While Frustrating to My Job, I genuinely Admire one of My Coworkers Attitudes

Posted by NoFliesOnFergee@reddit | talesfromtechsupport | View on Reddit | 95 comments

Long story short, I'm a paralegal at a small law firm who was recently promoted to an IT liaison of sorts (Basically, I set up electronics and employees come to me to see if i can help with their problem. If I can't help, I tell them to call our IT company. The job came with a decent raise and a good reduction in billable hours, so I'm a fan).

We have one older attorney (I'll call him Steve) who is amazing at his job and a genuinely good dude, but is just not someone who "gets" tech by any stretch.

Steve comes to my office with his personal laptop, saying that he's had an issue with it for the past four months. His email hadn't updated on this laptop since December, which, coincidentally, was the last time I had reset his password.

Since this was a simple password issue, I reset his password to something he could remember that was similar to his other passwords.

Here's where the issue comes in. We require two factor authentication.

"Steve, can i see your phone? I need it to log into your email."

"Phone?"

"Yeah, remember those 6 digit codes they text you? I need those so I can log you in."

"Oh, I didn't think I'd need my phone today. I left it at home."

I called the IT company and got some stuff bypassed long enough that we could sign him back into his work computer and his personal laptop, but honestly, it hasn't left my mind since. I'm just SO envious of someone (especially an attorney!) who, in 2025, just doesn't seem to care all that much about having their phone on them.

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K1yco@reddit

who, in 2025, just doesn't seem to care all that much about having their phone on them.

That is strange, since being an attorney, you'd likely need to be in touch at all times

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JoeDonFan@reddit

I work in Big Law: Can confirm, attorneys freak the phuque out if their remote email is not working. Some can't grasp why email on the phone goes back, at most, one month.

No, you can't down load ten-plus years of emails onto your phone.

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ethnicman1971@reddit

ummmmm??? the email history on my phone says differently. Unless that is a company policy in which case you tell them that rather than make it seem that it is a hard and fast limitation of the phone itself.

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JoeDonFan@reddit

I'll take your word you've downloaded 10-years worth of emails to your phone. I'll even concede that it may be the MDM used by the firm setting this one-month limit, and not a hard-and-fast rule with the manufacturer (probably Apple, as over 90% of the phones used by our attorneys are iPhones). But please admit that I never said it was a limitation of the phone itself.

I suspect, though, that those older emails are not on your phone. If you click on it I bet there's a short delay while it's downloaded from the server, because, honestly: How many times each year to you look for an email sent to you over ten years ago?

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ethnicman1971@reddit

You are correct that I do not specifically have 10 years worth of emails but I can easily go back 5 years. And even if it is not actually on my phone it does let me find it on my phone.

I will concede that you never said it was not technically possible but for people that as they thread is pointing out live and die by their phone not being able to look up an email sent 5 weeks ago when dealing with a client or opposing counsel is unreasonable. What benefit is gained by limiting this that cannot be offset by the ability to remote wipe the device?

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JoeDonFan@reddit

That is an excellent question. I have to start by pointing out one of the most important aspects of IT in a law firm is helping to ensure all data is kept secure, which is not obvious to a lot of people.

Having firm email on your phone (or tablet) was intended to be, and still is intended to be, a convenience and as a convenience, you don't need more than a few weeks of mail on your device. I believe you've realized there are times an attorney won't have their laptop with them and a client or other counsel might need a quick reply. That's reasonable and email on the phone helps facilitate quick responses. IT recognizes that, but we still have to ensure security.

One of the ways IT helps ensure data security is the use of a document management system, and we have frequent instances of docs not being filed in the doc mgmt. system properly--and over 80% of these instances are traced to the persons who use their mobile device a lot more frequently than their firm-issued laptop. Note email correspondence with a client can and should be filed away in the document management system, but there is no way to integrate the management system on a mobile device.

So why limit the amount of mail you see on your mobile device? One of the reasons is this limitation forces the attorneys to use their laptops to review those six-week old emails and help ensure documents (email, in this case) are filed away correctly.

Other reasons: If the device is lost or stolen (which happens about once a week--we have over 40 offices world-wide), we don't want to take the chance someone can get too many emails. The MDM is pretty secure and all devices are encrypted, but we don't take chances.

You probably wouldn't be amazed that, in spite of all policies, attorneys don't contact us as soon as they lose their device. We've had attorneys on travel not tell us they lost their phone for over a week.

(If you report your device missing several IT things happen, very quickly. We send an enterprise or device wipe, as appropriate to the situation, and it's removed from our system. Next your password is changed and if it's changed while you're on travel, you can't logon to your laptop. This is why they don't tell us they lost their phone until they return from travel because we can help them reset their PW remotely, but it's a royal PITA.)

