Employers and personal cellphones? (law, legal, move)

[Dthraco]

Question - in Virginia can an employer expect the employee to use their personal cellphone for regular work related communications? i.e. text messages to make task requests?

Some other states don’t allow this and require the employer to provide the employee with a cellphone or to pay any additional expense incurred on the employee.

[Seguinite]

Originally Posted by Dthraco

Question - in Virginia can an employer expect the employee to use their personal cellphone for regular work related communications? i.e. text messages to make task requests?

Some other states don’t allow this and require the employer to provide the employee with a cellphone or to pay any additional expense incurred on the employee.

Are you one of the twelve people left in the country that exclude texting? If you've already got a cell phone, what additional expense are you incurring? Do you really want to keep track of two phones?

[hawk55732]

Originally Posted by Seguinite

Are you one of the twelve people left in the country that exclude texting? If you've already got a cell phone, what additional expense are you incurring? Do you really want to keep track of two phones?

Where I work at, if you are expected to be making phone calls and work related emails and such things from your phone, then you are issued a phone. There are a few reasons for this.

First, if this was a car and you had to drive from place to place during work hours, youd expect to be paid for the milage, why should it be any different for a phone. They are both personal devices.

Second, by issuing the phones the IT administrators have access to what apps can be used on the work devices. Dending on the sensitive nature of what you are doing you may not want some apps on the phones.

Third, if somone loses their phone or it is compromised the IT admin can wipe or locate the phone.

[Dthraco]

Originally Posted by Seguinite

Are you one of the twelve people left in the country that exclude texting? If you've already got a cell phone, what additional expense are you incurring? Do you really want to keep track of two phones?

Technically the expense part doesn’t bother me. It’s more about what communication methods and channels are expected. If an expected communication channel is cellphone text, and it’s a requirement for the job, I don’t necessarily need to be the one providing that.

If my job required text as a regular communication method, yes, I would be fine with using a 2nd phone. Work-life balance is important.

[Dthraco]

Originally Posted by hawk55732

Where I work at, if you are expected to be making phone calls and work related emails and such things from your phone, then you are issued a phone. There are a few reasons for this.

First, if this was a car and you had to drive from place to place during work hours, youd expect to be paid for the milage, why should it be any different for a phone. They are both personal devices.

Second, by issuing the phones the IT administrators have access to what apps can be used on the work devices. Dending on the sensitive nature of what you are doing you may not want some apps on the phones.

Third, if somone loses their phone or it is compromised the IT admin can wipe or locate the phone.

Good point on the IT aspect. Legally, information on my phone is mine, not the company’s. Work based communication is typically the property of the company (email for example).

Curious if there is a law in Virginia related to this topic.

[Serenity2019]

I have a work phone and a personal phone (work for Federal Govt). I would not want anyone calling or texting me on my personal phone (except emergencies) from work, that is why we are issued a work phone. At times I wish I did not have the work phone. It seems you are not ever really off work. My job is like that anyway, in my career, in a sense you are always ready to work if necessary at any time.

[blue_glide]

My company forbids employees to conduct work related stuff, to include texts about work, on personnel devices. They also do not give out work phones.

[webster]

The employer runs a risk. Cell phone records can be subpoenaed in a personal legal case like a divorce. It's not just the phone numbers but also content.

Governmental entities are covered by record retention and FOIA laws and hence issue their own devices - or should.

[heavymind]

Originally Posted by hawk55732

First, if this was a car and you had to drive from place to place during work hours, youd expect to be paid for the milage, why should it be any different for a phone. They are both personal devices.

A computer is a better example. If you're hired for a job and a computer is required, are they going to ask you to bring your own laptop and printer and use it for company business?

I imagine even WFH employees are given computers and equipment to use at home, for company business.

[DavidWebb]

Originally Posted by Seguinite

Are you one of the twelve people left in the country that exclude texting? If you've already got a cell phone, what additional expense are you incurring? Do you really want to keep track of two phones?

You obviously have never worked in corporate America and have no clue about what you're talking about!! Do like Sun Tzu says, "Best to be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt!"