When to be a hero with your phone: For just about any circumstance at the internship, your phone should be off. It's a tool for personal communication and work sites are not the place for personal communication.
Still, your phone can be a tool that benefits everyone in the conduct of business. Stereotyping just a bit: young people can access more information via cell phone than most middle-aged bosses can with the power of a computer.
Services you (with a phone) can provide on the job:
1 - calculator to confirm numbers being tossed around in a meeting,
2 - address look-up for locations under discussion (might include lunch!),
3 - text message to a colleague for information when phone and email would elicit a slower response.
The content on this blog is not offered as legal advice or guidance. Consult your college, advisor, or internship supervisor for help with issues surrounding internships. © 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Dr. Bold is a co-author of the book Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. More about Dr. Bold can be learned at http://www.marybold.com/
Showing posts with label cell phone etiquette. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cell phone etiquette. Show all posts
12 June 2010
17 April 2010
When You Must Take a Call
Regardless of how well you plan, there's bound to be one day at the internship (or on the job) that you must be able to answer a personal phone call. Amid all the warnings to not use your cell phone on the job, what's the best way to take that call?
1 - Try to arrange the time of the call. Chances are, you can take a lunch or coffee break at the appointed hour and remove yourself from the business setting.
2 - If you must be available all day for the call, make the interruption as unobtrusive as possible. Put your phone on vibrate and take a seat near the door if you must attend meetings that day. Excuse yourself quickly to take the call, exiting the room before you start speaking into your phone.
3 - If you must have more of an alert than a vibrating phone, then select a short and muted ring for the day. A low-volume chime may suffice. This is definitely not the day for musical rings, nor barking dogs and quacking ducks. Those rings may have amused you when you selected them and they may be so customary now that you don't even imagine their impact on other people. For most settings, they are too distracting.
The content on this blog is not offered as legal advice or guidance. Consult your college, advisor, or internship supervisor for help with issues surrounding internships. © 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Dr. Bold is a co-author of the book Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. More about Dr. Bold can be learned at www.marybold.com
1 - Try to arrange the time of the call. Chances are, you can take a lunch or coffee break at the appointed hour and remove yourself from the business setting.
2 - If you must be available all day for the call, make the interruption as unobtrusive as possible. Put your phone on vibrate and take a seat near the door if you must attend meetings that day. Excuse yourself quickly to take the call, exiting the room before you start speaking into your phone.
3 - If you must have more of an alert than a vibrating phone, then select a short and muted ring for the day. A low-volume chime may suffice. This is definitely not the day for musical rings, nor barking dogs and quacking ducks. Those rings may have amused you when you selected them and they may be so customary now that you don't even imagine their impact on other people. For most settings, they are too distracting.
The content on this blog is not offered as legal advice or guidance. Consult your college, advisor, or internship supervisor for help with issues surrounding internships. © 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Dr. Bold is a co-author of the book Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. More about Dr. Bold can be learned at www.marybold.com
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