
Phones Made the World an Office, Like It or Not - DamnInteresting
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/31/business/how-phones-made-the-world-your-office-like-it-or-not.html
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Havoc
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.

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noir_lord
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.

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Havoc
>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?

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noir_lord
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.

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edgarvaldes
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.

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draw_down
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.

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mmcgaha
The best way to handle the MDM issue is to forward emails to your personal
email. This has the added benefit that you can select which emails to forward,
so I forward emails from my boss, his boss, and the monitoring system.

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urda
> The best way to handle the MDM issue is to forward emails to your personal
> email.

That's a quick way to get a visit from your local InfoSec department for
exfiltrating company information to non-company controlled servers.

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grillvogel
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

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dheera
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.

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pavel_lishin
> _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?

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dheera
I don't have kids and white-list my parents. If I had a SO I would white-list
them too. This group of people presumably understands me well enough to not
call me at random times unless it's an emergency.

By white-list I mean it doesn't auto-hangup, but I see the call, so I call
back if it's one of the above. If it's not one of the above I don't even see
the call. I still don't enable phone ringer sounds or vibrations a lot of the
time. That sh*t scares me enough that it could cause me to fall of my bike,
crash a car, or something else dangerous.

By auto-hangup I'm talking about everyone else. I simply can't work if people
call me when they feel like without knowing what I'm actually doing. I might
be standing on a cliff, trying to merge onto a highway, or trying to saw a
piece of metal, and that's the wrong time to yell "HEY! What's up! Did you see
my e-mail?"

> detail about how you did this

Twilio. You can write scripts to forward calls (or not) based on time/date, or
even receive and play back some "interesting" recordings if you want to get
back at spammers.

If you just want simple call-blocking with white-listing there are some apps
on Android that can do that as well, and you can disable the blocking when you
have a calendar event.

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ryandrake
I’ve switched over to Do Not Disturb mode 24/7\. No phone calls, no text
messages, no notifications, no alerts. I use the phone when I choose to, not
when other people/companies/apps want me to. It’s improved my quality of life
tenfold!

And to answer the inevitable objection “But what about emergencies?”
Emergencies happened long before cell phones existed and were dealt with. I’m
not going to attach myself to a leash and collar just to handle a 1000-to-1
outlier situation.

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MiddleEndian
Agreed. I usually leave my voice mailbox 100% full as well.

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ddingus
Dame, and the message says I do not do voice mail. Use SMS or email plz,
thanks.

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aeternus
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.

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

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ngngngng
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.

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neonate
[http://archive.is/plCtZ](http://archive.is/plCtZ)

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

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hrktb
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
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.

