7 ms·

Phones Made the World an Office, Like It or Not

aeternus 7y ago
Personally, I like it. My team and I can spend less time at the office because of it. We also don't need a strict on-call schedule since the team is good about responding if they happen to be available and near a computer. This gives everyone more overall freedom and flexibility.
ngngngng 7y ago
I start a new job next week and am planning on a new strategy with my devices. I'm going to leave my laptop in the office and use my personal computer more often, and I'm not going to add any of my work accounts onto my phone.
ilaksh 7y ago
And yet we continue to waste massive amounts of time and energy commuting in heavy traffic.
edgarvaldes 7y ago
Not having a job-provided phone is great. Otherwise people have the wrong expectation to reach my co-workers almost 24/7, despite not being required to answer, given the nature of their jobs. Some time ago I made the error of installing my corporate email on my personal phone and i feeled compeled to read every new email, causing me anxiety and stress. I prompty deleted it, not only for taht reason, but because I understood some legal implications of having job-related info on my personal device.
- draw_down 7y ago
  There is another problem with using your own phone for work: many companies now require you to install their MDM profile to access email or other services. This gives them a lot of power to do whatever they like with the device, remotely. If a security breach occurs and they deem it prudent, they can wipe the phone remotely, for example. And I don't even know what they can access from the phone's content, probably everything. It's quite simply an issue of ownership: if they don't pay for the phone, they don't get that. If you want root on a device, pay for it and issue it to the user. So, in that sense a device issued by the employer is better. I'm not installing anyone's MDM profile on my phone, that I pay for, that contains my personal photos, messages, etc.
  - izacus 7y ago
    On Android, MDM profiles create a separate isolated sandbox which doesn't see any of your personal information. This also means that the company can only remotely wipe that sandbox and not your personal data. There's also very convenient quick setting which disables all work apps and silences all work notations. A critical feature for work/life balance.
    - cameronbrown 7y ago
      Great in theory but a recent post on HN made light of the fact that if your company is investigated then your personal phone can be taken off of you because company data touched it.
  - 0xDEFC0DE 7y ago
    I thought this has been changing so that it's isolated now, and a remote wipe will only wipe business-related accounts and not your entire phone?
    - snazz 7y ago
      iOS 13, I think. Probably supported on Android, though.
  - nathanaldensr 7y ago
    To any employer requiring I use my personal cell phone for work: No. Give me a company phone and you can install anything you want on it (I might still put it in a Faraday cage when not on duty, however).
    - realbarack 7y ago
      You may be totally unwilling to work at a startup (a very reasonable position), but I haven't seen company phones become a thing until the company becomes fairly well-established.
      - 7y ago
dheera 7y ago
I have my cell phone set up to automatically block all calls that aren't scheduled. I consider it a device to enable me with internet access outdoors. That's it. Not a device to allow others to interrupt my work. I fear the world of 50 years from now when you're not only expected to answer calls, but your boss will randomly show up in the middle of your bedroom or in the middle of a hiking trip with an AR headset you're expected to wear 24/7, and demand that you work.
- Aperocky 7y ago
  AR Headset is WAY TOO uncomfortable, nobody would ever want to wear it 24/7, humans will never inconvenience themselves to that extent. Maybe someone will invent mini screen implant to the eye.
- ilaksh 7y ago
  50 years? AR? Your vision here is way too conservative. Did you see the Neuralink presentation? They currently have a chip with 1000 tiny electrode threads attached. There is a robotic system that inserts the threads rapidly. They plan to implant several chips with up to 10000 total electrodes for the first phase. They talked about eventually getting a version directly attached to the visual cortex. I am not making this up.
- pavel_lishin 7y ago
  > I have my cell phone set up to automatically block all calls that aren't scheduled. This isn't really a viable option if you have kids and need to be available in case something happens to them, but can you go into some detail about how you did this?
  - izzydata 7y ago
    Unless you have multiple phones or multiple numbers on one phone. I think some phones allow for dual sim cards. Perhaps you could do this on per phone number if you knew every number that was expected to call you about work.
  - dheera 7y ago
grillvogel 7y ago
I don't have work email on my phone, but I do have slack installed with notifications disabled. this works pretty well for me if i want/need to check on something while also preventing me from random interruptions and feeling like i need to respond to things in my free time
jriot 7y ago
I have a flip-phone to eliminate this exact problem.
- hrktb 7y ago
  More than the technical aspect of it, you may have less jerks in your life (lucky you). There a people who will take any occasion to phone. I had a client who phoned 5 min after sending a mail to check if I saw it. Some would wait a few hours before phoning. After a while, more than any change in what I use, completely blocking work calls outside of the duty team and ignoring mails/message/ whatever when off was the most straightforward way. I don’t even have to hide my phone number anymore, it’s just dropped and they have to go to the support team if it’s really something important.
  - jriot 7y ago
    I certainly do not have to deal with what you are dealing with. I don't carry my phone with me everywhere I go, particularly when I off of work.
Havoc 7y ago
The phone isn't the issue. It's the office culture towards it. I just carry two phones & look at the work one only when it suits me. Europeans are generally quite good at respecting work hours vs non so I don't ever catch flak for it. ...and it's a convenient tool when I need it. The global roaming is also nice.
- noir_lord 7y ago
  I have my phone set to do not disturb at 6pm and only starred numbers can call through. If work wants me to answer my phone out of hours they can pay me for it, they don’t (since they don’t need that) so I don’t.
  - Scoundreller 7y ago
    My quandary is that my work does pay me to be on-call, and if I take a call, but what do I do when I get a robo-call? It technically is because my employer’s device ringing me.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - Havoc 7y ago
    >I have my phone set to do not disturb at 6pm and only starred numbers can call through. What type of phone/setup is this?
    - noir_lord 7y ago
      It’s completely stock on android 9. It’s in the do not disturb settings, you can set start stop times and who can break through by starring them in contacts.
- daveslash 7y ago
  >I just carry two phones This. I actually gave up my smart phone a year ago. I've been with a feature phone (Nokia 3310) for a full year. Office-mates can't believe that I don't check my e-mail on the go. My position at work is this: "Given that I'm at my workstation 85% of my day, if I'm important enough to need to check e-mail 'on the go' or outside of work, I'm important enough for the company to get me a second phone - one dedicated to work and work only."
neonate 7y ago
http://archive.is/plCtZ http://archive.is/plCtZ

