Understanding (work) culture

[WarMachine77]

So I was at my job a few months ago (call centre), and was told to get back to work when I was playing on my 3DS.

People look at this as childish and a waste of time that prevented me from doing my work.

However, people play Candy Crush and other phone games, and this is seen as socially acceptable.

To cover all my bases in this story, yes, this is a relaxed environment in which people are allowed to do what they want so long as it does not prevent them from working.

Needless to say, I resumed using my 3DS a few shifts later, exchanging a glance that asked, "Are you serious?" to the supervisor then.

For the rest of my time with the company, I frequently used my 3DS. One person tried to call me out on it and I asked them if they played cell phone games. They later rescinded their statement.

I feel like people will still gawk at someone playing with a handheld console on the bus, but won't bat an eye if they saw somebody playing Angry Birds.


My question is, have you encountered this at school/work? How have you dealt with it?

 

[Pleng]

I agree it's an odd work culture for a company to allow people to play Candy Crush and genuinely believe that it doesn't 'prevent them from working'.

 

[FAST6191]

Most of the time if I get called it is to fix things so short of turning up naked I am probably going to be OK.

My solution other than the above was to continue having long hair and long beard. However that might also be a deeper manifestation of me generally being a socially tone deaf/antisocial bastard.

Amusingly I remember a time when phones were still rising up and someone got odd looks for using the calculator on one.

That said phone style cases for the 3ds providing a similar option to hardback books of pulpy fantasy novels...... I sense a gap in the market.

Alternatively the supervisor was one knowing of games and saw you settling in to play a 5 hour session of [some RPG] rather than a 45 second round of [some phone game].

 

[DunnoBro]

I get this too. People are watching netflix and playing flappy birds around me but i take out my 3ds to use up some Hatching O-Powers for a few minutes and i get shit.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

I'd have to agree with what FAST mentioned at the end of his post, there's sort of a difference in perception between pulling out a dedicated gaming handheld and playing Angry Birds on your phone for a couple minutes.

 

[Foxi4]

I'd have to agree with what FAST mentioned at the end of his post, there's sort of a difference in perception between pulling out a dedicated gaming handheld and playing Angry Birds on your phone for a couple minutes.

There's that, but in my opinion, you should only whip out your entertainment of choice in your free time. If you have a lunch break and you've decided to dedicate it to playing a video game, sure, go on ahead. If you're sitting at your desk and working, you should focus on that instead of fiddling around with your 3DS. You're at work, so get busy with that.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

There's that, but in my opinion, you should only whip out your entertainment of choice in your free time. If you have a lunch break and you've decided to dedicate it to playing a video game, sure, go on ahead. If you're sitting at your desk and working, you should focus on that instead of fiddling around with your 3DS. You're at work, so get busy with that.

I think it'd depend on the job, really. In the OPs case, working at a call center gives you a bit of "free time" in between calls, and I would say it'd be fine to pull out your phone and dick around with X Y Z, since a majority of phone games are the simple pick up and put down type, whereas pulling out a 3DS/Vita/PSP/whatever would seem a bit much.

And in my case, my boss encourages me to bring whatever games I want to the office, since we generally have a ton of downtime between the various things we deal with.

 

[Foxi4]

I think it'd depend on the job, really. In the OPs case, working at a call center gives you a bit of "free time" in between calls, and I would say it'd be fine to pull out your phone and dick around with X Y Z, since a majority of phone games are the simple pick up and put down type, whereas pulling out a 3DS/Vita/PSP/whatever would seem a bit much.

And in my case, my boss encourages me to bring whatever games I want to the office, since we generally have a ton of downtime between the various things we deal with.

That's not my point. If it's cool with your boss, fine - he's your boss, he tells you what to do. If it's not and the thing you're doing at work is clearly frowned upon, you'd have to be a world-class idiot to perpetuate doing that - it sends the message that you're not interested in your career whatsoever and it's a sign of lack of respect.

In a work environment, there's a clear hierarchy that you have to stick to. You can negotiate stuff with your boss, you can explain stuff during break time and perhaps reach a consensus, but when you've been told not to do something during your working hours and you keep on doing it, any manager will eventually be at his or her wit's end. Playing on a 3DS may not negatively impact your work performance, but your manager doesn't know that - all your manager sees is you dicking around at work, and that's just not acceptable.

 

[Taleweaver]

It's all about perception. When being busy with a smartphone, you don't really see if the person is busy writing a work-related mail or SMS unless you're too close to be working yourself. With a 3DS, you instantly know it's for gaming.

Also related: how fast can you quit it when time calls for it? Smartphone apps can easily be suspended when someone calls (which is obvious, since it's still a smartPHONE). Allow someone to game on a dedicated gaming machine and the next thing you know is that the person doesn't hear his phone or is unaware of their environment.

