Ryanair bans employees from charging cellphones at work
By Peter Rojas 
posted April 21st 2005 11:10AM
posted April 21st 2005 11:10AM
In one of those completely brilliant business moves that really endear you to your employees, budget
UK Irish airline Ryanair has decided to ban its staff from charging their cellphones while at work,
saying that it's an "inappropriate use of office time". It's one thing if they don't want people making personal calls
on their cellphones during the work day because they want to keep productivity up (they keep us handcuffed to our
laptops here at Engadget HQ), but don't front that someone plugging in a charger is somehow equivalent to slacking off
or stealing electricity. Because even though they're a budget operation, we think they'll live.
[Via The
Shifted Librarian]
OMG! When shall the employees at Ryanair stop accepting being treated like slaves.
Ryanair can go to hell.
99 cent to fly to european destinations.
fuck the employees, i'm still gonna fly ryanair
Ryanair is actually an Irish company. I cannot have the world thinking that all draconian behavior is from the UK or the US :-)
jus so you know ryanair is an irish airline!!
Yeah, right! Wouldn't you just love to fly in a plane that was fixed and flown by the pissed off employees of this company. Thank God there is a list of WORST companies to work for as well as best. Ryanair obviously needs to be submitted for inclusion. http://alternet.org/story/21088/
It's not all that surprising from the man who phased out reclining chairs, makes the disabled and elderly pay for wheelchairs and sewed the emergency instructions to the back of the chairs to make turn-around times more effcient!
mart, if you ever actually fly for 99p I'll be well impressed. The cheapest I've had was £30 to Norway, plus all the transport fees to get to the airports in the middle of nowhere.
RyanAir also charge a wheelchair tax of 50p per person, because of all those wretched disabled people using more than their fair share of resources.
But still... £30 to Norway... oh go on then.
My sister's had loads of flights for £1 or £2, (plus tax) so the deals do exist, you just need to book a few weeks in advance.
Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary is famously cheap (an image that he cultivates because it reinforces the consumer perception of Ryanair flights as being as low cost as possible). Staff are expected to buy their own uniforms and he has reportedly instructed Ryanair head office personnel to keep costs low by stealing pens from hotels instead of spending money on office supplies.
On the other hand, O'Leary has stated that by 2010 half of the Ryanair's European flights should be free, with passengers paying only airport tax. Getting around Europe has become a lot cheaper thanks to Ryanair. You just have to be willing to spend an extra couple of hours trekking from the airport you've never heard of in the middle of nowhere to your actual destination.
mart I really wish you one day end up with such an asocial company as Ryan is. When you are at the receiving end you might maybe realize what crap you're talking here.
Let's see how long Ryan still flies. I for sure will never fly with such an airline. Flying for a good price is more that going A - B for the least money. The social behaviour of a company also matters. I know nowadays only the blank wallstreet capitalism rules, but it won't last for ever. O'Leary will sure get what he deserves one day ;-)
Hang on a second. So they fly their employees overseas, but don't want them to be able to phone home and say they've arrived safely? Really?
well, i'll admit i was a bit unfeeling there towards ryanair employees.
i know they are quite put-upon by the company (as well as being non-union i believe, which sucks).
@edison, i have had 99cent fares, obviously not including the airport tax.
@nojetlag, i hope i don't. anyway, ryanair is still growing and expanding, i think they'll be around for a long time, especially seeing as a lot of airlines are now modelling themselves on ryanair.
oh, and the company i work for makes us keep phones in lockers, where there are no power points to charge them.
shock, i wish i was in a union, this is outrageous.
and in regards ryanair in general, i'd rather have a free flight than a reclining seat. after all, it hardly makes much difference on a 1-2 hour flight.
it's theft of company resources - electricity.
i'm sure some analyst sitting in the operations center figuring out ways to reduce the budget tallied some astronomical figure by multiplying the kw/h charge x the number of employees x the number of cells phones divided by the percentage utilization of workers productivity rate per minute...
It is vulgar that a company would operate this way...if it is true that employees are encouraged to take pens/etc from other companies (hotels) to save on cost.
Personally, if I actually owned stock in RYAAY, I would sell, because the demise of Ryanair may not happen right away, but treating employees (esp. who work in high-stress jobs with the lives of passengers in their hands) with such exacting measures will return to hurt Ryanair later on.
What a vile way to run a company. Make no mistake - I am an American capitalist. I am pro-business, pro-low-taxes, pro-etc. etc., but this is idiotic.
ryanair is incredible. i mean the few times i've flown them the bus trip to my actual destination took longer than the flight (i.e. oslo, we were at an airport 2 hours away, yet our flight from london was only like an hour and a half). Plus their bus shuttles are more expensive than the flights!
"ryanair is incredible. i mean the few times i've flown them the bus trip to my actual destination took longer than the flight (i.e. oslo, we were at an airport 2 hours away, yet our flight from london was only like an hour and a half)."
Wow, how stupid is that? You're incredible - you save money then bitch about it.... didn't you read the fine print, use your common sense?
Normally I'm all for the little guy standing up to a corporation, but here goes...deep breath...
Charge your damned phone at home. If you aren't talking on your phone at work (an obvious infraction) then your charge should last you all day.
What is it with these private companies thingking they can make rules for employees to follow. Next thing you know, they'll want them to show up on time and do their jobs. Bastards.
Yeah, O'Leary is the fecker who bought a taxi plate for his limo so he could use the bus lanes in Dublin. He also took out full page ads in Irish nerspapers slagging off the minister for transport. The man lives in his own little world. I'm surprised he didn't get staff to use their phones for company business...
Having said that, my girlfriend lives in Dublin and her family live in London. Using Ryanair means we get to see a lot more of the family than we would otherwise.
I don't like his business practices much, but there are other arilines out there - people aren't forced into working for him
I don't know why are you all bitching about RyanAir.I've been flying with them 90% of the time for the last three years and they're pretty much ok.The tickets are cheap (and I paid lots of time 1euro+fees,of course a month in advance) and they're always on time.I really don't care about reclining seats or free drinks and food in the plane for a max two hours flight. On the other hand has anyone though that the ban is maybe because of safety concerns?!
RyanAir has done more to 'unite' Europe than any of the laws and institutions in EU.Being able to move around EU cheaply and easily made people to know it better.
a storm in a tea-cup
I've flown Ryanair about 20 times. More than half of those flights cost less than 10 euros per leg (7 legs below 1 euro).
Unlike many airlines, Ryanair has no hidden fuel surcharge.
The planes are so new they sometimes have a Boeing livery: No American legacy carrier or European flag carrier can claim as young a fleet as Ryanair (the average age of Ryanair's 737-800s is currently 1.4 years). Employees are asked to work hard, but their salaries are competitive.
Ryanair Pilots work a stable 5 on, 3 off roster pattern comprising a week of early shifts followed by a week of late shifts. This offers Pilots fixed days off and an ability to plan their time off which is unique in aviation as most airlines schedule their pilots' "lines" based on seniority.
Ryanair has no planned overnights - combined with the stable roster pattern this delivers a unique quality of life for Ryanair crews.
Are you sure Ryanair is to be damned?
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