To think that workplaces should give you a phone if they want you to use it for work purposes?

[Keke94LND]

So this is actually almost 4 years too late, and there's nothing I can do about it now, but I was 23 when I started my job and at the time I wasn't confident enough to say no, but.. AIBU unreasonable to think work places should give you a phone if they want you to use yours for work purposes?

I'm a PA for reference:
On my first day at my job, my boss asked the IT guy to put my emails onto my phone... I just went along with it, but in hindsight now I think.. what if I don't want them on MY phone?

My boss frequently WhatsApp's me or calls me on my mobile (mainly when she is abroad or needs something out of hours). Occasionally I have to check my boss in for flights etc on weekends so I use my phone for this, although I don't mind that so much.

When covid hit and we started working from home, there was one day where my phone started playing up, and my boss told me I must get it fixed and it's very important I have a working phone especially at that time because of working from home! This was when I started to think 'it's my fucking phone'!

Is this normal for work places? Do most of you have your own work phones or are you expected to use your phones that you pay for? What if I decided I just wanted a bog standard Nokia flip phone? Lol

I'm my previous role as finance director me and all my direct reports had work phones, we used a WhatsApp group etc to communicate and when working from home they were instrumental. Now I'm a teacher there is the expectation emails are replied to at the weekend, so they encourage adding them to our phones, and a bloody irritating WhatsApp group that I was added to without consultation. I have stuck a sim card in an old iPhone and put the whatsapp group and emails etc on there. When I leave work it is switched off!

I have got around this using double SIM phones and two user profiles (one normal and one for work). The work SIM is deactivated for calls outside of working hours, but yes, it is clunky.

In your position it might be worth having a word about the business moving with the times and either giving you a work phone or wearing the cost of your work-related usage

Course you should have a work phone and no it’s not too late to ask . Just say you assumed at some point you’d get a work phone and time went on .
The fact that you haven’t said anything will think your not bothered , some bosses think they own you . Ask for a work phone and explain that your unhappy that your own personal phone is for personal not business .

YANBU. My company is so irritating for this: lots of talk about well-being and “you don’t have to be onscreen for this call [ie on work-provided laptop], feel free to dial in while doing yoga or enjoying some fresh air [ie on personal phone by downloading our communications apps].”

I absolutely refuse to do anything work-related on my phone: maintain firm separation of church and state. Once the laptop is off and shoved in a cupboard, I’m done. Work cannot creep into my endless doomscrolling personal time.