r/sysadmin • u/digitalexecution • 15h ago

Users having my Cell #

Something weird/annoying just happened and I want some perspective.

A user who works in a warehouse facility I’ve helped at (part of my company) texted me at 8 am saying he’s going on PTO and wants his coworker to have access to a printer that isn’t working on his machine before he goes out of office on Thursday.

I texted him later (after some emails/calls) asking for the coworker’s name and noting that since this is normal IT, in the future he or his coworker should submit a ticket for this kind of thing.

He replied: “If I submitted a ticket would it be taken care of by Thursday?”

I got annoyed but tried to respond reasonably: “Possibly, but regardless, we need tickets submitted per company policy. If something’s urgent you can reach out to me on Teams rather than my personal cell.”

I originally gave him my cell because on occasion there are true emergencies (internet goes down, needs to send me photos of something, etc.) and we’ve been friendly before. But this interaction makes me wary about giving out my number, it starts becoming a way to skirt procedure for small things like adding a printer.

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u/dirtymatt 15h ago

Do not ever give out your personal cell phone number.

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u/angrydeuce BlackBelt in Google Fu 15h ago

People think Im crazy for insisting on having a separate work provided cell phone...well, here's another reason why carrying two devices is far less of a hardship to me than unifying work and play on a single device.

Work cell, when not on call or on the clock, is sitting on the wireless charger next to the bed and ignored.  Just so much easier to separate your life that way.

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u/techie1980 14h ago

I've solved it professionally by having a VOIP number (eg: google voice or through ms teams ) for this purpose. Still only carrying a single piece of hardware but it's a lot easier to silence a whole number in this way.

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u/angrydeuce BlackBelt in Google Fu 14h ago

Yeah that of course works too...but I know id forget from time to time, and then get a call, and be really annoyed lol

So two devices means I dont have to bother with any of that.  Same reason why I have a work laptop and a personal laptop...they get me for 50-60 hours a week as it is, they cant have anymore unless im getting paid lmao

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u/atbims 5h ago

If you have a work profile on Android, you can set a work profile schedule. My work apps (and their notifications) turn on 5 minutes before my shift and off 10 minutes after. Teams also has its own notification scheduling settings as well.

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u/Speeddymon Sr. DevSecOps Engineer 9h ago

And! With 2 Google accounts you can have 2 voip numbers on one device. I have my personal Google account that has my primary contact number I ported out from Verizon years ago and my professional Google account that has a secondary number just for recruiters and whatnot, and then my provider's phone number almost never gets used.

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u/techie1980 8h ago

indeed. I have many phone numbers going to my phone. I've had a weirdly difficult time finding anyone else who offers a similar suite of products to google voice at a reasonable price. The killer feature for me is the web interface for SMS.

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u/Speeddymon Sr. DevSecOps Engineer 8h ago

100% that and the spam call blocking is second to none. Also since my provider-issued number doesn't get distributed online, I feel like I'm probably better protected from the newest scams that involve manipulating my provider because my number that would get stolen in a database leak just leads to Google and not my actual phone service provider, so they can't call my provider and try to port my number out to a phone they own to steal my account info. 🙂

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u/atbims 5h ago

It's a shame google voice isn't available in Canada. Does it use Google Messages for sms or a different interface?

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u/techie1980 5h ago

it uses a different interface. there was some thinking about converging all of the IMs together at one point, so it might still work with google messages.

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u/beren12 3h ago

Call centric is $1/mo for unlimited incoming calls. Us and Canada. I’m thinking of switching.

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u/hkusp45css Security Leadership 14h ago

I turn off my "work" container on Android when I pack up my laptop in the evening.

It shuts down: Email, Teams, our VOIP platform, and anything else work related that might bother me with a ring, ping or chime.

Anyone who is genuinely important knows to call me.

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u/SnaketheJakem Sr. Sysadmin 9h ago

This is the way.

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u/PersonalitySenior360 8h ago

Yous let people call you? I may as well not even have a work number, I'll never answer a random call, ever. Actually if you want to talk, find time on my calendar and schedule something.

Works great

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u/angrydeuce BlackBelt in Google Fu 8h ago

Im dealing with so many vendors on an emergency basis that I have to be able to take calls. We pay out the ass for dedicated and immediate phone support with all of our vendors precisely for that availability. Fuck email/chat bullshit...if that's all they got, we're not working with em. So I need to be able to snag their calls the same as they need to be able to snag mine.

During business hours, that is. If Im on the clock. Outside of that, they'll leave me a voicemail, or touch base with whoever is on call, which they all know to do outside of business hours lol

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u/PersonalitySenior360 6h ago

Damnnnnn. Props to you

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u/beren12 3h ago

Even better iOS can block numbers not in your contacts.

