Do you have to provide a personal mobile phone number if/when asked?

vacheron

If the company requires you to use your company phone during working hours (or outside of hours for direct company business) then they should be providing the phone, or at least offering to reimburse you for the costs. The same applies to laptops, cars, and all other equipment.

There is a grey area regarding being contactable for personal reasons. i.e. to offer a shift, to inform you over the weekend of, say, a cancelled event on a Monday so you don't drive 30 miles out of your way for no good reason.

Our company recently moved to using the Microsoft Authenticator app to log in to our work PC's (with no other logon option available). There was a lot of resistance to this by those without company phones as this basically required staff to use their own personal phones. This caused a number of complaints on the basis that if our IT department wanted to implement new secure systems, they also provide the employees with the tools to do so.

Finally, about a month after an agreement was reached, a blanket e-mail was sent across the company from personnel reminding people that personal mobile phones were not be used during working hours! 

Yes, they really are that stupid! 
Not much work got done that day.   

Emmia

BikingBud said:

B0bbyEwing said:

Emmia said:

B0bbyEwing said:

Now for the pedantic reading this, yes I'm aware you don't technically 'have' to do anything at work, you can say no to absolutely anything & everything, but then you wouldn't last very long & I think you know what I mean with the thread title.

It also wouldn't surprise me if you have to give some form of phone contact as part of your employment. I haven't paid too much attention to that - because I've actually supplied this without any grumble. They have my home phone and my OH's number for emergencies.

I'm asking this because I currently have a works mobile phone but I'm expecting that to change in the near future (I suspect they'll soon as for it back). This will leave me as uncontactable 'on the spot'. 
I should point out that it isn't a requirement as per my contract to be contactable on the spot.

I imagine they'll then ask for my personal mobile number (this isn't just a random feeling by the way, there's good reason for me to suspect this) which I don't wish to give out.

Why? I just don't want to be contactable on the spot. In my eyes if they want to reach me they can contact the department manager who's always within reach of all of us in the department and contact me that way. When I'm outside of work then I don't want to be reminded of work. I don't want work chat groups pinging away (yes I know you can mute them but I also don't want the faff of muting, unmuting, muting again) or being called when I'm off (there is no 'on call' so i wouldn't be avoiding that. The contract doesn't mention they can call you in on days off). When I'm off work I just want to forget work, not have it in my hand/pocket throughout the day.

And like I said, they would have means of contacting me at work (via manager) and at home (via home phone) so it's not as though I'd be blocking that off.

Just wondered if you can fairly say no to a personal number request?

When they wanted my email address I created one just for work purposes so nothing work related came to my main inbox. But that's free. I don't fancy going out & buying a cheap phone just to please work.

I think if they want you to be contactable, they need to provide the phone.

If you must have a second number, does your phone support dual SIMs? Get a cheap PAYG SIM or an Esim and give them that number, and set the ringtone/message alert to something distinctive you can ignore if you want.

There's a whole story & explanation to having the phone but I don't particularly want to go in to too much detail there since I know some of the upper folk there come on to this website. They won't need me naming them direct on here in order to start calling me in & grilling me on what I've said. 

Others in the dept just use their personal phones & are contacted that way. 

Thats one I've had thrown at me in the past. Called in to sign something & when I start reading it I get questioned why I'm doing so because "nobody else did". I'm the bad guy because I'm different. 

What's the situation with PAYG sims these days? Been many many many years since I've been on those. Can you just get a SIM, put no money on it & just have it in a phone & leave it as that - so you can be contacted but can't contact? 

If so and if my phone supports it then that MAY be something I could do to save the aggro but my preference is still just a no. 


As for the wrong number - that kind of thing would work like when someone asks you directions & you give them a bogus route and by the time they twig you're long gone never to be seen again.
Work would obviously twig on the first attempt & then if a second and third etc start throwing up issues then that's a quick way to cause a slanging match. 