I hope this gives you a better understanding of why legal IT limits the amount of email a user can download to a device that is not physically in our control.

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Heavy-Top-8540@reddit

Why are they buying a document management system that cannot work on mobile?

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Strazdas1@reddit

No, you can't down load ten-plus years of emails onto your phone.

Yes you can.

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JoeDonFan@reddit

There is a difference between "able to" and "allowed to."

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Brandywjn@reddit

Personal phone Vs business phone, perhaps.

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derKestrel@reddit

So you mean he has a business phone, but uses 2FA on his private one?

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RcNorth@reddit

The post says he came to ask for help with his personal laptop.

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Domesticated_Animal@reddit

But for company emails...

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derKestrel@reddit

Yeah it confused me even on rereading.

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newaccountzuerich@reddit

A warrant for discovery would mean the loss of use of the personal devices with the work-related data on them, and that period of time could be multiple years for some cases.

Always separate the work from the personal.

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JoeDonFan@reddit

Yeah, I once supported what was an on-line only bank. I found that they get sued about twice a week, and I frequently had to go to a user with a form that said, basically, "Give me your BlackBerry RIGHT NOW."

Then the trail of possession as I sent it to Legal, AND I had to prep a new device for them, that they always hated.

That job literally gave me a case of PTSD. Not because of the work, but because they were all royal a-holes of the highest degree. I was actually relieved when they went to my company and asked that I be replaced.

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Strazdas1@reddit

im pretty sure with contect we would discover that there really is nothing but work happening on that laptop, its just not bought by company budget.

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derKestrel@reddit

You are indeed correct, I overlooked that.

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NoFliesOnFergee@reddit (OP)

Dude doesn't have a personal! Only a work phone. HIs wife "does most of the phone stuff"

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OcotilloWells@reddit

I support some law firms. Pretty sure that is the case for a couple of them. Though for the most part, they have all listened to us for hardening their IT. Except for one, so we fired them. I hope they are still doing OK.

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NoFliesOnFergee@reddit (OP)

That's why it was so wild to me! all the other attorneys have their phones attached at the hip. He's just extremely old fashioned.

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zeus204013@reddit

What age range?

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LupercaniusAB@reddit

There are all sorts of fields of law that really don’t have emergencies very often, i.e. contract law, finance, real estate, etc.

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blixt141@reddit

Unless you are an attorney that practices criminal law, you can set up your practice so that there are no emergencies. And law firms generally have land lines so leaving a mobile at home doesn't mean you are out of contact.

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Disaster_Plan@reddit

In the days of flip phones my boss suggested over and over that I should buy a cell phone. I replied that when I was "on call" on a weekend I was always at home near my land line. And nights and weekends when I wasn't on call he was not supposed to be calling me.

"But what if there's an emergency!" he cried.

"The company could buy me a cell phone, then you could reach me in an emergency."

"Not in the budget," he said.

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creamybastardfilling@reddit

“Not in the budget” is my go to answer anytime a company asks me to use my personal resources for work

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Strazdas1@reddit

Because we deal with some confidential data they really dont like it but i love using my personal hardware for work because its so much better than what work provides. I once technically broke the rules by running an analysis on my own PC instead of works PC because it ran over 10 times faster! It was at the point where you set the settings you want, tell it to process then you wait minutes as its running the analysis (100% CPU, all cores). The thing is my home CPU was so much better the response was almost instantaneous so the real work time was just my actual work instead of waiting for the PC to finish.

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Heavy-Top-8540@reddit

I would have you fired so fast

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TheCarbonthief@reddit

That's a dangerous game. They just bought me a phone.

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Baerentoeter@reddit

Just set focus mode to automatically turn on do-not-disturb outside of business hours. This way, I keep my phone silent and only have exceptions set up for some trusted colleagues (who won't call me for anything besides a real emergency).

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Strazdas1@reddit

Funny man, accessing do not disturb settings is prevented by corporate management policy.

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Baerentoeter@reddit

That's mean. On a separate note, it's very unfortunate that the battery seems to be running out right after work ends. Really a shame.

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Strazdas1@reddit

I couldnt do that. Id hate myself for letting a battery sit empty all weekend because its bad for the battery. The phone is not at fault for the employers actions.

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JapanStar49@reddit

physically disconnects battery from phone

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Strazdas1@reddit

have to break the phone to do that.

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Warrangota@reddit

Don't you have any meetings where phones annoy the hell out of everyone? Why would any sane IT department implement such a configuration

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Strazdas1@reddit

We do. Its politely ignored. Altrough i just dont bring the phone to the meetings.

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Warrangota@reddit

As I don't have fixed work time I have a setup with geofencing. Some days I am still sleeping for an hour when on other days at the same time I am already at work for quite a while. A broken sleep routine is really no joke.