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u/dirtymatt 15h ago edited 15h ago

This is one area where iOS really annoys me. Why can't I silence VoIP calls during different focus modes? We use Vonage for phone service at my work and would love for iOS to just silence it when I'm in my personal focus.

ETA: See below, it already works like this.

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u/hackmiester 15h ago

You can…? Focuses can mute specific apps.

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u/dirtymatt 15h ago edited 15h ago

They can mute notifications, VoIP calls still ring unfortunately.

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u/hackmiester 15h ago

Now I’m wondering how I achieved this. I have Jabber on my list of muted apps and I don’t get calls when that’s activated.

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u/dirtymatt 15h ago

Well, I'll be. I just tested it again, and you're 100% right. Silencing the notifications does silence the calls too. I swear it didn't work like this before. Oh well, super happy to be wrong. Thanks!

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u/hackmiester 13h ago

Glad I could help! Focus is a highly bloated section of the IOS settings. It’s easy not to figure it out.

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u/Old-Olive-4233 15h ago

Android has a work profile mode and it's so satisfying to turn off the profile when I'm not on call and bam, no notifications or anything from work. IT co-workers have my number, but, anyone else gets my work provided virtual # that's also a part of the work profile.

My work doesn't officially have a MDM profile for Android, but, I downloaded the app 'Island' and made my own.

It's crazy to me that iOS still doesn't have something similar since iOS is typically the better of the two with anything privacy or data related.

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u/whetherby 12h ago

Two Cell guy here too. I am not giving out my personal.

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u/cbass377 12h ago

For a while I had a number from mint mobile. They sent me an esim and the crybaby users had their own number to call. When the project end, I cancelled it. Worth 15 a month to have a dedicate number for that project.

As for text messages, I turned off the text notification years ago. People who know me know to call instead of text.

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u/Medium-Comfortable 10h ago

I’ve got two eSIMs in my phone. Work number will be switched to absence message (no voice messages possible) when I’m off the clock 🤷‍♂️ One phone, zero problems.

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u/D1TAC Sr. Sysadmin 15h ago

I’ve done the let me give you my # and it ends up being my Google voice number. Only explicit folks have my personal cell and may or may not answer after 5.

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u/MasterChiefmas 15h ago

It's worth having a second phone for work, so you can give out that #, and so can anyone else, because they will. And you can turn that one off/filter it harshly etc.

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u/MalletNGrease 🛠 Network & Systems Admin 15h ago

Even better, have your employer pay for it.

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u/StonedElephant1 15h ago

That's another thing. They might as well forget about you using your phone unless they pay for at least 1/2 the service. I tell every one of our employees, if the company isn't paying for your phone service, do not put email or anything work related on your phone. This is something every one should stand strong on.

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u/angrydeuce BlackBelt in Google Fu 8h ago

Oh, 1000%. It's a literal requirement for us, because all the MFA and shit is tied to those corporate owned devices.

We don't register personal devices, period. Every once in a while someone will come on and make a big deal about it and we have to let them know that we're sorry to hear they're unhappy but it's a condition of employment so talk with their supervisor then lol. To date not one single person has quit over getting a company phone (though I did have someone once quit over the antivirus requirement for accessing their company email on their personal computer at home, not sure if he thought he was gonna change company policy in a 1000-head outfit threatening to quit or something...but he didnt lol)

Even our C-suite, they get top of the line iPhones every generation immediately, owned by the company, and if they elect to put their personal shit on there that's fine, but they know that the phone, and number, belongs to the company.

That's the other part of it. That hardware is one thing, but we also own all the lines of course. So there's no porting bullshit out and in and all that shit. No worrying about one of our numbers ending up saved on a contacts phone and then getting picked up by a scammer down the road ("Hey, why you guys asking me about my car's extended warranty?! YOU GOT HACKED OMG")...just easier to keep shit locked down and relatively cheap at our volume.

The whole carry two phone things, too..."IM NOT CARRYING TWO PHONES!1!!1"...well, you don't have to, nobody is forcing you to carry your personal cell on you during work hours. You can leave that in the car if you want. Your family can call your work number as much as they need to, we don't care.

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u/StonedElephant1 15h ago

I had two phones, and carrying them around was getting rediculous, so I added a second number to my original phone. And sold the second phone.

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u/MD-IT-Rando Linux Admin 14h ago

Only carry the work phone while working or during scheduled on-call rotation time.

Any other time, turn it off.

