Company phone system is down … been told to use our mobiles
Posted by MyIntuitiveMind@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 142 comments
So I work for a MSP and today I’ve logged in and phone out that the companies phone system is down. I work from home and thought at first it was an issue with my handset but when I checked with my manager it’s a company wide issue.
As a work around they have set up a redirect to the receptionist’s mobile for incoming calls which isn’t really an issue but for our going calls we have been told to use our mobiles and herein lies the rant. Only senior staff and field engineers have company mobiles the rest of us only have our personal phones and the management have “advised” us that they do not want us to withhold our numbers as it doesn’t look professional. When I said that I wasn’t happy about this I was told that it could have an adverse effect on things in the future if a client says they had calls from a withheld number.
MedicatedLiver@reddit
Document this. Some states straight up have laws on the books about personal device use for company business. If they retaliate for this, you'll want that documented refusal for the lawyer.
Specialist-Sense-824@reddit
MSPs are such trash. Tell them you charge $10 a minute rounded to the nearest minute for phone calls.
Opposite-Client522@reddit
Get a Google fi number?
lenovoguy@reddit
Tell them you don’t have a cell phone, and also use emails to communicate with everyone, or that you couldn’t afford to pay your phone bill and it’s currently on hold
Sinister_Nibs@reddit
You k ow what doesn’t look professional?
An MSP having a major technical outage that affects service.
And giving end users the employee’s personal phone numbers is a recipe for disaster (users directly contacting employees instead of using the queues)
PhilipRiversCuomo@reddit
Sounds like an argument for them to pay for a separate company cellphone for you!
ARLibertarian@reddit
I don't want to carry 2 cells either
realdlc@reddit
MSP owner here. (Not the msp of the op, btw!). We have a strong policy that employees should never call a customer from their personal cell so the customer doesn’t start calling them directly in the future. Your msp should have a better disaster plan for phones. That’s embarrassing considering they should be advising customers on how to do disaster planning!!
I believe as the employee you have every right to say no OR asked to be reimbursed for a temp burner phone to use for the day. Or just reimbursed in general.
smokinbbq@reddit
Another option, because it's already "too late" for OP to deny using their personal phone (unless the whole team sticks to it).
Block Caller ID iPhone
Block Caller ID Android
I also strongly agree with you. MSP not having a proper plan in place is a huge red flag on how good they are at their actual job!
Icolan@reddit
I think you posted the wrong link for Android. The one you posted is for blocking outgoing calls not blocking caller ID.
smokinbbq@reddit
Shit. I’m sure if someone needs to, they can google the right one though.
AnnoyedVelociraptor@reddit
Just prefix the number with #31#.
bojack1437@reddit
For example on T-Mobile #31# enables showing your caller ID..
*31# would disable it.
But I would also not say that that works on all carriers.
PlsChgMe@reddit
thx
TIL
RegistryRat@reddit
Honestly shocked they don't have some sort of soft phone solution as a back up.
RCG73@reddit
I’m guessing their voip provider is out. But that’s a random guess.
Intelligent_Piece411@reddit
..but I'm on pay-as-you-go!!! LOL
walkasme@reddit
What is the formal companies DR (Disaster Recovery) procedure for this? If something like this is not documented, get your CV out there.
But goto your local supermarket and grab a prepaid sim or an esim online and use that.
There are many voip providers to get a number too.
Wildfire983@reddit
So this is what you do.
Vtrin@reddit
Add to this - the worst that will happen if you with hold - you’ll get Voicemail and someone can call you back through dispatch.
If you share, clients will keep your number. Clients have their favourite techs. They will use it to bypass your ticket triage system. They will use it after hours. It will start small with texts like “hey OP, just a quick question”
hearwa@reddit
I have a neighbor who got a job in my company. I have him on Facebook and guess how he tries to get a hold of me?
wazza_the_rockdog@reddit
They'll also use it after you've left the MSP and not care that you've left, you helped them before so they EXPECT you to help them now.
