July 16, 2025 at 3:47 am

Employees Were Told Not To Answer Their Personal Phone During Work Hours, But When The Boss Called She Expected Them To Read Her Mind

by Ashley Ashbee

Pexels/Reddit

It seems like a lot of managers don’t think their policies through.

For example, imagine working for a company that has a policy where you can’t use your personal phone during work hours. How would you react if your boss called your personal phone during work hours and was upset when you didn’t answer? Would you apologize or explain the policy?

Keep reading to see what this employee did.

My manager wanted no phones until she needed mine

A new policy was implemented at my workplace where no personal phones would be allowed during work hours(on silent and out of sight) and I made sure to follow the rules.

I turned off my phone, locked it in my locker before every shift and went about my day.

But that wasn’t right, somehow.

This continued until a few days later.

My manager pulled me aside, super annoyed, and asked why I didn’t answer her call and said she needed to check something urgently with me.

I just told her I was following the phone policy. My phone had been away like we were told.

She didn’t like that response and tried to say I should have used “judgment” and answered if it was from her.

Fortunately there is strength in numbers.

But I wasn’t about to get written off for breaking a policy she just finished enforcing.

Funny thing is, after that, the “no phones” policy suddenly got very quiet. No more lectures. No more reminders.

I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only one who let a few of her calls go to voicemail that week.

That boss clearly didn’t think the policy through before enforcing it!

Here is what people are saying on Reddit.

It’s about control, not logic.