Using company phone for personal call
By yspmyl
@yspmyl (3435)
Malaysia
February 22, 2011 4:53am CST
I have a colleague like to use the company phone to call her friends, mother, husband and other personal stuff. whenever the boss is not around, she will be sitting on the boss's chair and chatting over the phone for a long period, sometime can up to half an hour. We all try to talk to her but she still doing it. She said since the company will pay for it, why can't she use the phone? What kind of person is she...?
Will you use the company phone for personal matter? Is your company allow you to use the phone for personal matter? Do you have such a person in your company? What is your view?
13 responses
@lovelyn_medrano (3070)
• Philippines
22 Feb 11
Using company phone for personal matter is okay as long as it's not OVER! Like if there is really an urgent matter that needs to be said or the like... but should limit the length of call of course to not more that 5 minutes... But with your story about your colleague, that is abusive and absolutely not right. And sitting on your boss chair! 
Oh men!!! What is she thinking? Playing and feeling like a boss or something?? If she is doing that still despite of all your reminders and warnings then may be its time to bring that issue to your boss... She needs to be disciplined...
Oh men!!! What is she thinking? Playing and feeling like a boss or something?? If she is doing that still despite of all your reminders and warnings then may be its time to bring that issue to your boss... She needs to be disciplined...@yspmyl (3435)
• Malaysia
23 Feb 11
Yes, you are so right, we all in the same office with her really think that she need to be more discipline, she need to behave herself. Everyone in the office worried that if the boss know about it, he will not let anyone to use the phone for personal matter anymore, just hope that he will be understanding.
@mikeyr6000le (2123)
• United States
22 Feb 11
That person must not like their job much. I would think if the compnay found out they would either fire her or make her pay the bills. My ex would call me from her work phone and I kept asking her if it was ok and she said yeah sure. Then they wrote her up or told her nope not ok. I was surprised that was all they did. People go to work not goof off on the phone or the internet.
@mermaidivy (15395)
• United States
22 Feb 11
Just wait until the boss comes back to the office one day and then she will get caught and lose her job.
When I used to be at work, I would make personall call in like lunch time, before work or after work for a short call but I don't just talk on it for a long time, and, I would avoid making phone when colleagues were around. I don't think it is a good idea to make personal calls on the company phone anyway.
@yspmyl (3435)
• Malaysia
23 Feb 11
You are right, it is always not a good idea to make a personal call using the company phone for a long period, but there are still people who doing it without any guilty feeling. They use is as if that is what the company should provide them or that is what the company owe them.
What she did actually became so routine and that will definitely make the company banned the employee to use the company phone for personal use even in the emergency.
@rambabu12 (85)
• India
22 Feb 11
Some persons are there in some companies that they feel when they are working with the company the company phone also theirs. Mostly the boss also know that but he ignore that because she is cute in her or his work and do the work alloted to them is worked perfectly. Don't be jelicious be control your self every body have a turn at that time your boss will take a action on such persons.
rambabu12
@yspmyl (3435)
• Malaysia
23 Feb 11
Actually our boss still do not know that she use the phone so frequent for her personal use. Only we who work in the same office with her know what she did. I never think that she work very well, and for me she is quite lazy type where she will delay some of her job and wait till someone is pushing her, then she will go and do it.
Of course I know what can do and what cannot do in the company as long as I still want to work in the company. I think she probably think that the job is not good enough and she is going to find another job soon.
@jennbart (1330)
• Philippines
22 Feb 11
Oh yeah! my boss does that all the time!Not only that he uses the company printer too to print his wedding invitation drafts.He maybe my boss, but his position isnt that very very big. Not even our directors are doing those.He would call his car's repairman etc and all these stuffs he does in front of everybody else since he sits on the same area just like everybody else! I think he is soo cheap!No ethics at all.
@aeiou78 (3445)
• Malaysia
22 Feb 11
It is a very common case to use the company's phone for personal call.
Nowadays, the boss can track all of the out going calls online.
For me, I did the local personal calls and most of the calls were short conversation.
It should be acceptable since we need to resolve our personal matters too.
I think most of the people will have the same habit.
If an employee chats too long in the phone, I am sure he or she will neglect their daily works later. She shouldn't continue in what she is doing now.
@yspmyl (3435)
• Malaysia
23 Feb 11
It is really common to use the company phone for a short call but if that happen too frequent, it will reflect something bad on your image and it will be worst if that person chatting over the phone for a quite long period. I am sure no any boss will like this kind of attitude.
@rivengodwind (369)
• Philippines
22 Feb 11
I do wonder how that person can stomach doing the act when a lot of people obviously knows she's doing the deed. Does she rank higher than you, if I may ask? I don't want to advise that you become the whistle-blower, but if this is impeding everyone's productivity then HR should have a got at it. IMHO, of course.
I was assigned a business phone before and although we were allowed to use it for "other stuff", we just have to keep track of the numbers we called and pay whatever personal activity was done on company time. The auditors check it once a month, so it's not as if it's easy to mooch from the bill. Of course, I have my own personal line already so I really don't use the company phone for something not business-related.
@yspmyl (3435)
• Malaysia
23 Feb 11
No, she is only work as a general clerk and she is consider quite free. But she just do not bother how other look at her or think about her. Since the company did not mention that employee can not talk in the phone for personal matter, she hence taking advantages on this.
Out company do not provide phone to people other than sales person, so it is hard to track who use the phone, and on top of that, there are quite many people work in the same office too.
I think if a person is well behave, he/she will know what is right and what is wrong. And sooner or later, the boos will know about it.
@dreamnishu (1247)
• China
22 Feb 11
hello friend!
No dear i do not have any company phone for personal call because i am a student do not do any kind of job so have to use my own phone for personal call.so she is very luck now a days.because if she use her phone then have to pay from her own but now it is free for her that is why she use it as long as possible.
thanks a lot.
@kartiknaiduk (275)
• India
22 Feb 11
In our company i do get a chance to make personal calls. But I don't do that. Actually it doesn't look good. I have my own mobile and I manage my cals with itself.
As far as your colleague is concerned she is definitely going to suffer one day or the other. A cat always drinks milk closing its eyes thinking that no one is looking at it.
Tell this to your friend, someone may tell her boss secretly as a result of personal grudge also if she is caught how embarising the situation would be.
She should be enough mature as she is working in a company. If the amount of bill is higher than regular, then it would definatily come into notice and she could be traced easily.
May god give her wisdom.
@yspmyl (3435)
• Malaysia
23 Feb 11
She is a matured and she is a mother of 2 children. I think this is not related to the maturity of a person but how good is their attitude. If she think that it is the best way to take advantages on the company, she will keep doing it as long as she never get caught. This kind of people is blinded by their greedy and they will just do anything as long as they never lose.
I like the last sentence "May God give her wisdom" It seem that she doesn't have brain at all! 
@SIMPLYD (90722)
• Philippines
23 Feb 11
We cannot do that here in our office. We have a Code of Ethics that we follow here and doing that would be a violation and have a corresponding penalty.
The moment you do that, a memorandum for such violation will be given to you by our HRD. Shameful!
@sonyshreemadhan (8)
• India
22 Feb 11
it is really a nice idea and do it like that why we want to waste our money lol
@myloots (37)
• Philippines
22 Feb 11
For the pleasure purpose only, it is not good, but for the emergency purposes, it is fine.
@ellabianca (8)
•
23 Feb 11
as far as i know,the company phones can be use as for personal calls but in a limited time or emergency only. if your colleague is using it as her personal use and she's abusing it, i think thats not fair. the company can know that the user is abusing it and the company have the right to credit it to your colleague.