I had a client of a past MSP that I worked for call me on my personal number 6+ months after I'd left, on a saturday (this MSP didn't do unscheduled weekend work) and even after I told her I didn't work there any more, she still asked if I was going to help her... Uhhh, no.
GolfballDM@reddit
I was in this boat years ago when working tech support.
Got a call on New Years Day (they had a hardware issue, I worked software) because somebody had my phone number as someone who could get things done at my company. I was just a Tech Support Gremlin Herder.
The specific issue is that they needed an update regarding the part they needed to fix their system, they were told that the part needed to be retrieved from a warehouse, and that a tech needed to be assigned to it. This was taking too long, they had already been down a few hours.
Of course, it's New Years Day, so there's probably only one tech on call, and I would bet dollars to doughnuts that they were already doing something.
If they had called into Support (like they did initially), they would have gotten someone in hardware who could have provided a useful update. Instead, I had to call the duty manager for hardware, and persuade them to call the customer and give them warm fuzzies.
JJHall_ID@reddit
"I'm sorry, but I'm not on call today and I have no idea what the status of your order is. If you call the regular support number, the on-call tech has the holiday contact list and will be able to track that information down for you. I can start making some calls to try to find out, but it will be faster if you just call the support line directly."
In my experience, if you're too helpful when someone goes around the standard procedures you'll always be the "go-to" person. The way to combat that is to make it a little less painful to go the standard route rather than working around it. After being promoted to a Gremlin Herder (I love that!) myself, I've had to take the "Gee, I think so and so on my team was working on that directly, have you asked him? I'd have to start from scratch working on it so you'll get it done a lot faster if you call the helpdesk." If someone emails me directly about a support issue (not an escalation request, or something mission critical) I purposely let it sit for a while before I forward it to the ticket system. Also to combat the people calling their favorite tech, we did away with the helpdesk staff having directly reachable extensions. The only way to get a phone call to a support technician is now calling the queue number. That alone helped a lot in evening out the case load among the team.
It seems harsh to do all of that, but the end result is people get better and faster support if they follow the right processes. This just adds more encouragement to follow those processes. If everyone just e-mailed or called individual techs rather than putting in tickets or calling the queue, then everybody would also be waiting longer for support due to the chaos of that type of environment.
GolfballDM@reddit
I forgot to mention that I was on-call for my group.
JJHall_ID@reddit
That doesn't change the fact that they didn't go through the established channel. That really only changes the response to start out with "I'm sorry, but I'm not in that department so I don't know the status of your order. If you call the..."
RCG73@reddit
On new years. If that call isn’t a please god help me I’m watching North Korea hack into the servers right now, how do i power them off. Then I better not get that call.
drawnbutter@reddit
Unfortunately, you're right - once they get your number they'll use it. Same with coworkers, and the last thing you want is Jerry in accounting calling at 8 AM on a Saturday morning because Jerry Jr can't log into WoW. Block your number or get a google voice number to use today or something along those lines.
smokinbbq@reddit
Just so OP knows. You can easily block your number. OP, if you are going to be making outbound calls, make sure it's blocked.
Old-Olive-4233@reddit
OP knows that ... it's literally the reason for the post/rant!
Their company is telling them not to block/withhold the number because it looks unprofessional and their company is threatening repercussions if they hear from clients that calls came from a blocked number.
smokinbbq@reddit
Ya, I misread that. I didn't realize "withhold numbers" meant blocking, I thought it was "witholding from telling receptionist or management".
if they are such assholes about the "image" of a blocked number calling them back, then just imagine what it's going to look like when OP slips in the "our phone system is down, and with no disaster recovery, we had to use our personal phones, so please don't call me on this number after today".
Old-Olive-4233@reddit
Right‽ Some companies just want to flex. Hope the MSP doesn't control hosting for any of their clients services because I'd be worried if I were them!
smokinbbq@reddit
I imagine that all of their customers, part of their disaster recovery is "call company XYZ to start working on data from backups", but how the fuck do you do that, if company XYZ doesn't have a proper phone backup solution that might have also been impacted!???