I  have dual SIM phone, they are becoming more common, with 2 providers that use different networks, your close friends and family know and use your  current phone. Work and other less important get your other number, it uses a different ringtone or can even be silent so you can legitimately claim you didn't hear it.

Many options to get second SIMS either PAYG, will depend on your utilisation rate, or small monthly fixed fee. Not sure about incoming calls if you have no credit but if you are asked to call work back you need to stay on the same number that you have "instructed" them to use.

B0bbyEwing said:

Emmia said:

B0bbyEwing said:

Emmia said:

B0bbyEwing said:

Now for the pedantic reading this, yes I'm aware you don't technically 'have' to do anything at work, you can say no to absolutely anything & everything, but then you wouldn't last very long & I think you know what I mean with the thread title.

It also wouldn't surprise me if you have to give some form of phone contact as part of your employment. I haven't paid too much attention to that - because I've actually supplied this without any grumble. They have my home phone and my OH's number for emergencies.

I'm asking this because I currently have a works mobile phone but I'm expecting that to change in the near future (I suspect they'll soon as for it back). This will leave me as uncontactable 'on the spot'. 
I should point out that it isn't a requirement as per my contract to be contactable on the spot.

I imagine they'll then ask for my personal mobile number (this isn't just a random feeling by the way, there's good reason for me to suspect this) which I don't wish to give out.

Why? I just don't want to be contactable on the spot. In my eyes if they want to reach me they can contact the department manager who's always within reach of all of us in the department and contact me that way. When I'm outside of work then I don't want to be reminded of work. I don't want work chat groups pinging away (yes I know you can mute them but I also don't want the faff of muting, unmuting, muting again) or being called when I'm off (there is no 'on call' so i wouldn't be avoiding that. The contract doesn't mention they can call you in on days off). When I'm off work I just want to forget work, not have it in my hand/pocket throughout the day.

And like I said, they would have means of contacting me at work (via manager) and at home (via home phone) so it's not as though I'd be blocking that off.

Just wondered if you can fairly say no to a personal number request?

When they wanted my email address I created one just for work purposes so nothing work related came to my main inbox. But that's free. I don't fancy going out & buying a cheap phone just to please work.

I think if they want you to be contactable, they need to provide the phone.

If you must have a second number, does your phone support dual SIMs? Get a cheap PAYG SIM or an Esim and give them that number, and set the ringtone/message alert to something distinctive you can ignore if you want.

There's a whole story & explanation to having the phone but I don't particularly want to go in to too much detail there since I know some of the upper folk there come on to this website. They won't need me naming them direct on here in order to start calling me in & grilling me on what I've said. 

Others in the dept just use their personal phones & are contacted that way. 

Thats one I've had thrown at me in the past. Called in to sign something & when I start reading it I get questioned why I'm doing so because "nobody else did". I'm the bad guy because I'm different. 

What's the situation with PAYG sims these days? Been many many many years since I've been on those. Can you just get a SIM, put no money on it & just have it in a phone & leave it as that - so you can be contacted but can't contact? 

If so and if my phone supports it then that MAY be something I could do to save the aggro but my preference is still just a no. 


As for the wrong number - that kind of thing would work like when someone asks you directions & you give them a bogus route and by the time they twig you're long gone never to be seen again.
Work would obviously twig on the first attempt & then if a second and third etc start throwing up issues then that's a quick way to cause a slanging match. 

Normally providers require you to top up a certain amount, on a periodic basis and that credit expires after a certain time - so not a "free" fit and forget.

Edit: Smarty has a rolling 1 month contract SIM only for £6 - not masses of data, but unlimited calls and texts https://smarty.co.uk/all-plans#classic

Alternatively it might be easier to find a very cheap monthly contract (If you have a current contract, perhaps a second number on that?)


Edit:this sounds like a really toxic place to work, are you looking for something/somewhere else?

