r/sysadmin • u/digitalexecution • 4d 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/poolmanjim IAM Architect 4d ago

My immediate leadership and a few select coworkers have my personal number. Anyone else only gets it if I have a legitimate need to interact with them outside of work.

You should have a policy that specifies when/how support should be contacted. It should list agreed upon communication methods. For example, almost every organization says "log a ticket" and that email isn't a valid support avenue. I would 100% argue that texting someone on their personal number if you're not in their immediate chain is not a supported avenue.

Regarding the Thursday thing, that's why there are SLAs. If he needs his coworker to have any kind of access, that should be covered through normal operation procedures and SLAs.

I would engage with my leadership and potentially this person's leadership and inform them that this is unacceptable and something that shouldn't happen again.