Cheomesh@reddit
I feel seen
ImmortalTrendz@reddit
"Weird. I'll have to call my phone provider and find out. "
Rudager6@reddit
For point 3, just put it back on the phone system.
“sorry our phone system is playing up, they should have it sorted soon”. It’s true and if you don’t give any context that gives away your calling from your own mobile it still sounds like you’re calling from the company line that they already know how to call back on anyway.
Darkone539@reddit
Lol, but also this. By the time you "fix it" the system will be back.
first_lvr@reddit
This is why I do with some emails haha
sysad82@reddit
Too late, OP or someone on the team already brought it up. There's no way you get away with a "Hm don't know why" when you specifically made a stink.
OP learned a lesson. Stay quiet, and just do things then act dumb after the fact. There's an art to staying quiet I noticed many in our field lack because of the way our brains are wired. Put it another way it's better to beg forgiveness then ask permission in some scenarios. It's how you push past red tape at times and it's how you protect yourself.
Also OP works for a crap employer.
thegreatcerebral@reddit
This!
This is why I made a comment on another post about why our company would not write an official policy for something and it was the reverse for them. They could always play coy about it when if they had a policy they then HAD to follow it.
Next time just do it and say "oh, you didn't say anything and I didn't want to give my number out."
thegreatcerebral@reddit
True. This 100%. Nobody really knows what happens with phone calls. So many moving parts from end to end and your system was down anyway already.... nobody will care.
Note: My "nobody" refers to clients and managers ;)
Moontoya@reddit
No calling plan In teams ?
How bout using WhatsApp calling ?
Management fuck off down to a phone store or Walmart and buy some "burners"
Any mention of reimbursement?
Cos fuck using my money/resources to prop the company up
NGrey119@reddit
I have that just for this purpose. People ask me to text back and I’m like it’ll take 5 min to write a text
MyIntuitiveMind@reddit (OP)
We have no Teams calling plan and there are plans to enable this.
Even if they went out a brought phones today it be any good for me as I’m remote worker
Joeykapps@reddit
“Im sorry i dont have a personal phone.”
eddiehead01@reddit
Most smartphones have 2 sim slots so I'd be telling the company they need to provide a new business sim
My personal phone number doesn't go to anything business related
It's not even just the fact that I'm paying for the data plan. I don't want sales phone calls in a weekend to my private number
Flaky-Celebration-79@reddit
Been here. Google voice number with a local area code. Problem solved.
MyIntuitiveMind@reddit (OP)
Not available outside of the US unfortunately.
Breezel123@reddit
If you're not in the US your local labour laws might have something to say about being forced to use private devices for work purposes. I know this exists in some states in the US too, but they also have this weird no fault dismissal policy that most countries don't have.
Also Teams phone plans often have a month free trial. I don't know why your msp doesn't have a few backup phone numbers set up in the Teams admin center that they can quickly give out with a free license for a month if necessary.
Flaky-Celebration-79@reddit
Dang. I thought I had a good one for you.
In that case, I'd still block my number. No way id be ok with clients having my personal cell. Either that or block all their numbers once the phone systems back up.
Kerdagu@reddit
Sounds like I wouldn't be making any phone calls until the system is back up then.
3percentinvisible@reddit
Drop in the local store, get a few dozen (I don't know how big your team is) cheap sims on the company card, or get the ea or whoever has a card to do it.
BlackReddition@reddit
MSP with phone system down, sounds like a shitty MSP. I hope you're created an incident as it is not available.
JiggityJoe1@reddit
Wife works for HR and is asked to call people on her personal. We set up a Google voice number for her to use.
twhiting9275@reddit
Yeah, at least in the US, that's against the law.
If the company requires use of something like this, they are required to furnish it.
matrael@reddit
Can you cite the law? My employer is based in Florida and I’m working in Washington. I thought there was a law where they couldn’t require BYOD without compensation in lieu of providing a company phone, but couldn’t find anything except for a law in California.
Ok-Double-7982@reddit
I feel like people overthink this nowadays. I used to think the same way.
