Should you use your phone during meetings?
It is true that your phone –θήκες κινητών– is something you can not live without some days as it helps you stay connected with everyone you love. Is it correct though to use it during a meeting at your work? Or even at the office? In this article we are going to discuss the smartphone etiquette that you need to keep in mind when you are at business meetings.
If you are working at a company or at an office and you do not know whether or not it is okay to use your phone, we are here to help you. Being new at a job is hard in the beginning -especially when no one helps you- but you are going to learn about the meeting etiquette shortly! Just keep reading.
Silent mode
When the meeting starts, your phone needs to be in silent mode. No one needs to hear your notification sounds and believe us when we say that no one likes to be interrupted. Your co-workers or your boss, have put a lot of work in this project and they have called you in this meeting for a reason. They will probably forgive you if your phone goes off once but it will not leave a good impression.
So for that matter, put your phone in silent the minute you leave your office to go to that meeting. Or set a reminder for the meeting and let your phone automatically get into the “do not disturb” mode. This way you will be certain that it will not go off during your important meetings.
What is important to you?
When you’re going on a meeting you need to have some thing clear in your mind. You need to know what is and what is not important to you. If your bosses or coworkers have invited you to be a part of this meeting this means that they either need your opinion, approval, presence or they just need you to be there because your work requires you to.
It is not nice to bring your phone and do not pay attention to them as it could affect your progress at work and of course your paycheck. When you’re in the meeting make sure that you focus on the theme of the meeting fulfill your duties towards it. Leave your phone at your office if this is possible or if you need to have it with you putting on silent.
Emergency calls only
Another thing that is very important, is to distinguish the emergency from the simple call. Your family and your friends should know that when you’re at work you cannot communicate and your social media accounts. If they are just leaving you messages this is fine but they need to know the importance of your job and they also need to know that when you are in meetings you cannot pick up the phone.
Most smart phones have a function in which your phone does not ring it is in complete silence mode. It would only ring if the same person called you three times within a certain amount of time (approximately 5 minutes). You have a also the option of declining the calls with automated messages like for example you can decline a call by texting “I cannot speak right now I am in a meeting”.
Apart from that, if you were having a family emergency or if you know that one of your loved ones is in any kind of trouble, you should let your boss or a coworker know so that you could leave the meeting to answer your phone. It is better to be honest as this will be accredited.
Do not put your phone in vibration
If you’re planning on bringing your phone – thiki kinitou –in the meeting with you please do not put it on vibration. It is very annoying to hear a buzzing sound while someone is trying to explain the progress of the month, the problem of the company or the issue of a client. It will be very rude have your phone ringing in your bag and if you cannot do anything for that it would just embarrass you.
Stay away from social media
You might be in a big company meeting with let’s say 50 people in there so you have probably unnoticeable. Playing on your phone or surfing on the Internet and your social media accounts is not polite even if no one is watching. If by any chance your coworker I understand that you’re not paying attention this could be harmful for your career. As we mentioned before, during this meeting for reason so please pay attention to it.
Hierarchy
We do not want to make things political, but there is a logical explanation for what we are going to discuss here. By no means does hierarchy make someone feel superior or inferior but we are going to explain this with an example. Your boss can have their phone in a meeting with them as they would probably need to answer it in case a client calls. When we were talking about bigger companies, you cannot ignore your clients as it is not polite.
Nevertheless they could just pick up the phone to say that they are in a meeting and that they cannot talk right now and make this call later on. In this case your boss or coworker you would respect the rest of the people attending this meeting by leaving the call for later. Sometimes you cannot ignore calls and you need to answer them even to talk for a few seconds.
Overview
Our overview for this issue concerning the question of if anyone should bring their phone and use it during meetings is the following. We would say that if you were able to leave your phone in your office or if you’re able to shut your phone and leave it in your bag this would be great.
If you cannot leave your smartphone and you need to have it with you then please make sure that your calls and notifications are not going to be annoying and interrupt your colleagues when talking or giving a presentation.