Who pressurizes you to carry a mobile? Why would you care if others carry one?

What's the point of this thread again?

EDIT: Ten years ago I didn't have a landline, let alone a mobile, and I sure as hell never felt any pressure to get one. Now I have both, but far prefer the mobile as I can see who is calling and choose not to pick it up, or even better use the far less intrusive SMS.

Cell phone is a necessity for me due to a medical condition that causes vertigo. It flares up without warning. When it does, my ride is over. I suppose I could wait it out or rely on the kindness of people on the road, but I'd rather just call my wife to come and get me.

If you associate heart plugs with Dune you don't know Dune. Anyone who knows Dune pukes when they see that movie. If that is how deep your understanding of cell phones goes, and it appears that it is, then your cell phone attitudes are based on an immense lack of knowledge too.

I use my phone when and as it suits me. My boss will be deeply disappointed if he ever tries to demand that I stay connected 24/7. In fact my employer recently demanded the right to control my phone and lock me out of it if I wanted to continue to keep it connected to company servers. Now I was doing that a lot of the time simply as a courtesy to my employer but when they wanted to go all Big Brother on me, I ripped all those connections out of my phone in an instant. It's my phone and I'll do as I want to, do as I want to....

It is nice to have a phone in an emergency. I've used mine twice to help other people with their emergencies but of course the one time I might have used mine to help myself I was unconscious. I might not have a phone at all if that were the only reason to have one though and back when phones were only phones I rarely carried mine and seldom had it on when I did. The vast utility of smart phones lies in the mundane uses they are so adept at. A modern smart phone is a veritable intellectual and communications Swiss Army Knife. I only leave home without one by mistake. Since it has an off button I can easily make sure it serves me and no one else when I don't want to be bothered. It is not essential but it is just so darned handy to have along for so very many reasons that the difference between a cell phone and an essential is hardly worth worrying over. There are a lot of things in life that cost me more per month than my cell phone, few of them are as valuable to me as the phone.

Ken

I don't think any human being can live without technology. Our pre- and near- human ancestors were inventing and using essential technologies long before we came on the scene. No modern human being (and by that I mean the type of primate that appeared about 250k years ago, our species) has ever lived without technology. That is what makes a refusal to embrace new technologies such an odd behavior for a human being. Technology is embedded deep within us, it is what makes us us. My dogs can do any non-technological tasks better than I can.

Ken

there's that emergency word again, Ken.

my own brain is a veritable intellectual and communications device, too... :)

I've read Dune several times. I'm a long time sci-fi fan. Even the old school stuff-- just finished Asimov's Foundation and Empire the other night.

I also love the David Lynch movie and think that it does no dishonor to the book. Children of Dune and God Emperor of Dune did bore me, though.

So why is my cell phone opinion based on an "immense lack of knowledge?"

There are ways in which technologies have come to use US rather than the other way around. I don't care if it's the triangle shirtwaist factory or devotion to the automobile or obsessive/addictive texting.... we should remain aware of where that line is and retain our power over technology.

...edit 2: your dogs can compose poetry or kiss your significant other better than you can, for instance?

This is one of the reasons I included option #3.

I'm sorry you have that to deal with--- it's really great you haven't let that keep you from being active and cycling.

My Buddy has an On call job, so he got one, prepaid type service , his on call job ..
is part of a 2 person team, picking up clients for the Funeral Service in the county,
in the deceased homes and after highway collisions.

Picking up.... on a bike?

The big thing that kept me from getting a cell phone until recently was being required to carry a pager in job I had 20 years ago. I worked in the part of the telephone company that supported 911 call centers. I understood that while not likely, there was a remote chance that not returning a page could cost someone their life. Getting calls at any time of day or night was extremely intrusive into my personal life however. It was the nature of my job so I dealt with it, but I've resisted making myself THAT available in any job I've taken since. I don't care if the technology is paid for by the company, it's still MY time.

I'm in management. I know there are people in our company who will call an employee at home or wherever expecting them to drop whatever it is they're doing to address the caller's wishes. I also know that often times it could wait or could have been avoided with better planning. I do think that is one downside to our people being so "connected". The line between work and personal life gets way too blurred in some cases and it affects peoples relationships and messes up their priorities. I doubt that many people on their deathbeds will regret not having spent more time working.

A cell phone is extremely tricky to deal when it comes to work. I will not take a work supplied phone. They will not pay for personal calls and I don't want my personal contacts and whatnot on a company phone anyway. I especially don't want to have to carry two phones. But how does a company deal with securing personal phones? It's a dicey issue.

I'd encourage anybody to spend a week now and them with a few other folks in a remote cabin, camping, or retreat where there is no cell reception and no Internet access. It can be very... refreshing.

Well not really, I give people $40 bucks a month toward their phone bill and supply a phone of their choice and it belongs to them forever but even if I wanted the phone back all that information is on the symcard. The phone is in the employees name and it is there account. I am paying $40 a month toward their phone bill regardless of what they want for service. If they do not want to do that then don't work for me. It is a job requirement and part of the deal you make with me on hire. Most people all ready have cell phones so it is usually a bonus for people. I think it is a pretty fair deal but if I call you it is for a reason so you better answer the phone. The people that I require to have Blackberry or smart phone accounts Get almost another $100 a month and again it is their smart phone.

my peace of mind and peace & quiet are worth more than $40/mo. Nothing against your business model-- my wife needs a blackberry for her work-- but it's not one I care to participate in if given any choice. My concern for society is the drive towards ever higher productivity chips away at some important elements of quality-of-life. tjspiel does a good job looking at some of the complications that the on-call lifestyle can create.

