Is it right for a company to expect you to use your personal phone number when you work from home?

Yes - it's part of WFH41%

No - my phone number is private42%

No - It's my personal resource13%

Other (please comment below)2%


661 PARTICIPANTS

4.5k views1 Upvote14 Comments

Senior Executive Advisor in Software, 10,001+ employees
Usually, companies that have a Bring your own device (BYOD) policy for mobile phones offset the cost of having the device through some form of stipend to the employee. This allows the individual to have the capability of having a single number for both personal and professional interactions. It also eliminates the need to juggle multiple phones. I think this will extend to a sheer WFH situation. Expecting an employee to use their personal phone without some form of stipend of support is taking the employee for granted IMHO.
4 1 Reply
Director in Manufacturing, 1,001 - 5,000 employees

We tried BYOD and very few were willing to participate (under 5%)

There was no payment or support of the cost

The only benefit to an employee was one less phone to carry

Director Of Technology in Education, 51 - 200 employees
Personal phone number as in a land line? If it’s a mobile phone get a duplicate phone number
2
Senior IT Manager in Government, 10,001+ employees
The work-from-home situation became a *lot* more complicated with the pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, our philosophy was that work-from-home was a privilege, not a right, and if you wanted to work from home and your position allowed you to do so we would provide certain minimal accommodations to allow that to happen.

Then, the pandemic hit - and work-from-home became not a privilege but a requirement. Since we're now *requiring* people to work from home, we now have an obligation to provide them with the tools necessary to do that - and part of that should be a work phone number which can be turned off or safely ignored out of normal duty hours. 

Note it can be a number that's forward to personal devices if so desired.
1
CISO in Software, 501 - 1,000 employees
With MS Teams and Zoom calls, a personal phone number is rarely required.  I can't think of a situation where a person might have to use their landline and couldn't just be reached on their mobile.

If an employee is using their personal mobile for work, then yes there should be compensation.
1
CTO in Education, 1,001 - 5,000 employees
Ok if an allowance is offered.
2
AVP and Deputy CIO in Education, 10,001+ employees
I think it's fine to ask, but also offer an alternative number that is part of the corporate phone system (Soft phone, cloud phone, etc).

The important part is flexibility to support both the employee and company needs.  Meet the employee expectations as well as solve the business problem.
3
Director of IT in Software, 201 - 500 employees
Why use a personal phone device/number when its so easy to deploy soft-phone and use voip pbx. If you don’t have a proper phone system, you are not a serious company, especially if the employees need to be on the phone and talk with customers
Director in Manufacturing, 1,001 - 5,000 employees
If my company didn't supply VoIP phones (Teams) I'd get a Google Voice number for inbound, and block my outbound caller ID.   I just don't need my personal number tied up with work calls.  This was especially true when my parents were in the hospital and nursing homes.   Its a Separation of "Church and State" type issue for me.  Now if the company has amazing benefits, and treats me well, perhaps I'd reconsider.
1
AVP and Deputy CIO in Education, 10,001+ employees
As always, "it depends".  From both the employee and employer perspective, expectations must be set from the start.  An argument can be made from both directions and both have merits.  Employers may not want employees to use their personal number.  Employers may not want to provide the resource to use a corporate number.  Employees may not want to use their personal number.  Employees may be most comfortable using their personal number.  It's all about perspective and expectations.  There is no single "right" answer.  However, it is "trivial" for both an employer to provide a corporate number and for an employee to establish a new phone number (can even use a free service like Google Voice) so that everyone wins.

I'll also add, if this is an area where employee/employer "butt heads" then it's likely not a good match and there will certainly be future clashes.
Director of Operations, Self-employed
Employee can decide to WFH and decide if they want to user their mobile devise for work purposes.

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