
now sometimes we don't know if an incoming call is important because until you talk to
them how will you find out whether it's important or not ? So what do we do in that case? Well
in that case, why don't you let the voicemail pick it up? what I mean here is, is you can
let the calls that you don't pick up forward to a voicemail, where people can leave their
messages for you and you can listen to them, later because listening to the messages later
will not take much of your time. But if you pick up a call it will be really hard to end
the call. Sometimes it's very hard to say, hey I need to go, I've got some work. So in
that case the best thing would be, to forward your messages to the voicemail so that you
don't waste too much of your time answering an incoming call.
The next tip that I have for you is, find a private place to make your calls. Yes it's
completely okay to use your cellphone at work for private calls during breaks but don't
do it near your desk. Find a place away from your desk to make private calls for those
personal conversations. Of course you don't want to risk your personal conversations to
become the new office gossip. You might be at a break but remember that your coworkers
are not and it would not take much out of them to quickly turn your personal conversation
or your personal information into the new office gossip. So find a place away from your
desk in secret corner where you can make your personal calls during break.
The next tip is, don't bring your cellphone into the washroom ever. I'd like to repeat
myself here, don't bring your cellphone into the washroom, restroom, toilet whatever you
call it. Don’t do this ever. Please follow this rule at work and even outside of work
and you may ask me why should I not take my phone to the restroom? Well if you need to
know the answer, then you should know it now. You never know who is in there, in the restroom
and the person on the other end of the call, of the line will hear strange bathroom sounds.
How do you think they'll feel when they here toilets flushing? etc., etc. that's just not
respectful and it's almost you are not respecting your coworker’s privacy and you're also
not respecting the person that you are talking to. So please remember to not take your cellphone
to the restroom at work, you might be invading someone's privacy.
The final tip that I have for you is, don't bring your cellphone to meetings. What I mean
here is, let me clarify; don't bring your cell phone to meetings if you are going to
use it for anything which is not related to the meeting. Now you may have your calendar
on your phone and you might need it for the meeting and you may even use an app on your
phone to take down the notes from the meeting. So if you need to have it with you for the
purpose of the meeting, then that’s absolutely fine and you don't have much of a choice,
so you will need to take your cellphone to the meeting and you could get the phone to
the meeting but with the ringer off. So this is how you can control your cellphone usage.
But make sure that you do not text or check your social media news or post some status
or play video games on your cellphone while the meeting is going on because this puts
up a really bad impression to your boss. He might even see you gazing into your phone
all the time and not participating in the meeting. This shows that you are not dedicated
and not at all interested. So doing something like this will be a clear signal to your boss
that you are indifferent and your mind is not focused on the work. So now you know for
all good reasons, why you should not take your phone to the meeting.
So with this we come to an end of today's session where I have shared with you six rules
about using your cellphone at office and I hope you don't find it very hard to put your
phone away or to follow these rules at work. I will be back very soon with another session
about office etiquette and office rules. See you all very soon and I hope this turns out
to be very useful for you. See you soon until then you take care of yourself, bye.