The Walt Disney Co. is known for having strick rules for its employees, and now it is taking an extra hard line on texting.
The website Deadline Hollywood reported last week that Disney has told its workers it may fire anyone caught texting while driving.
The media giant sent out a companywide memo last week that said it was “enhancing its vehicle safety policy effective immediately.” To that end, Disney workers are banned from sending or reading texts or e-mails while driving a company vehicle or when driving their own car while doing work-related tasks.
According to Deadline Hollywood, the memo warned, “Failure to comply will lead to disciplinary actions up to and including termination.”
The show business website slyly noted that Disney was following in the shoes of the Obama administration, which has banned federal employees from texting and driving while on official business, and barred commercial bus and truck drivers from texting on the job as well.
Deadline Hollywood pointed out that this new Disney rule may put a crimp on dealmaking, since in car-centric L.A. lots of executives do business on their Blackberries while behind the wheel.
Posters to the Deadline Hollywood story suggested that Disney was imposing this texting-ban to avoid liability if any accidents take place.
Whether Disney’s motives are self-serving or not, it’s a good idea for a company to read the riot act, so to speak, to exmployees who tesxt.