Merging private and work cells

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Jaxson

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#112677 17-Dec-2012 12:25

Hi,

How are people dealing with private and work cells?

I have always had a private cell phone (with a pretty easy number) and currently carry that with me at work as well. The private one is on the prepay freebees plan and I'm part of a family group plan too.

My work cell is currently a candybar nokia so it's not taken too much room to carry them both. I'm due for an up grade, which these days will be a larger touchscreen phone and it's got me thinking about how I can carry just one. Work is on Vodafone currently too.

Ideas are forwarding my texts to the work phone perhaps. Not really ideal.

Another thought was putting the private number on hold as such and including the work phone as part of the family deal. That would be idealish, but not sure if I can apply a family deal to a corporate business plan?

Anyway, what are others doing in this instance? Are you carrying two phones or do you just use your work phone for all your private stuff also etc?

Cheers,
Jaxson.

old3eyes

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#733490 17-Dec-2012 12:28

I use the same fone for both now that we have moved to good Telecom plans. I do have private SIMs but they just sit round for the day when i leave my current employer..

Regards,

Old3eyes

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Klipspringer

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#733491 17-Dec-2012 12:29

Does you employer have a cellphone policy which you need to abide to?

tonyhughes

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#733506 17-Dec-2012 12:48

Depending on your function, and the function of your work cellphone, it may or may not be appropriate to merge.

If you are say, a salesperson, with the company for a long time, have a generous phone allowance, and your contract permits personal use, plus you are covered for all the services you need (data, calls, text etc), then hey - why not.

Be very clear about who 'owns' the number though (written into your contract is best if you think you will take the number with you when you leave). Don't rely on goodwill for this - I have had businesses come to me proactively to ensure only authorised people can transfer numbers from a business account to a personal account/prepaid, in anticipation of a staff member trying to take a number.

One role I had, required the work cellphone to be given to staff for emergency callout use during the day, or to a covering staff member during leave, to ensure proper leave and not having to monitor voicemail etc. I kept my work and personal phone totally seperate. Due to the plan we were on, I was simply able to set a divert to my personal phone so I still only had to carry one phone (this meant outgoing work calls needed a blocked caller ID, and they came off my bundle).

Other than that, I've had the same number for work+personal for around ten years now (my number is a wordnumber for an ex-employers business name lol), and it is very convenient.

Unlike my elder children... who can buy SIM cards like lollipops and aren't concerned with porting or transferring numbers. Argh.

Talk to your employer. Agree. Get in writing.

Jaxson

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#733534 17-Dec-2012 13:12

Thanks all for your replies so far.

Work policy allows for some calls to family but ultimately expects you to identify and repay personal use content of the monthly bill. Having a separate cellphone for personal use, I've never had to repay any personal stuff.

Easiest solution is to continue what I'm doing now, but as I say, I'd honestly prefer to not have to lug two phones around with me at all times.

tonyhughes

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#733547 17-Dec-2012 13:13

What is your work cellphone usage patterns? Voice? In? Out? Data?

Because 90% of my usage was incoming voice, and a low volume at that, then diverting to my personal cell worked out great. We didn't use SMS for work, and I didn't mind covering the few outgoing calls...

AndrewMac

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#733553 17-Dec-2012 13:18

At my work when people leave they normally get to keep their number, but the sales people don't so that their clients can call the same number and get their replacement. So it can depend on role as well

Ragnor

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#733625 17-Dec-2012 14:41

Jaxson:

Easiest solution is to continue what I'm doing now, but as I say, I'd honestly prefer to not have to lug two phones around with me at all times.

I prefer to keep control my phone/number/plan myself, was in a similar situation to you and convinced my boss to just give me $xx a month expense reimbursement equivalent to the value of the corporate plan.

Works for me but probably wouldn't work where they want you to be part of the corporate calling group and you have to be on the corp plan.

berry

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#733736 17-Dec-2012 17:04

Jaxson:
Easiest solution is to continue what I'm doing now, but as I say, I'd honestly prefer to not have to lug two phones around with me at all times.

That's what I do, but I'm a woman and we have handbags full of stuff we don't need, so an extra phone is not much of a problem. We have a corporate plan that has a decent allowance so several of my colleagues use the one phone, however I prefer to keep my work and personal stuff separate. I also don't have a landline, so that's one less number to manage and I wouldn't want to loose my personal number.

Not sure about corporate plans, but my dad has a business smart plan which is fine to be included in the family add-on.

richms

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#734007 17-Dec-2012 23:09

Keep it seperate so you can turn the work phone off when you dont need it and reduce the dependance on other people calling you.

Richard rich.ms

Toledo

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#734160 18-Dec-2012 10:25

How about a dual sim phone? Say the Galaxy S Duos? Both sims are active at the same time and you choose which sim you want to make the call or send the text from etc. Seems the logical answer.

My opinions are purely my own and are not at all those of my employer 2degrees.

Jaxson

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#734162 18-Dec-2012 10:27

Toledo: How about a dual sim phone? Say the Galaxy S Duos? Both sims are active at the same time and you choose which sim you want to make the call or send the text from etc. Seems the logical answer.

Sounds good, there's been a real need for this for many people for a while now. Current dual sim phones only allow you to work with one at a time, so don't really perform as people expect/hope.

In my case though the handset selection is fixed to approved models by the IT department. Currently bouncing between iPhone 5 vs Galaxy S3. Leaning to iPhone actually, but there are pros and cons whichever way you lean. But that's another story

.

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions all. Cheers.

insane

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#734193 18-Dec-2012 11:09

tonyhughes:

One role I had, required the work cellphone to be given to staff for emergency callout use during the day, or to a covering staff member during leave, to ensure proper leave and not having to monitor voicemail etc. I kept my work and personal phone totally seperate. Due to the plan we were on, I was simply able to set a divert to my personal phone so I still only had to carry one phone (this meant outgoing work calls needed a blocked caller ID, and they came off my bundle).

I've done this too and found a nice little android app to forward all my work text messages too. If I need to make long outbound calls i pick up the work phone.

I can't stress enough about ensuring that YOU own your number, my previous employer took over my vodafone account and then polity switched it to 2degrees with little/no warning. Great for the cost but screwed over my bestmate deal I had with my wife.

KennyM

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#734526 18-Dec-2012 19:37

I have a work phone (standard nokia) and my own personal prepaid.

I 'had' personal use....But they didnt realise that I use data, for a couple of months they got some huge bills as they dont have any sort of data plan. So i had to go back to seperate phones.

There plan includes a LOT of minutes. Now all calls made to my work number are forwarded to my personal cell meaning I only have to carry one phone. The Work phone itself sits in the work van so if I need to ring someone while im at work, then the van is always close. I dont make a lot of calls, mostly receive.

As far as im aware every call I receive to my personal call costs the caller (whatever there plan is etc) and also costs my work the same number of minutes because the forward is classed as an 'outgoing' call.

scuwp

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#734541 18-Dec-2012 20:22

I merged a while ago, just took the jump and adopted my work number for personal use as well. I got agreement from the boss to pay an extra set amount each month above the 'standard' allowances...it's only about $10 extra, so to me that's a pretty cheap phone deal.

I accept I may get the occasional work call after hours, but the other side of the coin is that I make and receive occasional personal calls during the work day...so swings and roundabouts as far as I am concerned.

If I ever leave...oh well will just have to get a new number, in the scheme of things not that big of a deal for the convenience of 1 phone.

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity - Robert J Hanlon