Manager wanted us to use personal devices

Question

I encountered a situation in the past which was very uncomfortable for me and I am not sure how to handle this/act if I get into something similar in the future. For my work it was necessary to confirm crucial actions with a transaction authentication number (TAN) procedure, without this confirmation I couldn't do my job.

From day to day our IT-department changed the TAN procedure to a mobile authenticator. My manager wanted me (and my other colleagues as well) to use our personal mobile phones to install the required app and use them for the TAN procedure. I tried to refuse this by explaining him it's my personal device and risks of possible security issues. But he insisted on using the new procedure, it would be mandatory after the transition phase and he wouldn't be able to provide us company devices so fast.

Due to the facts that I relied heavily on these TANs to do my daily work, I didn't receive much support from my other colleagues and I was a very small fish in the company I followed the directive.

So my questions are:

Can my manager make me use my personal devices (mobil phone, notebook etc.) for work, when there is allegedly no other way to do my work (even it is just for a short amount of time)?

What can I do in situations like this, when resisting/refusing could cost me my job?

Note: I was accountable for the aftermath of doing or not doing my work and due to probationary period I've could been cut off easily.

Answer 1

Can my manager make me use my personal devices (mobil phone, notebook etc.) for work, when there is allegedly no other way to do my work (even it is just for a short amount of time)?

No

(At least not in Germany)

There certainly is some wiggle room. If the company car broke down in the middle of nowhere and the driver asked you if you could call a mechanic on your private phone because he forgot the company phone, that would be acceptable. If the company later pays the expenses. And surely we would not be here writing if that had happened, because that would indeed be a non-planned, one-time, paid-for emergency that everybody is fine with.

Installing software on a private device to do your regular work for the company because the company is either too cheap or did a shitty job planning, is in no way something you need to do. I mean why do they even assume you have a phone? You owning a private phone is not part of your contract.

What can I do in situations like this, when resisting/refusing could cost me my job?

Get a lawyer. And talk to your Gewerkschaftsvertreter if you have one. Preferably in that exact sequence. Just because you are right does not mean that you get what you want. Especially in your Probezeit your employer can fire you any day for any reason. If he fires you right after you refuse to do this, you probably still have a good case in court, but until you win that case, you are out of a job and need to pay a lawyer.

If you want to refuse, make sure you don't flat out refuse. Show alternative options. What would be the cheapest device that could do what is required? How fast could you get one? It's never good to tell some one "No". It's always better to say "Not this way, but I have another solution to the problem".

Answer 2

I wouldn't object, but I would request some legal groundwork be laid out.

Before installing the security application on your phone, you should ask your employer whether a written security policy for BYOD is available, outlining how to secure your device and the steps you have take, should your phone be lost or stolen outside work hours. Ask whether a 24/7 helpdesk or self-service is available to lock access to the secure application once the two-factor authentication is compromised.

Since you take your phone everywhere, while a company phone would remain on premises or at least at home when you go out on Saturday evenings, such a policy should be the minimum legal groundwork for BYOD in sensitive environments.

Answer 3

You should push back on this request. I think the responsibility of you not being able to get your work done in this case falls on the poor planning and presumptive behavior of your IT Department. They just thought they could sponge off everyone's phone? You should tell your boss about this problem and possibly someone else in charge needs to make them figure out a way around this. Your boss suffers as well when you can't get your work done.

If they can't get you a device so you don't have to use your phone, in a fast enough time, they may be able to exempt your account from this security requirement. Of course, they don't want to disclose this exception because they'll think everyone will want to do it and there will be anarchy... They always blow this stuff out of proportion.

Answer 4

As others have noted in the comments, this is a borderline legal question. I don't claim to know what the law would be on that here in the US, never mind in Germany.

But in practice, at least in the US, this is fairly common. It may be annoying, but I think you just have to take it as part of the requirements for the job.

At my present job, I develop web sites that have to look good on a smart phone. When I took the job I didn't have a smart phone, I had an ordinary voice/text message/that's all phone. So I had to buy a smart phone to do my job. The company did not offer to pay for it. I considered it annoying, but they pay me well enough that the cost of buying a smart phone just to be able to do my job is not that big a deal, and I sucked it up.

On the flip side, at my last job the company provided me with a company cell phone. I had to make a lot of company related calls and they didn't want me to have to pay for them myself. (That was a few years ago, when unlimited cell phone plans were not as common.) But this ended up being more of a pain than a benefit. Now I had to carry around two cell phones: one personal and one for work. It was just a pain. Maybe I could have used the company phone for personal calls. I never asked if that would be ok.

And think about things other than electronics. Most employees expect to drive their own cars to work, maybe even use their own cars for company business. I routinely drive between company locations for work purposes in my own car. Most employees wear their own clothes to work. Many bring their own coffee cup, pens and pencils, etc.

I think realistically, if you don't like it, you can complain to the boss and see if they're willing to make accommodations for you. If it really imposes a burden, it's likely other employees will complain and maybe they'll listen. If you're the only one complaining, the boss might just see you as a whiner. At that point the question becomes, Is this a big enough issue for you to quit over? Either by itself or in conjunction with other issues. Sounds harsh, but I think that's reality.

Answer 5

There are different levels of this.

The easiest is that in some cases you need two-factor authentication which just means a code is sent to your phone as a text message, and you have to enter that code somewhere (that means only the owner of the phone, which means only you, can enter that code). It means you have to have your phone with you, which I wouldn't consider a hardship.

I'm a software developer. I write software, and then I install and test it on a variety of phones. I know what the software does (I wrote it), so I don't mind using my private phone to do this (plus an old private phone, plus two device owned by the company).

In your case, they are asking you to install software that is not under your control. There may be other things that will be done to your phone. That's not really acceptable, to me it goes a bit far. Having to use your own mobile phone cannot be mandatory, and having to accept company software installed on your phone goes a bit far for my taste.

And you can buy a bunch of used phones on eBay really cheap. It's not as if you need a phone with a huge screen and a gigapixel camera, so the money should be no problem for the company.