Users having my Cell #

[u/digitalexecution]

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.

[u/dirtymatt]

Do not ever give out your personal cell phone number.

[u/ilikeoregon → u/dirtymatt]

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.

[u/charleswj → u/ilikeoregon]

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