I’ve posted maybe five or six entries related to this whole CBC anti-smoking issue, and while I still feel that it deserves as much attention as it can get for Texas’ #1 non-profit organization, I am going to move on for a while.

Though I won’t be moving too far since CBC seems to be on a crusade to evaporate employee rights. Last night I was on my lunch break at work, and after hearing something about CBC using hand lineups to try to identity who went on the news about them, I wanted to call my wife and find out what was up. She was scheduled to get off an hour before I finally got in touch with her, though she took that long to leave as well.

I asked her why she didn’t just answer the phone and tell me that she would call me back, and she told me that she was afraid she would get in trouble for answering her cell while talking to her manager. At first that seems reasonable, but then I asked, “Were you on the clock?”

That is when it got interesting, and when I learned about the new policy they are enforcing up there now. She told me that she was clocked in for part of it, but not for the last half of it, which is when I called a couple of times.

Apparently, employees are not allowed to have their cell phones out for any reason, at any time, while on CBC premises. This became known a few days ago when an employee, who had been kept at work late because a drive ran late, had clocked out and was calling to cancel a doctors appointment for her child. While she was on the phone doing that, a supervisor began trying to talk to her about something.

The employee stated what she was doing and that the supervisor would have to wait, and the supervisor told her to hang up the phone immediately. Again, this employee was off the clock, she had finished her work day, but she was reprimanded and threatened with her job if she didn’t apologize and agree to never have her cell phone out again while at CBC.

That is the new policy, I was informed, and so I told my wife something about my opinion on it. The next time that happens, where I am calling her and she is off the clock talking with a manager, she should answer it, and if they don’t like it, she can walk out free and clear since her work day ended a while before that happened.

How far are they really going to go with all of this?

There is no other reason to have a policy like this other than to be a jerk, or just to do it. A policy preventing cell phone use during a shift would be great, especially since my wife regularly does extra work for those who take cell phone breaks frequently throughout a day, but once you’re off the clock, you’re not an employee anymore. You have no duty, obligation, or responsibility to the employer.

I guess Dr. Sayers and CBC are having a hard time understanding what “unalienable rights” means. They cannot be signed away to an employer; they cannot be given away for any reason or by any means. I guess they should take Michael Badnarik’s Constitution Class, maybe then they will understand just how limited their power is.

How far are WE willing to let this go?

“You only have the rights that you are willing to fight, and die for.”

Thomas Jefferson