With the recent launch of the iPhone 4, smart phones are once again the talk at the water cooler as co-workers chat up the phone’s features (and bugs) and compare notes on the latest in smart phone technology – from Android to Blackberry to iPhone and beyond. According to a recent ComScore study, over 45 million people in the U.S. own smart phones, the largest-growing segment of the 234 million-strong U.S. mobile phone market.
Now that mobile phone technology has advanced to the stage that people are carrying small, hand-held computers around with them on a day-to-day basis, the culture is definitely changing. From impacting e-mail habits to altering the way our brain processes information to changing the intrapersonal communication styles of a generation, mobile technology plays an important role in the digital age.
So this month, we want to know how smart phones affect etiquette in the workplace. Let us know your thoughts by voting in the poll below:
The phone thing is an interesting question. I use my phone to keep in contact with all of my employees by text. We have therapists that work in the same building, but different offices, or they are on call. This text thing is absolutely the BEST way to contact them…They ALWAYS have their phones, but are not near a computer for emails…and they have to open them up, where a text lets you know someone needs to talk to you now for just a second. Perfect for telling them that their patient is here, an appointment has been made for 2 PM, that they are ill, etc. One of my hiring needs is to make sure that they can text.
With the explosion of mobile to mobile communications I have been very successful in making it a must for my sales staff to be more in touch with there customer base using an amazing technology…www.izigg.com/rothe
“Smart” phones are a detriment to the manufacturing process. People are consistantly worrying about who is texting them, what’s the latest E mail ect. There is no place for “smart” phones in a manufacturing setting it only gets the “dumb” people in trouble for utilizing them.