Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: Should Employers Ban Smartphones?
An anonymous reader writes "Due to a concern that smartphones (and other electronic devices) could be infected with malware and used to spy on sensitive information, my employer has recently banned all personal electronic devices from their spaces. The concern comes from articles like this one. My question to slashdot readers: How reasonable is this concern? How can this sort of malware be prevented from showing up on our devices? Is there a way to educate employees about preventing this sort of thing rather than banning the devices altogether? This current reality is that people have started to rely on having their smartphones with them at all times for things such as receiving emergency calls from day cares and schools, making personal calls during normal working hours (i.e. to make doctor's appointments), accessing password managers, and scheduling calendar events."
Is why Android is banned for all but app developers at my work and the only smartphone OS you are permitted for general use is ATM IOS. And why once we roll out android support it will only be with a mdm solution.
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
This current reality is that people have started to rely on having their smartphones with them at all times for things such as receiving emergency calls from day cares and schools, making personal calls during normal working hours
Guess what? Your normal "dumb" phone can do that.
accessing password managers
Really? Surely your employer will allow you to install the damn thing on your work computer.
and scheduling calendar events
Ever heard of this old invention called "paper"? They put a bunch of sheets together, draw grids and numbers and month names on them, and call it a "calendar". If you're really desperate, perhaps you could use the internet access your employer provides to access your Google calendar on your work computer.
If you get paid more than minimum wage, then any salary in excess of minimum wage is adequate compensation for "intru[sion] [...] past the 8 hours a day I owe them".
So tell me, what is it like living in the 18th century? Ten to one odds you are going to get killed in a work related shooting and the jury will upon learning about you, release the shooter on grounds of justifiable homicide.
Meanwhile, in the modern world, work and private life are bound to intermingle and personal calls are perfectly acceptable if people do their jobs properly.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Unless there are genuine state secrets lurking about the company, they really should have no right to be so intrusive. This is corporate feudalism at it's finest.
You corporate bootlickers are helping build a new Guilded Age.
Don't say you weren't warned.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Have you ever been a boss? I have. Whether you're a supervisor, or the owner, you always have to be thinking "productivity". It's the nature of the position.
Just how many times can you tolerate YOUR BOSS coming to you, and complaining about some gold brick wasting time on the phone? I'm rude, crude, very direct, and physical. I would go to my subordinate, and make it very plain that I just got my ass chewed out because he was on the phone, and threaten to kick his ass the next time he brought the phone to work with him. Leave it at home, or leave it in the car, or lock it in the lockers - DO NOT carry it around with you during work hours!
The boss doesn't have to justify banning electronic toys. There is an official business phone which people can use to contact you in a real emergency. If it turns out that you're getting non-emergency calls during work hours, you can get another job.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
ROFLMAO - go for it. Your threats mean diddly to my threats. FFS man, I've never worked with such sissies. "Oh, officer, he THREATENED ME!!"
Grow a fucking pair of balls. And leave the goddamned phone home, because I'm gonna smash that before I tear you a new asshole.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br