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

B0bbyEwing

Grumpy_chap said:

B0bbyEwing said:

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). 

Why is the employer changing from the current situation and no longer going to provide work phones?

That's something I don't want to go in to on an open forum tbh.
While everything so far is fairly vague & could be anyone anywhere, if I put that one forward then it's pretty unique & there's not a chance I can realistically say - that guy on the internet isn't me, he just has the same story as me.

@BikingBud for some reason it wont let me respond to you in a quote but I never clocked your post before. Interesting way at looking at it. I'll actually consider the possibility of taking that approach. Need to have a think whether I'm happy doing that or not.

Tucosalamanca said:

You wouldn't employ them if they didn't supply a mobile phone number. Why is that? I get in this day and age, especially with younger folk, it is becoming the norm to ONLY have a mobile and not to have a landline. What if the reverse were true - and someone didn't have a mobile but only had a landline? Would you order them to get a mobile?

I had to read this twice.

Speaking both as an individual and an employer.
If someone said to me that they didn't have a mobile, I'd simply assume that they were lying to me.

Saying 'landline only' is a massive red flag in 2025, I probably go further and say that such a person would be unemployable, it's not normal behaviour.

Why would you penalise them for providing a landline but not a mobile?
Why would you want to contact them on a mobile where a landline is not appropriate? 

Maybe yours is job specific & there may be a good reason for it. I only speak form my own experience & there's no good reason (imo) why they should NEED a mobile only number.

zagfles

Tucosalamanca said:

If you were applying for another job, would you honestly say 'I haven't got a mobile'?
You'd explain the situation and establish a way forward. If a phone is an essential work tool, of course the employer should be providing one.
Would you stop using a mobile if your job didn't require it, would you go landline only?
It's not a question I've ever asked at interview. If someone wants to have a 'dumb' phone, like a Doro, that's fine.
If someone passed interview (unlikely if a mobile number hadn't been provided), completed a new-starter form and at that point it became apparent that they wouldn't provide a mobile number, as above, I'd assume that they were lying and their employment wouldn't progress...

It's moot as I have no intention of applying for another job, but if I did, yes I'd explain. This is my company mobile but it obviously won't be available if/when I leave my current employer. They could use it to contact me before then. 

If the new employer didn't provide a mobile because it's not needed for the job, then I'd get my own. If they expected me to provide my own mobile to be used on company business, I'd probably bin the job application, I wouldn't want to work for such an employer if they can't provide tools necessary for the job, particularly such a simple and cheap thing as a mobile. 

zagfles

EnPointe said:

zagfles said:

Tucosalamanca said:

You wouldn't employ them if they didn't supply a mobile phone number. Why is that? I get in this day and age, especially with younger folk, it is becoming the norm to ONLY have a mobile and not to have a landline. What if the reverse were true - and someone didn't have a mobile but only had a landline? Would you order them to get a mobile?

I had to read this twice.

Speaking both as an individual and an employer.
If someone said to me that they didn't have a mobile, I'd simply assume that they were lying to me.

Saying 'landline only' is a massive red flag in 2025, I probably go further and say that such a person would be unemployable, it's not normal behaviour.

Unemployable for not having a mobile? Seriously? The only mobile I have, and have had for 20 years, is supplied by my employer. If I applied for another job I could genuinely say I have no mobile, as I wouldn't if I left my current job. If having a mobile is an essential requirement for any job, then the employer should supply one. Just like a car etc. 

you are part of a tiny minority of  working age people  now 

 it's a red flag in the   sense of ' never trust a man who carries 2 wallets '

Or two phones! Like a company one and personal one, like some people have 

But yeah, I guess some employers want bog standard off the shelf employees who are like everyone else, others may look at people who are different to everyone else as possibly being an asset to the team as they may view the world, and the job, from a different angle.

I've had the privilege of working with some extraordinary characters, they probably had 2 wallets and 2 phones, or maybe none, but I've been fortunate to work for an employer who values diversity rather than wanting all employees to be the same. One guy in particular I currently work with is very autistic, never diagnosed but it's obvious, and he's brilliant at his job. He might not have a mobile though, it's not on the internal directory. So either he doesn't, or he doesn't want to share the number. Nobody cares, that's the way he is. And he's a very valued employee. 

