Cellphone addicts need to learn when to unplug

When I was young and worked as a cashier, a desk clerk, a server and a bartender, we were not allowed to take personal calls at work. It was logical and no one contested this; we were on company time. If things got slow, they found something for us to do, or a good employee would seek out duties. Mind you, this is decades before cellphones existed.

Recently, the cashier who took my order at a sandwich shop has already pulled her phone out of her back pocket a dozen times — between customers usually, but twice while customers were deciding.

I am sure she washes her hands after using the restroom, but clearly not after using her phone. The woman cleaning the booths has stopped to read her phone and text someone, one time so engrossed in the message a customer had to ask her twice to move.

According to research by OpenMarket, 83% of millennials open their text messages within a minute and a half of receiving them, even when working. And according to the Pew Research Center, 18-24-year-olds send an average of 3200 text messages a month. This is expensive for employers. A study by Florida State University found that after receiving a phone call or text message, workers’ mistakes increased between 23-28%. The No. 1 productivity killer at work is the cellphone, and the back pocket distraction kills an average of eight work hours a week — the equivalent of paying someone an entire day’s wages to check their phone.

I can’t fathom why the phones can’t remain in their cars or a break-room locker. If there is an emergency, people know where these tech-dependent minions work; no boss is going to divert an emergency phone call. If it isn’t, then who wants an employee who doesn’t keep 100% of their attention on work; someone who thinks about something else one quarter of the time?

Costs creep up and service suffers, and people like me will patronize another locale. The real problem is the phone addicts’ inability to accept downtime. Their brainwaves operate at a heightened pace, causing stress, inattention, and longterm health problems. They are losing the ability to accept a mental rest.

The practice of walking in silence to class or to work has faded, and even more so while at work or in class. According to more than a few studies, it is during those moments — not while asleep or in yoga class — when true peace of de-stressing takes place, like quick reboots throughout the day. But if the buds are always in, or the pocket vibrates, the body adjusts to a heightened state of stress it doesn’t even realize is unhealthy. Over time, they will face more illness, heart disease and impatience.

“But there might be an emergency,” my students told me in a critical thinking class. They have redefined what constitutes an “emergency.” For my students, their absolute need to know what the plans are, what’s for dinner, where they’re going to meet later, and a plethora of information that could easily be obtained later is a dire “emergency.” They will absolutely not be able to concentrate if their Pavlovian minds aren’t relieved of the larger stress of hearing the ping of a text.

At the sandwich shop, some guy at the computer trying to order lunch needed help. The green tea machine was empty and two tables within eyeshot had dirty dishes and no customers while three workers behind the counter were reading their phones. I use my phone throughout the day to keep up to date on virtually everything going on in life. But not at work. Not in the classroom. Nothing important is going to happen that can’t be addressed later. Nothing.