Should I accept a Company Mobile Phone?

Tim76

Hi all,

I've been offered a company mobile phone which would end up replacing my existing personal one.

I'm a bit reluctant to accept tho. Despite the advantages of having bills paid & upgrades looked after I have concerns about privacy when using the phone out of office or on weekends, not that I’d be up to anything too scandalous! But I remember something being on the radio a while back about some guy getting fired for using a work phone for personal emails etc., can’t remember the exact details tho.

A phone these days essentially becomes your personal computer & the fact the company could have access to it anytime they want makes me uneasy.

Has anyone out there got any advice on the matter?

Graham

Keep your personal phone for personal use then you've nothing to be paranoid about.

Boskowski

I'm in the same boat and our company's phone policy is pretty upfront about things. Basically it's company property which you can use for private purposes but you cannot expect any privacy and company code of conduct applies.
I simply kept my own phone when I learned that. F*** that.
Also bear in mind they're not doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. They're doing it because they expect extended if not unlimited availability.

Tim76

Running 2 devices cancels out all the advantages of having one provided from work gratis. You still have to upgrade & pay your monthly bills and then work get unlimited access to u (within reason) on the work phone.

Sounds like a bad deal imho.

SteM

OP, for the sake of the €30 per month bill and the the cost of an upgrade every few years it's not worth imo. They have full access to you 24/7 and as you mentioned your privacy goes out the window. I did the 2 phone thing for a few years but that's just a pain carrying 2 devices around, making sure they're both charged etc.

seamus

Tim76 wrote: »

Running 2 devices cancels out all the advantages of having one provided from work gratis. You still have to upgrade & pay your monthly bills and then work get unlimited access to u (within reason) on the work phone.

Sounds like a bad deal imho.

Trust me, separate phones are the way to go. You can drop your personal phone onto a smaller package - I pay €25.41 a month with Three and basically use that phone for data stuff mainly - email, web surfing, whatsapp, etc.

The work phone I use for work stuff strictly. Remember that your work phone and the contents of it are property of the company who may have the right to track the phone and search it at will. If the handset is managed by a company policy, it will have a pile of these things on it.

Having two handsets gives you the freedom to leave your work phone at home or switch it off when you want to go to the pub or it's the weekend, but still have your personal phone on you.

Also makes things easier when you inevitably leave the job - you don't have to tell all your mates that you've switched number again.

Work get as much access to you as you allow. When you get home, take your work phone out of your pocket and throw it onto the desk in a spare room or something.

If you don't take the offer, are work going to want to call you on your personal number? That alone is enough reason to take the work mobile.

Manach

My understanding is that work having a personal number is for emergency only. Using that on to contact you on a work related matter is bad form at the least unless given permission by you.

pedronomix

This a hired help issue and has nothing to do with the subject matter of this forum. That said, if they want you to have one, smart says take it, use it for work and switch it off when you don't want calls, messages or emails outside work hours.... No genius required to manage situation.

mneylon

I'd recommend you check with your employer to find out exactly what policy they have.

Ours is fairly liberal. We cover all the costs up to a certain limit - if you go over that limit you'll need to justify how it is a work expense or pay the difference (so you can use the phone while you're on holiday in France / Spain, but we'd expect you to cover the roaming costs unless you were also working / on call or something)

We don't place any restrictions on usage - apart from our general "don't embarrass the company" type clause. So if the work phone is your only phone (and some staff have ported their numbers over) then that's fine

Of course some of our staff keep two devices ..