But let's be real. Anyone can google someone and get the cell number associated with them pretty darn easily due to our data being sold by retailers and published.
architectofinsanity@reddit
If you’re a tmobile post paid customer - use DIGITS to create a new number/line and use it.
Bucket81@reddit
You know what's unprofessional, having your phone system go down at an MSP.
foreverinane@reddit
rolling the dice between unpatched 3cx system got popped or ancient shoretel server with 3389 open to it
hihcadore@reddit
Google number is free.
Also you can just get a new one for a small fee.
This is the number I give my employer. I don’t feel guilty about turning off alerts to Google voice when I’m off.
LegendOfDave88@reddit
Id have just told them to pound sand
Effective-Evening651@reddit
If i was in this situaiton, i'd do one of two things. Either summon a cheap amazon USB headset via the fastest shipping I could find and set up a google voice number on my laptop - and have your own web based VOIP solution, or pick up a dirt cheap prepaid phone at a local convenience store/walmart, with a month of the cheapest phone/text only plan level. Name+Phone number can be a risky combo in the wrong hands. And with MSP work, you're never guaranteed that your customers are the best at respecting/protecting that info.
some_random_chap@reddit
You know what doesn't look professional, the MSP's phone system going down. Maybe leadership should have thought more about that.
Special_Luck7537@reddit
Just what you want..., all your customers, lol your clients, all your users having your own personal cell number....
HI Bob, I know it's Saturday night. My kid has a test on Monday, and she can't reach the site, can you give us a hand?
TrippTrappTrinn@reddit
Probably going to be downvoted, but...
For me it is about the balance between you and the employer. If they are a good emoloyer and show flexibility when needed, I would have no problem with this in an emergency. If however they do never show flexibility on your part, then why should you?
Then again, if you use your phone, that may be something for you to use to show how you are flexible in future concerstations on working conditions.
SystemGardener@reddit
Also if anything, it can be a benefit for you long term. I know a couple people that left the msp space for clients eventually thanks to building up good relationships with them. Landing in much comfier non msp positions.
Also it’s really not that hard to say no after the fact and that they need to use the proper channels. I’ve never had someone get mad at me for that in the decade + I’ve been doing this.
Inquisitive_idiot@reddit
There's a difference between making your personal cell phone number the main callback number for an entire organization and sharing your contact info with a select few at the customer organization.
SystemGardener@reddit
Unless I’m miss understanding, this isn’t them making their personal cell the main call back number for the organization. Just for the calls they have to do that day.
Inquisitive_idiot@reddit
It would be shortsighted to assume that they wouldn't keep this number after theylearned of its efficacy.
This would turn into the "real number" that they would share with folks that have an emergency.
Inquisitive_idiot@reddit
Nope.
In my humbler days, I would've agreed with you, but this isn't about sharing the number with your employer. This is about sharing your number so that your employer so can share it with others.
At this point, you are no longer in control of who gets to see your number and who doesn't.
Flexibility is one thing. Delegating sharing of your private information to an unknown number of people is something else.
We are in tech. Getting a Google voice number is child's play. We should know what PII is. The MSP should know what PII is.
This is simply the wrong way to go about things and will end in tears.
Signed,
"Flexible" guy.
Freakazoid_82@reddit
So you would call customers with your private phone number? They are just testing the waters how bad they can treat you.
HairyMechanic@reddit
I'm interested to know why your immediate assumption is that management are trying some gotcha on colleagues to see how far they can push things.
Primary platform isn't working and they don't have any redundancy. They've deemed an alternative that every individual will likely have. Granted, it's not a suitable alternative but to make out that it's some sort of stepping stone to abusing their powers is hilarious.
vdragonmpc@reddit
You have not worked with MBNA fully enabled consultants. Not a chance in hell am I giving outside users/vendors/spam callers my personal number. I know they will use it and once in the wild the random calls from ring central/netrix/knob4 will start.
If the company didnt deem communications important when you have so many options. Thats not my issue.
Are they reimbursing for the line cost? Probably not. Now they are telling them to change personal phone settings.
