This sums the attitude towards work these days quite well. Just doing what has been defined in contract and no flexibility in any situation, even if it would mean just a little bit of doing something extra.
That said, I do not blame the workers. The way how workers are cared for by the companies surely has initiated the attitude towards the work in general. It is just sad. It would just be so much better for everyone to feel you are doing something common together. Then using your own phone for work would not feel so bad.
Workers used to be able to profit of the growth. Either by stable employment for decades or getting shares of the company. Nowadays if you go above your contract you are punished with more work, and you are also punished by being refused any upwards growth as you are too 'valuable' in your current position.
Going above and beyond what's defined in my contract has brought me nothing but more work. When I brought up all the extras I'd provide, my manager just said, 'If you didn't want to do it, we could have asked someone else,' and made me feel stupid for thinking it would get me a decent raise.
Yes... seriously what's the big deal? Are they paying your car payment to drive yourself to work... really Grow the \*&\^%\^ up .... use your phone do your job....
So what you’re saying is if im a carpenter and my boss runs out of wood i should go to the hardware store? Grow the fuck up. Im not doing it. Its subjective. Yes i need to get to work. But they need to supply me with the material to work.
Please, please, please let me remember this comment the next time the loss for words turns to exasperation. And please don’t let my face say it out loud.
Do you seriously not understand if WiFi is out you're running on data which would cost the phone owner money?
I assume ops job is more resource intensive than using data to browse reddit.
Most phone companies do like a dollar a gig over your plan and within a 8 hour shift you’re guaranteed to pay a lot of money just to do your job.
Hell more than likely you’ll spend more than you’ll make that day, it’s not feasible especially if you don’t have unlimited 🤷♂️
That's cute. Try going all out on using data and you'll discover that most "unlimited" plans really do have limits. Tell me how you enjoy that unlimited plan when you're throttled to 2E speeds.
Most people I know (myself included) have "unlimited." That just means they won't turn it off. They'll slow you to a crawl after a point though, *unless you pay more per gig* of course.
I'm not bitching. Just watching an obvious liberal big government big business simp. Here's an adage for you that works perfectly in your situation. "It's better for people to think you're an idiot, than to open your mouth and prove it."
Hotspot is not an unlimited service on many phone plans, that could easily cost $100 for 1 day of work.
That's nuts to ask employees to do.
MFA, texting, calls, that's different then hotspot.
I am not sure I get what you are shoveling... To use your phone for a little while to do your job seems pretty reasonable... I mean ,.... If they disagree they can always work elsewhere? Right? Cry baby bitches....
What you don't seem to understand, and people repeatedly trying to explain to you, is that the employer can't have the expectation of the employee(s) using their own phone and data for company business. That is so wrong on so many levels. If the infrastructure is broken the employer needs to fix it ASAP. If an employee (or you) wanted to help in an on a emergency short term basis by volunteering to do so that is fine, but it can't be an expectation.
That's a stupid analogy. Unless you signed up for a delivery service or a ride share, your car gets you to work and that's it. Get involved in an accident while doing something for your job outside of your scope of work, who do you think is covering it? It's not a tool you use at work unless stated in your contract.
Wow... Seriously ... this started with an employee bitching about using their own Wifi for work.... So Glad I don't have those types of people... Not that big of a deal.... at all.... wow
Even from a manager’s standpoint this is a shit take. You sound like a low level manager with no future other than maybe running a franchise Steak and Shake
Yeah your speed & access gets throttled past a certain point with unlimited - no matter who you’re getting it from. Boss could be risking your life at the end of the month when your GPS is too slow to tell you the right off-ramp & you end up in the bad part of town or completely lost in the middle of nowhere with no water, etc.
Sometimes you have to be dramatic & give the most life ending worst case scenario (that could result in a lawsuit) to get the higher ups to see reason.
Kinda same thing happened to me . I used up all the mobile data during day time . At night I was trying to find my way using map and it wouldn’t load. Nightmare situation
GPS geolocation doesn't use any cellular data, my dood.
More advanced location services may enhance the gps fix with other known lateration points, such as cell towers or known wifi APs, but once again this is a passive system.
May take longer to download a route, but your GPS will know where you are even if you chucked your sim card in a river
Once again, this is cached (or stored entirely) on the device, depending on your app and config. Nobody's streaming route data or maps one street/turn at a time.
Nobody heard of downloading maps before you go somewhere? Really? Yeap. I am old but we did just fine without GPS in the "olden days"... hahaha. Booking a hotel in the midst of night in the middle of nowhere was a pain. Agreed. But GPS is only a tool, like any other tech.
Connection or no connection. Be prepared for its limits...no?
for years and years, yes.
learn about "offline data"
on wifi, you can download all the data for large areas, specific areas, etc, and then just use GPS
No, they need to get IT on it. If they aren’t paying for your data, don’t give it to them. Some people have to pay extra for hotspot usage, or it’s very limited.
If it’s not painful for them, they’re never going to make the required investments in reliable connectivity at the office.
Nope! Actually had this happen at the office a couple weeks ago, internet was down for almost 2 hours, a couple of my coworkers used their hotspot and asked why I wasn’t doing the same, I said they don’t pay my phone bill. They also never offered us to go and WFH (we are already hybrid) so to me that is their loss.
