Keep getting called on my personal phone

Question

Being the IT/DBA/Networks/Programmer of our company, I'm used to have the office phone ringing every 5 min if not more. I can manage it, although a bit frustrating when I'm trying to program or go through my predecessor's code since I need time to focus and go line by line debugging it. But other than that I'm pretty used to it.

A couple of weeks ago, I started getting calls to my personal phone. The first time I was at lunch, just to ask me if they could use their machine (It was updating) clearly something that could wait the 30 min I had left for lunch. Then, I started receiving more calls to my personal phone, before clocking in, during lunch and even during my days off to visit home(that one really annoyed me, I was already 600 miles away visiting my family and a user was calling me so I could check up his computer) this was the drop that made me lose my patience.

The one transferring all the calls is the receptionist, I once had to call in due to a sickness and well she kept my phone. I've asked her several times since the first incident that I don't want her to transfer calls to my personal phone unless it's an emergency. Her response was a bit neutral but agreeing to my request, and I thought that was the end of it, yet she keeps transferring the calls nonetheless.

Due to this, I wanted to ask if I have the right to ask for a company phone specific for the purpose to receive calls transferred from the receptionist.

UPDATE: I've accepted enderland's answer mostly cause of the suggestion of request by e-mail system with a ticketing system in the long run, I sent an email to the users stating that I would like to implement a system via e-mail for their request, telling them that it would help me help them. Since it would be more organized and I would be able to keep track of every situation since we would have paper trail, I haven't had a response from everyone but the ones that have, they replied in a positive way and are actually using their e-mail to submit their requests, sure my inbox will suffer (joking) but so far its proven to keep the situation under control, I am able to write automatic responses when I'm outside the office and some even mark the message as important when the situation is really important(blue screen or what not) and I'm really happy about it.

I also want to mention Nelson's suggestion about letting know the receptionist how to handle the remaining calls that come through when I'm not at the office. It's proven to be helpful to provide the receptionist with this custom message.

A third partial solution would be Burhan's third suggestion: To rotate the on-call duty. We're only 2 in the office, but I feel it will help the office in the long run, and my colleague seems to agree with the idea.

As a summary, the majority(if not all of them) of the answers suggest to just restrict any calls to my personal phone, which I have taken into action I called my supervisor explaining the situation to him and he asked the receptionist to only pass his calls to my cellphone. So far everything seems to be going alright.

Answer 1

First, get a system for requesting your help. This is the main problem. Email >> phone. Train people to do this. "Can you send an email so I can keep track of this request?" People eventually will realize this is how you expect to have requests made. Long term you probably want a ticket system, but start out just requesting email.

None of the problems you are dealing with will be resolved if you don't ultimately get a request system of some sort.

Second, look into a Google Voice phone number - use this for work. It lets you forward calls only during certain time periods (work hours). There are a few services that do this, but you can give them your "work" number that is only active during hours you are available.

Third, yes, you should investigate getting a work phone. This is a great conversation starter with the receptionist and/or manager, something like "I'm not able to use my personal phone for work, what is the process to getting a company phone so I can better handle work related calls?"

Do not make it optional. Make sure your conversation is "how can we stop this?" and not "can we stop this?" You want to make the burden on the company to fix the problem, do not just ask if they will as they probably will get "no."

Answer 2

I wanted to ask if I have the right to ask for a company phone specific for the purpose to receive calls transferred from the receptionist.

Sure, but that's not your actual problem and it's a fair bet that you're not being paid to provide that kind of availability. Only taking calls when you're at your desk was presumably fine for your position. So why subject yourself to the added stress of getting called when you're not in the office or otherwise unable to help?

The only thing you need to be doing is going back to the receptionist and stating clearly and in no uncertain terms that she should stop forwarding people to your personal phone. You claim to have done so before but clearly the message wasn't coming across and you need to spell this out with something like:

I've spoken to you about this before but it seems like I wasn't clear enough. You've saved my mobile number when I called in sick the other day but that's not a work phone and people are only able to contact me for help by phone when I'm actually at my desk. Being reachable at all hours of the day is not something that the IT department offers and if I'm not at my desk there's also nothing I can do for people who call in for help. Even if people claim that they need me urgently or that there's some emergency, do not forward them. Anyone who needs to reach me in an emergency has my number so I don't want you to call me on my cell unless the building is literally burning down.