Thanks for taking the time to look in to it but if I was to do that then it'd have to be totally free, not just kind of free but not really free. As I say though thanks for taking the time. At least I know now that I'm not willing to do that. 

The OP said they don't want to spend any money on a second SIM.

Eldi_Dos

In more enlightened times or the distant past as some might say,it was not unsual for the personnel department to hold your contact details but if anyone from the firm called you at home the company would pay the whole of that quarter line rental.
OP, you might suggest this to your company.

Northern_Wanderer

vacheron said:

If the company requires you to use your company phone during working hours (or outside of hours for direct company business) then they should be providing the phone, or at least offering to reimburse you for the costs. The same applies to laptops, cars, and all other equipment.

There is a grey area regarding being contactable for personal reasons. i.e. to offer a shift, to inform you over the weekend of, say, a cancelled event on a Monday so you don't drive 30 miles out of your way for no good reason.

Our company recently moved to using the Microsoft Authenticator app to log in to our work PC's (with no other logon option available). There was a lot of resistance to this by those without company phones as this basically required staff to use their own personal phones. This caused a number of complaints on the basis that if our IT department wanted to implement new secure systems, they also provide the employees with the tools to do so.

Finally, about a month after an agreement was reached, a blanket e-mail was sent across the company from personnel reminding people that personal mobile phones were not be used during working hours! 

Yes, they really are that stupid! 
Not much work got done that day.   

My work also recently implemented 2FA for work devices. Currently still have the option to get a text message to work mobile (MS authenticator requirement will come) but I point blank refuse to use my personal mobile for any work related stuff. Not going to happen.

OP, I wonder if you can set up a profile for their number and make it silent/ without notifications at all?

Undervalued

Nothanks said:

Is it the hill you want to die on? 

^^^^^^^

This is by far the most sensible comment on this whole thread!

BikingBud

Emmia said:

BikingBud said:

B0bbyEwing said:

Emmia said:

B0bbyEwing said:

Now for the pedantic reading this, yes I'm aware you don't technically 'have' to do anything at work, you can say no to absolutely anything & everything, but then you wouldn't last very long & I think you know what I mean with the thread title.

It also wouldn't surprise me if you have to give some form of phone contact as part of your employment. I haven't paid too much attention to that - because I've actually supplied this without any grumble. They have my home phone and my OH's number for emergencies.

I'm asking this because I currently have a works mobile phone but I'm expecting that to change in the near future (I suspect they'll soon as for it back). This will leave me as uncontactable 'on the spot'. 
I should point out that it isn't a requirement as per my contract to be contactable on the spot.

I imagine they'll then ask for my personal mobile number (this isn't just a random feeling by the way, there's good reason for me to suspect this) which I don't wish to give out.

Why? I just don't want to be contactable on the spot. In my eyes if they want to reach me they can contact the department manager who's always within reach of all of us in the department and contact me that way. When I'm outside of work then I don't want to be reminded of work. I don't want work chat groups pinging away (yes I know you can mute them but I also don't want the faff of muting, unmuting, muting again) or being called when I'm off (there is no 'on call' so i wouldn't be avoiding that. The contract doesn't mention they can call you in on days off). When I'm off work I just want to forget work, not have it in my hand/pocket throughout the day.

And like I said, they would have means of contacting me at work (via manager) and at home (via home phone) so it's not as though I'd be blocking that off.

Just wondered if you can fairly say no to a personal number request?

When they wanted my email address I created one just for work purposes so nothing work related came to my main inbox. But that's free. I don't fancy going out & buying a cheap phone just to please work.

I think if they want you to be contactable, they need to provide the phone.

If you must have a second number, does your phone support dual SIMs? Get a cheap PAYG SIM or an Esim and give them that number, and set the ringtone/message alert to something distinctive you can ignore if you want.

There's a whole story & explanation to having the phone but I don't particularly want to go in to too much detail there since I know some of the upper folk there come on to this website. They won't need me naming them direct on here in order to start calling me in & grilling me on what I've said. 

