Curious - Cell Phone Jammers

[Myk Rian]

You would if you had a school-aged child with a chronic medical condition like diabetes.

The school ought to have the workplace phone number anyway.

[Larry Browning]

How did we ever survive as a society before cell phones? People had emergency situations back then as well, and they managed to deal with them without cell phones. It was not unusual to not be able to contact folks for days at a time. Why is it now mandatory that we be available 24/7 or we think our rights have been violated? I guess I just don't get it.

[Ron Jones near Indy]

The school ought to have the workplace phone number anyway.

School age children are not always in school; nor are they always at home.

[Mike Henderson]

How did we ever survive as a society before cell phones? People had emergency situations back then as well, and they managed to deal with them without cell phones. It was not unusual to not be able to contact folks for days at a time. Why is it now mandatory that we be available 24/7 or we think our rights have been violated? I guess I just don't get it.

Because we didn't have the kind of things we have today, such as organ transplants. Also, there was no alternative. Women had babies and the husband didn't know she had gone into labor. A child was seriously injured and the parents didn't know until the child had passed away.

Modern technology, such as cell phones, allows us to overcome those limitations. Why shouldn't we use the technology, and demand that it be available? I, for one, do not wish to go back to 1800's.

Mike

[And, I might add, if you had any of those situations, you'd demand access, also. It's easy to take that attitude until your ox is gored.]

[Bruce Page]

People can adapt. Before retiring, I worked in a secure government R&D facility. We were not allowed to bring in personal phones, cameras, laptops, memory sticks, etc, even MP3 players. Failing to comply would result in a security infraction and multiple infractions could result in getting yourself canned. Phones were by far the biggest problem because people would forget them in their purse or briefcase.
Several years ago they installed little Plexiglas cubbies, each with lock & key at each entrance gate. The cubbies served as a reminder to people that phones were not allowed and were also a convenient way for people to safely store their phones if they road the bus or forgot to leave the phone in their car. The number of infractions fell dramatically after the cubbies were installed.

I don’t know how they handled it if you were on a transplant list. We all had DOE/DOD security clearances so perhaps they would make a special exception or issue a secure government phone.

[Belinda Barfield]

So let's say that I was visiting your facility, Belinda. You probably would have told all your employees about the jammer but you didn't post any signs warning others, or they weren't obvious enough that I noticed them. So my phone quits working while I'm visiting you and my wife gets the call. I need to drive her to the hospital but no one can reach me. To prevent such situations, the FCC just outlawed jammers.

Mike

[And for anyone wondering about "the rest of the story", my wife did get the call and had a lung transplant. She survived six years with the transplanted lung but passed away in 2010.]

Actually, Mike, you would have been informed in the office that visitors aren't allowed on the shop floor due to policies regarding proprietary information and some of the products that we fabricate. If you were allowed on the shop floor, as in the case of an audit, I would have asked that you leave your phone in your vehicle if you have the ability to take photos with your phone. In that situation you or your wife would have had to stay with the phone.

[Mike Henderson]

Actually, Mike, you would have been informed in the office that visitors aren't allowed on the shop floor due to policies regarding proprietary information and some of the products that we fabricate. If you were allowed on the shop floor, as in the case of an audit, I would have asked that you leave your phone in your vehicle if you have the ability to take photos with your phone. In that situation you or your wife would have had to stay with the phone.

My example was generic, Belinda. While you might take extraordinary measures to let people know that the jammer is in operation or that cell phones were not allowed, others will likely not do the same.

And I was working during the time my wife was on the transplant list. She would not have been with me during my visits to customers. (I had to continue to work to maintain health insurance coverage)

Mike

[Moses Yoder]

I used to run a CNC router as a small portion of my job. Our company is very large, parts are retail stores, and we made our own slatwall on the CNC. A 4x8 sheet of MDF took about 15 minutes to run, and is very dusty so I was bored to death plus dirty while doing it. Management actually installed a web browser on the computer so I would have something to do while the router ran. I could hear right away if something was awry. A 5 minute program I wouldn't mind, but 15 minutes?

I still do not have texting available on my cell phone and would think it kind of disrespectful to do on company time.

You will want to write up people before dismissing them probably, but after 2 or 3 write ups you have good grounds for dismissal. You will probably have to fire one person before the others get it.

[Steve Meliza]

No need for a jammer, make a policy that is reasonable and fair and then enforce it in a reasonable and fair manner. Don't like the rules? Don't work here!

