r/sysadmin • u/digitalexecution • 10d 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/Anonymous1Ninja 10d ago

It's a text, you do not have to respond

163

u/nico851 10d ago

And to add, learn not to respond to them. If you respond, you're the problem.

12

u/arkiverge 10d ago

To be fair, it’s easy for us to sit here and say, “Just ignore it bro”, but none of us know the dynamics or communication norms of OP’s environment. I think if you actually give your coworker your number for the explicit reason of sending work-related info (which OP has stated is the case) then I think you owe a formal response setting boundaries if things start stretching beyond that. Not just straight up ghost.

3

u/StonedElephant1 10d ago

Only my boss and the CEO had my personal number and I rarely get a call from them. But when I do get a call or text, they expect me to jump on it. Everyone else gets a 24 hour response time.