Others in the dept just use their personal phones & are contacted that way. 

Thats one I've had thrown at me in the past. Called in to sign something & when I start reading it I get questioned why I'm doing so because "nobody else did". I'm the bad guy because I'm different. 

What's the situation with PAYG sims these days? Been many many many years since I've been on those. Can you just get a SIM, put no money on it & just have it in a phone & leave it as that - so you can be contacted but can't contact? 

If so and if my phone supports it then that MAY be something I could do to save the aggro but my preference is still just a no. 


As for the wrong number - that kind of thing would work like when someone asks you directions & you give them a bogus route and by the time they twig you're long gone never to be seen again.
Work would obviously twig on the first attempt & then if a second and third etc start throwing up issues then that's a quick way to cause a slanging match. 

I  have dual SIM phone, they are becoming more common, with 2 providers that use different networks, your close friends and family know and use your  current phone. Work and other less important get your other number, it uses a different ringtone or can even be silent so you can legitimately claim you didn't hear it.

Many options to get second SIMS either PAYG, will depend on your utilisation rate, or small monthly fixed fee. Not sure about incoming calls if you have no credit but if you are asked to call work back you need to stay on the same number that you have "instructed" them to use.

B0bbyEwing said:

Emmia said:

B0bbyEwing said:

Emmia said:

B0bbyEwing said:

Now for the pedantic reading this, yes I'm aware you don't technically 'have' to do anything at work, you can say no to absolutely anything & everything, but then you wouldn't last very long & I think you know what I mean with the thread title.

It also wouldn't surprise me if you have to give some form of phone contact as part of your employment. I haven't paid too much attention to that - because I've actually supplied this without any grumble. They have my home phone and my OH's number for emergencies.

I'm asking this because I currently have a works mobile phone but I'm expecting that to change in the near future (I suspect they'll soon as for it back). This will leave me as uncontactable 'on the spot'. 
I should point out that it isn't a requirement as per my contract to be contactable on the spot.

I imagine they'll then ask for my personal mobile number (this isn't just a random feeling by the way, there's good reason for me to suspect this) which I don't wish to give out.

Why? I just don't want to be contactable on the spot. In my eyes if they want to reach me they can contact the department manager who's always within reach of all of us in the department and contact me that way. When I'm outside of work then I don't want to be reminded of work. I don't want work chat groups pinging away (yes I know you can mute them but I also don't want the faff of muting, unmuting, muting again) or being called when I'm off (there is no 'on call' so i wouldn't be avoiding that. The contract doesn't mention they can call you in on days off). When I'm off work I just want to forget work, not have it in my hand/pocket throughout the day.

And like I said, they would have means of contacting me at work (via manager) and at home (via home phone) so it's not as though I'd be blocking that off.

Just wondered if you can fairly say no to a personal number request?

When they wanted my email address I created one just for work purposes so nothing work related came to my main inbox. But that's free. I don't fancy going out & buying a cheap phone just to please work.

I think if they want you to be contactable, they need to provide the phone.

If you must have a second number, does your phone support dual SIMs? Get a cheap PAYG SIM or an Esim and give them that number, and set the ringtone/message alert to something distinctive you can ignore if you want.

There's a whole story & explanation to having the phone but I don't particularly want to go in to too much detail there since I know some of the upper folk there come on to this website. They won't need me naming them direct on here in order to start calling me in & grilling me on what I've said. 

Others in the dept just use their personal phones & are contacted that way. 

Thats one I've had thrown at me in the past. Called in to sign something & when I start reading it I get questioned why I'm doing so because "nobody else did". I'm the bad guy because I'm different. 

What's the situation with PAYG sims these days? Been many many many years since I've been on those. Can you just get a SIM, put no money on it & just have it in a phone & leave it as that - so you can be contacted but can't contact? 

If so and if my phone supports it then that MAY be something I could do to save the aggro but my preference is still just a no. 


