I'd go nuts if I was still an employer.

[RoyJackson]

Does anyone here work in a high-security environment like the defense industry? I'd be curious how things are handled these days.

As a former employee of a supplier to defense industries, I can tell you quite a few hold your cell phone while visiting...especially if the phone has a camera. This doesn't just apply to defense plants, BTW.

 

[radman1]

I have a few partners/owners in my business. About 60 employees. We use optic fiber for our telecommunications and was running out of bandwidth some days. After a little investigating, discovered much of the problem was my own employees. Way too much internet, streaming music, e-mailing ect. Had one employee who always complained his area was understaffed but yet he had time for 1000 e-mails to his girlfriend in 1 month. He didn't even bother to delete them. He had been with the company for 10 years, was well liked by most but after that he didn't last long. Another employee said she did not have enough time to get her work done in the evening. She was spending up to 3 hours each night on Russian websites. Installed surveillance system that can control each computer. It can allow complete acess or only specific web sites needed for their work, can be monitored 24/7, no more internet access unless needed ect. Guess what? The bandwidth issues are no longer a problem and cross coverage between work areas is much better and people are more productive. One of my biggest issues was convincing my partners to control internet access. They thought is was too harsh and restrictive for the employees and was good for moral to have internet time. I estimated we probably employed 2-3 extra workers just because of the wasted time spent, texting, e mails, internet ect.

 

[Reverend Blair]

I'm not convinced it's the technology that makes the difference. I had trouble with employees spending all of their time on personal calls 25 years ago. 100 years ago, they were likely too busy writing letters to do their jobs.

 

[sweettractors]

My UPS daily pickup driver comes in every day with packages to deliver and pickup and while doing so, never stops talking on the cell phone. Just a accident waiting to happen. Ken Sweet

 

[blueriver]

My UPS daily pickup driver comes in every day with packages to deliver and pickup and while doing so, never stops talking on the cell phone. Just a accident waiting to happen. Ken Sweet

See a company like UPS should stop that ... how did they do it before c'phones?

 

[Skyco]

I'm betting UPS, known for being very strict, doesn't allow that!

Years ago the UPS driver for where I worked tried to buy the pair of socks off one of my coworkers feet! He had forgotten to wear the right color socks that day and said he'd be in trouble if they caught him:laughing:

 

[dmccarty]

My company has a pretty open policy about Internet use. Phone calls are not really an issue though I knew a gut a 15 years back that was stupid and should have been fired but was not. :laughing: Bottom line is that we have to get our work completed. Period. How one structures your day, what you do and when is the employee's concern not management. If we had to be micro managed by management to that degree we would leave.

The flip side to this privilege is that we can work odd hours. During crunch time long days are normal as is working the weekend. It all comes out in the wash eventually.

Hurry up and Wait is not a just a military activity. We are in that mode quite a bit over the last week or so. :laughing:

It used to be a no no to have a camera at work. That went away a few years ago because if you had a cell phone you had a camera. The ban on camera's made sense for areas developing new hardware but not so much other areas. USB devices are a security nightmare. Nothing short of TSA searches at the door is going to minimize that risk. But the bigger leak risk is the Internet.

One doctor we go to had a very bad problem with one of the office staff. She was constantly on the Internet. He talked to her about it but she kept it up. Since she was dealing with patients it was very unprofessional since they could see what she was doing. Eventually he pulled the Internet. So she just moved to the cell phone. It took the doctor awhile but eventually he fired her. I would have sent her packing much earlier than he did. She was a bit of a nut in any case.

Being an owner, manager or a team lead can be a PITA.

Later,
Dan

 

[Gale Hawkins]

My company has a pretty open policy about Internet use. Phone calls are not really an issue though I knew a gut a 15 years back that was stupid and should have been fired but was not. :laughing: Bottom line is that we have to get our work completed. Period. How one structures your day, what you do and when is the employee's concern not management. If we had to be micro managed by management to that degree we would leave.

The flip side to this privilege is that we can work odd hours. During crunch time long days are normal as is working the weekend. It all comes out in the wash eventually.

Hurry up and Wait is not a just a military activity. We are in that mode quite a bit over the last week or so. :laughing:

It used to be a no no to have a camera at work. That went away a few years ago because if you had a cell phone you had a camera. The ban on camera's made sense for areas developing new hardware but not so much other areas. USB devices are a security nightmare. Nothing short of TSA searches at the door is going to minimize that risk. But the bigger leak risk is the Internet.

One doctor we go to had a very bad problem with one of the office staff. She was constantly on the Internet. He talked to her about it but she kept it up. Since she was dealing with patients it was very unprofessional since they could see what she was doing. Eventually he pulled the Internet. So she just moved to the cell phone. It took the doctor awhile but eventually he fired her. I would have sent her packing much earlier than he did. She was a bit of a nut in any case.

Being an owner, manager or a team lead can be a PITA.

Later,
Dan

Dan that was a great post.

My staff is 20-40 years younger than me and that is just too much of a gap for a head strong business owner. I hired a young lady (even with a gender bais that many my age has) out of college with a business degree and made her Business Admin.

She opened my mind to what mattered and did not matter in these areas. After a few years I made her president. It saved me from losing my mind without question however I think some long term damage had already occurred.

FEW if not NONE over 40 has any business in running daily operations in any company today. Many kids of today are brighter and harder working than ever BUT they are different. Removing or not hiring those who are not bright and hard working is key to any business success today.

If a company will have at least one proven staff member in their twenties in the final interviewing and hiring decision making process there is hope for that company. The 40+ staff needs to be there to train the younger staff and pass on thier technical/business know how and to encourage those younger but not to CONTROL them.

People can be MANAGED but they can not be CONTROLLED. An employee worth keeping can be taught to see what is and is not good for the future of a company and act on that understanding.

This does not apply for the business with a working owner and two employees that plans to shut down at retirement time but to larger companies or business owners that hope to sell instead of closing.

 

[SkyPup]

My company has a pretty open policy about Internet use. Phone calls are not really an issue though I knew a gut a 15 years back that was stupid and should have been fired but was not. :laughing: Bottom line is that we have to get our work completed. Period. How one structures your day, what you do and when is the employee's concern not management. If we had to be micro managed by management to that degree we would leave.

Pretty much the same thing here Dan, you can do whatever you want however you want to since we are all highly educated and trained, just as long as things are completed and on time at the end of the day.

We did have a postdoc from the Netherlands that spent allot of time on foreign websites. One time I logged onto his computer and found over 2 Gigabytes of extremely hardcore ****, I mean very disturbing and criminal stuff.

When confronted with it, we learned that it is totally normal behavior in the Netherlands. However, we got rid of it all before someone went to the pen and made sure he never had a chance to download that crud again.....

 

[milkman]

I know that internet and cell phones can be a big problem, but what about the smoke breaks. My wife worked in a hospital, in emergency and ICU. I have stopped by a few times to drop off lunch for her or to have lunch and every time I went in or came out one of the lesser used entrances, there was always two or three employees sitting at a table smoking and talking. If someone inside needed them, they had to wait till they came back in. It seemed that two or three employees at a time the whole shift was doing nothing but getting their fix. I told the wife she should start joining them for about ten or fifteen minutes an hour, but she said she'd get fired if she did that, unless she took up smoking. :confused2::confused2: