To not want to be expected to give my personal number to my team for work purposes

[swimdog]

I have recently started my first line management role. I manage a team of about half a dozen people in the Civil Service. Part of my job involves managing annual leave requests, sickness, one to one meetings with my team etc.

This week I have been told that I will not receive a work mobile and need to give my team my personal number for use if they need to phone in sick. I was advised to tell my team not to use my personal phone number for any other reason. Other equivalent grade managers in my office do have a work mobile, but policy has changed between their start date and mine, and work phones are no longer provided to new managers.

AIBU to be unhappy with this arrangement? It's not that I don't trust my team; I honestly don't think they would abuse having access to my personal number. It's the principle of it that bothers me - I don't want to be expected to mix work and personal life on my own phone. I don't need a smartphone like the other managers have, literally just a basic 'brick' phone with call functionality would be perfectly fine. Surely it's not fair that other managers don't have to give out their personal number to their teams while I do? I also don't want to be in the situation where a member of my team forgets I'm off on annual leave and phones me to tell me they're sick while I'm sunning myself in the south of France! (I wish!)

AIBU?

Buy the cheapest brick phone and only use it for work purposes. Claim it on your tax as an expense.

No. I’d just get them to call your work number.

We don’t have phones, just use Teams to call can leave voicemail etc. You can see who is free (green)
In the past everyone had a phone on desk, there was a person whose job it was to clean the phones in one office I worked in.

Don't give out your personal number. Sick staff can message you via any number of apps using the work email address that you have.

YANBU but I am finding this is the norm and the expectation now at work in the public sector since home working.

Work saves money on work phones.

I am expected to let people know of my whereabouts by my personal phone and receive people’s sick days etc in the same way.

At my previous job we had a member of staff refuse to join the “work whatsapp” and it’s made no difference whatsoever.

Give out a number that you don't have a phone for?

That's got to be one of the stupidest things I have ever read on here!

i just changed jobs and my new company doesn’t provide mobiles. I have access to my work outlook and teams on my own phone by downloading the apps. My team could just teams call me. I don’t care though and we have each other’s numbers to text or WhatsApp. I was surprised not to have a phone provided at first but quickly got used to it and prefer only having one phone.

YANBU - your employer has no right to insist that you use your personal phone for work.

Nhs... nothing in my contract to say I have to provide a phone.. they want me to use 'equipment' they provide it.

You've obviously not read very much on here then. And I was being sarcastic/unhelpful. Sorry it went over your head.

If I'd wanted to be helpful, I would have said to divert the landline to a mobile which gets away with having to give a mobile number out, and undivert it when on holiday - but I'm not that helpful.

Can you say you cannot give this number out as you use it for family emergencies and not work.
Can't the IT dept buy or source a phone for you, they must get them cheaper as they buy loads of stuff. Your manager should agree to this? It's not directly being supplied by your manager but you need it if people are meant to ring in sick. There should be a central sickness email or number where people leave messages. Why do they need to speak to you directly?
You can set a work landline to go through to a mobile without the caller knowing the number I think as well. But the notion of calling in seems antiquated and unnecessary.

This is illegal—GDPR laws explicitly state that employers cannot give out personal details, nor can they require you to give out your personal details in the form of your personal phone number.

We have a "bring your own device" policy where I work. If your phone is twin SIM spec could they not provide you with a virtual SIM?

They need to provide you with a phone.

I have my current line manager on Whatsapp but that's because we are a team of two, we're not able to take our work phones abroad for security reasons and we do sometimes need to contact each other.

When I started work 20 years ago we all had phones in our offices. Now we're in open plan buildings, nobody has a phone on their desk (because we hotdesk) and we're expected to use our personal phones for work. It's rubbish.

If only there were an alternative like an actual office landline number for people to ring in sick.

I’d just say I didn’t have a mobile at the moment or it’s temperamental and playing up so can’t pass the number on.

Or give them the wrong number.

They cannot force you to do this. It is your personal protected information and you do not have to agree to give that out to anyone not expressly stated in your contract

yougo to hr and say, no I won’t be doing this. They can call your works landline and email your works email address. If that is not good enough and it has to be a mobile, then they need to provide that mobile.

giving out personal data to team members could cause issues down the line. If there are disciplinary issues, if they pass on to someone as they assume it’s work number or they just don’t care about PPI. AND when your off work yourself, or on holiday you’re still going to get these blasted calls. And nope, a team member won’t restrict themselves to just calling it when they dial in sick, they’ll be calling it when very you’re not in when they deem there is an “ emergency”. It’s a slippery slope that over time , your personal phone will be a work phone. Fuck that. Especially if youre paying for it

HR need to be made aware that there are some people who cannot give out their personal protected data to random team members due to risks such as domestic violence, abuse and such.

No, just claim it ALL on your works expenses !

IOW: don’t subsidise the company if it’s not in your contract, tax rebate or no tax rebate. Just no.

I do wonder if all the people on here that say this is normal in their workplace, do not know their ignite, never question what some idiot manager tells them? Then over time manager says, well so and so agreed, and before you know it it is norm and expected

this simply isn’t right from protecting your data and personal information. It can cause all sorts of issues.

why haven’t you all challenged it, or refused ( unless of course your contract states this). They CANT make you.

yougo to hr and say, no I won’t be doing this. They can call your works landline and email your works email address. If that is not good enough and it has to be a mobile, then they need to provide that mobile.

I cannot imagine being so petty in a work context.

I do get the 'having' to being not ideal. In my workplace (university, manager of 8), I'm not eligible for a work mobile either. It's just automatically assumed I'll give my number to colleagues, and they to me. We don't explicitly talk about boundaries or usage, because I trust & respect them, and believe they also do, in relation to me.

I know plenty of people who make similar fussed. There's a lot to object to in the world of work, especially in a civil service context, but this isn't one of them.

I think I've had my managers personal phone number in every job I've ever had and nearly every team has had a WhatsApp group. I__ find it a bit odd to get worked up about.

'Their ignite'? Not sure what that was.

I'm all for knowing your rights. But it's also about being reasonable & proportionate. It's only a matter of sending or receiving occasional texts, it's really not onerous.

Working in an utterly fixed, no latitude way (both employer & employee) is no way for either party to have a successful experience.

I’m an NHS manager and it took a few Catte to get agreement for a work phone. My team were contacting me on my personal phone for various things and I couldn’t switch off. I also need to contact relatives and patients at times, no way am I doing that from my own phone!

I would push back hard. There needs to be another system for people to notify you of sickness if they won’t issue you a phone.

Oh come on. Talk about acting like a 5 yo.

If something was genuinely an issue for me, I'd say so & why.

Not make up stuff.

As a manager I'm more than happy for my team to message me; I'm tied up in meetings or WFH / offsite a lot so reaching me quickly by mobile is the easiest way, ahead of emails or a landline.

I am a civil servant. I must phone boss if sick. I phone their direct work line. If they are on AL it is diverted to their deputy. I do have her personal mobile number and have used it if she was engaged on work line - texted for callback when she was available but meant I had contacted by 9am deadline. Don’t see it as a big deal. Emailing is definitely not allowed, they would still call you back anyway if email sent. I surrendered my work phone as almost never used it and it was often flat. Was a fortune each month and certainly adds up for taxpayer if contract phone is only used for incoming sick absence calls and loads of them allocated to team leaders. If you really object that much buy a burner PAYG and £10 top up and claim via expenses. Problem solved.