Cell phones and work for work

[chrlsful]

already ina 'prodestant work ethic' country. Need boundries. Each job (telephone crisis service, physician, accountant, mechanic, babysitter, store clerk) mght have different boundries. Written policy really helps, disclosed @ hire. Weak ones (use own phone compensated or not) can make resentments (on either side). Technology helps (google voice, 1 phone w/several numbers/ring tones) but can hurt (carry 2 phones, lack of coverage). Employee gab sessions/group gatherings can also help.

"...how do you guys feel..."
wont get into that. Above are some thoughts...

 

[Hillbilly Deluxe]

I don't have a phone on my desk at work. I'm the only one, but no one else in our office uses the desk phone. Everyone uses their cell phone.

I'm not sure who all gets cell phone reimbursement, but I get a large enough reimbursement that it pays for the plan for my wife and I.

I'm good with it.

 

[TiGeo]

I've been working professionally since the last '90s so with cell phones the whole time. First two companies would reimburse you for calls back when you paid per minute after your free allotment which I thought was fair...just a PITA to submit your bill with the work calls highlighted. Then they moved to an allowance for it, again, fair. Last company before being on my own gave you a phone but it was silly to carry two so ended up just getting rid of it/having only one (personal) and used for work..that's when the smart phones came. At some point folks have to be reasonable and realize that while you don't want to be forced to use your personal stuff for work most folks are at some point are surfing the internet/other perosnal use of the company's stuff on work time and you don't want them busting your nuts about it so I call it even and leave it to managers to be "reasonable" with not over-stepping on your employees' time. I've never had any issues and neither did folks that worked for me.

 

[tom slick]

I developed the cell phone and communication policy at work and implemented company cell phones for those who do regular communication on the road or whomever is on-call. This includes an expectation of response time depending on the type of communication used.
Part of the reason for company owned cell phones was a long time salesman always used his personal cell phone and laptop. When he left he essentially took our customer contact database with him and customers still called his number. It took over a year to rectify that issue.

There is also some legal precedent that if a company requires the use of a personal cell phone they must compensate for that use.