As for the wrong number - that kind of thing would work like when someone asks you directions & you give them a bogus route and by the time they twig you're long gone never to be seen again.
Work would obviously twig on the first attempt & then if a second and third etc start throwing up issues then that's a quick way to cause a slanging match. 

Normally providers require you to top up a certain amount, on a periodic basis and that credit expires after a certain time - so not a "free" fit and forget.

Edit: Smarty has a rolling 1 month contract SIM only for £6 - not masses of data, but unlimited calls and texts https://smarty.co.uk/all-plans#classic

Alternatively it might be easier to find a very cheap monthly contract (If you have a current contract, perhaps a second number on that?)


Edit:this sounds like a really toxic place to work, are you looking for something/somewhere else?

Thanks for taking the time to look in to it but if I was to do that then it'd have to be totally free, not just kind of free but not really free. As I say though thanks for taking the time. At least I know now that I'm not willing to do that. 

The OP said they don't want to spend any money on a second SIM.

Yes and amongst the options that are currently available not spending any money really doesn't seem to deliver a change or an improvement on the situation. 

For the price of less than a coffee, per month or about 16p per day, a viable solution can be had, and as much as the OP said they don't want to there has to be some concession to move away from the status quo!

Control what you are able and build your own barriers to protect your own time, if it costs a small amount then that is an investment not a burden.

Else everything just carries on and the level of disquiet festers and grows. Someone else commented about a toxic workplace.

MattMattMattUK

vacheron said:

If the company requires you to use your company phone during working hours (or outside of hours for direct company business) then they should be providing the phone, or at least offering to reimburse you for the costs. The same applies to laptops, cars, and all other equipment.

The issue with taking that position is that there is usually zero if any cost associated with someone using a personal phone or laptop for the occasional bit of work. Most phone contracts are all you can eat, a phone call or text costs nothing (and HMRC do not allow a proportional use element to be paid as a tax free expense), occasionally logging in on a personal laptop or PC to do something might have a tiny electricity cost, a few pence at most. Car usage is reimbursed on a per mile basis because it does have a realistic cost in both fuel and upkeep, but it is generally an exception.

vacheron said:

There is a grey area regarding being contactable for personal reasons. i.e. to offer a shift, to inform you over the weekend of, say, a cancelled event on a Monday so you don't drive 30 miles out of your way for no good reason.

If an employee refused to supply their personal mobile number then I would not employ them, slightly different with an existing employee, but it would certainly be an issue as I do not employ paranoid types. We have a company policy about work contact out of hours and the general rule is that if it is a work related then I would send a WhatsApp first. 

vacheron said:

Our company recently moved to using the Microsoft Authenticator app to log in to our work PC's (with no other logon option available). There was a lot of resistance to this by those without company phones as this basically required staff to use their own personal phones. This caused a number of complaints on the basis that if our IT department wanted to implement new secure systems, they also provide the employees with the tools to do so.

We have MS Authenticator in place and employees have it on their personal devices, none of them are paranoid so none had an issue with it, most already had it for their own accounts anyway.

vacheron said:

Finally, about a month after an agreement was reached, a blanket e-mail was sent across the company from personnel reminding people that personal mobile phones were not be used during working hours! 

That kind of policy usually arises because employees refuse to behave like adults. I trust my employees to get on with their jobs and not not use their phones during the day unless actually needed (eg. checking social medial is not needed, playing games is not needed, continually messaging a partner is not needed, taking a call from their child's school is fine, their partner calling for a sensible reason is fine), I have only once ever had an employee who had issues with that, who was obsessed with playing a stupid game on their phone, it interfered with their work so the choice was to stop playing the game or be performance managed out of the business, they chose the former and felt much better for it once they had stopped wasting their time.

Too many people seem to want to go out of their way to cause trouble with their employer, to be deliberately confrontational over things that do not matter, to put barriers in the way rather than have a healthy relationship, being a difficult employee is never a sensible thing to be.