From this point on I need you to completely stop forwarding people to my personal phone, can you do that?

Under normal circumstances I'd advise some follow-ups before escalating but you've already talked to her several times so you can skip that. The follow-up would go something like:

I thought I made it clear when we spoke [yesterday / earlier] that you shouldn't forward anyone to my personal phone any more. But you've just forwarded [X / 3 people / ...] to me today. What's going on? [pause for dramatic effect]

If it continues, it's time to talk with whoever is managing your receptionist because ignoring reasonable requests that you are well within your right to make is just downright bizarre behaviour.

As for what to do with the people who still reach you, gnasher729's advice is spot-on. All you do is tell them that you're unable to help right now. If the procedures for contacting your department are lacking or unknown with the users you can add some info on how to contact you when you're not in whether that's email or an incident tracker.

Answer 3

Don't answer your phone?

Is the problem that calls are coming to your personal phone, or is the problem that you're getting calls at inappropriate times?

If it's the latter, getting a work phone is not going to fix anything. If it's not business hours, it seems to me you have every right to screen your calls, and only respond (by email) if it's a real emergency.

By continuing to answer business calls before/after hours, you are simply communicating to others that it's an acceptable practice.

Eventually people will get the hint that the best way to get in touch with you is through email, during business hours.

Answer 4

If you value your personal time, do not ask for a company phone.

Once you are on a company phone, it is expected that you will answer each and every call, not matter what time or day it is placed. It is extremely difficult to establish boundaries. Having a company phone gives everyone the permission that its okay to bother you whenever.

You will now be expected to pick up the company phone whenever it rings. Do you really want this? Unless your job requires you to be on-call, or you are in a fire-fighting role - then this is a very bad idea.

Now, lets suppose you are in a fire-fighting role, if so before you even think of asking for a company phone:

1. Establish a procedure for reporting incidents. I would highly recommend moving this away from "email me" to setting up a ticketing system. You can find many free ones online and some that you don't even have to host your self.

2. Establish strict guidelines for escalation - and stick to them. For the end user, everything is an emergency but it should be clear what actually constitutes an emergency. Don't let someone else dictate the escalation procedure, it should be either you or your immediate boss (if they are tech savvy). The escalation matrix should also indicate what is the minimum response time for both acknowledgment, and resolution of issues for each escalation level.

3. Do not be the lone wolf. If you are part of a support team or a developer team, rotate the responsibility for being "on call".

This is a very slippery slope - be very very careful because you are precariously close to giving up your own personal time, and this will have drastic effects on your personal and professional life.

Answer 5

I want to expand on the comment from Wesley Long: "Your mistake is in letting the receptionist decide what an "emergency" is.

You should talk to the receptionist and simply retract the option to contact you in an emergency. Emergencies are not determined by the receptionist, but your manager. Your receptionist is not being mean, but she is simply incapable of making those decisions, and obviously all IT issues are "emergencies" because she can't fix them.

The receptionist could use a hand on how to handle these calls, so advise her to say something like the following:

Please follow existing procedures when requesting for IT support. Please contact the staff that is available on site. If you have issues that requires immediate assistance from Mr. Just Do It, please contact Mr. Manager.

If someone asks for you specifically, advise the receptionist they can mention your co-worker is equally competent. If they are not equally competent, then advise HR to hire someone that is.

If anyone have objections, advise them that having the receptionist forwarding the call to your personal phone is not an answer in any situation. If you need to be contacted outside work hours, your manager can do that, but not the receptionist.

Answer 6

First talk to the receptionist. Tell her that you don't want her to give your private phone number to anyone, that you don't want her to connect anyone to your private phone number, that your private phone number is private, and if she doesn't understand that, then you will have to talk to HR about it.

If you get calls, instead of not answering, you answer the phone, and tell them that they called your private phone number. When they ask you to do something, you tell them again that they called your private phone number. Until they get it.

Answer 7

Your personal phone is yours and yours only. Your employer, can not expect you to answer work related calls on your personal phone, unless this has been written into your contract.

But, if you refuse to take calls flat out, it might be taken as a hostile action and will not make you friends where you work. The balance is delicate. If you have a company given phone, ask the receptionist or whomever to call you only on this number. If you have such phone, you can completely ignore the personal cell phone and nobody has anything to say.