In or near the company buildings? All systems on alert. Left the area? Dead silent until getting close again or in case of rare home office days manually switched back.

Sent from bed with the alarm going off in less than 6h -.-

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Geminii27@reddit

When you're not on the clock, it goes into a Faraday pouch. "Oh I guess there's not good reception where I am."

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Strazdas1@reddit

I dont like phones in pockets. Mine sits on a windowsil. Work phone does too. They still manage to call me when im on vacation somehow.

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Geminii27@reddit

Why are the phones (1) switched on, and (2) not in a locked desk drawer during vacation?

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Strazdas1@reddit

If the last day before vacation (usually fridays for people doing week long vacations) is a work from home day, the devices stay with you during the vacation.

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Geminii27@reddit

Even so, same questions.

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JoeDonFan@reddit

When I was contracted out to a customer, the customer gave me a cell phone. When I left for the day it went into my desk drawer and didn’t come out until the next morning.

One weekend they had a virus situation (well outside my scope of work) and they tried and tried to call me on the cell. When they asked me why I didn’t take it with me I told them I considered it company property and it shouldn’t leave the company building. They actually agreed with me on that.

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SmaugTheMagnificent@reddit

I get paid like $90 a month to have work apps on my phone, which is a steal since I pay $90 every 3 months for my bill

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Geminii27@reddit

If there's no budget for it, it's not an emergency.

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Jonathan_the_Nerd@reddit

If there's no budget for it, it's not an emergency.

I need to print this out and frame it.

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Geminii27@reddit

'It's not an emergency until it's an emergency for Finance.'

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Woodfordian@reddit

I had a company cell phone, a personal cell phone and a landline. It's 11.30 at night and all three phones start ringing. Three night shift workers decide that they need my managerial approval to vary their check times and lunch breaks which was ridiculous as cunning workers could get a few naps and exceed KPIs.

Those idiots were sitting in a office with 3 outgoing lines and were almost in touching distance of each other but weren't talking to each other so made individual calls without thinking.

As I was the boss, set shifts, and authorised overtime, I let them know how unhappy I was and how that affected their pay packet.

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Filtering_aww@reddit

One asshole I worked for threatened to fire me when I wouldn't give him my personal cell number. "I'm the reason you even have a cell phone". Dick.

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Heavy-Top-8540@reddit

That's not because he's more well adjusted, he's just a clueless moron who gets people like you to do everything for him. Stop coddling him.

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Myrandall@reddit

Perhaps they just lied and didn't feel like working that day?

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NotTheOnlyGamer@reddit

I don't use MFA/2FA either. It's frustrated people at my company, but until they provide me a device to do it, it won't happen, I've made it clear to our security people that I regularly give unregulated access to my devices to others, and that's not changing. And I'm not paying out of my pocket for their peace of mind.

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deadsoulinside@reddit

I don't use MFA/2FA either. It's frustrated people at my company

It's because you are a walking security risk for the company. Especially if it's tied to your email that anyone with your password can access the OWA side of it and just log into your email.

Sure you may think that your work email account has no value, but as long as they can contact others inside the company, that's all they really needed. Now they can find the CEO or the controller for your company and send them a link claiming it's from you, while it's a session cookie stealer.

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philipwhiuk@reddit

None of that gives them the right to demand he do stuff on his personal phone.

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ethnicman1971@reddit

No it does not. So while I understand the frustration of the people at his company, it is also a frustration that they do not need to have because as others have mentioned. There are non-smartphone options that will work just as well for MFA for well under a $100.

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RVMan256@reddit

We went to 2FA for our VPN at work a couple of weeks ago. Most people opted for cell phone option. I made them send me the optional YubiKey.

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pyrolizard11@reddit

It's because you are a walking security risk for the company.

Sucks for them, they should probably do something to fix that. Thankfully the fix is incredibly simple simple, just something like providing OP a device that allows them to use MFA/2FA would work.

Oh, the company wants you to spend your money to make it more secure? Yeah, sucks for them.

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Strazdas1@reddit

Its a nice story but being able to just call IT to get 2FA bypassed is scary.

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SourcePrevious3095@reddit

It probably required some 3 tier verification.

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JNSapakoh@reddit

I work for a Real Estate brokerage, 3 years ago we started mandating 2FA. To this day we still have agents come into the office and ask for help logging into their email on a kiosk, only for me to see it's already sent the 6 digit code to their phones when they left at home "because I only need to use the office PC, I don't need my phone"

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Strazdas1@reddit

We had an emrgecybroadcast system test for our work phones. After that there was a survey stating when you recieved the broadcast with typical 0 minutes since time, 2 minutes since time, etc. One of the options was "i didnt recieve it because i dont use the phone". Surprisingly many selected that.

