Personal Phone Calls at Work: What Employers Can Direct

I started working a long time ago. It wasn’t quite the era of dinosaurs, but smoking in the office was perfectly acceptable (hard to imagine now). It was well before mobile phones, email, and the internet.

Fast forward to today and things look very different. Instead of waiting by a fax machine, we’re standing at our desks, tapping away, accessing files in the cloud and communicating instantly.

And somewhere in all of that, personal phone calls at work have quietly changed too.

How Personal Phone Calls at Work Have Changed

Technology has changed how we communicate and how employees work. In the past, most workplaces only had landlines, so personal calls were obvious. Personal calls were fine… until the whole office heard your late-night excuses to Mum.

These days, people fire off texts constantly, and it’s almost impossible to tell what’s work and what’s not. Public humiliation averted. We can now text our retorts to Mum’s questions in private. Which is exactly where things can start to blur.

Can Employers Direct Personal Phone Calls at Work?

Texting is convenient, but can employers control personal mobile use during work hours?

A recent case confirms that you can. In a recent case, the Fair Work Commission upheld a dismissal where an employee sent an excessive number of personal text messages during work hours. Further, she had sent an aggressive personal email from her work account, but we’ll deal with that behaviour another day.

When Personal Mobile Use Starts Affecting Performance

The employee in question started her own small business outside of her full-time work two months after commencing with the employer.  It all started as an Airbnb opportunity enabling her to easily book out a cottage on her property.  It didn’t stop there. Another booking platform reached out and asked if she’d let caravan travellers stay overnight as they passed through.  Very quickly, what was a one cottage, mainly online, easy to manage side hustle soon become a popular business that required her to employ a caretaker and property managers. The employee still felt it was not impacting her ability to fulfil her duties to the employer.

Her employer saw it differently and sat down with her to raise concerns about excessive personal texting during work hours.

They told her to turn her phone off and stop running her Farm Stay business on company time. That was a lawful and reasonable direction. She ignored it, and it cost her her job.

She followed the direction briefly… then slipped straight back into old habits.

Over the next two months, she sent more than 1,200 text messages during work hours.

At that point, it wasn’t a grey area anymore.

A Fair Work Reminder About Personal Phone Calls at Work

The Fair Work Commission didn’t hesitate.

The Commissioner described the volume of messages as “extraordinary and unacceptable” and said it was difficult to see how any meaningful work could have been completed.

At that point, the outcome wasn’t surprising, and the dismissal was upheld.

Not just because of the number of messages, but because the employee had deliberately failed to follow a lawful and reasonable direction.

That’s the key point.

When it comes to personal phone calls at work, it’s not just about the behaviour itself. It’s about whether an employee follows a clear and reasonable direction from their employer.

Set Clear Policies and Expectations

As always though, at HR Staff n’ Stuff we prefer to be on the front foot in areas such as these as clarity regarding your expectations around employee behaviours is vital.  Avoiding confusion and reducing the potential to end up at the Fair Work Commission can be achieved through policies that outline whether you will allow reasonable levels of personal communication or if you require phones to be turned off completely and only accessed within break times.

Your decision may be based on a matter of safety due to your industry or simply because it provides a clear delineation between working hours and personal time.  Whatever the reason, clear, upfront communication will help you minimise issues and ensure your team understand conduct expectations.
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Whether you need help in managing an employee’s failure to follow reasonable direction or you want to establish policies that support a positive and productive workplace, HR Staff n’ Stuff is here to help when you need us.  Contact us now for a chat about your individual business needs.

FAQs: Personal Phone Calls at Work

Can employees make personal phone calls at work?

Yes, in most workplaces, occasional personal calls are acceptable. But they need to be reasonable and not impact work performance or others. Many employers limit calls to breaks or urgent situations.

Can an employer ban personal phone use completely?

Yes, they can. If the rule is lawful and reasonable and clearly communicated.
This is especially common in:

• safety-sensitive roles
• customer-facing environments
• workplaces where distraction creates risk

Does texting count the same as phone calls?

Yes. It’s still time away from work — and as cases show, volume matters.

What counts as excessive phone use?

There’s no set number, but it becomes an issue when it:

• happens frequently
• impacts work
• continues after a warning
• involves running personal business during work hours