Getting a phone from work? are you on it all the time?

[j4ckos mate]

Hi never had one before but may decide to get a works iphone.

On it will be my work emails of course but what seems to be the general policy?

Do you still turn it off at 5.30 or are you on it till you go to bed?

is it something work set out before they give it to you?
or is it expected that your on it all the time?

im not bothered about the calls i expect they are included in it anyway,

do you still use your private own mobile as well?

cheers for the advise

[scottri]

Its very easy to get drawn into checking emails all the time, thankfully no real expectation from my colleagues to respond at all hours. Some people seem to get sucked right in - I got an email from someone last week saying they were at a funeral and would get back to me later that day....

I have turned off all email notification so that i'm less tempted to see why someone is emailing me at 11pm on a Friday night.

I ran a personal phone for a while, as well as a work mobile, but in the end got sick of carrying two phones about during the day and seemed daft paying £20/30+ month for my own phone when I had a free one. Fast forward a few years and I now have a personal PAYG phone for holidays/weekends etc when I don't want to be contacted at all.

Provided you think you won't get addicted to the work side of it or that your managers/colleagues will start expecting replies out of hours, i'd get one, pocket the savings and ditch your own phone.

The most annoying thing about my work phone is the long password I have to type in to unlock it!

[anonymous-user]

In a professional environment, I would expect them to be on during normal waking hours (at least to see what is going on and respond if necessary/if you wish) and off when sleeping. Most non-professionals I come across turn them off as soon as the working day is over.

[davepoth]

I've had a few managers who had them switched on all the time - they were usually harassed and put upon by their managers. The ones that switched theirs off at home time and turned it back on again when they hit the office always seemed more self assured. Not sure which way around the causal relationship would be but food for thought nonetheless.

[Upatdawn]

Hourly paid, work hours

Salaried?...you can bet the boss wants your life off you

[AyBee]

Policy is leave in desk drawer unless absolutely required for urgent deadlines but I quite like to follow what's going on when I'm not in the office so do tend to check during evenings etc.

[Countdown]

Mine is on all the time.

Fortunately I have a VERY understanding wife

[Countdown]

Option 3: You hate your boss with a vengeance. He is an arrogant egotistical uber control freak who takes sadistic pleasure in humiliating his senior managers in public mainly to remind them that HE is the boss. One of his many tactics is to send an email out between 8pm and 12pm asking for a report to be presented at the Team Meeting the following day. To avoid being caught out you watch your Iphone like a mother watching her precious newborn baby, alert to the slightest noise or vibration, dreaming of the day when you can bend him over his £5000 desk, pull down his trousers, and shove the blessed Iphone right up his……..


I’m in my happy place, I’m in my happy place I’m in my happy place I’m in my happy place I’m in my happy place …….

[AGK]

At one of my previous places I had a work iPhone. At first I didn't have an issue being available 24/7 but slowly the boss started being a prick and totally inflexible(refused time off for a funeral). Two can play at that game so the phone was only on between the hours of 9-5:30.

A few mates have work phones and they get proper sucked in at all hours lol.

I'd steer clear.

[dundarach]

Countdown said:

Option 3: You hate your boss with a vengeance. He is an arrogant egotistical uber control freak who takes sadistic pleasure in humiliating his senior managers in public mainly to remind them that HE is the boss. One of his many tactics is to send an email out between 8pm and 12pm asking for a report to be presented at the Team Meeting the following day. To avoid being caught out you watch your Iphone like a mother watching her precious newborn baby, alert to the slightest noise or vibration, dreaming of the day when you can bend him over his £5000 desk, pull down his trousers, and shove the blessed Iphone right up his……..


I’m in my happy place, I’m in my happy place I’m in my happy place I’m in my happy place I’m in my happy place …….

In addition you keep all the evidence from the above, go off with stress and take them for constructive dismissal..