Emmia

BikingBud said:

Emmia said:

BikingBud said:

B0bbyEwing said:

Emmia said:

B0bbyEwing said:

Now for the pedantic reading this, yes I'm aware you don't technically 'have' to do anything at work, you can say no to absolutely anything & everything, but then you wouldn't last very long & I think you know what I mean with the thread title.

It also wouldn't surprise me if you have to give some form of phone contact as part of your employment. I haven't paid too much attention to that - because I've actually supplied this without any grumble. They have my home phone and my OH's number for emergencies.

I'm asking this because I currently have a works mobile phone but I'm expecting that to change in the near future (I suspect they'll soon as for it back). This will leave me as uncontactable 'on the spot'. 
I should point out that it isn't a requirement as per my contract to be contactable on the spot.

I imagine they'll then ask for my personal mobile number (this isn't just a random feeling by the way, there's good reason for me to suspect this) which I don't wish to give out.

Why? I just don't want to be contactable on the spot. In my eyes if they want to reach me they can contact the department manager who's always within reach of all of us in the department and contact me that way. When I'm outside of work then I don't want to be reminded of work. I don't want work chat groups pinging away (yes I know you can mute them but I also don't want the faff of muting, unmuting, muting again) or being called when I'm off (there is no 'on call' so i wouldn't be avoiding that. The contract doesn't mention they can call you in on days off). When I'm off work I just want to forget work, not have it in my hand/pocket throughout the day.

And like I said, they would have means of contacting me at work (via manager) and at home (via home phone) so it's not as though I'd be blocking that off.

Just wondered if you can fairly say no to a personal number request?

When they wanted my email address I created one just for work purposes so nothing work related came to my main inbox. But that's free. I don't fancy going out & buying a cheap phone just to please work.

I think if they want you to be contactable, they need to provide the phone.

If you must have a second number, does your phone support dual SIMs? Get a cheap PAYG SIM or an Esim and give them that number, and set the ringtone/message alert to something distinctive you can ignore if you want.

There's a whole story & explanation to having the phone but I don't particularly want to go in to too much detail there since I know some of the upper folk there come on to this website. They won't need me naming them direct on here in order to start calling me in & grilling me on what I've said. 

Others in the dept just use their personal phones & are contacted that way. 

Thats one I've had thrown at me in the past. Called in to sign something & when I start reading it I get questioned why I'm doing so because "nobody else did". I'm the bad guy because I'm different. 

What's the situation with PAYG sims these days? Been many many many years since I've been on those. Can you just get a SIM, put no money on it & just have it in a phone & leave it as that - so you can be contacted but can't contact? 

If so and if my phone supports it then that MAY be something I could do to save the aggro but my preference is still just a no. 


As for the wrong number - that kind of thing would work like when someone asks you directions & you give them a bogus route and by the time they twig you're long gone never to be seen again.
Work would obviously twig on the first attempt & then if a second and third etc start throwing up issues then that's a quick way to cause a slanging match. 

I  have dual SIM phone, they are becoming more common, with 2 providers that use different networks, your close friends and family know and use your  current phone. Work and other less important get your other number, it uses a different ringtone or can even be silent so you can legitimately claim you didn't hear it.

Many options to get second SIMS either PAYG, will depend on your utilisation rate, or small monthly fixed fee. Not sure about incoming calls if you have no credit but if you are asked to call work back you need to stay on the same number that you have "instructed" them to use.

B0bbyEwing said:

Emmia said:

B0bbyEwing said:

Emmia said:

B0bbyEwing said:

Now for the pedantic reading this, yes I'm aware you don't technically 'have' to do anything at work, you can say no to absolutely anything & everything, but then you wouldn't last very long & I think you know what I mean with the thread title.

It also wouldn't surprise me if you have to give some form of phone contact as part of your employment. I haven't paid too much attention to that - because I've actually supplied this without any grumble. They have my home phone and my OH's number for emergencies.

