Does a company have to give an employee a work mobile ?

Snotty

Glass fused light wrote: »

I would expect that companies which issue company phones the IT department can access it like any other computer. And the standards are set per company policy. See Bigmac1euros post for what to expect.
If they 'allow' you to supply the phone your effectively giving the company full access and control. So its as if it was a company phone. In a company I worked for policy clearly stated that IT would remote into your personal phone and on your leaving the company would wipe everything and in theory you also granted them access to the backup sites too.
The system was set up to notify IT if you did not connect with a password or install updates.

This is called MobileIron, company has full control of the mobile, can see history, can restrict functionality and of course wipe the phone completely if needed.

Bigmac1euro

Snotty wrote: »

With mobileiron and older solutions, yes, with new technology no, not at all, they have no access to anything. It's one browser and it's a self contained connection to the company.

I'm not advocating people use their personal phones for work, many people can't switch off at all and would be getting alerts at all hours for work emails, that's crazy. But to save me carrying 2 phone, there is options that will allow me to cover the work requirements without jeopardizing mine or the company's data.

If people have some moral objection to personal/work phones being intertwined, that's fine, but dont assume you know what is possible when you clearly don't.

In order to have such a browser on your phone it would need to enforce policies for security reasons these policies would include having a pin because then anyone could pick up your phone and open this cloud browser. The cloud browser would also require a vpn profile giving you tunnelled access to the company network.

Does this cloud browser come down through the general App Store/playstore ?
Do you have an email client as well ? These apps can take permission of your phone and as you say you have a cloud browser, so your phones Imei would have to be registered on the companies Mobile device management software so the company knows who has their cloud browser, any MDM I’ve seen gives the company exclusive rights over your device and you may not even know it. I would be genuinely curious as to what this cloud browser is you speak of ? For your sake I hope it’s not Citrix secure hub because everything you just mentioned above is incorrect.

Stephen15

Where would it end though. Could you make a case for having a work phone for all contact between you and your employer such as ringing your boss to phone in sick or your boss ringing to notify you of any overtime going etc. even if your job itself requires no use of a mobile phone.

Glass fused light

Stephen15 wrote: »

Where would it end though. Could you make a case for having a work phone for all contact between you and your employer such as ringing your boss to phone in sick or your boss ringing to notify you of any overtime going etc. even if your job itself requires no use of a mobile phone.

If the job requires that an employee is contactable by mobile, or to access data while mobile, then it's up to the job to provide the phone/tablet/laptop.

The employee may agree to facilitate the company's business need by allowing the company to circulate the employees personal contact number or that they log on to the company using their personal IT. But the employer/manager needs to understand that if the business is not willing to provide the equipment that they can not force the employee to provide the equipment.

As for phoning in sick or overtime if the company is put on notice that the employee did not have access to any phone, it's up to them to resolve the issue, particularly if the company policy was to do a disiplinary action.

People need to remember that technology is great but most dont want or need their employers involvement in their non-work time. The use of a company linked phone involves 24/7 oversite by all the internal company policies and the legistation of their country of residence plus the company's country of residence.

C3PO

Glass fused light wrote:

As for phoning in sick or overtime if the company is put on notice that the employee did not have access to any phone, it's up to them to resolve the issue, particularly if the company policy was to do a disiplinary action.

Am I reading this correctly - you believe that it is a company's responsibility to provide an employee with a phone in order for that employee to be able to call in sick?

Glass fused light

C3PO wrote: »

Am I reading this correctly - you believe that it is a company's responsibility to provide an employee with a phone in order for that employee to be able to call in sick?

No not at all. But if the employee is going to face a disiplinary action for failing to comply with the policy of phoning in before x time, the company has a fundamental problem where the employee has given notice that they don't have access to a phone eg key holders, the only one who can turn on the machines etc.

Del2005

Glass fused light wrote: »

No not at all. But if the employee is going to face a disiplinary action for failing to comply with the policy of phoning in before x time, the company has a fundamental problem where the employee has given notice that they don't have access to a phone eg key holders, the only one who can turn on the machines etc.

Having to call in to report an absence has been company policy since people had phones in their homes.

Having to have company software on your personal phone is a completely different issue.

Rowley Birkin QC

Ì have a dual SIM phone. After 5, I switch off the work SIM and also my work profile. This disables the work phone number and work emails coming through. Simples.

Snotty

Bigmac1euro wrote: »

In order to have such a browser on your phone it would need to enforce policies for security reasons these policies would include having a pin because then anyone could pick up your phone and open this cloud browser. The cloud browser would also require a vpn profile giving you tunnelled access to the company network.

Does this cloud browser come down through the general App Store/playstore ?
Do you have an email client as well ? These apps can take permission of your phone and as you say you have a cloud browser, so your phones Imei would have to be registered on the companies Mobile device management software so the company knows who has their cloud browser, any MDM I’ve seen gives the company exclusive rights over your device and you may not even know it. I would be genuinely curious as to what this cloud browser is you speak of ? For your sake I hope it’s not Citrix secure hub because everything you just mentioned above is incorrect.

OK, so you've seen managed devices and yes they are still around, if it was a company supplied phone I wouldn't expect anything less, but technology does progress for both parties benifit, no one wanted intune so either the company comes up with something better or no one has email on their phone.
It's certainly not citrix and It's not a play store app, permissions wise, it's a short list, the Facebook app definitely has more access. It's got the name of my employer in the name so I'm assuming this is branded for each company that uses it, not sure.
There no IMEI sharing in advance to allow access, but does it send the IMEI when I login, sure maybe but who cares. If my phone breaks tomorrow, I can just go to the companies site and download it.
Yes of course there is a pin, and periodic mulitifactor, twilio sms or call style, this is the authorisation.

Bigmac1euro

Snotty wrote: »

OK, so you've seen managed devices and yes they are still around, if it was a company supplied phone I wouldn't expect anything less, but technology does progress for both parties benifit, no one wanted intune so either the company comes up with something better or no one has email on their phone.
It's certainly not citrix and It's not a play store app, permissions wise, it's a short list, the Facebook app definitely has more access. It's got the name of my employer in the name so I'm assuming this is branded for each company that uses it, not sure.
There no IMEI sharing in advance to allow access, but does it send the IMEI when I login, sure maybe but who cares. If my phone breaks tomorrow, I can just go to the companies site and download it.
Yes of course there is a pin, and periodic mulitifactor, twilio sms or call style, this is the authorisation.

Lol it’s my job to manage devices.

Skatedude

Lux23 wrote: »

I wouldn't agree to using my personal phone as my work, you can never switch off in that case.

Schedule do not disturb for your work group contacts and work email, but they should subsidize something towards bill costs.

Ursus Horribilis

Do you also have to use your personal phone number for business related calls?

Seeing as you can pick up OK budget smartphones for under €100 now (3 have the Xiaomi Redmi 6 for €89 PAYG), it makes even less sense for you to bring your personal phone into the equation. I'd be "losing" or "breaking" my smartphone for a while and replacing it with a cheap phone that doesn't have internet connectivity. Feck them.

OldMrBrennan83

Rowley Birkin QC wrote: »

Ì have a dual SIM phone. After 5, I switch off the work SIM and also my work profile. This disables the work phone number and work emails coming through. Simples.

You don't even need two sims. Just don't answer anything after 5.

Bigmac1euro

OldMrBrennan83 wrote: »

You don't even need two sims. Just don't answer anything after 5.

You see this is were it gets messy for me, you might not know if its work related calling. So happy to keep work device separate.
Some people are ruthless my work phone which i usually switch off on a friday evening sometimes does be binging on a sunday night at 9pm. That's head wrecking stuff.