Midpack
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
As someone who once administered same, I can see both sides. Being on call was a necessary condition of employment for many.And it is getting worse. A few years ago, the company would issue a phone for you and pay the bill. Today, it is getting more and more common that they just assume you'll bring your own.
This is called "BYOD" (Bring Your Own Device) and is a hot topic of discussion on both sides regarding privacy, security and expense.
We were happy to issue company phones in the pre-smartphone days and later smartish BlackBerry's, but eventually more and more (especially younger) employees had their own smartphones. They (understandably) considered it a real "hassle" to have two phones (one personal, one work) - and did NOT want to give up their iPhones or the like. THEY told us they would rather use their own phones for work too (hated "clunky" BlackBerry's anyway), provided we put them on speed dial vs publishing their actual personal phone numbers (perfectly reasonable IMO). [Some actually chose to disclose their personal phone numbers to select co-workers, but not all.]
If anyone who outside the facility (away from speed dial) needed to contact them in a legit emergency, if they called me or another Manager/Supervisor, we would get the callers number and have the away employee call back (again, legit emergency only) vs ever giving out anyone's phone number.
We gladly reimbursed them for the talk/text/data plan we needed them to have for work alone, and they paid anything above that. We didn't have to buy phones anymore, and employees saved a lot on phone plans - win-win? Everyone seemed amenable to that...may be different now, I've been gone for almost 4 years.
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