AS-9 Guidelines for Incidental Telephone Usage for the Maricopa Community Colleges

AS-9 Guidelines for Incidental Telephone Usage for the Maricopa Community Colleges danim94751

The Maricopa Community Colleges are committed to the continuous improvement of its employees through training, tuition waivers and reimbursement as well as professional growth. Maricopa also supports a productive friendly work environment for employees. Since Maricopa has been updating telephone usage policies, it is important to help clearly define and identify some acceptable, though incidental, uses of Maricopa technology in relation to these goals.

Incidental telephone usage refers to those calls which are unrelated to the conduct of official Maricopa business, but are authorized if they:

  1. Do not adversely affect the performance of the duties of the employee or the employee’s department; and
  2. Are not for commercial purposes, for-profit activities unrelated to Maricopa, or in support of other outside employment or business activity (e.g. consulting for pay, sales or administration of business transactions, sales or supply of goods or services).
  3. Are of a reasonable duration and frequency; and
  4. Could not reasonably have been made at another time; and
  5. Do not result in additional charges to Maricopa (e.g. long distance, toll calls, 900#). Note that employees who are participating in the accountable plan may utilize a cell phone for incidental use, but must reimburse the district for those charges.

The following are examples of incidental telephone usage. These examples do not supersede any expanded local college guidelines that might prohibit such use:

  1. Calls to notify family members and/or physician in case of an emergency.
  2. Calls to notify family members of work schedule changes, delays or changes in travel plans.
  3. Brief local calls to an employee’s residence, family member, child’s school, child care provider, or elder-care provider.
  4. Brief calls to local businesses (including government agencies, physicians or auto and home repair) that can only be reached during normal work hours.

Note: In all cases, local college and Maricopa policies and regulations supersede these guidelines.