Work demands employee pay for personal calls, employee demands payment for calls they take outside of working hours: 'I should be getting overtime each time I pick up the phone'

Author image for Brad Dickson
Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
May 7, 2024 10:00 AM EDT

Mistakes and bad decisions happen, it's just a part of the decision making process. As Thomas Edison, the inventor of the lightbulb, famously said, "'I have not failed, but found 1000 ways to not make a light bulb." The quote and attribution varies, but it's usually something along those lines. And that remains true, you don't know and can't learn until you pick a direction and try, but where this becomes an issue is when people and organizations obstinately refuse to course correct, refusing to acknowledge scrutiny and criticism leveled against them and carrying down their erroneous path marching to their own folly.

Of course, there's another way this gets handled too where as soon as the authority realizes that they might have been wrong—still, rather than acknowledging that fact, they just sweep the policy or decision under the rug, never mentioning it again and pretending that it didn't exist in the first place. How an organization handles these situations is a good barometer for the culture they're purveying. And those embracing criticism, introspection, and accountability are more likely not to repeat the same mistakes and find positive growth.

While it seems a little brazen and messy to use your work phone for personal use, without a doubt this worker had a point. But when the bean counters were trying to wrangle extra beans (?) from their employees they forgot to consider the instances where the scales weren't balanced in their favor.

What's your experience? Have you or would you use a work phone for your private use?

Advertisement
  • 01
    "My job tried to charge me for personal calls on my work phone even though I had an unlimited plan."
    via David Hahn
  • 02
    So I need to preface this by saying this happened a long time ago. Like back when cell phone plans had minutes. I was working as a contractor in a hospital for a medical supply company. I was in a "team lead" kind of role in a small department, supervising about 20 people total. Part of my job description was to carry around a departmental cell phone at all times,
    via u/juicyb***f***
  • 03
    even though I was an hourly employee. Kind of a bogus deal, but whatever. Employees would call me whenever, 24/7 for troubleshooting or if they were calling in sick. I never got paid for these phone calls, but to me at the time it wasn't a big deal. This particular area was also in the mountains, and I didn't always get the greatest reception with my Tmobile phone. I got great reception with my work phone, so every once in awhile I'd use it for personal use.
    via u/juicyb***f***
  • 04
    After about a year of this I get an email from my boss's boss's secretary asking me to pay for each of the calls I made. I said "Sure, send me the phone records." After that, I went through the phone records over the past year and saw I'd used it maybe 10% of the time for personal calls. After adding everything up, I emailed her back.
    via u/juicyb***f***
  • 05
    "I added everything up, and turns out I owe you guys x amount of dollars for my personal calls. Technically, I'm an hourly employee, so I should be getting overtime each time I pick up the phone for work purposes. Will we just subtract the difference for all those hours owed?" I never heard back. I didn't push it and they didn't either.
    via u/juicyb***f***
  • 06
    Altaira9 I'd have sent them an invoice after that. juicyb s OP I would today. This was when I was quite younger and didn't know how to advocate for my work-life balance yet. I was too happy just to be there and they knew it.
    via u/juicyb***f***
  • 07
    Prozealotyzer A lot of us do things like this and it blows me away when they try to nitpick...like I get paid gas money for traveling between locations, sometimes its a two minute drive, sometimes it's 45 minutes. If I do a lot of traveling I will record it but if it's a couple short drives per month I won't even bother.
    via u/juicyb***f***
  • 08
    If I had submitted these trips it probably adds up to a hundred or two dollars per year. If I did something to "rip off" the company would they consider this? Would they consider all the times I've worked off the clock after hours just trying to finish something real quick or get something set up for the next week real quick?
    via u/juicyb***f***
  • 09
    relaxative_666 Had the same problem with the company phone. I answered my phone outside work times, no problem. Suddenly got an amount subtracted for personal calls (which is illegal where I live by the way). Fine, after that I turned off my work phone after work. (and got asked about why I didn't answer my phone after work hours)
    via u/juicyb***f***
  • 10
    Forsaken_Button_9387 I call it stepping over dollars to collect dimes! 85 Reply Share juicybuttfarts OP Unfortunately it was a at- will state. The situation at the time if I pushed it was more "being happy with a job I enjoyed otherwise or being fired for the sake of being right."
    via u/juicyb***f***
  • 11
    ducklingugly1 You should have insisted that they pay you for your hours and then write them a check of the difference. talk about the freeloaders!!
    via u/juicyb***f***
  • 12
    tuxcomputers So many stories in this subreddit of bean counters only considering one side of the equation. When making a financial decision you should always ask two questions: 1. What is the cost of doing this 2. What is the cost of NOT doing this
    via u/juicyb***f***

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

workplace discussion employment issues antiwork workplace-stories jobs employment-discussion job malicious compliance work workplace Horrible Bosses workplace malicious compliance employment in the workplace
Scroll Down For The Next Article