B0bbyEwing

I know people judge others all the time but being SO judgemental for not having a mobile? Wow. That's unreal. Think it says quite a lot about yourself really. 

I personally wouldn't be without a mobile but I work with a guy who's about to retire early. He has a phone for work but he hates them. He hates being contactable at any moment. Not just a work thing but a life thing. He tells me as soon as he retires that phone is going in the bin.

Now OK he'll no longer be looking for employment at that stage so won't concern people like yourself but the point is still clear - while it may be a minority of people, there are still some out there who don't need a mobile in their hands all the time. 


And as for the two phones being a 'red flag' that's ridiculous. 
I have a company phone & a personal phone. When I clock off the company phone gets turned off. It's used for work related stuff only. 

Why anyone would want to mix the two is beyond me. THAT to me is a red flag. 

I know of others where I work who have company phones (all managerial roles) where that's the phone they use for everything. All these people have something in common though - work is their life. 

Each to their own but I think unless you own the business then there's more to life than work. 

zagfles

I use a work phone for everything. But work is very little of my life, I'm very part time. 95% of my mobile use is personal (personal use is allowed). If work abused it and constantly phoned me when I'm not working, it would be an issue. But they don't, the team are properly trained and resourced. Very occasionally they might need to contact me when I'm not working, like once or twice a year, usually for a quick query. I can cope with that. In fact it's worth it just for the free mobile. 

What exactly is your issue? Do you think they'll constantly be phoning you when you're not working? Or does the thought that they could, even if unlikely, cause you stress? If so, just don't give them your number, or give them your landline. Unless there's something in your contract that says you need to provide your own mobile I can't see what (legally) they could do.

Yes a dodgy employer could try to discriminate against you or even try to manage you out for being different, for not complying with a request you aren't obliged to, but if your employer is that bad you might be better off finding a better employer.

Are they doing the same to everyone at your place, ie removing company mobiles and expecting people to use their own? If so you need to get together and en mass refuse to give your personal numbers. We've done similar in the past (not mobiles, different issues) and been very successful. 

MattMattMattUK

B0bbyEwing said:

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.

As you're an employer it's interesting to get the other side's POV. Obviously you're not my sides other side but you're someone's. 

For context I have been on the other side as well, fifteen years of working for other people, eleven years of working for myself, six of those employing staff as well.

B0bbyEwing said:

I don't like this forums editing (as opposed to the easiness of other forums) so I'm afraid you'll have to bare with me as I number things...

1. You wouldn't employ them if they didn't supply a mobile phone number. Why is that? I get in this day and age, especially with younger folk, it is becoming the norm to ONLY have a mobile and not to have a landline. What if the reverse were true - and someone didn't have a mobile but only had a landline? Would you order them to get a mobile? Obviously that's not the case with me as I've provided the landline so in my opinion I'm not being "deliberately confrontational" - I'm supplying a contact number. In fact I've supplied two as I've given an additional one as an emergency contact.

It shows a total lack of engagement with the business. I do not ask that staff make themselves available for customers outside of work hours, I do that myself. Very occasionally I might need to urgently clarify something with an employee outside of hours because I need to sort something for a client, probably only once every couple of months, so a staff member might get contacted on something work related once or twice a year. A landline is not really a great form of contact, especially as many people are out of the home after work.

I do not think anyone of employment age does not have a mobile these days, some people might have a dumb phone, but I do not think I have met anyone in the last decade, even the most technophobic, who do not have a mobile of some description. 95% of all UK adults have a smartphone, even in the group with the lowest adoption, over 65s, 79% of them still have a smartphone, amongst under 55% it is 99%, amongst 55-64 it is 88% and the reality is that those without are them are probably not engaged with employment. 

B0bbyEwing said:

2. Some of your post I can pass on because when we start talking about cars and laptops and emails - none of that applies to my role.

It might not, but the for work part is still very important. Many people do not add commuting to their policy, Class 1 Business Insurance is needed if one is to drive to any other location for work other than a single, regular place of work, but costs somewhere between nothing and £20 for most people. If one is carrying goods for work, even just dropping something off on the way home then that requires Hire and Reward which is quite a lot more expensive. I make sure all my employees have the relevant insurance in place, I do not ask any of them to carry goods so there is no requirement for them to have Hire and Reward. For any mileage that they do for business I pay them 45p per mile which is the maximum HMRC allow before classing it as taxable income. All employees have work laptops, due to data protection they are not allowed to use them for personal purposes, no personal email, no games, no storing personal files, no streaming etc.