HairyMechanic@reddit
I did say it's not a suitable alternative - hell i'm not giving out my personal number when i've seen what happened to our old "internal" number once someone chucked it out to the world!
My point was that it's an stretch to make a comment that it's management looking to take advantange of a situation - more often than not management fail to even realise that's even a possibility because generally speaking, they don't think that far out of the box!
vdragonmpc@reddit
Its not a stretch. Company I worked for years back didnt give us cell phones in I.T.
Things went bad and they burned up my house phone trying to reach me. I was out of town. Guy went off monday morning that 'Saturday the owner was trying to get something done and the internet was down'. First of all the internet was not down and second I was in the mountains and had no company phone. He bitched and moaned but still didnt give me a company phone.
This went on several times and the CEO came into my office and asked why I didnt have a phone. I told her I was not considered essential and didnt have one.
I had a company phone 2 hours later handed to me by the COO who was a raging cockbag. (He was also the primary reason I quit after his escapade setting up a blackberry BES account the day I put the letter on his desk)
TW-Twisti@reddit
As he said, it depends on how the company has treated him in the past. Flexible bosses get flexible employees. If you make a big stink over me checking in at 9:01 instead of 9:00, then unfortunately my personal phone just dropped and broke, too bad. If I get a call that a friend needs me to pick them up because their car broke down and you are fine if I take the afternoon off with zero warning, I'll happily call the customers from my personal phone (and just block their numbers if they call back after work numbers work again).
SystemGardener@reddit
I second this.
a60v@reddit
What about people who don't have cell phones? Or don't want to use personal devices for work?
Inquisitive_idiot@reddit
I.e normal people 😁
munchmo@reddit
Google voice
ozzie286@reddit
This is the answer. You can get a gv number in a few minutes and use the app to make outgoing calls without revealing your personal number.
saltysomadmin@reddit
And then dump that number once this blows over.
ozzie286@reddit
Or disable forwarding to your real number until the next time it's needed.
Randalldeflagg@reddit
This. But don't disable. Send it to the primary/dispatch line after the issue is resolved.
ozzie286@reddit
I don't know how I feel about that. On the one hand, it makes sense, but on the other, it encourages people to use your number. I think I'd rather just set it up to go straight to VM and then put the "Your call could not be completed as dialed" message as the VM greeting.
Randalldeflagg@reddit
I don't think it's still an option with Google Voice, but you could setup custom voicemail message by group. Years ago, I had an caller not in my address book just dump to a voicemail message of a fax machine dialing. Everyone else got a normal message
ozzie286@reddit
I just checked, you can't do it in the app or mobile site, but on the desktop site you can configure custom VM rules under the call forwarding section. You can also easily swap out the VM message, so you can have your "This is Fred from Tech Support" for when you need to use it, and "This number is not currently in service" for when you don't, and not have to re-record it each time.
thegreatcerebral@reddit
Is the company going to reimburse you for the calls though?
hefightsfortheusers@reddit
Did this for years before my MSP moved to a provider that allowed us to put our work number on our cell phones.
PurpleFlerpy@reddit
This is the way - I also use it when clients insist on text. Google account I use for it is hooked to company email and separate from personal Google account, so that way if I leave the company it stays with the company.
RCG73@reddit
I’m a manager at a MSP. I don’t want a client to have a techs number. There’s so many business reasons why I wouldn’t. Not to mention techs don’t need someone calling on a Sunday night because their kids book report won’t print on the office printer. Use a google number and burn it afterwards.
NebraskaCoder@reddit
Can you have the receptionist/help desk, or a coworker with a company phone, initiate a 3-way call?
Nemo_Barbarossa@reddit
Sorry, I don't have a personal phone.
HerfDog58@reddit
"Sorry can't use personal mobile phone, intermittent service outage for my cellular carrier."
michaelpaoli@reddit
No problem, just tell company to provide the SIM, and you're good to go.
aliversonchicago@reddit
Google Voice solves for this. You can call out as that number and hide your real one.
