Abstract

CIPRIANO, Lúcia  and  NICOLACI-DA-COSTA, Ana Maria. Cell phones paid by employers: a “benefit” or an “annoyance”?. Psicol. cienc. prof. [online]. 2009, vol.29, n.1, pp. 147-159. ISSN 1414-9893.

During the 20th century, space and time destined to work were isolated from those destined to personal and family life or to leisure. At present, however, a new kind of behavior has become widespread: answering work phone calls in the most varied places outside working hours and even during vacations. One of the reasons for this new behavior is the handing out, by employers, of free-of-charge cell phones to their employees. The present research aimed at investigating how employees react to such a “gift”. For this purpose, open-question interviews were conducted with employees who occupy managerial positions in private companies in the State of Rio de Janeiro. It was possible to detect a generalized ambivalence among the interviewees. On the one hand, they consider such a practice to be a “benefit” because they can also use the company’s cell phone for personal matters and this represents good savings. On the other hand, however, they resent the unpaid and not previously agreed to invasion of their free time. Some participants even referred to such a concession as an “annoyance” while others, more radical, said this was a new form of slavery.

Keywords : Work; Personal life; Present days; Cell phones.

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