B0bbyEwing said:

3. We had/have a policy of no personal phones (not sure where the goalposts currently are) but then they (management) started phoning members of our department (can you check this, this order has been changed, so on & so forth) so it was a don't use your personal phone but use your personal phone situation. I think that it's gone on that long now that it's probably still an official rule but it's just ignored by all.
We have people in our department who abuse it. Especially younger ones. Constantly on the phone to their girlfriend over nothing at all. The other week their OH phoned them to say the dog had escaped. I heard the panic in this lads voice & was semi listening in. As the conversation went on his girlfriend finished it with "only joking". Yep I'm not making that up either.
I say especially younger ones but it's been older ones too. Wives phoning - how's your day, what you up to, blah blah blah. Knowing full well that it's nowhere near their break time. 

If any of my employees were behaving like that they would initially get a verbal warning, it is not professional behaviour, but as I only employ fully functioning adults I do not have to deal with those kinds of antics. 

B0bbyEwing said:
Unless there's an emergency, I contact my OH on my break & my dinner, that's it. But we're drifting off topic now.

I am the same, friends and family have jobs, they do not want me messaging or calling them during the day just as I do not want them contacting me during the day, or message and I or they can reply at a convenient time. That being said many people have little impulse control, ability to delay gratification or common sense which is why they also use phones whilst driving.

B0bbyEwing said:

I think there needs to be a break between work life & home life. I understand work is life to some people & good for them but it's also not life for others. I don't want to be outside of work being pestered by work.

I agree, I sometimes struggle to separate the two because it is my own business, evenings working when I realise that it is midnight and I need to go to bed, but equally I do not expect employees to work outside of office hours. If I was contacting an employee about something work related outside of hours there would be a valid reason, it would be important and urgent, not just on a whim, I doubt anyone rational would be able to deem it pestered. 

B0bbyEwing said:
In my role there'd be no such thing as being contacted on the Sunday to be told of a change for the Monday. You deal with Monday on Monday & nothing carries over to the next day.

Then the frequency of contact should be very low to zero, but for a whole host of reasons it would still make sense to have a reliable form of contact which is what a mobile generally is. It could range from "the office has burnt down, do not come in on Monday" to "Jimmy has come down with tuberculosis, you need to get tested immediately". If they will never need to contact you then why take the deliberately confrontational route of refusing to give your number?

DullGreyGuy

How often does "work" ever contact you on the mobile you currently have?
Presumably whatever the answer is to the above this will become less frequent going forward as your number will no longer be in the company directory etc. 

Do you want to have a future in the company or are you just riding out the time there?

Haven't read all the posts in the thread in detail to see if you answered the question of what your role is but on the basis they were previously providing a company phone I'd assume you arent an entry level call centre agent or such. 


I'm the exact opposite of you, I hate having a company phone as it's something else to carry around, have to remember to charge etc. Whatever happens I;m going to have my personal mobile with me so would much rather use that than a works one. Plus on more than one occasion been contacted by an ex-colleague who had my mobile after I left to see if I was interested in a role working with them again... clearly had it been a company phone it wouldn't have been my number any more. 

My phone also has Teams, email etc setup on it but I segregate things, work email is in Outlook, personal email is in Mail etc. Phone also has focus modes so have one for work so that my wife's text messages dont flash up on screen when others may be sitting next to me and similarly have a non-work one so Outlook notifications are suppressed etc. In principle you can add peoples telephone numbers to it too so your phone doesn't ring if work calls. 

As others have suggested, dual sim is another option if you feel strong enough about it to put your hand in your pocket. Its not a terrible idea anyway to have a second sim on a different network just for the sakes of potentially being able to have data in a black spot for your current provider.

vacheron

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.

I think your post makes sense if you are of the opinion (which it certainly appears based on your replies above) that employees are lazy, paranoid, difficult, troublemakers whereas management and / or business owners are nothing but generous benevolent benefactors. 

However in reality the oppisite is often the case, and while I myself often use my personal mobile for work purposes, the reason I do so is because I am not "obliged" to do so, and nor does anyone have the right to demand that I do. 

