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The Cell Phone and What Ails Us

A woman who uses her cell phone exclusively at home accidentally left it at work over a weekend. The phone rang frequently with a tinny rock tune. She didn’t call in to alert her colleagues about her forgetfulness or to ask them to turn the phone off. She just resigned herself to letting it ring. And it did frequently until a frustrated coworker marched over to her desk and turned it off.

Cell-phone abuse is emblematic of what ails employees in cubicle settings. Etiquette has yet to catch up to the setting.

“All cubicles do is fuel rage—especially if the transformation to cubicles is not accompanied by civility training,” says Giovinella Gonthier in Rude Awakenings: Overcoming the Civility Crisis in the Workplace.

Cell-phone abuse is one of the most visible manifestations of cubicle discourtesies. The breaches range from people talking too loud, to choosing intrusive ring-tones, or to leaving the phones on and unattended. I love Beethoven’s Ode to Joy and his Fifth Symphony. But I detest them both as dreary ring tones.

If a colleague’s cell phone is causing ringing in your ears, politely ask him to turn the volume down. And if he frequently leaves behind a cell phone when he goes to lunch, leaving you and others to suffer, ask the person to turn it off or take it with him. If the person forgets the cell phone after your talk, ask his permission to go over and turn the phone off.