Company App on Your Personal Smartphone?

[Perfect Circle]

At least on my iPhone the IT guy wouldn't be able to install anything without my password - it is required for downloading even free apps. Perhaps that is different for other phones, but he would have no luck with mine.

For me it would depend on the app and its purpose but it would have to be something pretty beneficial to me for me to accept in my personal phone.

[Harriet Jones]

Yeah, I don't understand how the IT guy could even install something without the person's iTunes (or Google Play) password. 

[MrTango]

Yeah, I don't understand how the IT guy could even install something without the person's iTunes (or Google Play) password.

My phone does not ask for a password before going in to Google Play.

If I'm already using an app (such as my music app, or Youtube), it doesn't require a password to activate the screen, either.

[siamesecat2965]

Yeah, I don't understand how the IT guy could even install something without the person's iTunes (or Google Play) password.

My phone does not ask for a password before going in to Google Play.

If I'm already using an app (such as my music app, or Youtube), it doesn't require a password to activate the screen, either.

Mine doesn't either. I just go, find what I want, and download.

[stargazer]

Mine does.  You have to enter my password.  Did no one have a personal password to their phone?  Was no one asking WHY the IT guys was taking their phones and adding this app and clarifying whether it was optional or required?  I just cannot imagine ever handing over my personal phone to our IT guy and if he just TOOK it from me to do so, well he couldn't without a password and there would be hell to pay.  This seems very odd.

[squeakers]

Can a company demand an employee perform work when they're not at work?

If you are salaried? Yeah.  DH even works when we are on vacation: there isn't anyone else who can do his job, his bosses have no clue on how to do his job and his subordinates are nowhere near his technical level.  So he can talk them through steps but he's the one who has to sign off on stuff. 

Then there is payroll ... he has to do it for his people or they don't get paid on time. Which is why in addition to a company phone he also has a company laptop.

And since some of the companies his company does business with are on the other side of the world there have been times when he has to do conference calls or troubleshooting calls late at night.

I trust it's worth it.

Yes.  Like today: he had to call in and take the day off because our bird needed emergency surgery. He'll go in tomorrow for a few hours to make sure anything that needed signing gets signed.

Or the various kidney surgeries I had over the years... he was there.

Or when he needs to be late to work for a doctor appt. Or leave early to see a boy in a school event.

He's on call 24-7.

But that's why he gets paid the big bucks (hah!). (We are doing ok... no island vacations but not eating ramen unless we want to... and we do  )

[blarg314]

Can a company demand an employee perform work when they're not at work?

It's actually pretty common, depending on the type of job.

There's the jobs where you're formally on call - it's part of the job description to have someone phone you up after normal hours, often to go in and fix something (like in IT positions).

There's also jobs where you are salaried, and evaluated by your total performance. So taking work home with you is a necessary part of doing your job well enough to keep it (university professors, for example). Or jobs that deal with time sensitive stuff, so the expectation is that you'll be monitoring your email and responding on evenings and weekends. Or positions like school teachers, who have to do things like marking and preparation at home in the evenings, because there's no time for it during the day.

In my job, I occasionally am asked to work on stuff on the weekend, when it's time critical. I also periodically have mandatory evening or weekend meetings, or multi-national telecons that occur at weird hours. No extra pay, of course, but we sometimes get some unofficial comp time if we end up working all weekend.

[aiki]

Since you say your boss is a piece of work, and wasn't surprised at the downloading, I wonder if this is some sort of email app so she can email subordinates outside of work hours and hold you responsible for answering, since it's obviously work related, and on the work email server so there's an audit trail.

My company does have the ability to receive work emails on our cell phones, but as others have stated, it's strictly opt-in, and there are several hoops to jump through.

Can a company demand an employee perform work when they're not at work?

My company does, in certain areas anyway.  On the team I was on previously, all of our work was driven by deadlines set by various state governments.  You were expected to do whatever necessary to meet those deadlines, since missing one could result in fines, threats to the contract, etc.  People working an hour or two from home in the evenings was very common.  We often worked through a weekend to complete a project. Managers tried to compensate with extra time off, but it wasn't always possible.

They've never  heard of the 18th Amendment?

Actually, I was thinking of a situation in which an employee would be at the grocery store or at dinner or the like, would get an e-mail and would be expected to read it and reply right then.

Yes, in IT, its pretty common. If I have two people who administer an application that goes down but I have people in another geographic region needing to use it, it doesn't matter if it's 9pm their local time, I need one of them to log in remotely and get the system back up. It's pretty common in IT actually. Though we try to have global coverage for basic support items, you can't always have senior experts on every issue across all three regions. But it's something you are aware of when you get into IT.

