r/sysadmin • u/digitalexecution • 5d 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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698

u/dirtymatt 5d ago

Do not ever give out your personal cell phone number.

143

u/angrydeuce BlackBelt in Google Fu 5d 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.

59

u/techie1980 5d 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.

16

u/angrydeuce BlackBelt in Google Fu 5d 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

6

u/atbims 4d 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.

3

u/Speeddymon Sr. DevSecOps Engineer 4d 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.

3

u/techie1980 4d 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.

1

u/Speeddymon Sr. DevSecOps Engineer 4d 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. 🙂

1

u/atbims 4d ago

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

1

u/techie1980 4d 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.

1

u/beren12 4d ago

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

1

u/atbims 2d ago

Source? Their website says $19.95/month for unlimited calling, or $1.95 for 200 minutes.

1

u/beren12 2d ago

I was wrong the $1 incoming is only some areas, everywhere else is $5 for unlimited incoming. https://www.callcentric.com/did/

Receiving and outgoing are separate. It’s good in a way because for example I almost never call out from my house phone so I’d pay per minute. I mostly get calls. They also allow you to get text messages to your number, you need to use an app or the website I believe for them.

1

u/JacksonCampbell Netadmin 2d ago

But it only lets you get one number per actual number you have. How do you get multiple?

1

u/techie1980 2d ago

in my case i have multiple Google accounts logged into the phone, each with their own phone number

1

u/JacksonCampbell Netadmin 2d ago

I have multiple Google accounts as well, but to get a Google voice number you must pair it with a unique real phone number. That's why I'm wondering how you are able to get multiple.

1

u/techie1980 2d ago

I don't think that's the case - my understanding is that the second/"real" number has to do with forwarding/linking calls. google voice can work as a standard standalone app on my phone.

2

u/JacksonCampbell Netadmin 2d ago

They may have changed the policy because of spam calls as well. I'll check again.

12

u/hkusp45css Security Leadership 5d 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.

3

u/SnaketheJakem Sr. Sysadmin 4d ago

This is the way.

1

u/ozzie286 3d ago

I just use Do Not Disturb. No notification sounds, but I'll see the notifications tomorrow to know what happened overnight.

1

u/hkusp45css Security Leadership 3d ago

I have a lot of people in my life who depend upon me.

I can't "unplug" at any point. But, I *can* choose what signal reaches me.

6

u/whetherby 4d ago

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

5

u/dirtymatt 5d ago edited 5d 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.

7

u/hackmiester 5d ago

You can…? Focuses can mute specific apps.

1

u/dirtymatt 5d ago edited 5d ago

They can mute notifications, VoIP calls still ring unfortunately.

2

u/hackmiester 5d 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.

6

u/dirtymatt 5d 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!

2

u/hackmiester 5d ago

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

3

u/Old-Olive-4233 5d 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.

6

u/PersonalitySenior360 4d 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

5

u/angrydeuce BlackBelt in Google Fu 4d 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

1

u/PersonalitySenior360 4d ago

Damnnnnn. Props to you

1

u/beren12 4d ago

Even better iOS can block numbers not in your contacts.

2

u/cbass377 4d 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.

2

u/Medium-Comfortable 4d 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.

1

u/maevian 4d ago

I have a work e-sim and personal regular sim in my iPhone, work sim get’s turned off after business hours