The employees of the main Moscow LucOil office must turn off their cell phones before going inside the building or hand it in. According to Alexander Vasilenko, the head of public relations department of LucOil, starting on February 1st, before entering the building, the employees must hand in their cell phones or turn them off. “Cell phones simply disrupt the work process, — explains Vasilenko, — they keep on ringing, and annoy people during meetings. People also talk a lot on the stairs, which might result in injury”. There are a few hundred lockers near the office entrance, made specifically for cell phone storage.
One of the LucOil's employees informed us that the order regarding the ban of cell phones is explained as being caused by security concerns. According to him, there were a few cases where employees used their phones to photograph documents, for further work at home. The sources says that the ban does not affect top-managers.
The company would not have tried to restrict the employees' freedom if it was not for the many devices included in cell phones, such as speech recorders, cameras, and even scanners. It is much easier to ban cell phones than try to figure out who has what devices installed. In the 25 million cell phones sold in Russia last year, 20% had cameras installed, and 35% had speech recorders.
An employee of Sibneft told us that in the company's offices, the employees are also asked to turn their cell phones off. It is customary in many companies to not bring cell phones into your boss's office. Transneft's employees turn off their cell phones during meetings, so they would not bother them.
Source: based on information in “Vedomosti” newspaper.