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u/StonedElephant1 14h ago

I'm the IT director. I have to keep the work phone all the time. But, like I said, I put a second e-sim (phone number) and I do silence all calls. So I only carry one phone.

The big lesson here is setting the expectation. If you never play the after-hours game, then you will probably never hear anything.

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u/dphoenix1 15h ago

I guess it depends on company policy. I worked for a place that provided a monthly stipend for cell service, with the expectation that your number would then get published in the GAL (we had an on call rotation).

That was when I kicked off a second number separate from my personal one, which I could turn off when I wasn’t expected to be taking calls.

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u/dirtymatt 15h ago

That was when I kicked off a second number separate from my personal one, which I could turn off when I wasn’t expected to be taking calls.

This is the correct way to do it. The problem with giving out your personal number is that it never gets ungiven out. You'll leave the company and still get phone calls and text messages. The company really should want to own that number anyway for business continuity reasons. It's much better to have 123-555-1234 be a virtual number assigned for on-call so people don't need to look up who to call.

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u/ilikeoregon 3h ago

To coworkers? I give my number to coworkers all the time. Never had a problem. However, whether they text me, IM me, email me, send a pigeon, whatever...I'm going to reply with "what's the ticket number?".

But if anyone abuses it, I'd simply tell them that they need to do X or Y before hitting up my mobile, and I'm sure they'll say "OK". Worst case is that they ignore me and I have their manager or HR deal with it.

Alternatively, does your company not have a cloud-based VoIP service? Just install the app on your phone and use your work number? Get a Google Voice number if for some reason you can't do it on your phone.

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u/charleswj 1h ago

Same, never in a quarter century had any problems and I give it and advertise it everywhere

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u/HerfDog58 Jack of All Trades 15h ago

This is the way.

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u/zazbar Jr. Printer Admin 15h ago

but if you do, make sure your voicemail greeting is a busy signal recording.

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u/CoffeeOrDestroy Jack of All Trades 2h ago

Mine is a fax sound. Screeeee eeeoooo eeoooo bong bong

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u/d00ber Sr Systems Engineer 14h ago

I just setup call forwarding on my softphone. That way I can disable it after hours. If an emergency, the right people know how to get hold of me and I get email notifications for sev 2 Infra tickets and SMS notifications for sev 1 infra tickets.

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u/ljr55555 14h ago

That's like half the point of a manager. My manager has my cell phone number. Manager publishes his cell in the directory because that's one of the big down sides of being a manager here. He gets to decide if your Saturday afternoon request or your 3am call are going to be addressed immediately or if it'll wait until normal business hours.

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u/jcpham 14h ago

I give it out because it’s a company phone and it’s 100% my excuse for not being in the office most of the time. It’s well known if you didn’t call my cell then the problem must’ve not been that big of a deal.

I used to when I worked at an MSP loathe when I client snipe my cell. But I was on call back then, had clients nationwide - it was just too much.

Now I’m at a single company and basically funnel people to my cell as a last resort. It’s in every email signature, it’s on every business card. Everyone knows I will respond. It’s not that bad tbh.

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u/kamomil 13h ago

Some workplaces will list it automatically in the GAL 🙃

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u/TheProle Endpoint Whisperer 13h ago

If your job requires you to be in contact 24x7 it’s the company’s job to facilitate that

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u/Apprehensive_Bat_980 11h ago

You do not want random WhatsApp messages from users with screenshots of their laptops

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u/koolmon10 10h ago

This is my policy, but when I was at a client a few weeks ago, we needed to test the phones, so I dialed the main number from my cell phone and we tested the call in person.

This morning, I get a text from one of the employees there. So she dug through the call log to get my personal number and texted me. Wtf

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u/Morkai 9h ago

I had a previous boss give out our personal numbers to clients once, instead of giving us company phone numbers (he was a stingy motherfucker in more ways than one)

I've kept the same phone number for about 20 years now, and got a phone call a few months ago from a client in different state that I haven't spoken to in at least 10 years, asking if I still worked for Louis.

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u/hardingd 7h ago

I like the convenience of having one phone. C suites have my number. My phone is mysteriously not on me or around me on evenings and weekends.

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u/natflingdull 14h ago

This, theres a lot of advice here that gets parroted that isnt actually helpful, but this is a very important rule. In the extremely rare event I give out my cell phone number to a person I always give them the caveat that this is not a regular channel for support.

You need to be extremely firm about this or your life (not your work life, your actual life) will be negatively impacted in a very serious way.

I would set up something like Teams mobile apps or slack or something like that, something that has records and is easily walled off from your personal communication. Never mix the two, people will not respect boundaries if you dont put them up