Out of interest, what is the "cell phone privilege", if you're not even allowed to use it during work?

You also may want to throw a country tag on there, and maybe mention what field of work the software is in. If it was a company that does defense contracts, it's not that extreme, if you're writing mobile phone games, it's very extreme.

The "privilege" is them allowing an employee to keep a cell phone at their desk, but only allowed to use it during lunch break.

Its a retail company @GregoryCurrie

Do they mean your personal cell phone when they say "An employee must NOT use their cell phone during work hours"? As opposed to your company cell phone?

@user10186832 yes, personal cell phone

@JoeStrazzere I am trying to understand if this is normal in the retail industry as i have never worked in the industry before.

Sounds miserable to me. Outside of law enforcement or defense, I wouldn't bother interviewing with such a place.

That is actually the core thing here - most developers will look at that and ghost. This is a sellers market for Software Developers, no way to get into crazy requests.

yes @TomTom has perfectly summarized the situation.

The first two points seem completely normal; the second point shouldn't even need any explicit mention. As for the first point; why would you use your personal phone at work anyway? Sure, you may get an emergency call on very rare occasions, and (likely?) nobody will hold that against you. But for what other reason would you use your phone when you are one someone else's time?

I'm voting to close this because it's essentially 3 distinct questions, that might be good questions, but they should be asked in separate question posts.

Splitting this up into three distinct questions would remove necessary context. The policies are best considered together rather than one-by-one, because they paint a picture when viewed together.

@ZachLipton Considering a range of things to paint a larger picture is something that's better done on a discussion forum or in a one-on-one conversation. This site is a Q&A, which should also provide value to others with similar questions, something that's best done when considering issues in isolation as far as possible, or creating a more general reference post.

I might be naive but why not ask them "why would a software engineer subject to these rules that seem unlikely elsewhere"? edit: elsewhere as in other companies

Do you have other offers or prospects? Do you want to work at this company? Do you have prior experience in the industry? Do you have any problems on your background? Seems routine and straightforward for any sensitive position or one with access to valuables. Is there a reason you won't consent to these terms?

I'd walk away over the cell phone thing. If you have a wife/children you need to be comfortable in work knowing that if there's ever an emergency, you can take a call and you're not going to be diciplined for it.

@Fattie "Note, as everyone has said, point 2 is completely normal." - That depends on locale. In the EU, employees have some expectation of privacy, even on employer equipment. Monitoring liberties are fairly strictly regulated, and for many things requires consent of the employee.

I don't think the problem is what you think it is. The real problem is that they first had you sign the offer letter, and only after that you got information about these rules. And they require you to sign off on them as well. To me that seems fishy to say the least. But the real problem is, what will they enforce next? Personally I would continue to look for a job, without working with this company if possible.

Looks like they just copy-pasted the same rules they have for other people in the store

@marcelm the OP stated he's in the US so there's no need to mention European regulations when they will never apply.

The middle bullet point is quite normal in IT. If you're using company equipment to perform your job then everything on that equipment is property of the company. Don't put personal files on the machine and don't log into personal accounts in the web browser such as banking, social media, email, etc... especially if it doesn't have a session timeout. Also, don't let the web browser save your personal login credentials. If you get unexpectedly terminated then then they don't usually give you enough time to remove your personal crap.

"This is an office job, not in a store. I am a software engineer, so obviously I will not be dealing with their physical products ever, only enhancing and maintaining their online software." -- Until that day you're in a store because you don't believe the bug report, and you have someone showing you, in situ, what happens?

@servaes Happy workers are better workers. There's no reason to put a blanket ban on knowledge workers having their phone around. All you're going to do is frustrate people

I have seen one policy like that at a company that handled a very high amount of financial data/transactions. I was to work in an air-gapped network, and I would have a locker for all personal belongings and nothing would be allowed into the work area. Given the very sensitive nature of what they did, it made complete sense. Context matters.

@Servaes I'll agree with the ground that 2 is standard and can be ignored (with caveats about level of privacy expected on Company equipment - and the other 2 almost guarentee that they would cross boundaries). I would laugh at any offer that included #1 or #3 unless desperate - I would stay long enough to find something without such stupidity. NO cell phone? I've had many jobs and NO place has required that. Especially if I haven't been given a company phone (Hint: yet to get one). #3 is equally ghostworthy the company with a brief "these restrictions are crazy" email (paraphrased).

@Servaes when I've had contractors working at my house it's not unusual to get a call at work in the middle of the day asking me a question. Or if I've dropped my car off at a garage for work or inspection I may get a call telling me my tires are worn and should be replaced. It would be extremely inconvenient to have to wait until after work to answer these, and of course at that time the people who called won't be available. Having a 5 minute personal call at work is not a big deal.

In general, the phone policy is the norm now of days because too many people abuse that privilege. You are expected to work at work and there's no need for personal cell phones or calls during non-break time (AKA the entire time you're at work [outside of lunch time]). If there's an emergency then the caller should call you through your desk phone so the call is monitored and logged (otherwise ... it's not an emergency).

I worked for a company like this. My advice is to run. They extended my probationary period by changing my job title and then let me go at the end of 2 periods once the work was done. My last paycheque was negative as the company paid for my relocation.