The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 4 (of 5)

Personal Cell & Work

Company asks for your cell phone # in use for only "emergencies" . . . do you give it?

My mindset is if my position includes "emergency availability", they need to pay. What do you think and what's the professional way to turn this down without insult/injury.

Steve
Friday, February 20, 2004

"What constitutes an emergency?" would be my first question.

Your cell phone does have caller ID, right?

Kyralessa
Friday, February 20, 2004

We all know how the mediums of emergency can quickly turn into the definition of convenience.

But, rou're right, a solution could include "sure, here it is" and just ignore calls . . . but I think that's an "injury" solution (ignoring or, selectively, solving problems w/ the Voice Mail filter).

Steve
Friday, February 20, 2004

Personal cell? No way. If they want out of office access, the very least they can do is give you a company phone (not pager, phone).

And then I agree - 24/7 access means 24/7 pay. If this is a new requirement, then that means you're currently getting 8x5 pay and there needs to be some renegotiating. :)

The latter may not happen, since you may not be comfortable with it, but I'd seriously put my foot down on the former.

Philo

Philo
Friday, February 20, 2004

Only if they are going to let you expense your bill. Otherwise let them buy you a pager.

Dan Brown
Friday, February 20, 2004

CallerID is ok if you know all the numbers from work. But you might get called from somebody else's cellphone, home phone, etc...

As a developer I've never had anyone call my cell-phone except during my day-off for trivial/quick items. In a good working environment I don't mind spending 5 minutes to answer a quick question. In a system administrator role I might be worried more that I'd get called in to do something.

To dissuade the companymake them reimburse your cell-phone bill. Beware this could backfire! -- "We pay for your phone, why can't we call you at 2am?"

As a non-professional option - give them the wrong number and hope there isn't a REAL emergency.

NathanJ
Friday, February 20, 2004

didn't you have to give them your phone number when you started working there? do people still have land lines???

Friday, February 20, 2004

HELL NO

apw
Friday, February 20, 2004

what's an emergency?

some places have rules like 'if you check in code and it breaks stuff, we need to call you'. that's fair if you ask me--check stuff in in the morning and you can use your office phone; check stuff in on the way out the door and you should give them your cell phone, since you've just broken other people's work and run away.

mb
Friday, February 20, 2004

the caller ID trick doesn't work, as my manager used to call me from his blocked ID.

the artist formerly known as prince
Friday, February 20, 2004

I refuse to answer calls where the caller ID is blocked.

nathan
Friday, February 20, 2004

... I'll add that I won't answer them if it's not a phone number in my phone book in the phone. Everyone that I care to talk to is in that list, and if you're not in it, I didn't really want to talk to you anyways. If you want to talk to me bad enough, maybe you'll get through to me eventually on my land line (which has no answering machine).

Elephant
Friday, February 20, 2004

Only if they pick up the tab and don't abuse it. If you can trust them not to abuse it.

I have a company paid for phone and welcome any of my co-workers calling me at any time if it's an emergency. I leave the phone in the living room when i go to sleep so if someone did call i wouldn't hear it anyway.

If some ass abused it, I would stop answer their calls. Either using caller id, or never answering unless the leave a message at which time I'd call back.

One thing that does bug me is people with personall cell phones in the office so their kids can call. They ring all the freaking time and drive me nuts. If the person's in a meeting, the phone rings several times before shutting up. And, they typically have the most obnoxious ring tones. I am tempted to put their phones in the trash can...

pdq
Friday, February 20, 2004

I had to give a coworker cell phone access to me (so I could leave early) one day.

Instead of giving them my number, though, I set up a disposable email address that forwarded the message to my phone. The next day I deleted the e-mail address.

They knew the address was good only for that day or so. The funny thing is, I still have people coming up to me to ask why that email address doesn't work.

Russell Thackston
Friday, February 20, 2004

"One thing that does bug me is people with personall cell phones in the office so their kids can call. They ring all the freaking time and drive me nuts. If the person's in a meeting, the phone rings several times before shutting up. And, they typically have the most obnoxious ring tones. I am tempted to put their phones in the trash can... "

Sounds like you are just annoyed by the ringing, not the kids. Most phones have a vibrate mode. If people don't use it in meetings, you need to publicly embarrass them!

m
Friday, February 20, 2004

What's the big deal? I don't hear where they're looking for 24/7 access, they just want to increase the chances of getting a hold of you in emergencies.

Maybe I've just been working in small companies too long.

Nigel
Friday, February 20, 2004

You've just been incredibly lucky as to which companies you work for, Nigel.

I've gotten 10pm Saturday night calls for "I was playing with the stylesheet and it's not working - can you help me?" (It was soon after that that he got distinctive ring and an oppotunity to know my voice mail *really* well)

How "in an emergency" is perceived by management is all about their personality and nothing more.

Philo

Philo
Friday, February 20, 2004

1. If your manager has one, he won't understand your objections to having one (or pretend not to).

2. If there's enough of you, take an example from the services industries and have someone who is "on call" for a period of time (one night a week, for example), and is paid not necessarily for the on-call time, but at least for the time you actually work.

3. Make telecommuting during these hours as easy as possible.

www.MarkTAW.com
Friday, February 20, 2004

If you feel strongly about it, put your foot down. Otherwise, give them the number.

My take: I do not save lives for a living. Therefore, I am never on call.

Norrick
Friday, February 20, 2004

My take on this is the same. I write software. There's no emergency that needs me to be on call. In the Wiki at the last place people were putting all their home contact numbers and stuff. Knowing the way the place worked, and the habit of demanding more than being willing to pay for, my entry read

"There are five people who have permission to wake me up during the night. The first three of them already have my mobile number. I sleep next to the fourth and the last member of the list is God."

Katie Lucas
Saturday, February 21, 2004

They can have your number but you can always pick up and say that "i'm out of the city, let's discuss when i'll be in the office".

Saturday, February 21, 2004

Repeat after me:

"Sure, you can have my cell phone, it is [your number here] and you can call me anytime. Oh, I don't have coverage in my neighborhood, but I do check voicemail when I can. Grumble, grumble [your cell carrier here] is no good!"

m
Saturday, February 21, 2004

I get asked for my mobile number quite a lot.

I don't have one. People's facial expressions are pretty funny. It's like I have a third nipple.

The most shocked people of course are those who work in a similar position to I and who think they are pretty damn important. They think they _need_ a mobile. They dont.

Ring tones, plans, pre-paid, carriers, cases. Mobile phones are the pc hardware of today.

Do you remember when you heard a guy talking about video cards on the bus and he used all the jargon and knew all the product names but the more he talked the more sure you were he was a consumer not a techie.

I feel like that about phones, the people who need them never talk about them and those that talk about them almost always never actually need one, it's either functional like a shoe or part of your self expression like the Trapper Keeper / folder you carried in Junior high school.

braid_ged
Sunday, February 22, 2004

Hey!

What's wrong with having a third nipple?

I find it very handy for feeding my familiar, who does all the coding anyway.

Steve Barbour
Monday, February 23, 2004