Does this sound legit regarding tech/phone issues?

It is literally the same network that gets you voice calls that gets you texts. If she is getting calls that aren't garbled, then she can get texts. Now if she is using something like WhatsApp or FB Messenger for texts, that is data usage. If the metal silo is in a direct line in between the house and the tower, then it's possible that she would have trouble. She might have a crappy cell phone and that's her issue as well.

Just ran your message by my IT hubby and that's what he said.

Well, I will tell you that while my cell company coverage map shows complete coverage where I am, my apartment is basically a deadzone. Texts don't always come through timely, though I can sometimes force it to check if I turn off WiFi, turn on airplane mode, then turn off airplane mode and let it try to get the network. Sometimes, texts come through at three in the morning after the phone does its daily restart (and I know for a fact that my coworkers did not send me texts at 3 am.) I can drop a phone call from my "desk" just by turning 15 degrees one way or the other. And if I leave the apartment and the wifi, and go downstairs to my car where it drops the wifi, and go out about town, the phone may or may not decide to find the nearest towers to connect to the network. If not, I have to turn airplane mode off and on again to get the 5 bars I know it should have. So I can totally believe there are cell issues.

Depending on where she is in the country, her internet may be limited to satellite service (i.e., not cable). I mean, the cable company wanted something like $15,000 to run cable from the main line up to my aunt's house less than a mile up the driveway, so she stuck with her giant satellite dish. As far as I know, it usually works just fine, but I think it's more susceptible to interference.

Having said all of that, though, I am able to be logged in to my work email all day, so unless the work network goes down, people can reach me that way if not by phone. So I would probably try to couch any discussion in "how can we make you more available to receive and respond timely?" rather than focusing on the technical legitimacy of her claims.

Being in your 60s is not an excuse. There really isn’t a steep learning curve in emailing and texting. My 90-year-old mother and her friends keep in touch via texts and emails all the time. If you’ve addressed this problem before with the three individuals and it’s obviously persisting, is there a manager who is ultimately responsible for your team’s performance you could speak with?

What is the reporting structure? Is someone in charge? If this was my team, I would be Willing to make minor allowances for technology in these special circumstances, but I would expect people to be making an effort to accommodate for any lapses in technology. So I would talk to the group about finding a maybe single place we could all communicate like a Microsoft planner list, SharePoint wiki, etc. where everyone could reach out to that place rather than relying on messages coming to each person. Then I would want check-ins maybe between certain hours each day. If someone couldn’t check due to tech, they could be responsible for calling someone else.

Out of curiosity what would happen if you started calling her every time you would have texted or emailed? If she’s getting calls, then I can imagine this would get annoying enough for her to start using another method of communication.

It’s not you, it’s them. Texts need a much weaker signal to be received. And if they are leaving the property daily, it seems unbelievable that the texts do not come in at that time.

I don’t know that I would bring this up at the meeting, but maybe just one-on-one with your manager. I would ask how to improve communication because you are going days without receiving a response some team members. I would cite the technology as a reason why they aren’t answering and act like you believe them. And then ask that someone help these team members solve the issue.

If they have smartphones, I suspect that they don’t have the Notifications feature set on their phones. So they can’t see that they have a new text/email/voicemail at a glance. They have to physically open the app to see any new communication. If you are the manager, I would appoint another team member to check the Notifications on the phone. If it’s an Apple phone, you can see when they received a text by holding the text message and moving it to the left. The time stamp will then appear.

But in the end, you may just need to call them. Some people wear it as a badge of honor that they don’t use technology. You aren’t going to change that mentality.

IMO you can change that mentality if its important enough to the troglodyte.  I would think job security would be important enough to smarten up and learn to use it properly. 


My dh used to be like this.  Our dd went away for university.  He complained he never heard from her meanwhile she texted me every day.  He missed out on a few golf trips with his buddies because he never checked his texts and they got someone else in his place.  He complained.  I just said that's on you, none of those things affect me. You have a smart phone if you like either ds or I can teach you how to use it.  It has been about 3 years now and he will never be a super techy but he does text (and loves emojiis) and uses an ipad to book golf and do some shopping so there is hope for most anyone.

This is true to some extent. My Dad hates texts and complains that it’s all my kids use. I told him that they are seldom able to make a phone call, but can text at almost any time. That helped a bit, but he still complains. They are all in Minnesota while we live out of the country, so he has to cobble together some sort of communication with the kids. Which usually falls to my step mother!  And ironically, Dad thinks he’s really tech savvy. 

If there are technology issues, it's on them to fix them until they are resolved. This is part of being a professional. I agree with the points above and have a few additional ones:

Set expectations for when you are expecting responses to email. I try to respond to everything within 24 hours or less, even if it is just "I'm working on it."

I don't think it is fair to expect that personal cell phones be used for work (if that's the case here). For me, I do not like interrupting my personal time with work unless it is an emergency. Also, my cell phone is not the optimal way for me to respond--it's a hassle to access my files and other things I need for a response, I can't text as well as I type, I might be driving, etc.

I am just wondering if these are work cell phones? And if the company pays for them? We had to hash this out at my work a few years ago, when there were people who were checking emails on their phones and people who were not. I was in the "not" camp, not because I couldn't but because my phone is my personal device and if my work was not paying for my phone, I wasn't using it for work purposes. HOWEVER, if this is a work device, you have every right to expect they will be checking texts, messages, ect in a timely manner. And if that means running into "town" to do it, well then they need to do that.

Yes, all this. We are nearly six months into this with no end in site. 600 people work in my building. We have no good plan for going back into the office. At this point, it's time to accept that working from home will be long term and you need to deal with the changes. I, too, am getting tired of the excuses going on. We don't have each other back to back in cubicles anymore. We need to be able to be available for work email and TEAMS meetings during our work hours, period.

AT&T doesn't work in my house, but it works across the street. Hence, I have Verizon.
Now that so many WFH, organizations need to be clear about the communications expectations and what tech/specs are needed at home (and help staff fix it). I would also ask *how* to help fix it, or talk to your boss about it, and if it's some sort of external issue, see what modifications are available. I don't think constant tech problems can be an excuse, or not learning new stuff, when so many are working remote. 

We had a staff retreat via Zoom and in my breakout group, we discussed creating a document regarding expectations. Like turning video on, learning basic Zoom things (like change your settings to enter on mute and with video off), etc. We all need to do it now.

I have absolutely zero choice of a wired internet connection. None. And there will not be any at any point in the future as far as I can tell, and I have researched it extensively.

I am by far not alone in this situation in my area.

I was finally able to get a Fixed Wireless provider a few years ago (Rise Broadband) .. but holy $h*t, the service was AWFUL. They had SO many outages, or the speed was about as slow as dialup. It was terrible, and expensive.

A more local provider is now available to me, that is the same Fixed Wireless type and it is much better. I have almost has no outages, and for the most part, the speed is acceptable at 10 Mbps... usually. Yes - for me 10 Mbps is BLAZING fast. They also do not have a data cap, which most other options including Satellite have. If you are stuck with either Hughes Net or Via Sat, you are data capped a pretty low amount of usage. When I have ViaSat - it was capped at 10 GB/per month. Which could easily be hit in a day, when my kids still lived here. The rest of the month was slower than dialup. HughesNet is similar.  
I think ViaSat's data cap is 40GB for the bottom tier plan now - which is still not much.  


So if they are dealing with only being able to go off satellite internet - they honestly have issues that are beyond their control.