Ive been working as a doctors office front desk person for about a month and a half now. When I was hired I was told that ABSOLUTELY NOT allowed to have my phone out AT ALL in front of patients at the front desk while on the clock, as it was “unprofessional and could be a HIPAA violation”. That’s fine, whatever. Someone inevitably breaks the rule and we get a teamwide email from our manager reminding everyone about the phone policy about once a week, so it’s not like I could forget.
At work I put my phone in my bag under the desk to help mitigate temptation to check it. Yesterday about 20 minutes into my shift my coworker next to me gets a call on the desk phone from the manager, who told me to “answer her.” I checked my emails and my computer messages and there was nothing. I pulled my phone out and saw I had 1 missed call and 3 messages from my manager in the last ten minutes asking me if I was at work yet. ( I had been and I know she has access to the click in records). I said “ive been here since x:xx” she then condescendingly told me to respond to all of her calls and messages promptly as soon as received. I felt like I was doing the right thing by having my phone away during clinic hours but now I have to make sure I answer ONLY my manager in my personal phone? What happened to the HIPAA violation? Anyway this is more of a rant than anything. There’s more things about this job that I hate that might make for another post. I’m just annoyed.