I'm asking this because I currently have a works mobile phone but I'm expecting that to change in the near future (I suspect they'll soon as for it back). This will leave me as uncontactable 'on the spot'. 
I should point out that it isn't a requirement as per my contract to be contactable on the spot.

I imagine they'll then ask for my personal mobile number (this isn't just a random feeling by the way, there's good reason for me to suspect this) which I don't wish to give out.

Why? I just don't want to be contactable on the spot. In my eyes if they want to reach me they can contact the department manager who's always within reach of all of us in the department and contact me that way. When I'm outside of work then I don't want to be reminded of work. I don't want work chat groups pinging away (yes I know you can mute them but I also don't want the faff of muting, unmuting, muting again) or being called when I'm off (there is no 'on call' so i wouldn't be avoiding that. The contract doesn't mention they can call you in on days off). When I'm off work I just want to forget work, not have it in my hand/pocket throughout the day.

And like I said, they would have means of contacting me at work (via manager) and at home (via home phone) so it's not as though I'd be blocking that off.

Just wondered if you can fairly say no to a personal number request?

When they wanted my email address I created one just for work purposes so nothing work related came to my main inbox. But that's free. I don't fancy going out & buying a cheap phone just to please work.

I think if they want you to be contactable, they need to provide the phone.

If you must have a second number, does your phone support dual SIMs? Get a cheap PAYG SIM or an Esim and give them that number, and set the ringtone/message alert to something distinctive you can ignore if you want.

There's a whole story & explanation to having the phone but I don't particularly want to go in to too much detail there since I know some of the upper folk there come on to this website. They won't need me naming them direct on here in order to start calling me in & grilling me on what I've said. 

Others in the dept just use their personal phones & are contacted that way. 

Thats one I've had thrown at me in the past. Called in to sign something & when I start reading it I get questioned why I'm doing so because "nobody else did". I'm the bad guy because I'm different. 

What's the situation with PAYG sims these days? Been many many many years since I've been on those. Can you just get a SIM, put no money on it & just have it in a phone & leave it as that - so you can be contacted but can't contact? 

If so and if my phone supports it then that MAY be something I could do to save the aggro but my preference is still just a no. 


As for the wrong number - that kind of thing would work like when someone asks you directions & you give them a bogus route and by the time they twig you're long gone never to be seen again.
Work would obviously twig on the first attempt & then if a second and third etc start throwing up issues then that's a quick way to cause a slanging match. 

Normally providers require you to top up a certain amount, on a periodic basis and that credit expires after a certain time - so not a "free" fit and forget.

Edit: Smarty has a rolling 1 month contract SIM only for £6 - not masses of data, but unlimited calls and texts https://smarty.co.uk/all-plans#classic

Alternatively it might be easier to find a very cheap monthly contract (If you have a current contract, perhaps a second number on that?)


Edit:this sounds like a really toxic place to work, are you looking for something/somewhere else?

Thanks for taking the time to look in to it but if I was to do that then it'd have to be totally free, not just kind of free but not really free. As I say though thanks for taking the time. At least I know now that I'm not willing to do that. 

The OP said they don't want to spend any money on a second SIM.

Yes and amongst the options that are currently available not spending any money really doesn't seem to deliver a change or an improvement on the situation. 

For the price of less than a coffee, per month or about 16p per day, a viable solution can be had, and as much as the OP said they don't want to there has to be some concession to move away from the status quo!

Control what you are able and build your own barriers to protect your own time, if it costs a small amount then that is an investment not a burden.

Else everything just carries on and the level of disquiet festers and grows. Someone else commented about a toxic workplace.

I suggested a cheap contract of £6 per month, that's more than the OP is willing to spend. (They replied saying they'd only consider it if it was free / £0) Hence my comment.

I also asked in my second post on this thread if the op was looking at moving from the toxic place.

Edit: whether this is the hill for the op to die on is a different question.

