My employers new stance on cell phones.....its YOUR responsibility

[DawnW]

I can see how this would be a major motivation to get your product going. My employer still supplies phones but rumor has it that they will stop supplying and reimburse only. Sign of the times I guess

 

[MIA]

I dunno, I guess its kind of a slippery slope.....how much more "cost of doing business" is reasonable to put onto the shoulders of the employees that we feel should be privileged to work for the company? I mean, really, we could take this a lot further. Most of us have pens, pencils, paper, toilet paper, water, desk chairs, computers, and other necessities at home as well. I would be ok with it as long as my office can be located at my home.

I have noticed a mindset shift through this forum more than other forums, that is noteworthy on topics like this. Most would have you think it's a positive thing... The divide of the opinions toward a scenario I like yours. The best example I could use is everyone hates a snitch, until they're your snitch, snitching to you. You simply state you're feeling a bit taken advantage of by your employer and want to use this as motivation to become independent and responses (which, to be fair we do open ourselves up to all kinds once putting our initial thoughts out there in writing a thing anywhere on the Internet) are ultimayely like "what's the big deal?" Sort of condoning what's happening... Makes me think of someone either currently practicing or willing to perperate or advocate such a thing over someone else... Like if you were employed by them they wouldn't mind asking the same no of you. But for certain the more that is asked of someone by the employer, especially to an employee that has aspirations of independence, the more of a slight it can feel. Like you said, the principle of the thing seems skewed, the hypocrisy in that their resources are corporate assets not to be abused by you and your desires for profit and yet your resources should be made accessible to them for the end motivation of profit. Ultimately employers hold the power in these situations; you comply or leave or face the consequences they choose to hand out and that's why so many are seeking an alternative. I hope you find yours and sooner rather than later.

 

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[Zachariah Lange]

I use my personal phone for my work. The way I see it is if I had to have a personal AND work phone, neither would ever be charged, as opposed to my personal phone only being charged half of the time haha. Also, all my clients are in my phone, so if I leave, so do my clients.

Since I can see a benefit to having to use my personal phone, it's no big deal for me. Now, if the company I worked for started telling me I had to download apps onto my phone and essentially give up the rights to all the data on my phone, I would want to see them paying AT LEAST a portion of the bill. Also, if they have to include the right to wipe your phone in an agreement then I think that would be the first indication that they should be using a more secure method.

 

[Vigilante]

Vig, that was dam near poetic, and you hit the nail right on the head.

For about ten years, I was listening to my boss's visions about how our products were going to take off and make us all tons of money. Massive was always just around the next corner.

After so many years, it made me weary and frustrated. I slowly started to realize that the truck he was driving want going to get me where I wanted to go.

After a couple of things happened (succeeding with a few rental properties and falling in with TFF) the realization crystallized that I really wouldn't be there forever. That I would be free one day.

And what you described is exactly what's happened. The bullshit doesn't bother me any more. Empty promises of success? Okay. Bitching about how our distributor is screwing us over? No problem. Product delays created by adding bullshit features that nobody cares about? Water off a duck's back.

At the same time I've become more productive over the last 6 months then I've ever been. The boss even told me that I would be the first choice to head a new project in the next couple of years.

Looking forward to Freedom Day with all my being.

 

[biggeemac]

Well, with my company, when you try to tie into the company email via activesync, there is a little splash screen that appears that you have to agree to that basically says that they reserve the right to remote wipe your device. I declined and set up an OWA app instead.

 

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[Ninjakid]

Well, with my company, when you try to tie into the company email via activesync, there is a little splash screen that appears that you have to agree to that basically says that they reserve the right to remote wipe your device. I declined and set up an OWA app instead.

This is actually the thing I hate about smartphones. So many security vulnerabilities. If only people knew all the ways their mobile device could easily be compromised.

 

[Contrarian]

Is that even legal?

Nope, it's an imprisonable offence. It's also impossible to prove sadly.

 

[mt_myke]

Some of the things that bothers me about the this new BYOM (bring your own mobile) program and the accompanying software is how your company messages, calendar, emails, etc are automatically synced to your phone. I don't want that stuff mixing with my personal information. I also don't like how we have to agree to have our phones wiped if the company deems it necessary. There's no guarantee we'll get a warning either if such a situation should ever happen. You're essentially left to regularly backup your phone and "hope" it never does.

For Android at least, a solution is coming - Android for Work. Basically it lets you "containerize" your work apps and data away from your own personal stuff, so you have multiple profiles/logins instead of just one. I haven't used this yet but I imagine it would make an android device more like a typical desktop computer - log in with multiple accounts and get a completely different desktop, set of personal documents, settings, etc. The company could still monitor/control/wipe this profile/login, but not touch your personal login.

https://www.android.com/intl/en_us/work/

 

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[WestCoast]

I don't pay the cellphone bill for any of my employees. I expect them to keep their private lives private with their own cellphone.
Occasionally they have to talk to customer on their cell phones.
They don't tend to like it, but they don't make a big fuss.
They are a good staff, so they do it as needed.
I make sure to tell them it isn't mandatory, but that I recognized they do it sometimes and that I appreciate them going the extra mile.

The more we help our customers, the more money we make, the bigger their bonuses are