Are You Text Messaging Friends or Wearing Your Bluetooth® While at Work?

Are you text messaging friends, wearing your Bluetooth® or keeping your personal cell phone on while in the workplace? Unless you have permission, you may be cheating your employer out of an honest day's work.

I encountered the most amazing sight the other day. Talk about multi-tasking. A cashier in a clothing store was ringing something up for me while talking on her personal earphone. At first I thought, okay, maybe the employer has the employees wear them. But this was definitely a personal phone call, which she had no qualms about my hearing. It wasn't an emergency call, either. She was gingerly talking to some friend about weekend plans.

Ironically, taped to the customer side of the counter was a boldly typed notice that said:
"Please have your cell phones off while at the cash register."
We see these requests at fast food places and banks, usually pertaining to the customer. I guess that's so the cashier can ask you a question. Well, there wasn't any way I could have asked her one right then, either.

Kids are texting while taking tests, too - perhaps to ask someone on the outside for an answer. But far be it from a teacher to question a child's intentions - that may bruise their ego or bring angry parents to school. "Cheating" is now becoming one of those old fashioned words that falls into the "no wrong or right, no good or bad" category. If you feel it's right at any given moment, do it.

Although text messaging, ear telephones and all these new contraptions can be wonderful time-savers, they take our minds off the other situation we are in at the time. And we're putting our faith in these instruments to keep up our personal relationships instead of face to face encounters with those who deserve our undivided attention.

I even saw a guy text messaging while riding a bicycle on a busy street. Now that's faith.