How do you discreetly look at your phone during work?

We don't have micromanagers in leadership positions so I whip that bad boy out and stare at it like everyone else in the office.

It’s not the easiest way but it works for me…

Make yourself irreplaceable. That’s what I did.

Retail store manager. Personal devices and headphones are a fireable offense. I allow my team cellphones as long as they get their job done. I have a single headphone with podcasts playing every moment I’m not on a conference call.

When my boss brought it up I just stared at him blankly and said “when I took over this store it was failing. Now it’s third in the district and rising” then stared blankly at him again.

He eventually stopped mentioning it.

Nondiscreetly.

When boss asks why am I looking at the phone (or browsing around on the internet), I point out they hired me as consultant, so my duty is to look around and be informed of things so I'm not caught up emptyhanded when asked a question.

You start taking more bathroom breaks.

I don't even try to hide it anymore. My manager and I send each other memes during the work day.

I don't care, if I want to look at my phone, I look at it. I get shit done, so nobody gives me grief. This might not work everywhere, but I wouldn't work at a place that nitpicked over stuff like that.

Just look at it

Your boss wants to start shit when your work is getting done? Fuck them

#1 mobile data only. No wifi.

#2 have some sort of cover to look busy / stressed. Have an act ready so people don't question what you do with your time. Keep an unfinished task on hand that you can pick up at a seconds notice.

#3 Hide in plain sight. If someone approaches your work area make it look like you were splitting your attention between the task and the phone, than without looking put your phone down/away and work on the task.

I just say I was in my authenticator app doing MFA.

me literally shitposting to Lemmy with one hand while my other hand scrubs a toilet

Huh? Discretely? WYM?

Look at your phone while sitting in the stall.

I’m a mobile app developer. Looking at my phone all day is just part of the job.

Just an occasion glance every like 15 minutes...like a little drip

"Not like those people with a check-every-three-minutes habit that are fiends for the stuff." :-)

This is the post of an addict

I know Lemmy is gonna say "stop being addicted to your phone" but like I'm asking this question with more of a like "fuck corporate" attitude

I gained a reputation in my work as someone always glued to the phone, even when walking home. Not that I care much about what others think, but in my defense, I am trading stocks. I toned down using my phone because I got called out by my supervisor as it had affected my work performance. In my role, we have lots of downtime in between the tasks and using phone is allowed so long as we do the job properly. Anyhow, not that I mind much what they think of me because my plan for early retirement is more important than my company needs who could eventually throw you under the bus 😝 I know companies don't always appreciate long time employees so why should I give 110%? Some people give too much to companies but not me.

I'm on a zoom call right now with camera on typing this comment on my phone lol

discreetly? before being 100% work from home, i used to stream my tv with plex with my tablet on my desk. I'd usually just put one earbud in and leave the other ear to hear people if they needed me.

In highschool however (back in the late 90s) i used to listen to music from my walkman by fishing the corded earbuds from my pants pocket and in thru my sleeve. I'd hold the earbuds in my hand and the oversized hoodie sleeve would conceal everything perfectly. I'd rest my head in my hand with the earbuds and I'd look like any other student getting their work done.

Generally just used it in the bathroom stall and made sure it was on silent. They used to ban all electronics on site with the static explosion excuse even though I'm not in an at risk part of the plant. I read a lot of books and drew in my sketch pads for the first few years. Along with napping and watching some shitty over the air free tv channel programming. Wasn't worth sneaking it any where else here you'd risk getting fired pretty easily at the time. We still had/have landline phones family could call.

Oldies retired and new sociopaths took over but they chilled on electronics. Now we can have phones or tablets in control / lunch rooms and locker room. A full blown laptop would still get unapproving looks on dayshift, but not on night shifts. It was kinda shit until west Canada finally had larger data plans after another couple years. They've been fine with me using a Steam Deck. They generally don't bug me about stretching the rules because I don't fuck up nearly as often as everyone else in my department and I'm better at salvaging more material as prime than the others. Basically I'm in-house reclaim.

Work on your skills, so you can land a better position/job where you aren't micromanaged to that degree.

I just take my phone out and look at it. Most establishments won't give a shit as long as you are still able to be productive. Being said, if its to the point where you are being called out for it, high chance it is impacting work performance. That or you have a really shit manager. I've gone through like 6 managers and none of them have ever cared if we occasionally looked at our phone as long as it wasn't impacting the work environment. The only time they ever address it is when some idiot abuses it or lets it impact work performance. Then they do a workwide broadcast saying "hey remember headphones and phones during work are not allowed" but they then only punish the ones actually failing to get the job done/are actually a problem.

You could probably start taking more bathroom breaks but, that defo won't gain you any brownie points if anyone else on the team is reliant on you and if noticed you'll end up higher on the chopping block next time they are looking to hire someone else on, technically this is illegal in the US but, they just find another reason to terminate. If its a manager issue, then I guess just ride it out, those types of managers generally don't last too long anyway. That or look elsewhere for employment because it sounds like you are in micromanagement hell

I browse in the restroom before returning to the cockpit.

step into a closet or empty room

frequent bathroom breaks

hide it inside a notebook

switch the e-reader to dark mode and place the phone over another piece of similar-looking technology that you have a plausible reason to look at

Fortunately I don’t have to.

I can pretty much do whatever I want as long as my work is good, which it is. My way of working is in short but very productive bursts with a lot of downtime in between. At some point I realized there is nothing I need to hide, it's just how I operate, and that's okay.

I don't get micromanaged any more, but when I worked retail I had to help customers that walked up and so I would use my phone always in the same spot where I can see the camera feed of all the exits in my periphery. I don't know if a customer ever saw my phone.

Have a job in online communications, works for me.

I look over to my cat to make sure he's sleeping.

i work a lot with my phone, so nothing i do seems "suspicious"

we also got the attitude of "if the work gets done it doesn't matter how you spend the rest of the day" but i think my workplace is special in that regard

What kind of gustapo do you work for man?

Phone mirror

I've stopped doing that and just put my own laptop on the desk besides the work laptop the second they implemented a new privacy agreement that forbade personal data on work devices. So far no one has said anything.

I have three phones to keep them guessing.

I have many social media type things and IRC hooked up to emacs which is also my IDE