Every bicycle commute for me is one of those cell-phone-free type camping trips in miniature... :)

That works if it's just a phone. If it is smart phone that has access to company servers and information that people have signed releases in order to give us, that is another issue entirely.

I'm sure that when you call it's for a reason. There are also reasons to turn a phone off. There are times when you really need to be completely there for whomever you are with. Taking a phone call at those times would be essentially saying that your job is more important. That's not a formula for long term happiness. Employers should understand that.

Servers all accessed with IDs and Passwords and Email is usually just forwarded to a smart phone device. If an employee is terminated it is as simple as removing their ID and password from the server.

As I said if you feel $40 dollars is worth your piece of mind I'm not holding anybody hostage. It is simple don't work for me.

That doesn't do anything about the information that's on the phone itself. That doesn't help if a phone is lost or stolen and the employee hasn't realized or reported yet. The employee may keep passwords right along with contact information for your company. If its their phone you have no idea how lax or rigorous the security is on it.

It is a phone - not a leash. You don't like it? Do as they do.

well those are the details and concerns of the individual company. We all make deals and concessions when you sign on to be employed by a company. If you don't like the deal don't take the job

Sometimes the "real deal" doesn't get exposed until after the fact, and with my previous employer being very good at that.

I don't quite get the comparison to Emergency and Fear though.

What constitutes an "emergency?"

Convenience? Sure. But in this thread, both people who mentioned emergencies for which they needed a cell phone, they could not use it. One was unconscious, the other had a broken leg and could not make it to his.

I broke a bone while riding last winter. Since I didn't have a cell phone, I had the luxury of perceiving it as a "hassle." Not an "emergency."

People fear being without help in these imaginary emergencies. People think you are dead the minute you are late getting home without calling. The first question I hear when I tell people I have no cell is "but what about an emergency?" This is fear.

It's getting absurd.

So what's better - having a phone a couple feet away that you might be able to reach eventually, or not having a phone at all and hoping someone will find you lying there?

That's more a courtesy thing than a necessity.

I mean sure, a phone is not "necessary" or "essential" by any means. I could also live without a computer, a bed, shelter, etc, but why?

In my case, I compared the prices and services to my land line about a decade ago. It was easy to see which would be more economical and I haven't had a land line since. If I don't want to be reached, I'll just switch the cell phone off. Currently my cell phone is provided by my employer. I'm considering buying a waterproof device for private use, for paddle / bike tours. In our case, none of the really sensitive information is stored in SIM card, so I'm free to switch between devices if I choose to.

Security issues have been discussed at work. All our cell phones and laptops have strong access control / encryption software installed, which does make them a bit tedious to use occasionally, but gives some peace of mind. A briefcase full of documents, or an unprotected USB memory stick both have more damaging potential than our mobile devices.

--J

Um, some of us actually use them to call friends and loved ones, and even use them to set up meeting with said people. Shocking I know.....

Most problems with cell phones come from people not being able to put them down or refusing to pick them up.

Well, you're right, but fear as a marketing tactic is used to sell many other things than cell phones. It's a strong emotional motivator. Are you aggravated that fear is used to market products? Seems as useful as getting aggravated at people who get aggravated over the piddling annoyances which abound in human society.

In an "emergency" (yes, the meaning of the word has weakened over time; welcome to the wonderful world of language), a cell phone can be useful but probably not necessary. Just because something isn't necessary doesn't mean it might be a good idea to have it around. In a flat tire "emergency", a tire pump is pretty useful when compared to the hassle of walking the bike all the way back home. There might be some rare situation where a tire pump will help in a true emergency, like a cyclist fixing a flat in order to ride for help for a fellow cyclist in need of immediate medical attention. There might be some situations where having a cell phone could save a life. With that in mind: Helmets: Essential?

That's right. Your set up may work very well for your company. At ours having corporate information on a personal cell phone is a problematic issue. Likewise being an employee having to carry a company cell phone and have to severely limit your personal use of it is also an issue.

As far as work time vs personal time goes, there are pluses as well as the minuses. An employer may be more open to an employee taking a long lunch to deal with some personal issues if the employee can be reached by phone if they're needed. The problem is that either party can abuse it. If it's the employer doing the abusing, the employee often feels they have no choice but to answer the phone wherever and whenever.

It happens at our company and it's not mean spirited or anything. For example: So and so decides they're going to work on Sunday to finish a proposal that's due on Monday. They work a few hours then realize they can't find a previous study we did that they wanted to pull some information from. So they call an admin assistant to help them locate it or maybe even bring in an IT guy to recover it off backup.

On the one hand, it's a genuine problem with a hard deadline. On the other hand, if this person had known ahead of time that they were completely on their own to finish the proposal, they may have been more diligent about making sure they had all the necessary materials. For that matter they could have just made sure they completed the proposal by Friday when the staff was readily available.

It's one thing for me to decide that I'm going to give up a Sunday to do some work. I can schedule it around any personal commitments. But to expect somebody else to drop what they're doing on a moments notice, and very often it's somebody who's not getting compensated at the same level. - well, that's another matter.