FauxReal@reddit
They should buy a bunch of VoIP numbers from some cheapo place like 8x8 or something. Of course half of them might be on a block list.
emax4@reddit
Tell them you need the company credit card to add a second line to your cellphone.
BigWickerJim@reddit
Wait, you guys still use those big phones people used to have on their desks??
MyIntuitiveMind@reddit (OP)
Yep
protogenxl@reddit
If in the us give out a Google Voice number
protogenxl@reddit
Tello will provide a esim in short order as well
iceph03nix@reddit
lol, at an MSP? fuck no.
If push comes to shove, Get a Google Voice Number, and make calls from that. Once the company phones are fixed, nuke the number.
Stonewalled9999@reddit
are you my MSP ?
Nate379@reddit
I have a long-held rule, in and out of the MSP space, that my cell phone number is never given to an end user. All calls go through a phone system that can be routed and re-routed when necessary.
I would refuse, and I would NEVER ask my staff to do this.
uncleirohism@reddit
Google Voice licenses are really cheap when you buy them in bulk from licensed resellers, and the service is extraordinarily resilient.
Shot_Statistician184@reddit
Install TextNow. It's a free burner number. Call or text within your country of residence. Need to be on WiFi.
You lose the number if you dont use it for 30 days or manually recycle the number.
They will only temporarily know your number.
RubAnADUB@reddit
Ad-1316@reddit
*use *69 to mask caller ID!!!
Ask for phone re-imbursement $$, if no. Decline to use personal for work.
Setup a free google voice number to use for the day.
angrydeuce@reddit
Does your phone system not have a web app or any other access? We have an app on our phone so no matter what phone were using, if were signed into the app it comes up as if we dialed from our main line.
aeveltstra@reddit
If the main phone system is down, would web access be up?
angrydeuce@reddit
If its cloud hosted yeah, why wouldn't it be?
Otherwise there's always teams or Google voice
dark-DOS@reddit
Weird that your mobile phone is not working on the same day your company phone system is. What a coincidence.
jaysea619@reddit
get a free Google voice number
TheGreatAutismo__@reddit
Literally borrow a page out of the book for women dealing with creeps on a night out. Give em a fake number and then say you’ll need to charge your phone as it’s flat at the moment.
Dhaism@reddit
If there are no BCP for the phone system being down then all calls should probably be routed to the engineers with company phones who can explain the situation and manually create tickets.
What they could do, if they cared about their customers and employees, is offer an opt-in one-time stipend of like $150 for use of your phone for the month with instructions to not give out your personal number to customers and instead to set up a google voice number.
CharcoalGreyWolf@reddit
Nope. I’m never giving out my personal number.
If the company wants this they can get you Teams phone with DIDs and you can use the Teams app, but it’s a personal asset until they buy everyone phones.
No customer gets my personal number, and my current company has even said not to so a customer can’t call our cells and be a problem with work life balance.
Left_Tax_8292@reddit
so there is no backup system that they can't cut over? Most organizations will back a Voipbase service that they use for backup in scenarios like this.
Spiritual_Brick5346@reddit
perfect time to ask for a company mobile
TheBlargus@reddit
They could have a temporary VoIP system setup in minutes if they actually were competent. Either they supply a phone or pay you to stand around.
BadSausageFactory@reddit
gee (boss,name), I'm not worried about me, but is it smart to let the clients have a direct number to all the technicians? it could lead to them circumventing our ticketing desk or even contracting for outside work. not that any of our guys would do that.
kg7qin@reddit
Go to ClearlyIP.com or telnyx.com and get a number.
Setup a sip softphone to connect to number.
Give that number.
When the fiasco blows over then disconnect the number.
Submit invoice to company for payment (good luck since it sounds like they suck and won't pay)
Aegisnir@reddit
Mask your number when you call out. Provide managers cell phone when asked.
SystemGardener@reddit
Just download google voice and get a free number with that.
OpacusVenatori@reddit
If it’s just calls and basic texting, sign up and use TextNow ad-supported version. You can bill the company if they want you to keep the number.