Go for it, turn the thing off, or leave it in car/bag

[littlebasher]

Mine never leaves my side, i find myself answering emails and logging in via crude 3270 emulation all the time. That includes holidays abroad, days out and trips to the hospital etc.

It's the world in which we live these days, especially where i work

[Sir Bagalot]

Countdown said:

Option 3: You hate your boss with a vengeance. He is an arrogant egotistical uber control freak who takes sadistic pleasure in humiliating his senior managers in public mainly to remind them that HE is the boss. One of his many tactics is to send an email out between 8pm and 12pm asking for a report to be presented at the Team Meeting the following day. To avoid being caught out you watch your Iphone like a mother watching her precious newborn baby, alert to the slightest noise or vibration, dreaming of the day when you can bend him over his £5000 desk, pull down his trousers, and shove the blessed Iphone right up his……..

Although I didn't have an iPhone (only people at his 'level' were allowed them.....), we appeared to have worked for the same person perhaps?

[Muzzer79]

I'm lucky that I don't get many evening e-mails.

I do check them, but rarely have to respond straight away.

It has saved my neck (and others) a few times, being able to jump on things straight away.

It's useful if you're out and about a lot (obviously)

I have 3 rules:

1. When I go to sleep, the phone is turned off. When I wake up, it's switched back on.

2. When I go on holiday abroad, it's turned off permanently and lives in the hotel safe.

3. When I go on holiday in the UK, e-mails are turned off, work calls ignored. (I tell the office that they can text for urgent stuff though)

[Upatdawn]

I can remember......when phones became popular, we had a pager and were expected to find a callbox or use a customers phone till then, then I got a NEC11a CARphone in my truck (parts van) and away we went, except my boss thought it meant he could send me anywhere at anytime...Friday at 5pm was his favourite time to call



"eh? SSSSKKKKKMMM.....i cant hear your.....BBBZZZZZ.....see you next week"


then when the bills landed on his desk (it was £1 to start a call to a mobile) he banned calling them from the depot and paged us again, expecting us to ring in on our wonderful phones...

[eggchaser1987]

I have a works phone, it is a old nokia thing and has no access to e mails and feel lucky for that. It does get turned off when I get home, normally takes me about 90 mins to get home so I assume that if they haven't got in touch by then it can wait until the morning.

It does get turned on when I wake up though. I think that fare. I do like to have a 'work life balance'. Along with this I have a person phone and the two don't cross purpose, don't think this in unprofessional or unreasonable.

[andy-xr]

I'e had a work phone in addition to my own, I used to leave it in the drawer at night if I was in the office, or I'd switch it off and throw it in my laptop bag after 6pm if I was working away.

Another company I had used to have us expense our own personal phones instead, which was alright, but what they lost with giving away data and calls for personal use was made up in being able to contact people any time they wanted.

Some companies want you to have a separate work and personal phone, so that if you leave then customers dont have an easy way to contact you. I think it depends on the atmosphere in the company, my old work iPhone was so locked down it was hardly worth having as it was purely for making/taking calls

[Muzzer79]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Yes, I only have one phone.

I need it in case of emergencies, etc. Hence taking it and leaving it switched off.

[okgo]

I have a work phone, its under my bed somewhere. But I have my work emails come through to my personal phone, I check them, if they need responding to, I do, simple as that. I think if you are in a position where people need you to get things done then that is what you do.

[Art0ir]

I carry two phones around. Work phone is never on at weekends unless I'm on call or I know something big is ongoing. I'll check my emails on Sunday night so I've no nasty surprises first thing.

We're allowed to use our's for personal use but I've had the same personal number for nearly a decade.

[New POD]

Self employed here, so it's all one and the same.

Used to have a work phone when I HAD A REAL job, and was told that I could use it for personal use, which I did, but I didn't answer it or respond to texts (it wasn't smart so no email) out of office hours. I may have been salaried, but I need to turn off. Did it cause a problem ? you bet. They somehow thought that giving me a phone meant they owned me. Eventually I got to leaving it in my desk draw turned on.