I am starting with a consultancy soon and was wondering what everybody thought about phone numbers and mobile phones. I will be out of the office/working from different offices a lot and therefore I don’t think I will get a desk phone as such. The company has sent me some info regarding mobiles, but it boils down to the fact that if they give me one for business, I can’t use it for personal calls. I am thinking about just using my own mobile for work and personal use. Benefits of this are that I only need to carry/charge one phone, only one address book to manage, only one phone to silence in meetings, works with car bluetooth (only one phone at a time can be connected). However, it does mean that I can’t switch off the work phone in the evening/weekends and I would need to pay for the calls -although I am on a totally unlimited vodafone package so I don’t think this matters. What do you all do? One phone or two? Is there anything that I may not have considered? Thanks

[quote]I am starting with a consultancy soon and was wondering what everybody thought about phone numbers and mobile phones. I will be out of the office/working from different offices a lot and therefore I don’t think I will get a desk phone as such. The company has sent me some info regarding mobiles, but it boils down to the fact that if they give me one for business, I can’t use it for personal calls. I am thinking about just using my own mobile for work and personal use. Benefits of this are that I only need to carry/charge one phone, only one address book to manage, only one phone to silence in meetings, works with car bluetooth (only one phone at a time can be connected). However, it does mean that I can’t switch off the work phone in the evening/weekends and I would need to pay for the calls -although I am on a totally unlimited vodafone package so I don’t think this matters. What do you all do? One phone or two? Is there anything that I may not have considered? Thanks[/quote]It's a very personal issue -at my firm it's 50:50 between people who just use their own phone for everything (like I do with a similar unlimited package) or take the company one but end up going to every meeting lugging 2 phones with them. Especially a pain if you're travelling and the phones need different chargers, etc.I'm not so busy and important that I get lots of work calls in the evenings/weekends that I feel I have to "switch off" - I guess YMMV on that point but for me it comes down to convenience over a deep desire to seperate home and work life.

My experience is that some places will not give you the option of using your personal phone for info security purposes. However, I would tend to try and avoid using your personal phone anyway - this is just from personal experience of course.

personal calls? do people still make those? more likely your personal matters will be conducted over email, FB, whatsapp etc not calls per se. As such I think take the company phone and just conduct your (assuming non-emergency) personal life over data so it wont show up in call activity. Regardless of company policy no one is going to question the very occasional call to a personal number if the reasons are particularly serious.

I use one mobile for one mistress. I always plan ahead and know who I want to see on a particular trip, so will take the corresponding mobile.For work related stuff, I use a separate phone that is 100% work.

[quote]personal calls? do people still make those? more likely your personal matters will be conducted over email, FB, whatsapp etc not calls per se. As such I think take the company phone and just conduct your (assuming non-emergency) personal life over data so it wont show up in call activity. Regardless of company policy no one is going to question the very occasional call to a personal number if the reasons are particularly serious.[/quote]The main reason for the restriction (assuming the company has unlimited calls) is the HMRC rule that only "limited personal use" is allowed otherwise it becomes taxable. Some companies just prefer not to have to try and define what that is!

benefits:keeps work and personal social lives separateswitch off at weekendsuse for limited personal calls (ie when abroad)work has no right to audit your personal phone datarisks:carrying two chargers and two handsetshaving to remember to put both on silent in meetingsonly one bluetooth connection in carmitigations:you're carrying a mini office in your briefcase anyway, what difference does it make?you shouldn't have your personal phone in meetings anyway - highly unprofessionalit takes 15 seconds to switch phones on the bluetooth connection in my car...recommendation:take the work phone

[quote]you're carrying a mini office in your briefcase anyway, what difference does it make?you shouldn't have your personal phone in meetings anyway - highly unprofessionalit takes 15 seconds to switch phones on the bluetooth connection in my car...e[/quote]What's a briefcase?

Seems to be quite a split of opinion. I think I am tending towards using my own phone. It may not be an issue for a lot of people, but the thought of lugging 2 phones around is annoying. It isn't so much when out of the office as I can use a "briefcase" but actually wandering around the building and having to always pick 2 phones up off the desk. I like to be contactable in case of problems with kids or something. I also use my phone for calendar and reminders etc and this will be much easier with just one phone. The only problem will be any premium rate calls I may need to make such as international numbers but I would hope this would be rare. Thanks for all the comments

Surely a lot of it comes down to what phone you're offered? My work phone is a superior device to my personal phone, therefore I took it.Also have you factored in international calls? I imagine you still get billed a lot for those on your personal plan?As for not having a desk phone, in the modern world don't take that to mean you won't have a landline. My "desk phone" number comes through to my laptop via tech wizardry, I presume this is a pretty common phenomenon. It can get a bit confusing when you're telling your laptop to call your mobile so you can use it to call a client via your landline whilst on the mobile...

As someone who has been in both industry and consulting, using a single mobile for work/personal is just asking for trouble.There is a reason it is called a "work phone".I think there is no need to explain further.........

Oh, almost forgot.I am Phone.

I'm about to start and had a similar choice.I went for another phone, which will solely be for work, but luckily I got the exact phone I have on contract, so charger issues are gone.My reasoning was simply to get that cut off on a weekend