Keeps your actual number private.
ogrevirus@reddit
Get a Google voice account or similar and use that app to call. You don’t have to give out your real phone number and it will ring on your mobile.
Ssakaa@reddit
Check your contract. There's quite possibly some sort of restrictions in there about taking client contact info off of company systems and onto personal. On the upside, if there's no such limitation, moving the clients off of contacting the company and onto contacting you is step one of stealing their clients as you leave to form your own MSP. Enjoy!
MyIntuitiveMind@reddit (OP)
I’ll have a look at my contract later when I’ve found it.
As for Google Voice it’s a US only option unfortunately.
Sweet-Sale-7303@reddit
Does your company have soft phones? I have an app I can use that Makes my cell phone into my work phone.
MyIntuitiveMind@reddit (OP)
No we all have IP desk phones
heelstoo@reddit
Well, what service do you all use? We use RingCentral, so I can download the app and make/send calls with my cell phone, and it displays my work phone number. Maybe that’s an option for you?
MyIntuitiveMind@reddit (OP)
Its a SIP trunk call system that’s all I know
SperatiParati@reddit
I'd suggest to your boss that if people use personal numbers, the company then has no control going forward. If a client later calls back to an engineer's personal number who's jumped to the competition, you're almost inviting them to poach the client.
Ex-staff could use this to damage the company's reputation or poach clients, and whilst there may be legal repercussions for poaching clients, there couldn't be any for losing a high-value client who got told "Fuck off, I'm not fixing anything" by an ex-staff member receiving a call to their personal number.
Secret_Account07@reddit
Yeah this has always been a weird one.
I have a good relationship with my boss. I have teams, outlook, all that jazz and check on personal phone. Should I? No. Probably not.
I sometimes get work calls while I’m off. Not a big deal. Our teams is pretty flexible.
Well guess what our orgs Christmas present was? Back to the office more!
People are pissed. Now I’m done working on personal cell. Flexibility goes both ways.
But honestly OP- are you justified? Yeah, maybe. But I’ve learned our employers really have the ability to make our lives so much worse….si pick your battles
Art_r@reddit
You'd think your company could just spin up a PBX and get something in place. I know our work fibre got cut, and as we ran the PBX on-site it went off line. Hotspotted off my mobile phone and set up a PBX on aws, linked our sip lines, and got us back on phones in a couple of hours. Probably could have done it faster but was juggling the calls with our fibre company.
joeykins82@reddit
Ah yes, because it looks just famously professional for reps from an MSP to be making calls from a personal number instead of a witheld number.
Your management are morons.
Just communicate via Teams or whatever IM platform you have, do not make calls until the phone service is restored. If it's important for you to make calls then the MSP can arrange for you to get a secondary eSIM or something, seeing as that's a no upfront cost thing and can be turned around fast.
Tech_Mix_Guru111@reddit
This! Typical stupid moron managers who decided to chit chat and relish in their overpriced salaries than to think about DR or BCP issues.
Gonna run up the chain and go upstairs for their pat on the back and let them know they resolved it today by having people use their personal phones for communication.
carl3456@reddit
Sorry, but you work for a bad MSP. You 100% should not be using a personal cell phone to communicate with clients and no good MSP should want you to. Aside from the fact that your MSP should be providing you with a mobile phone for work activity, it should also have some backup plan in place for outages.
If your employer doesn’t pay for your phone, it can’t require that you use it for work. Use your time not talking to clients today to post your resume.
ConfectionCommon3518@reddit
Not a chance to do it as the customer now has your number and could start ringing up any time of the day to try and beat the system and thus if you feel evil mention that less calls going through the switchboard means less need for upper manglement to look after the work flow so we can sack a few execs...
Plus in a basic sense you may cause more customers to complain as it's going to be fun while processing a taco bell at 3am trying to explain to the CEO of the company that you are currently examining the logs....but not the logs they want you to be looking at 😁
bz386@reddit
“I don’t have a personal phone, sorry” 🤷♂️
Freakazoid_82@reddit
Don't use your personal phone. Company problem, not yours.