If I was working for you I'd want to have my phone on me so that I would know if my wife had tried to call, then just like when I'm driving I handle the missed call when I'm able to. My wife knows to not leave a voice mail if the call is not important and to leave a message if she needs me to get back to her right away. If the call isn't from my wife it can wait till after work. I'd hate to work for a place that would boot me out for taking 2 seconds to see who the missed call was from so I know if I need to clock out or not.

[Lee Schierer]

I've been to several companies where cell phones are not permitted on the shop floor. You must either turn them off or leave them in your locker. If you are expecting an emergency call then you could leave your phone with the receptionist and she would take a message and get it to you immediately.

Since you currently allow phones, you need to announce a new policy and start it say July 1 so that people have some notice. However, once you set the policy everyone including managers must follow the policy.

[Brian Elfert]

This problem isn't necessarily new. There were office workers spending too much time on personal calls before cell phones became available. Cell phones just mean the problem has spread to areas where employees didn't previously have access to a phone during the work day.

I worked at a job cutting grass 8 hours a day in the late 80s/early 90s. Really nobody had cell phones yet and we got along fine without access to a phone during the work day. I think there was a phone we could use at the lunch hour if necessary. The security guard did get a car phone in his security vehicle towards the end of my time there.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

And, of course, that's why cell phone jammers are illegal.

No, I don't think so. I believe that the problem is that you "jam" a signal by introducing a signal of your own, which is probably not confined strictly to your area of influence (ie, your building). So, even if I do not want cell signals to be usable in my house, blocking them will probably keep people well outside my house from having a good signal.

I believe that if you do jam illegally, it will be seen as property theft because another company paid the federal government to use that spectrum. Strange!

You can contact the FCC and see what is required for a private use license, which is available. My expectation is that the fee will not be high, but the cost of installation likely will be (because they would probably require some level of testing to make sure that you are not jamming where you should not be), but there is only a guess.

Off hand, I would say that it is worth investigating.

[Belinda Barfield]

No need for a jammer, make a policy that is reasonable and fair and then enforce it in a reasonable and fair manner. Don't like the rules? Don't work here!

If I was working for you I'd want to have my phone on me so that I would know if my wife had tried to call, then just like when I'm driving I handle the missed call when I'm able to. My wife knows to not leave a voice mail if the call is not important and to leave a message if she needs me to get back to her right away. If the call isn't from my wife it can wait till after work. I'd hate to work for a place that would boot me out for taking 2 seconds to see who the missed call was from so I know if I need to clock out or not.

As I said before, I am reasonable. The texting is the worst problem. We had one guy who held his phone under the work bench and woudl text during meetings.

I've been to several companies where cell phones are not permitted on the shop floor. You must either turn them off or leave them in your locker. If you are expecting an emergency call then you could leave your phone with the receptionist and she would take a message and get it to you immediately.

Since you currently allow phones, you need to announce a new policy and start it say July 1 so that people have some notice. However, once you set the policy everyone including managers must follow the policy.

Emergency calls will be transferred to the employee immediately unless the caller states that is okay for the employee to call them back. I would be happy to hold someone's phone if they are expecting an emergency call. Our shop manager currently leaves his phone in his car. There will be instances when managers will need to be able to use a cell in the shop as they sometimes receive calls with questions directly from a customer and may have to be looking at a part in order to answer the questions.

I don't mean to age bash, but the problem is with my 20-25 year olds. They have always been connected at the hip and just don't see it as a problem that they text their friends all day while being paid to work. This, of course is not a blanket statement regarding all in this age group, just the ones who work for me.

[Dave Anderson NH]

I'm with Belinda on this one. Our shop people waste inordinate amounts of time texting, web surfing talking with friends, etc during working hours. I've tried to get our owners to institute a smart phone policy to improve both productivity and safety, but to no avail. I have given up since one of the owners, the owner/production manager, can't seem to understand that as their boss he isn't their buddy. He is a very insecure person and needs constant affirmation that he is wonderful. It is really out of hand and my estimate is that we lose approzimetly 5% of our production to this out of control waste of time. I suspect that they will only come to understand when someone texting either blows a job with really expensive material or injures themselves and there is a workman's comp investigation. Burying your head in the sand and avoiding the issue is not the answer. Fortunately my interaction with this problem is limited. By the way, my cell phone stays in my car during business hours whether I'm in the office or on the road visiting customers.

[Dan Hintz]

I'm in a similar boat as Bruce. In my case, however, the group actively jams, well, everything in the area (say, a 1/4 mile radius). Let's just say this is the only group that can get away with such a thing within U.S. boundaries. There are no "special exceptions"... if you have a need to stay in touch 24/7 (such as transplant list peeps), you don't get to go into certain areas.

If we're not "neighbors", geographically speaking, it is illegal to operate a jammer. Time to slam the banhammer, Linda...