In my personal case, only my immediate supervisor has access to my personal cell phone, just in case doo-doo hits the fan and my work cell is not going through. Never had to answer a work related call on my personal mobile phone, since I started working for my current employer.

Answer 8

... if I have the right to ask for a company phone specific for the purpose to receive calls transferred from the receptionist.

You can ask, but that doesn't mean you will receive. And it's likely not what you want. When you get a company phone two things will happen.

1. You will now "have" to answer that phone, encroaching even more on your personal time. You will have basically said, "I want a company phone, so you can call we 24/7 no matter what." That's not your goal.

2. When you don't answer your company phone, everyone will think it's more ok to try your personal phone. Your supposed to answer 24/7 now, maybe your battery is dead, try the "backup".

Now to address your real problem:

You want time away from work to be not work time. First thing is first. Use the biggest (figurative) mallet in your toolbox and beat the receptionist with it. Go to HR, her boss, your boss, the owner, anyone that will listen, and state the problem. "The receptionist is calling me on my personal line that she did not acquire officially." Don't play with this one. Make sure that you are clear the only course of action here, is for her to stop. No in between, no compromise, stop. If there is an emergency then your boss can call, or if your high enough on the org chart then a equal manager or better can call. You want this to be direct and pointed. Even flat out mean. You want to make sure you don't leave 1mm of wiggle room. Avoid statements like "If she call's me again..." cause you would have to follow through with them. But make it 100% clear that it's unacceptable. Lodge a complaint with HR if you need to. I can't stress enough, that to stop this you need to loose all the kind and nice wrapping and just "go fro the throat". Your actual goal should be getting her written up for abusing her position. It likely won't happen, but the fact that 10 people above her just had to go into CYA mode will have the desired effect.

Next time to pay for all that disruption. Your failure is that you don't have a system that lets people know these things (that they called you for). So create one. Use a ticketing system. Keep other managers informed. Make sure that the last thing you do for the weekend is update all the tickets, issues, whatever that will stay over the weekend with a status, even if that status is "still waiting for part". The idea is that managers should have the ability to check the status of the work they need done, without having to call you at home, either through team members, or better yet the ticketing system. You will need to spend some time "making up" for "being an ass over the phone thing" but implementing an easy to use system from tracking this kind of stuff will go a long way to helping avoid it.

Answer 9

I find that the difficulty here is that it seems people are calling your work phone, and are being transferred to your cell without necessarily knowing it. (Tell me if I am wrong, because the rest of the answer depends on it).

They are not responsible for you getting those calls, and therefore are not expecting you to be anything different from when you are answering from the office.

Before your calls were being transferred, you would not be here to pick up the phone, so people would leave a message or send an email, or whatever.

Because of that, it is OK to not answering your phone. It will be just as before your calls were being transferred, and as if they were not transferred anymore. The only issue is with people who got used to call you and get an answer anytime.

Go back to the receptionist and make it clear that you will not answer professional calls on your personal cell, and transferring the call will simply be a waste of time for everybody.

Possibly advise your manager that you have been receiving professional calls on your cellphone, but that you won't be answering them anymore.

(Also, do what enderland says. Ask people to email requests whenever you pick up the phone. Maybe install an IT ticketing system. Talk to your manager about this, and about how getting calls all day long impedes your productivity.)

Answer 10

Due to this, I wanted to ask if I have the right to ask for a company phone specific for the purpose to receive calls transferred from the receptionist.

Yes.

Tell the receptionist to stop transferring calls to your personal phone immediately.

Then tell your boss that if he wants you to receive calls when you are not at your desk that the company must provide a phone and a phone number. Otherwise, you'll get the call only when you return to your desk - his choice.

Companies should always provide the tools you need to do your job. If they don't provide a phone, then they have decided you don't need to be reachable.

Answer 11

Establish boundaries; the phone is yours and yours alone; furthermore and even more important, it is your time.

I would not waste more energy with the receptionist, since you already talked with her and she dismissed you. Simply change the phone number, and she will get the message across; the situation is even more simple, as she is bellow you in the chain of the command.

However, since you mentioning your manager calling you through her, I would talk with him first, would explain the situation, and would tell him I would be changing to this number just to be used in emergencies by him, and only by him.

