Working From Home - Hotspot

3 Posts

in Mobiles
As most of us now work from home, we're relying on our household amenities a lot more which made me think.
Scenario - You're working from home and your electricity goes off. The power company said it should be on later in the afternoon but you need the electricity to power your broadband router. As the only option is to use your mobile phone as a mobile hotspot so you can continue working, does anyone know if you can claim anything through work as connecting like this eats in to your data allowance?
Thanks.
Scenario - You're working from home and your electricity goes off. The power company said it should be on later in the afternoon but you need the electricity to power your broadband router. As the only option is to use your mobile phone as a mobile hotspot so you can continue working, does anyone know if you can claim anything through work as connecting like this eats in to your data allowance?
Thanks.
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This is a big change to when previously if you had to work from home your employer might have bought you all the office furniture and had broadband etc installed for you and paid for the monthly costs. My employed stopped doing that about 7 years back on the assumption that no one lives without broadband. We are expected to deal with a tax code change to reclaim a very very small benefit to cover the extra cost of WFH. The only thing that they did do was supply laptops and other IT paraphanalia and decent chairs so we wouldn't all be off with repetitive strain or back injuries.
2023 £1 a day £54.26/365
Still wouldn’t use my own phone though.
What kind of work is it that you would do?
A lot of people have many gigabytes on their package which they don't use up, and depending on the work you do or method you access, it is unlikely to decrement excessively from your mobile data, if it is emails, accessing apps/files remotely etc. Things like Zoom/Teams video calls would drain the data more. Again, there are lots of variables.
I doubt that unless written into your contract they would reimburse you for such usage. I myself have an unlimited data package on my mobile, so that affords me the ability to also work whever I wish where I have phone reception.
I didn't expect my employer to sort out my IT when I was allowed to work from home, it was a privilege, not a right. It might be different if the employer insists that you work from home, in which case it's down to them to sort you out.
Is it really any different to having a job that requires you to provide your own transport, if you have problem its down to you to make provision for any accidents or breakdowns.
I would say if its a total power cut any reasonable employer would just say don't work for the rest of the day.
But if it is a broadband outage then you may be expected to go into the office and work there or find another solution.
2023 £1 a day £54.26/365