For the record, I am not talking about the boss or colleagues ringing to tell you something important or ask a quick question from time to time. I am talking about the phone being the thin end of a wedge to slowly and persistently intrude into someone's personal life. As the OP has previously had a company mobile which is being removed, I find it very hard to believe that this will result in an immediate reduction in the times they are contacted in this manner in the future.

Yes, using a phone or laptop costs little, but calling and taking up an hour of someone's time outside of working hours or while they are on holiday asking if they could just "pop on your laptop" to send some info or look at something.has a significant cost, both in terms of unpaid hours and people's personal lives. 

Would a business owner be happy working for a client for free on the basis that the laptop they are using during the meeting "costs very little to run"?... thought not. 

This may sound paranoid to you, but I have seen this happen many times in my career, and have even seen a marriage fail because one of the couple could not ignore the persistent call from work. Sometimes the managers involved don't realise, sometimes they just don't care, and yes, this has been a minority, but regardless the risk is not zero.

 

MacMickster

OP. If the trust between you and your employer has broken down to the extent that you consider that they would in some way abuse the provision of your personal mobile number then it really is time to look for another job.

As far as a so-called employer saying that they would consider anyone without a mobile phone unemployable then they are exactly the kind of numpty who should never be in charge of staff. Sadly there are some of those out there.

DullGreyGuy

vacheron said:

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.

I think your post makes sense if you are of the opinion (which it certainly appears based on your replies above) that employees are lazy, paranoid, difficult, troublemakers whereas management and / or business owners are nothing but generous benevolent benefactors. 

However in reality the oppisite is often the case, and while I myself often use my personal mobile for work purposes, the reason I do so is because I am not "obliged" to do so, and nor does anyone have the right to demand that I do. 

For the record, I am not talking about the boss or colleagues ringing to tell you something important or ask a quick question from time to time. I am talking about the phone being the thin end of a wedge to slowly and persistently intrude into someone's personal life. As the OP has previously had a company mobile which is being removed, I find it very hard to believe that this will result in an immediate reduction in the times they are contacted in this manner in the future.

Yes, using a phone or laptop costs little, but calling and taking up an hour of someone's time outside of working hours or while they are on holiday asking if they could just "pop on your laptop" to send some info or look at something.has a significant cost, both in terms of unpaid hours and people's personal lives. 

Would a business owner be happy working for a client for free on the basis that the laptop they are using during the meeting "costs very little to run"?... thought not. 

This may sound paranoid to you, but I have seen this happen many times in my career, and have even seen a marriage fail because one of the couple could not ignore the persistent call from work. Sometimes the managers involved don't realise, sometimes they just don't care, and yes, this has been a minority, but regardless the risk is not zero.

 

We have clearly had very different life experiences, I've chosen to use my personal mobile phone for over 15 years now across a dozen employers/clients and not once has it ever got to even the thin edge of the wedge of intruding into my personal time. The nearest exception to this was in 2021 where I was working with people in the US and spent nearly 6 months in NYC timezone, when I returned to the UK got a few calls in the evening from people who assumed I was still there and so they though they were calling me at 3pm and none repeated the mistake. 

My current client is a partial acceptation too but they arent phoning me but sending Teams messages at 10pm but thats because others are needing/choosing to work late into the evening and they're not expecting a reply until the next day. Sometimes I choose to reply then others it can wait to the morning.

No doubt there are people out there that are different and things may be different if you work in a 24/7 department etc. Most managers however are employees themselves so not some scrooge like business owner raking in the millions. There are tools out there you can use to stop work calls/notifications if you want to switch off without literally turning the phone off. 

vacheron said:
Would a business owner be happy working for a client for free on the basis that the laptop they are using during the meeting "costs very little to run"?... thought not. 

Never worked for a company that doesn't do at least a little for free to for customers, similarly always had suppliers do the same for us. In the later case the Equity Partner was the one turning up to meetings and then not billing us the £1,500+vat/hr for attending unless we'd invited him and even then not always.

Were one of our clients wanting to borrow a laptop for a meeting then yes we'd lend it to them and no we wouldn't charge them because it costs us nothing. A meeting can be very costly to run, have half the board, a few senior contractors, the equity partner as external counsel and its £10k+

Nickel and diming your clients tends not to be the best strategy in the long term