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SeanBZA@reddit

Modern real estate agents by me are inseparable from the phone, almost 90% of the work they do involves either calling or being called, or working with a phone screen. Some do not even have a laptop at all, just the phone, and at the office an admin who can scan the required documents or print them.

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hegbork@reddit

30 years ago walking around with a phone was the ultimate status symbol. Today walking around without a phone is the ultimate status symbol.

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Pluperfectt@reddit

^ ^ this is so true ^ ^

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TYGRDez@reddit

I work in IT - I definitely take my phone to work, but I try my hardest not to use it once I get home; most of the time I'll get home and change, then leave my phone on my nightstand where it stays until the next morning.

I get tired of always being readily available at the drop of a hat all day, I don't need that in my home life as well

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SavvySillybug@reddit

My work phone is an old Motorola Razr v3. After I saw a video of someone showcasing the Dolce & Gabbana version of it I just had to have it.

I do have WhatsApp on that phone number and have that tied to my personal phone just in case someone wants to send me actual photos, but that rarely happens. It keeps trying to log me out for inactivity because I'm never on that account.

I do use it a lot for phone calls though.

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Pluperfectt@reddit

Not enough upvotes ^

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NoFliesOnFergee@reddit (OP)

I'm the same way with work, but like to keep in touch with friends and family.

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TYGRDez@reddit

Me too, but they can leave a message :)

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tamara0605@reddit

My husband just told me a similar story that happened to him yesterday. One of his coworkers got locked out of his company account and email. They called IT who wanted passcodes, DL to confirm identity, etc. You know the drill. Coworker was swearing and ready to explode. Hubby gets on the line and says, “I understand security, but I’m standing next to the guy and I can vouch for him. We’re all retirement aged men, please just reset his password.” The woman on the call laughed and the Password was fixed.

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alanwbrown@reddit

That woman should at present be undergoing a training course about social engineering and how she must always follow the laid down security procedure.

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antimidas_84@reddit

Yes! I have gotten calls, even to people I thought I recognized the voice. Still have to confirm somehow.

Policy is policy. We (royal we) got burned by an employees recent ex-wife trying to divert his paycheck. The company used to be way smaller so that shit would fly, but as we have gotten bigger and get policies in place. Most are fine with it, but there is always one old screwball.

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cheesenuggets2003@reddit

I am a retirement aged man who would like money from companies who do not employ me, and I can confirm this.

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P5ychokilla@reddit

Why would you reset the password if it was just Outlook?

He probably just had an older password stored in the credential manager that Outlook was trying to get in with, just remove that and it'll use the password he logged into the computer with.

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ethnicman1971@reddit

Personal computer. The account he logged into it is almost certainly not the same as he uses to sign into Outlook

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AllSeeingAI@reddit

I've been both of these people. On one hand, yeah MFA is pretty important.

On the other, if my job doesn't require me to have my phone at work, as far as they know I left my flip-phone at home.

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ethnicman1971@reddit

If your job requires MFA and you agreed to have it set up on your personal phone when it was implemented, you agreed to bring your personal phone to work EVERY TIME. If you don't want to have to bring it (completely understandable) then DO NOT AGREE to set it up on a personal phone. Every place I have worked have been willing to provide alternatives (eg key fob)

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nymalous@reddit

I'd give up my cellphone in a heartbeat, if I could. I only use it for calls and texts and the occasional GPS directions. One of my older coworkers had to cave and get a smart phone for the purpose of multifactor authentication at work. Resisted until just a few months ago.

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Jonathan_the_Nerd@reddit

I have Kindle Unlimited on my personal phone. It stays with me 24/7.

My work phone stays next to my desk (home office). Sometimes I remember to take it with me if I need to leave the house during work hours.

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SavvySillybug@reddit

They sell little dongles that only to authentication, you don't need a whole ass smartphone for that.

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AbbyM1968@reddit

A guy I know who has and carries his phone, someone receives calls while checks out at a store. He makes no move to answer. The clerks get anxious about his phone ringing.😏😁😄

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Techn0ght@reddit

You could put a cellphone with the authenticator IDs in the office safe since it's a small office.

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pockypimp@reddit

Or a Ubikey or some similar alternate physical 2FA.

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Techn0ght@reddit

My Ubikey died after a few years, don't know why. Not sure I want to entrust access to another. Could always do both though.

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Geminii27@reddit

Trying to get 2FA on anything without involving a phone these days is a slog.

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oIIIIIIlo@reddit

My attorney charges per text, per email response, per minute on a phone call, I think more if he's not in the office.

Hes leaving money on the table but I'm sure he already knows it and is probably wealthy enough to not waste his time with minor billable time like that .

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