I suspect a lot of "that won't happen to me!"-statements over that last sentence, so I'll try it from a different approach. Try to see things from your supervisor's perspective. It's not like he likes bullying you or creating seemingly half-assed rules*. And more than likely, he knows that just because you game in idle minutes won't mean your motivation is threatened in any way. Or that you can't go out and "create work to be busy at" when all problems are dealt with. But again: it's all about perception. If HIS boss, or someone from the higher ranks of the company comes over, it will give this person a bad impression no matter how professional your actual work may be. Hence the rule: no dedicated gaming devices.
Okay, that rule was never really spoken where I used to work**. But it wasn't needed because we had barely time to eat anything during lunch. I was glad to be able to view web pages for five full minutes without being called, mailed or someone coming over for things we had to solve.



*okay, you've got people who DO like this. But let's stick to the boss that isn't a movie villain here
**at least not in my department. It was a whole discussion amongst managers of the consequences of users having admin-rights ("they may need it") vs what they would actually use it for (I've seen my share of emulators and movie collection on the servers or hard drives).

 

[Gahars]

Persecution in the 21st century.

Anyway, FAST and Tom basically hit the nail on the head - handhelds are going to attract more attention because it is a device dedicated to playing video games, and the games it offers are generally going to be more involved than your average mobile title (Angry Birds, Cut the Rope, etc. don't demand a lot of time or attention). Plus, phones are seen as necessities nowadays, something people can't do without, for all the services they provide - game devices don't have that luxury.

 

[WarMachine77]

Most of the time if I get called it is to fix things so short of turning up naked I am probably going to be OK.

My solution other than the above was to continue having long hair and long beard. However that might also be a deeper manifestation of me generally being a socially tone deaf/antisocial bastard.

Amusingly I remember a time when phones were still rising up and someone got odd looks for using the calculator on one.

That said phone style cases for the 3ds providing a similar option to hardback books of pulpy fantasy novels...... I sense a gap in the market.


Alternatively the supervisor was one knowing of games and saw you settling in to play a 5 hour session of [some RPG] rather than a 45 second round of [some phone game].

Mmm not quite, other supervisors were fine with it, it was just that supervisor wanting to make newer people 'pay their dues' or some such nonsense.

There's that, but in my opinion, you should only whip out your entertainment of choice in your free time. If you have a lunch break and you've decided to dedicate it to playing a video game, sure, go on ahead. If you're sitting at your desk and working, you should focus on that instead of fiddling around with your 3DS. You're at work, so get busy with that.

This is the type of job that if you get a headset, you're waiting for an automated system to take you to the next call. I get what you're saying, but at the end of the day, everybody else was fine with it (save for the one or two people I mentioned), including the head supervisor.

It's all about perception. When being busy with a smartphone, you don't really see if the person is busy writing a work-related mail or SMS unless you're too close to be working yourself. With a 3DS, you instantly know it's for gaming.

Also related: how fast can you quit it when time calls for it? Smartphone apps can easily be suspended when someone calls (which is obvious, since it's still a smartPHONE). Allow someone to game on a dedicated gaming machine and the next thing you know is that the person doesn't hear his phone or is unaware of their environment.

I suspect a lot of "that won't happen to me!"-statements over that last sentence, so I'll try it from a different approach. Try to see things from your supervisor's perspective. It's not like he likes bullying you or creating seemingly half-assed rules*. And more than likely, he knows that just because you game in idle minutes won't mean your motivation is threatened in any way. Or that you can't go out and "create work to be busy at" when all problems are dealt with. But again: it's all about perception. If HIS boss, or someone from the higher ranks of the company comes over, it will give this person a bad impression no matter how professional your actual work may be. Hence the rule: no dedicated gaming devices.
Okay, that rule was never really spoken where I used to work**. But it wasn't needed because we had barely time to eat anything during lunch. I was glad to be able to view web pages for five full minutes without being called, mailed or someone coming over for things we had to solve.



*okay, you've got people who DO like this. But let's stick to the boss that isn't a movie villain here
**at least not in my department. It was a whole discussion amongst managers of the consequences of users having admin-rights ("they may need it") vs what they would actually use it for (I've seen my share of emulators and movie collection on the servers or hard drives).

Makes sense. I usually played something turn based so it didn't involve too much from me.

It was just all around stupidity about paying dues and using the 'game system is childish' argument as a means to rationalize what they wanted to enforce.

Speaking of computers, they explicitly expressed people not to use the computers for anything not work related, yet people logged into Facebook frequently. I didn't, simply because I don't need my credentials stored or a Pentium 4 freezing when I need to call people.

After my head supervisor walked up to me while I was playing Fire Emblem, he asked me what I was playing. I told him, and asked him, "Is it alright? If you want, I'll put it away.", to which he said, "No, you're a good worker so it doesn't matter, as long as you keep calling."

They'd determined that I had payed my dues. and in no way did my gaming affect my performance.

After a year and a bit, I'm no longer with the company. I just thought the mindset some of the other supervisors was daft to say the least when they picked which rules they wanted to enforce and when.

 

[tbgtbg]

I just thought the mindset some of the other supervisors was daft to say the least when they picked which rules they wanted to enforce and when.

This happens almost everywhere.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

Sounds like the Diamond Dogs are out to get you.