I'm sure people in public relations, HR, and other industries have the same issue. Even office facilities employees may need to respond in the case of an emergency if there has been some type of damage done to the office.

Although, in this neck of the woods at least, a contract that requires employees to be on call like that is worth about an extra $5,000 p/a more than a similar role without the on-call requirement.
 

[doodlemor]

So she did not notice the IT guy stop by, grab her personal cell phone, and install some sort of data app.  She was flabbergasted when he handed it back to her. 


I'm rather surprised that your co-worker's phone was out where the IT guy could get to it.  Mine would have been in my purse, or perhaps a desk drawer if I were expecting some sort of emergency call.  If I were a supervisor I would look askance at anyone who had their personal phone laying around during work hours.  Perhaps that would make me a mean boss.  Was co-worker listening to  music on the thing while the IT guy was messing with it? Is that possible?

That being said, I think that the IT guy was quite rude and outrageous to take the phone without asking.  I do wonder, though, if he was actually told to get the app on everyone's phone, and was just trying to follow his orders.

I feel very strongly about the right of privacy.  I'd be tempted to change phones even, in case the app couldn't be fully removed, and the company was still tracking my stuff somehow.  Probably I've  just seen too many movies, and am attributing super powers to computers and IT departments.

[OSUJillyBean]

So she did not notice the IT guy stop by, grab her personal cell phone, and install some sort of data app.  She was flabbergasted when he handed it back to her. 


I'm rather surprised that your co-worker's phone was out where the IT guy could get to it.  Mine would have been in my purse, or perhaps a desk drawer if I were expecting some sort of emergency call.  If I were a supervisor I would look askance at anyone who had their personal phone laying around during work hours.  Perhaps that would make me a mean boss.  Was co-worker listening to  music on the thing while the IT guy was messing with it? Is that possible?

That being said, I think that the IT guy was quite rude and outrageous to take the phone without asking.  I do wonder, though, if he was actually told to get the app on everyone's phone, and was just trying to follow his orders.

I feel very strongly about the right of privacy.  I'd be tempted to change phones even, in case the app couldn't be fully removed, and the company was still tracking my stuff somehow.  Probably I've  just seen too many movies, and am attributing super powers to computers and IT departments.

Our boss uses her personal smartphone to run a 2nd business during work hours.  People goofing off is tolerated so long as we get our work done.  (I might have 90 minutes of work to do all day and must find other things to keep me occupied for the rest of it.  I'm paid by the hour and required to be here 8 to 5, Monday to Friday).

Earbud coworker just had her phone laying on her desk but wasn't messing with it.  She has an L-shaped desk and had turned away to do her work (with earbuds in) and didn't notice IT guy helping himself to her personal property.

I have no doubt IT guy was just following orders.  Our company makes decisions very high-up that make no sense on our level.  Like, we are required to have a certain number of people employed in our department.  One coworker passed away and another quit over the summer and our boss was forced to hire new people, even though they know we're being downsized around Christmas.  So we hired some lady who will only have this job for about three months and then we all get to apply for own jobs again in a few months.

My place of employment is kind of a mess!

[magicdomino]

I would have really confused that IT guy; I don't have a personal cell phone.   

In all fairness, if I didn't have the office-issued phone, I would probably buy one.  And since I hate talking on cell phones, I'd probably buy one that is reasonably bright, if not quite Genius Bar level.  But no one is putting apps on there except me. 

[starry diadem]

OP, I believe you said your co-worker deleted the app and I would love to know if there has been any comeback on that. I just can't fathom the thought process that went " Oh, let's send IT around to mess with people's private property" without any realisation that this goes so far beyond ethical, acceptable behaviour as to be in an entirely different solar system. I just want to understand what your higher ups were thinking, so that I can unflabber my ghast.

[VorFemme]

Makes me glad that I only have a semi-smart phone with no data or texting.

And long for the good old days when I had a flip phone and could imagine myself saying "Beam me up, Scotty" whenever I pulled it out and flipped it open.  It didn't need a screen lock - it had a LID.  Not that the lid worked all the time....

Time to take the phone to a teenager or friend who knows how to delete the junk apps - like the one from work!

[Danika]

And long for the good old days when I had a flip phone...

I still have and use mine daily. I prefer it because 1) when it's in my back pocket, I don't have to worry about sitting on and cracking my phone's screen 2) it's small and fits in my pocket completely and 3) I don't have to pay for a data rate plan.

I'll be really sad when it breaks. I have a backup that I bought on eBay.

[artk2002]

In my last job we had the opportunity to use our personal smartphone to access the corporate internal network. This would have required a special app, but more importantly, it would have given the company the right to wipe the phone whenever they wanted to. It was to protect their data in case the phone got lost, but the risk of having my personal data deleted was just too great and I opted out.