phonecalling at work

[filthiestfis]

Does everyone make phone calls from work? How come companies dont itemise their phone bills to see that a lot of money and time is being wasted on making external phonecalls to friends and family?
Has anyone here been caught using their work home to call abroad, even?!

[Buenchico]

Not exactly an answer but I thought you might be interested in this:

In the school I used to teach at, the head teacher convened an emergency staff meeting during the morning registration period. Around 600 teenagers had to be left in their classrooms, unsupervised, because the boss regarded the meeting as so important. Once we were all in the staff room, he launched into a ferocious attack upon his staff, berating us all for a total lack of professionalism. This was because he was convinced that we were all using the school phones for personal business. (Hardly anyone ever did). He made it clear that the final straw had arrived when he'd opened the phone bill to see that someone had made an international call from the school. He got more and more animated, and turned a deeper and deeper shade of purple, as he forcefully expressed his thoughts about whoever it was who'd made that call. It was several minutes before anyone else could speak. Eventually, someone said, "Er, excuse me headmaster, but didn't you phone the new French assistant to check the date that he'd be arriving?". The look on the head's face was a joy to see ;-)

Chris

[filthiestfis]

Is that a true story, BC? That headteacher overreacted if it was only one phonecall anyway!

[Buenchico]

PS: Also slightly off on a tangent, I'm frequently amazed to see all of the questions, here on AB, from people who're trying to bypass their companies internet security, so that they can access Youtube, Facebook, etc. That suggests that their employers are wasting vast amounts by paying people to sit around doing nothing productive.

With the rail company I worked for, accessing a single internet site (without good cause) was a sackable offence. My job involved making frequent checks on the weather forecast. I got hauled over the coals simply because, on one occasion, I accessed the BBC weather pages rather than the uk.weather.com site. If I'd ever accessed a single BBC page again, I could have been sacked. I've got no complaints. If a few more companies adopted the same strict policies, this country might be far more productive.

Chris

[Buenchico]

I was typing while you were posting.

Yes, I assure you that story is true.

Chris

[filthiestfis]

LOL what an amusing anecdote. I agree with you too. In my office I waste a lot of time on the internet because there is NOTHING to do and they let me surf the net when there is nothing to do. Go figure!

[Goodsoulette]

When one of my friends who was also a work mate went on a sabbatical, she spent some time travelling around Asia on her won. SHe had a right crisis in Thailand and her mum called me at work and asked me to phone her as soon as possible as she needed calming down and she was getting nowhere. I spent an hour on the phone to her from work, I called her mobile, she was in Thailand. I have no idea how much this cost but I know it was a lot because it got picked up on.

My area manager came in and asked me it was me who had called Thailand, I said yeah, ?? was having a crisis and that was all that was said.