The controversial workplace ban you may need to consider

From sealed pouches to strict meeting rules, a growing number of companies are cracking down on employee phone use

IF YOU HAVE a kid in school, there’s growing signs that the days of using their phones on school property are limited. Just last week, Ontario’s education minister Paul Calandra mused about banning them, stating that “the evidence is becoming more and more clear that cellphone use in our schools … has become a problem.”

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Ontario wouldn’t be blazing a new path here: around 40 per cent of jurisdictions, according to the Global Education Monitoring Report, have some kind of smartphone ban in schools.

But what about in workplaces? A growing number of offices and employers are starting to wonder if what is good for the goose is good for the gander, and implementing similar smartphone bans on workplace property. “Some cite the motivation as preventing staff, intentionally or accidentally, from leaking sensitive information, such as customers’ private information or companies’ intellectual property,” reads a report from the Financial Times. “Others see them as simply a way to remove distractions, and build discipline, focus and team cohesion within their workforce.”

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Some firms, wrote FT reporter Emma Jacobs, are having staff lock their phones away in Yondr bags (the type used by phone-free concerts, for instance) for the duration of their shift.

One of the most prominent firms to implement a phone ban is JPMorgan Chase, whose CEO, Jamie Dimon, appeared to have a personal vendetta against people using their phones at work. “People in meetings all the time who are getting notifications and personal texts or who are reading emails,” he complained in a letter to shareholders last year. “This has to stop. It’s disrespectful. It wastes time.”

It’s not just Dimon. According to the CEO of Yondr, Graham Dugoni, a larger number of workplaces are now reaching out about implementing anti-phone tech, acknowledging that asking people not to use their phones hasn’t always worked. “The organizations coming to us have usually already tried the honour system,” he told FT. “What these environments share is the recognition that a phone policy on paper is not the same as a phone-free environment.”

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But there are unanswered questions about how effective it is to ban phones at work. According to productivity researcher Gloria Mark, “it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to the task” after an interruption of the sort phones offer. On the other hand, there is research to suggest that “micro-breaks,” where you release a bit of tension by scrolling your phone a little bit, “can be beneficial for both the employee and the organization,” according to researcher Sooyeol Kim.

But in practice, it may be worth exploring. According to the Financial Times, companies that have implemented bans report that — after an initial teething period — everyone seems to get on board. (Suggesting, perhaps, that many of us yearn to be free of our phones?) “In the first six months, violations were pretty frequent,” one senior VP at a software company said. But since then, things have settled. “I couldn’t tell you the last time we had anything like that.” Kieran Delamont