Personally, I like it. My team and I can spend less time at the office because of it. We also don't need a strict on-call schedule since the team is good about responding if they happen to be available and near a computer. This gives everyone more overall freedom and flexibility.

ngngngng 7y ago

I start a new job next week and am planning on a new strategy with my devices. I'm going to leave my laptop in the office and use my personal computer more often, and I'm not going to add any of my work accounts onto my phone.

ilaksh 7y ago

And yet we continue to waste massive amounts of time and energy commuting in heavy traffic.

edgarvaldes 7y ago

Not having a job-provided phone is great. Otherwise people have the wrong expectation to reach my co-workers almost 24/7, despite not being required to answer, given the nature of their jobs. Some time ago I made the error of installing my corporate email on my personal phone and i feeled compeled to read every new email, causing me anxiety and stress. I prompty deleted it, not only for taht reason, but because I understood some legal implications of having job-related info on my personal device.

draw_down 7y ago
There is another problem with using your own phone for work: many companies now require you to install their MDM profile to access email or other services. This gives them a lot of power to do whatever they like with the device, remotely. If a security breach occurs and they deem it prudent, they can wipe the phone remotely, for example. And I don't even know what they can access from the phone's content, probably everything. It's quite simply an issue of ownership: if they don't pay for the phone, they don't get that. If you want root on a device, pay for it and issue it to the user. So, in that sense a device issued by the employer is better. I'm not installing anyone's MDM profile on my phone, that I pay for, that contains my personal photos, messages, etc.
- izacus 7y ago
  On Android, MDM profiles create a separate isolated sandbox which doesn't see any of your personal information. This also means that the company can only remotely wipe that sandbox and not your personal data. There's also very convenient quick setting which disables all work apps and silences all work notations. A critical feature for work/life balance.
  - cameronbrown 7y ago
    Great in theory but a recent post on HN made light of the fact that if your company is investigated then your personal phone can be taken off of you because company data touched it.
- 0xDEFC0DE 7y ago
  I thought this has been changing so that it's isolated now, and a remote wipe will only wipe business-related accounts and not your entire phone?
  - snazz 7y ago
    iOS 13, I think. Probably supported on Android, though.
- nathanaldensr 7y ago
  To any employer requiring I use my personal cell phone for work: No. Give me a company phone and you can install anything you want on it (I might still put it in a Faraday cage when not on duty, however).
  - realbarack 7y ago
    You may be totally unwilling to work at a startup (a very reasonable position), but I haven't seen company phones become a thing until the company becomes fairly well-established.
    - 7y ago

