Personal and work phone

[intoview5]

Hi,

I would like to enquire what are the working cultural like in Singapore with regards to contacting out of hours? I am offered a typical consultancy work (9am till 6.30pm). In the employment offer, phone allowances are given. I am unsure to have a work phone on top of personal phone, or have 1 number for both.

I prefer to have separate work number from personal number. Is this the norm in Singapore? If the working cultural in Sg is that you must be contactable 24/7, then i know i shouldnt bother to have separate work number. I am asking as i heard stories from others from Sg that their manager/ colleagues went ballistic with them if calls or emails are unanswered 9pm at night or weekend. Seems extreme or is that normal in Sg?

[therat]

Hi,

I would like to enquire what are the working cultural like in Singapore with regards to contacting out of hours? I am offered a typical consultancy work (9am till 6.30pm). In the employment offer, phone allowances are given. I am unsure to have a work phone on top of personal phone, or have 1 number for both.

depend on company policy and your role.


I

prefer to have separate work number from personal number. Is this the norm in Singapore?

depend on you. Some company provide work phone to employee which mean 24/7

If the working cultural in Sg is that you must be contactable 24/7, then i know i shouldnt bother to have separate work number.

If you support the whole world. you will get all timing call/whatsapp/email.

The higher the level, more responsible.

I am asking as i heard stories from others from Sg that their manager/ colleagues went ballistic with them if calls or emails are unanswered 9pm at night or weekend. Seems extreme or is that normal in Sg?

This is not normal but it also depend on your boss. If your manager is this kind of workstyle. then good luck

[MOCHS]

If you’re given a phone allowance, that means you probably have to make a high volume of calls/texts so you’ll have to get a phone plan that gives you a generous amount of talk-time (aka “minutes” in the phone plan) and SMSes.

Though most people use Whatsapp/Telegram/Signal nowadays which relies more on data (aka “GB” in the phone plan).

The people I know in Singapore with a separate work phone and personal phone work in big scientific/pharmaceutical companies. It’s your personal preference.

Whether you have to reply or remain contactable after working hours depends on your boss and job scope… For my own job, my colleagues and I try not to bother each other outside of work unless it’s an emergency.

[malcontent]

I would try a work phone only at first, you might find it’s actually easier to manage that way. You can always add another personal phone later if needed.

The other posters said it well, working hours depends on the company and the boss… but I would just add one more — it also depends on you. If you allow business to creep into your personal time, it almost certainly will. You often have to draw a hard line, if that is what you desire. Could it hurt you career wise? Possibly, but not necessarily. Many people simply tend to take advantage of people who don’t know how to draw the line.

For me, I do a blend — hard stops when it matters to me, flexible during times when it doesn’t.

[smoulder]

My take on whether or not to get a separate handset for work is based on IT policy rather than the expectation of when to switch off.

You see there are basically 2 types of mobile device policies. The most common one is where the IT department can control the phone on the whole. So if they want to wipe it clean, everything including your personal data gets wiped out. You will probably have back up but it's still a pain. The other type of mobile device management is where they only control the behavior of the relevant applications such as email client or Microsoft Teams. In the second case, they can't touch your personal data and will just concentrate on maintaining segregation between that and the work related apps. The first case - best to have a separate handset and in the second case, you could consider just one handset for the convenience.

[therat]

Alternative you get a dual sim card phone.
Pro
You only need to carry 1 phone. less thing to carry
Company pay the mobile plan -- you have some saving

Con
You need to get use the switching SIM 1 <--> SIM 2
family/personal life will be blur out by working life

[BBCDoc]

Get separate phones. I learnt the lesson when I changed employers years ago, I had to rearrange bank accounts, utilities, never mind all the 2FA process now.


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[smoulder]

Get separate phones. I learnt the lesson when I changed employers years ago, I had to rearrange bank accounts, utilities, never mind all the 2FA process now.


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Sounds like you were using your office phone for personal use rather than the other way around?

[BBCDoc]

Get separate phones. I learnt the lesson when I changed employers years ago, I had to rearrange bank accounts, utilities, never mind all the 2FA process now.


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Sounds like you were using your office phone for personal use rather than the other way around?

Indeed I was, FOB in Singapore and given a company phone on the first day, you need a number to open a bank account etc. Went on from there until I changed jobs - finally decided to get my own personal number from them onwards.

Since I did international travel, I had customers calling me while I was in different time ones. Not something desired if you use your personal phone for work.


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[malcontent]

Get separate phones. I learnt the lesson when I changed employers years ago, I had to rearrange bank accounts, utilities, never mind all the 2FA process now.


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It sounded like the OP was given a phone allowance or reimbursement. This is how my company did it as well - so the phone number is yours even if you leave the company. My company terminated company phone privileges years ago, but I still have the same number and dirt cheap CIS plan with SingTel.

[smoulder]

Most companies I've seen have a BYOD policy.

[BBCDoc]

Somehow all 3 companies I have worked for provide company assets for use.

Makes life easier - not having to dissect international business calls and data from personal…probably save me hundreds of hours…


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