Mobile/Cell Phones at Work

[susans]

Do you keep your mobile/cell phone on at work?  If so, do you keep it on vibrate or let it ring?   If you let it ring, do you have different ring tones so you know who is calling and are they tasteful?

[itsme_calista]

I keep my personal mobile on and it sits on my desk, however I have an office to myself so it doesn't intrude on anyone else.  I would have it on silent if I shared an office.  I have children and that is the contact number that I give to the school and childcare.  

Should it ring with anyone but hubby, my mum, school/childcare or doctor then I tend not to answer it but drop the call.  Having said that, it's rare that anyone calls me during work hours because everyone knows I work and so do they.

As for ringtones, yes they are all different LOL.  I cut some mp3's down to 20 second snips for each of my children, my mum and hubby LOL.  They are all tasteful.  My general ringtone is a snip from a Daft Punk/Kanye West track which probably isn't as tasteful

My work mobile has just a "ring" ringtone and it's on permanently.

[raindance]

My mobile is generally switched off, and I tend to use it for emergencies anyway.  My friends know where to find me if needed, but I rarely allow my work and home lives to spill over into each other.  A relative of mine was extremely ill a while back and, being the only member of the family in the country at the time, I was on standby to give assistance so my mobile stayed on all the time.  My ringtone is a very simple one, as is my phone (completely unattractive to thieves, who generally seem to go after the latest all-singing, all-dancing models).

A couple of my colleagues have terrible ringtones on their mobiles.  I am contemplating putting their phones into glasses of water if they leave them in the office again and go off for the whole day to a meeting.  My assistant has a ringtone that sounds like the theme tune to the Magic Roundabout!  There, that ages me.  Anyone remember Dougall and Zebedee?

[JessW]

My mobie phone is aways (and I mean always) on, but on sient when at work.  That means I never get embarrassed by unsuitabe ring-tones which is more than can be said for some peope I have worked with in recent months.  This would incude one solicitor with "Voulez-vous chouchez avec moi ce soir?" (think I got the spelling correct).

[msmarieh]

Mine is on and on my desk, but on vibrate. I don't get a lot of personal calls and when I do I keep them short and to the point (no idle chit chat).

Marie

[geminigirl]

My mobile is on all day at work but

a) it's buried in my handbag which is buried in a drawer
b) I'm lucky enough to have my own office so it doesn't bother anyone.

I always choose the most innocuous sounding ringtone - it sounds just like a telephone ringing.  Hate jazzy stuff that makes people turn & look!!

Having said all that, I rarely get called at work unless it's a family emergency and then I usually get called on my office line.

[Katie G]

My cell is so rarely used that it hardly ever rings.  If I have 4-5 calls in a month, that's a busy month for me.  I have a pre-paid phone that makes and receives calls and nothing else, but I work in a rather high-crime area of the city, so I don't want to be without it in case of an emergency.  

If my DH needs to get me, he calls my office line.  He's the only one who would call me during work anyway, and he's the only one, other than my boss, who has my cell number. I take my cell in my pocket when I head off to lunch in case there's an emergency, which has happened twice in about 6 years.  

sigh  I must be boring, I guess.    

[laurafmcdermott]

Didface, if you are boring, so am I.  I also have a pre-paid, no bells and whistles phone, and I use it perhaps 3-4 times per month.  I do keep it on and with me, in my purse in a desk drawer, but it rings twice per year at most and those times it has been a wrong number!  Hubby and childcare can call my office phone if necessary, but I have the cell in case I am out to lunch and they need to get me.  I live out in the country, and like to have it in case of car trouble or other emergencies.

[spitfire78]

Count me among the boring!  I also have a prepaid plain phone - no bells and whistles at all.  I keep mine turned off all the time and really only have it on if I am expecting a call or need to use it.  I bought it strictly for emergencies because I hate the thought of having a phone on my person ringing all day and/or night!  No one has the number for it unless I give it to them.  That is usually if I am meeting someone at a location other than work or home, so we can connect if something goes wrong.  

Before I got this job, I worked with a woman whose 3 children called her all day long on her cell.  She had some sort of song on it (can't remember what it was now) but it used to drive me insane.  Her oldest was in college, second senior in high school and youngest was 13.  I absolutely cannot believe they needed to be in touch with her that often during the day.  One day she was out of the office for about 2 hours.  When she came back the first thing she did was check her cell phone and said - "9 missed calls, well that isn't much!!!!!"  In my opinion, this is so wrong.  We are paid to be at work.  I understand emergencies certainly, and I understand perhaps there would be a little more activity with children.  But this was way out of hand.  Thankfully, I have an office to myself now, and my co-workers use their phones pretty much the way I do, so this corner of the hallway is quiet from cell phones.

[misslynn]

I have a work cell and a personal cell, both are always on. Personal cell is a smartphone so I have access to e-mail, the web, etc., work cell is a regular cell phone. I do have different ring tones for everyone, fun mp3's from songs I like, but keep both phones on vibrate when I'm at the office.

I have an office phone, but since I work in two states and from home, the desk phones don't make sense to use because you never know which office I'm in.

[glow8490]

I just started a new job 2 weeks ago (which I'm loving, by the way).  I got the job mentioned in the previous thread I started "Out of the Blue".  

Before I got this new job I had 2 cell phones, 1 for work and one for personal. I chose to do it that way, because I wanted my personal life to be just that - personal and not connected in any way to work. If you saw any of my previous posts, my old boss wanted that work cell phone on 24/7 and got irritated if he couldn't reach me.

What a relief to have only one cell phone now! And at this new job all cell phones must be silent or on vibrate in the office.

Glow