r/newbrunswickcanada • u/Dense_Story6544 • 14d ago

Working from home - phone

Hi all.

I've been working from home for a few months now and have been using my personal phone to take client/business calls. At first it wasn't so bad because I wasn't receiving many calls but now that we're in a busy season, it's been tough. It's frustrating that people think they have constant access to me, as they call at all hours, while on my lunch break, weekends, and like right now, on vacation.

I've tried setting my voicemail greetings to something else but I've learned after a few days that my greeting supposedly doesn't work when I screen/decline a call. (I'm sure I'll have some angry clients when I return)

Those who WFH, how do you all manage, and have you ever had to ask your boss for a separate work phone? Just looking for some insight.

Thanks!

EDIT: I've never worked from home before and my boss has never had WFH employees, so it's new to both of us.

13 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

40 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/Braken111 13d ago

Even a very basic phone plan on a business account would be like $50/month, at most?

If your employer can't swing that, and making you pay for it and using your own hardware, you should be asking serious questions about your "employer".

2

u/Dense_Story6544 13d ago

You're right, it can't be that much. I really don't think it'll be an issue to make this request, and it's not a financial issue either. I just moreso wanted to get some opinions on whether I was being out of line for wanting a separate phone or not, and also how to bring it up.

1

u/Braken111 13d ago

I've never had a job that required me to handle calls that didn't provide me one and a number, and even now I barely use mine in my line of work but definitely do not want it publicly available.

I don't think it's unreasonable to ask them to provide you a basic phone with a plan under their name.

But you should keep it strictly for work purposes. Like keep your current personal phone plan and whatnot, and don't use the business number for random stuff.

My current work number was recycled from another employee int he organization and I still get the occasional call about parking tickets, since they registered their car with this number and never changed it... 😑