The topic of employees (or summer volunteers) texting on the job has been on PUBLIB lately. Here's a thoughtful post that could be used as the basis of a policy.
Laurie Message: 6 Date: Sat, 19 Jun 2010 10:07:55 -0400 From: Dale McNeill <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Publib] Texting on the job Cc: [email protected] At a library (part of a city government) where I used to work, I really liked the city-wide policy about personal communication. I don't remember the exact wording, but there were 4 principles, something like this: To determine if it's appropriate to engage in personal communication, consider these four principles: 1) Does it cost the City money directly? If so, it's not appropriate (example: long distance phone call). 2) Could it be embarrassing to the City is someone else heard you? If so, it's not appropriate. 3) Does the personal communication use resources that your colleagues are waiting to use for work purposes? If so, it's inappropriate. 4) Does the personal communication interfere with your own work or the work of your colleagues? If so, it's inappropriate. We found that these simple principles were easy for staff at all levels to understand. Obviously, many brief kinds of personal communication where allowed. And the policy didn't mention the medium of communication: it applied equally to chatting in person with friends, emailing, texting, phoning, etc. Cheers, Dale Laurie Mahaffey, Deputy Director Central Texas Library System, Inc. 1005 West 41st Street Austin, Texas 78756 www.ctls.net [email protected] 512-583-0704 x18 800-262-4431 x18
