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Employees can’t stop playing Pokemon Go at work, so Boeing had to ban it

Published Jul 14th, 2016 7:30PM EDT
Pokemon Go At Work Boeing Ban

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Just like you shouldn’t Pokemon Go and drive, you shouldn’t play the game while at work either. That goes double if you work for Boeing, as the massive company just issued a company-wide policy that’s banning Pokemon Go play at work.

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The problem isn’t only that employees installing the game on their mobile devices are likely to ignore work chores and instead hunt for Pikachu and friends on the company dime. It’s also that people might walk into machinery and hurt themselves.

https://twitter.com/charmandrs/status/753050382503284736

Boeing took firm action against the app, adding it to a blacklist that bans carrier bloatware apps,  and now Pokemon Go. The company found the app installed on more than 100 work phones, and one person almost got injured while playing it at work.

“Due to the popularity of Pokémon Go and users not being able to make the conscious decision to not play Pokémon at work – we had a near miss for a user getting hurt while playing the game. Due to that, we had to react and disable the Pokémon app from all devices – we had over 100 active installs of that application. The blacklist removes all that we consider to be carrier bloatware and now also the Pokémon Go app,” Boeing wrote in a memo seen by 9to5Mac.

https://twitter.com/samylol/status/753427047267962880

It’s likely that other companies will take similar action against employees dedicating their work time to Pokemon Go. The solution, however, is relatively straightforward. Just get a different device, along with a cellular data plan for it, to play Pokemon Go at work, rather than doing it on your company phone.

Chris Smith Senior Writer

Chris Smith has been covering consumer electronics ever since the iPhone revolutionized the industry in 2008. When he’s not writing about the most recent tech news for BGR, he brings his entertainment expertise to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and other blockbuster franchises.

Outside of work, you’ll catch him streaming almost every new movie and TV show release as soon as it's available.