Essentials of Business Communication 10th Edition by Dana Loewy,Mary Ellen Guffey

Exercise 21

Not long ago it was almost a status symbol for professionals to "lay [their] BlackBerrys or iPhones on a conference table before a meeting-like gunfighters placing their Colt revolvers on the card tables in a saloon."53 Businesspeople today often compulsively eyeball their smartphones and tablets to read e-mail, search Google, and check Facebook or Twitter during meetings. In fact, in a Robert Half survey of executives, 81 percent confessed to having committed more or less frequent smartphone etiquette violations during virtual meetings. At the same time, 76 percent stated that meeting participants who answered their e-mail or surfed the Internet would jeopardize their career prospects.54 Workers tapping away at their smart devices may be a common sight, but the tide is turning. Increasingly, many professionals are tired of disruptions caused by electronic gadgets during meetings.
Etiquette consultants concur: "Electronic devices are like the smoking of the '90s," says Pamela Eyring, president of the Protocol School of Washington. "Companies are aggravated and losing productivity." Businesses hire her to enact formal policies and to teach workers "why it's not a good idea to be texting while your boss is speaking at the podium," Eyring says. Nancy Flynn, executive director of the ePolicy Institute and author of The Handbook of Social Media, has this suggestion: "Require employees to turn off mobile devices during business-related meetings, seminars, conferences, luncheons and any other situation in which a ringing phone or tapping fingers are likely to disrupt proceedings or interrupt a speaker's or participant's train of thought."
Flynn notes that banning electronic devices in meetings is not just about interruptions: "You don't want employees shooting video via a smartphone during a meeting in which company secrets are discussed, then uploading the video to YouTube or sharing it with a competitor, reporter or other third party." Organizations are only beginning to establish policies on smartphone use in meetings.
Career Application. Assume that you have been asked to develop a policy discussing the use of mobile electronic devices in meetings. Your boss can't decide whether to ask you to develop a short policy or a more rigorous one. Keep in mind that meeting participants could have legitimate reasons for using mobile electronic devices-for example, to take notes, look up calendar items, or fact-check a disputed point. How could this conflict between disruptive and valid uses of mobile devices in meetings be resolved?
Your Task. As an individual or with a team, compose two documents: (a) a short statement that treats employees as grown-ups who can exercise intelligent judgment and (b) a more complete set of guidelines that spell out exactly what should and should not be done.