You can always count on chaos when a company cracks down on the one thing that keeps the place running.

So what would you do if your job depended on quick communication, but management suddenly banned everyone from using their work phones off the clock, and even started writing people up just to prove a point? Would you keep doing things the way you always have? Or would you follow the new policy?

In the following story, an entire crew finds themselves in this situation and chooses the latter. Here’s how it all played out.

We were told we absolutely cannot use our work phone when not on the clock.

The job I do requires tons and tons of communication, coordination, and often a lot of things are time-sensitive.

So frequently, if one of us can’t get a hold of someone, we are absolutely screwed! So it has been the norm for us to communicate in advance so we can plan out our day.

It was never a big deal to us, as it usually just takes maybe 5-10 minutes to confirm everything is going as planned, or be informed of any changes a few hours before we start the day.

This is more to make our life and work easier for everybody.

They would even try to set employees up.

About two months ago, the company decided that we aren’t allowed to use our work phones unless on the clock. They aggressively cracked down on everyone who did it!

The supervisors and managers would even call or send a text to employees when they aren’t on the clock, just to test us. Anyone who replied would be written up. No matter how much we complained, they refused to budge or listen at all! They get the final say!

Grudgingly, we all agreed to follow the policy.

No surprise, everybody decides to just stop replying to their phone as soon as their shift is over…

Surprise surprise!!!

Soon, the office became a mess.

Nearly everybody has been late pretty much every day! A lot of appointments have been missed! Tons of mistakes have been made because nobody was able to get the answer they needed. Clients start to complain like crazy!

The office and managers were immediately slammed with tons of phone calls, and were getting very behind on everything.

This week, we were all hauled into a meeting. They were asking us what they could do to help us fix this mess. We were all mad about the whole thing as it wasn’t a fun time for us either! Most of us just basically told them we warned them repeatedly, and they weren’t having it!

So they can clean this mess up!

Management wanted to fix it, but was unable to find a solution.

They tried to suggest a special code so we know if it is extremely urgent, but no one wants to carry their personal phone and work phone around all the time just in case.

In fact, most of us told them we just turn the phone off or put it on mute as soon as we get home. They tried to float the idea of giving all of us a salary, which was immediately shot down as they have a horrible history of overworking their salaried workers.

They tried to ask us if we are willing to go back to the old way… It didn’t go well either, as there was a mixed reaction.

Currently, they’re still working on it.

Some were cool with the idea, some were like “absolutely not unless Im getting paid for that time,” and some just flat out don’t want to deal with the phone when they aren’t on the clock at all!

The meeting ended without anything being fixed.

Now the CEO, HR, and other upper managers have been pulling their hair out trying to figure out how to navigate this delicate **** up! It was so glorious to watch them running into the wall repeatedly over a stupid adjustment that nobody wants!

Yikes! The way to fix the mess seems pretty simple.

Let’s check out what the people over at Reddit think needs to happen.

Basically sounds about right.

Management does this too often.

Here’s someone who wants to be paid for answering a work phone.

This would’ve been a great addition.

The management sounds terrible! Wonder if they’ll ever get this worked out?

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.