What would you expect to happen where you work re excessive mobile phone bill?

[UltimateWednesday]

Staff working from home have obviously relied heavily on their mobile phones and we expected an increase in the bills.

However, one member of staff's internet usage has run up a bill of almost 5 figures! This is clearly not work related.

We'll deal with it through the appropriate code of conduct and discipline policies but would staff where you work be expected to repay the money?

We seem to be in the odd position where if it was a few hundred pounds we would but this huge amount seems an unreasonable (impossible?) demand.

Their data usage totals almost £10k?!

Are you able to prove it's not work related? And do you have a phone/internet usage policy?

If that states repayable then I'd maybe push for it. But I don't know how enforceable it is.

At my place of work (large corporate) it would really depend. We'd expect that staff had been notified explicitly of acceptable usage. If this was the case and the staff member had grossly misused company resources they'd go through a formal disciplinary procedure that might end in termination if it was deemed severe enough. I don't think the staff member would be asked to pay back the money though.

If the staff member had not been explicitly informed of the rules then they'd get their wrists slapped and someone would be writing a new policy asap!

The policy says "reasonable" personal usage is allowed subject to some conditions, one of which is that it does not incur additional expense, so the code of conduct has been broken but it doesn't specifically speak about repayment.

A bill of this size couldn't be work related, it must include regular gaming/streaming? Yes, we will be able to get the history to see what it was used for.

And yes, it is close to £10k for the three months.

Have they been connecting their mobile to their laptop because they don't have broadband?

What did they say when they submitted it? Surely they can’t think that’s normal.

Perhaps they have a terrible plan!

I'm just wondering if there's a chance theyve logged into conferencing vids and left it running.

I would expect that size of bill if proven was personal would be gross misconduct anyway. So not much chance of getting it back if they're sacked.

How much data have they actually used? Would they have understood what activities would use data?

You could probably justify claiming the money back as part of a disciplinary sanction, but they might rather resign.

On my networks pay as you go worst internet plan that would work out as approximately 25G a day for 30 days. Instead I have unlimited usage for £30 a month which only slows down when I hit 30G for the day, which I have done in the past when studying, doing some online shopping and banking and streaming a bit of tv (not very much, and mostly to do with my are of study). So if this person was on the worst pay as you go mobile data plan they could run up £9900 easily in a month, this could be the same for old data plans, and over 3 months it would be hard not to. Of course, they should change plans. But if they didn't change plan then 8G a day is really not that much, so over 3 months this would make sense, and over 1 month it would make sense at a stretch IYSWIM.

I don't know about my employer. I imagine there's a clause in the policy that covers repayment.
But personally I'd expect to be asked to pay it back and I'd also be too ashamed to ever show my face again!

I've been using 50gb/month because I need to use mobile data to work and have had video calls constantly. That only costs £20/month though.

I mean is that physically possible in 3 months?
I'm tempted to hazard a guess they used the phone to hot-spot Internet rather than use home broadband and forgot to swap back out of hours?

@roses2

Have they been connecting their mobile to their laptop because they don't have broadband?

I know someone who is doing that (on his personal mobile not a work one), and he has managed not to run up a 10k bill, he has stayed within his contract allowance and is paying something like £30 or £40 a month

That was based on hotspots my calculation, sorry. So if mobile hot spotting it could be possible if not keeping an eye on your usage, but you'd have to be wilfully ignoring it tbh

It's our plan, it's a work phone and the bills come to us, they don't see the bill unless we have a reason to query it with them.

There's a meeting with the staff member tomorrow but my guess is that their children have been using the hot spot after the home wifi is turned off or for something that the home wifi does not allow.

If it makes a difference, it's a very senior well paid member of staff. £10k is not (quite) as much as it sounds.

I think you have to decide how valuable the staff member is to you. And how you want to proceed.
But whatever you do, get a copy of the bill and highlight anything that is not work related to give to the staff member. - give them a chance to explain themselves... so if it is kids/ teens misusing you might be a bit more lenient- if they didn't know! then if it was done with knowledge.

Whatever the outcome, some / all money has to be repaid ot you might find yourself in the same position again.

How much are the bills normally?

Might sound silly but do they have reliable broadband at home? My phone constantly flicks from 4g to wifi. 100m down the road I get no 4g or signal

If dc are hot spotting it would indicate there's no WiFi? Maybe I'm wrong

£10k?! I can’t see how that is possible in 3 months? That’s over £110 usage a day? What would there normal work day usage be?

@UltimateWednesday

If it makes a difference, it's a very senior well paid member of staff. £10k is not (quite) as much as it sounds.

£10k is exactly as much as it sounds, I don't understand that comment, are you in the UK? I can't see how anyone could use that much data unless they had some kind of contract from 1997, unlimited data plans cost less than £50 a month.

I think you also need to be having words with whoever negotiates the contracts, unless I'm missing something they aren't doing a very good job. Even if for some reason you have to pay an extortionate price why aren't there notifications for excessive bills?

How’s that even possible?

That's nuts. I think you definitely need to understand what it's been spent on. Is it feasible if they were doing all of their work every day via hotspot that it could add up to that much?

I work for a large corporation. If it contravened a policy then it would result in a disciplinary, but similarly I don't think we have a way to recover the money. The only way I can think of an employee being able to spend £10k unchecked would be on their corporate Amex but every one has signed agreements with Amex that they are liable for non company spend (I think) which shouldn't be done in the first place anyway and which wouldn't be approved. I know the company ultimately has to guarantee the spend with Amex, but it's a more black and white scenario.

Is it my husband? Yesterday he took/made 63 work related calls and some of them were transatlantic.

You mention that it ia senior member of staff. what work are they being expected to do from home that would usually go on to landlines at work and internet based services covered at work?

As it is a work phone you would know what rate they are on and whether they have international discounts etc.