There are several points here:

• The fact is, that you carry a mobile, you cannot let people feel entitled to call you whenever pleases them;
• More importantly, define how do you prefer to be contacted depending on the severity of the problem; I do prefer email to common day-to-day problems, google chat to help work mates, smses for rather urgent tasks, and well voice when the house is on fire, literally.
• Depending on your position, you should also know when to STOP answering calls. In a major malfunction, I tell people I am at work, and turn my phone to silence.
• If your colleagues do not respect the boundaries, depending on the situation, make an exception, but do remind them. "I do prefer to be contacted this way or another"
• when and if contacted by customers, establish who put them through, and reinforce with them the appropriate formal channels, and tell them you are not at work. People are not machines, and they will understand.
• People calling you outside your work hours should be seen as an exception and privilege, and not as an obligation.
• There are also occasions where it is expected you will be without a phone for a reasonable amount of time (e.g. sex, the gym, the shower , church, the doctor or the beach). Use this to your advantage.
• It is a severe lack of respect and professionalism to simply dial your number and put someone through. Determine who does that and admonish them.

In the present and past I already had similar problems:

• I had to give my private mobile number when I was hired, and somehow someone "by mistake" put it in a wide company database (that someone was from the helpdesk, and I believe it was a passive-aggressive measure out of self-interest). I simply changed it.
• I was an IT director/sysadmin/system admin in a country with complicated cultural problems, and to further complicate it, my predecessor instead of doing his job, spend all the time at the phone talking with customers (because we had an helpdesk). To say the least, I inherited the company phone with more than 4k contacts. To further complicate it, it was not difficult to bribe/intimidate/ask the helpdesk/receptionist to pass me a call at any day of the week, or time of the day, despite telling them they were not allowed to do that. (heck, an irate customer ringing you 10 times at 11PM in a Saturday is not for the faint of heart).
  I just started screening calls when I had the number identified, and not answering calls at all from unknown numbers. I reinforced the proper channels when called at work, and outside work, I only accepted calls from workmates and a small circle of people. I also reinforced a rule, that if a secretary/helpdesk wanted to pass me someone else, they would have to speak first with me and explain why the call was being handed to me instead of the help desk.
• A bad customer that was owning us money keep calling me every single day at 8PM just to annoy me. Again, changing numbers worked quite well.
• I had a micro controlling manager that simply thought it was his god given right to call me any time he pleased "because I had a company phone". I stopped answering his calls.

To say it again. Establish your boundaries. You are selling your time and attention when working, but the company do no own neither you nor your soul. Grow some thick skin if you have to.

As others said, only an handful people here have my mobile number. My direct manager and a coworker in the same level as me who I trust; and I give them my personal phone on the condition they wont pass it to anyone else.

About company phones, I personally would not ask for one assigned for myself. While it allows you to screen calls, you never know who is calling and in some cultures it gives an entitlement to some to call you. What I would propose to management is a department cellular and a fixed sum paid on rotation for a few IT guys being on-call. Whoever has the phone has to take the calls; obviously someone in holidays wont take the calls.

It would not hurt you also growing some attitude; when people come searching for me or others at lunchtime and it is clearly not an urgency, I remember them it is lunchtime. I assume by your posts you should be young; do not be afraid of asserting yourself. People will respect more you for that.

Disclaimer: I am not advising ignoring people, being unreasonable of being inflexible. I am advocating trying to enforce proper channels to be able to have a small semblance of separation between professional and personal time, especially when dealing with unreasonable situations.

Answer 12

The one transferring all the calls is the receptionist, I once had to call in due to a sickness and well she kept my phone. I've asked her several times since the first incident that I don't want her to transfer calls to my personal phone unless it's an emergency. Her response was a bit neutral but agreeing to my request, and I thought that was the end of it, yet she keeps transferring the calls nonetheless.

(if possible Block her calls on your personal phone), inform your Boss, inform her Boss.

CC them in an email like this:

You stored my personal phone number - a piece of personal information which you obtained since I called you from this phone when I was ill - stored it without my consent and use it against my explicit communicated wish and your own agreement. It is not my understanding of your role to escalate arbitrary IT issues to a level that peoples lunch-breaks are interrupted or family visits are disturbed. Should such a decision actually be your role, then we should clarify the proper procedures with [name of my boss] and [name of your boss].