dheera 7y ago

I have my cell phone set up to automatically block all calls that aren't scheduled. I consider it a device to enable me with internet access outdoors. That's it. Not a device to allow others to interrupt my work. I fear the world of 50 years from now when you're not only expected to answer calls, but your boss will randomly show up in the middle of your bedroom or in the middle of a hiking trip with an AR headset you're expected to wear 24/7, and demand that you work.

Aperocky 7y ago
AR Headset is WAY TOO uncomfortable, nobody would ever want to wear it 24/7, humans will never inconvenience themselves to that extent. Maybe someone will invent mini screen implant to the eye.
ilaksh 7y ago
50 years? AR? Your vision here is way too conservative. Did you see the Neuralink presentation? They currently have a chip with 1000 tiny electrode threads attached. There is a robotic system that inserts the threads rapidly. They plan to implant several chips with up to 10000 total electrodes for the first phase. They talked about eventually getting a version directly attached to the visual cortex. I am not making this up.
pavel_lishin 7y ago
> I have my cell phone set up to automatically block all calls that aren't scheduled. This isn't really a viable option if you have kids and need to be available in case something happens to them, but can you go into some detail about how you did this?
- izzydata 7y ago
  Unless you have multiple phones or multiple numbers on one phone. I think some phones allow for dual sim cards. Perhaps you could do this on per phone number if you knew every number that was expected to call you about work.
- dheera 7y ago

grillvogel 7y ago

I don't have work email on my phone, but I do have slack installed with notifications disabled. this works pretty well for me if i want/need to check on something while also preventing me from random interruptions and feeling like i need to respond to things in my free time

jriot 7y ago

I have a flip-phone to eliminate this exact problem.

hrktb 7y ago
More than the technical aspect of it, you may have less jerks in your life (lucky you). There a people who will take any occasion to phone. I had a client who phoned 5 min after sending a mail to check if I saw it. Some would wait a few hours before phoning. After a while, more than any change in what I use, completely blocking work calls outside of the duty team and ignoring mails/message/ whatever when off was the most straightforward way. I don’t even have to hide my phone number anymore, it’s just dropped and they have to go to the support team if it’s really something important.
- jriot 7y ago
  I certainly do not have to deal with what you are dealing with. I don't carry my phone with me everywhere I go, particularly when I off of work.

Havoc 7y ago

The phone isn't the issue. It's the office culture towards it. I just carry two phones & look at the work one only when it suits me. Europeans are generally quite good at respecting work hours vs non so I don't ever catch flak for it. ...and it's a convenient tool when I need it. The global roaming is also nice.

noir_lord 7y ago
I have my phone set to do not disturb at 6pm and only starred numbers can call through. If work wants me to answer my phone out of hours they can pay me for it, they don’t (since they don’t need that) so I don’t.
- Scoundreller 7y ago
  My quandary is that my work does pay me to be on-call, and if I take a call, but what do I do when I get a robo-call? It technically is because my employer’s device ringing me.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- Havoc 7y ago
  >I have my phone set to do not disturb at 6pm and only starred numbers can call through. What type of phone/setup is this?
  - noir_lord 7y ago
    It’s completely stock on android 9. It’s in the do not disturb settings, you can set start stop times and who can break through by starring them in contacts.
daveslash 7y ago
>I just carry two phones This. I actually gave up my smart phone a year ago. I've been with a feature phone (Nokia 3310) for a full year. Office-mates can't believe that I don't check my e-mail on the go. My position at work is this: "Given that I'm at my workstation 85% of my day, if I'm important enough to need to check e-mail 'on the go' or outside of work, I'm important enough for the company to get me a second phone - one dedicated to work and work only."

neonate 7y ago

http://archive.is/plCtZ http://archive.is/plCtZ