Marcon

Undervalued said:

Nothanks said:

Is it the hill you want to die on? 

^^^^^^^

This is by far the most sensible comment on this whole thread!

Quite. And as for the nonsense about fabricating a story about OP's mobile falling into the water etc etc...words fail me!

Seems to be a massive fuss about nothing.

zagfles

MattMattMattUK said:

vacheron said:

If the company requires you to use your company phone during working hours (or outside of hours for direct company business) then they should be providing the phone, or at least offering to reimburse you for the costs. The same applies to laptops, cars, and all other equipment.

The issue with taking that position is that there is usually zero if any cost associated with someone using a personal phone or laptop for the occasional bit of work. Most phone contracts are all you can eat, a phone call or text costs nothing (and HMRC do not allow a proportional use element to be paid as a tax free expense), occasionally logging in on a personal laptop or PC to do something might have a tiny electricity cost, a few pence at most. Car usage is reimbursed on a per mile basis because it does have a realistic cost in both fuel and upkeep, but it is generally an exception.

vacheron said:

There is a grey area regarding being contactable for personal reasons. i.e. to offer a shift, to inform you over the weekend of, say, a cancelled event on a Monday so you don't drive 30 miles out of your way for no good reason.

If an employee refused to supply their personal mobile number then I would not employ them, slightly different with an existing employee, but it would certainly be an issue as I do not employ paranoid types. We have a company policy about work contact out of hours and the general rule is that if it is a work related then I would send a WhatsApp first. 

vacheron said:

Our company recently moved to using the Microsoft Authenticator app to log in to our work PC's (with no other logon option available). There was a lot of resistance to this by those without company phones as this basically required staff to use their own personal phones. This caused a number of complaints on the basis that if our IT department wanted to implement new secure systems, they also provide the employees with the tools to do so.

We have MS Authenticator in place and employees have it on their personal devices, none of them are paranoid so none had an issue with it, most already had it for their own accounts anyway.

vacheron said:

Finally, about a month after an agreement was reached, a blanket e-mail was sent across the company from personnel reminding people that personal mobile phones were not be used during working hours! 

That kind of policy usually arises because employees refuse to behave like adults. I trust my employees to get on with their jobs and not not use their phones during the day unless actually needed (eg. checking social medial is not needed, playing games is not needed, continually messaging a partner is not needed, taking a call from their child's school is fine, their partner calling for a sensible reason is fine), I have only once ever had an employee who had issues with that, who was obsessed with playing a stupid game on their phone, it interfered with their work so the choice was to stop playing the game or be performance managed out of the business, they chose the former and felt much better for it once they had stopped wasting their time.

Too many people seem to want to go out of their way to cause trouble with their employer, to be deliberately confrontational over things that do not matter, to put barriers in the way rather than have a healthy relationship, being a difficult employee is never a sensible thing to be.

On the other hand too many employers seem to take the p and think that flexibility and reasonableness only works one way. Personally I'm quite happy for my employer to be able to contact me anytime, but I do not guarantee a response unless I'm being paid to be oncall. But in reality callout is rare enough and if I'm not genuinely tied up with something I'll respond. Similarly if I need to do something personal at work, I'll do it. I wont take the p with my employer's time, and they won't with mine. Give and take.

But if for instance they constantly relied on me being responding out of hours because eg they took on 24/7 contracts without resourcing them properly with shifts/oncall rotas, they're not going to get a response.  

Similarly I might sometimes get into work 20 mins late, equally I might sometimes work 20 mins late to finish stuff off. If my employer complains about my timekeeping, then I'll make sure it's spot on, both start and finish times. But lots of dodgy employers will expect people to get in bang on time and then complain if they don't stay late to finish stuff off. 

The employer/employee relationship is just like any other, reasonable give and take usually works well but if it's all give one way and take the other then it's just like any other abusive relationship - time to end it and find something else. It's an employee's job market in a lot of areas since COVID, it's about time some employers and employees started realising it.