Observations

For the observation task I thought I'd observe how important both mobile phones and the Internet are in the workplace. As I work in a conference centre, hosting many corporate training events, I thought I'd observe how many times and for what reasons people left their conferences to use mobile devices or Internet.

I sit at a desk that has an open space looking at the entrances of our 4 large conference rooms and has a pod of desktop computers with Internet access in front of me. I from previous observations that attendants leave rooms on a regular basis to make calls or check emails, so I knew that I would see some action.

In my 45 minute observation 30 people left their rooms at different times to make calls and access the Internet.

What I observed:

• More than 50% of the people making calls made at least 3 under 1 minute calls. From what I heard these seemed to be linked to the 1 issue that had risen at their main offices.
• 5 out of the 30 people had lengthy conversations leading someone on the other end step by step through computer procedures. eg Instructing people on how to access sections of their databases, how to remotely connect to servers, one in particular was how to get into their personal email.
• 75% of the 30 people seemed to be using smart phones and went through 1-5 minute periods where they were reading or sending emails.
• only 1 of the 30 people asked me if they could get Internet access on our computers, the rest seemed to have access to the Internet on their own handheld devices.
• 7 out of the 30 people had no intention of keeping their conversation confidential. they spoke loudly to the point of yelling and 1 of these 3 was profusely swearing (which I had to advise him to stop as I was working) Towards the end of the conversation they threw their phone on the floor.

Conclusion:

It seemed that most people now where able to access much of their work information and the Internet remotely from hand held devices. Their also seemed to be a shift in etiquette where leaving a room to make personal calls was becoming routine. The way people conducted themselves on the phone was on a whole quite cordial and there seemed to be a realisation they were in a public area keeping their voices low. However there was exceptions with quite overt conversations. Out of nearly all 112 phone calls, only 2 seemed to be to loved ones or calls to people outside of the workplace.