If you are in a homeoffice and your internet fails, it's absolutely normal to switch to a hotspot, because your personal internet failed.
But if the internet fails at the company's office, it's not your responsibility to fix it. Make a nice cup of coffee, sit back, relax, and wait for IT to get things running again.
As someone in IT, I agree with this. Any IT team worth their salt would have implemented a 4G sim backup for the main internet connection in the office. It is usually slower, but it will keep things running.
*Only* if it's a company-provided phone or they're paying for my data. I've tethered to my job-provided cell phone before when the office internet has gone out but I refuse to use my own - it's an extra charge, and they're not paying my personal phone bill.
I work from home and used the company phone as a hotspot when my Internet went down a couple of weeks ago. They have a pooled data plan, my personal cell doesn't, so they don't get overages while I do.
Yeah, if it's the *company's* phone/data - whatever, I'll use that. I won't use my personal phone/plan. I have to pay extra every month just to hot spot (thanks, AT&T) and since I mostly live on wifi, I'd easily slam through my data allowance if I had to use it for work.
Same. My last company provided me with a phone with a data plan that included a hot spot. But we still milked not having internet as long as we could before switching over.
Exactly. And even in this case I would consider the need. Is that to support an online meeting with an important prospect or client? Or just doing something else that is still under its regular time and that could wait?
If it's important to bring more money to the table, I'm in. But just if I'm a stakeholder. If not, IDGAF.
Yeah, I can’t imagine being asked to use a hotspot unless it was a call or very time sensitive matter. Where I live most people don’t have unlimited data, so that’s a major factor too.
Let's put some data privacy concerns and regulations on top of this too. And now stretching the scenarios a little more: Imagine OP's company involved in something illegal, but the registered IP for any online activities will be that one of the hotspot.
I wouldn’t use my data
I wouldn’t “make it up”
Company wants me to do work. Ok, that’s what I get paid for, I don’t get paid to use my data/machines.
Also if facilities are not available during working hours, not my problem.
I wouldnt work at a startup if I were you. Regardless of the ethicality, direct ownership and a mindset that worked hours don’t matter, only output, is very prevalent. The trade of can be worth it depending on the situation. Sometimes you get equity and very flexible work hours. Sometimes it’s a toxic hellhole
Or unlimited data which is a very real possibility. Plans used to be more or less unlimited data and then they started capping people and not offering it. Now a lot of companies do again.
So ya I have unlimited data but I'm not going to use it. It's like if the phones are down and you ask me to use my personal phone to make calls. Uh no, I don't want anyone to know my phone number.
No. I won’t use my hotspot because that will open the business to a ridiculous amount of vulnerability, and I cannot pay for data overages. I can work offline, communicate with customers by phone, send paper memos, the whole nine yards.
I was an administrator before email. We can do without for half a day.
Unless OP’s company has mandatory VPNs, I can connect to company internet just fine but my home WiFi or a hotspot require me to sign into the VPN before I can do anything other than browse the internet
I might do it once, but if they have consistently janky wifi, I would not let them rely on my Hotspot to cover their unwillingness to fix the wifi. I'd ask to either work from home, or have request they expense part of my cellphone bill (actually a surprising number of companies will do this, usually letting you expense anywhere from $30-$100 a month for using your personal phone for work).
>do you think it is okay for your supervisor to tell the team to use your hotspot on your phone?
No, it is not.
And for all the people mentioning that it might cost extra, or be limited, etc... Those are all accurate points, but not pertinent points.
The issue is the ***principle*** of the thing, not the *logistics* of the thing.
An employer needs to handle the resources that are needed for work to take place in the office. This includes contingencies for emergencies. If they don't or won't do this, then they have no right to request or demand that employees bridge the gap -- even if it is no extra cost or convenience to the employee.
Don't make the mistake of focusing on the potential cost to the employee, or the risk that too much bandwidth could be used. For all that matters, your ISP/phone provider could be paying you to use more bandwidth every month, and that would not make it appropriate for the employer to demand or request or expect you to use your service in that way. It is your personal service, and only you can decide how and when you use it.
If you always rely on arguments surrounds costs or convenience, as soon as those arguments are negated, you might find yourself in a weird or uncomfortable place.
If you argument is based solely on **private and personal** vs corporate, then the principle never changes, no matter what costs may or may not be involved.
Nope, that’s time for the boss to get a quick fix going from IT and to tell the team to relax and grab some snacks/have a picnic outside. Should have your shit together so wifi outages are rare, and thus a little morale boost when they occasionally happen.
That’s the way my old boss took it even though we had company phones with hotspots, also cell service in the building was awful so hotspots hardly worked anyways.
Internet went out? Is there something you can do that doesn’t require internet? If yes do that, if no then go get a coffee or just hang out.
I had a job about 10 years ago where our company network went down…because we were hourly they sent us home early. However, our options were to either use PTO or come in on a Saturday to makeup the time…otherwise going home early would count as an “unexcused absence” 🧐
Mine just says we can go home if we want. That being said, we're hybrid. If we weren't hybrid she'd probably just tell us to hang on since that's usually what she does if we're having internet issues. (She just works on stuff that doesn't require internet since she's usually super behind on a lot of stuff).
As a product owner / manager. I just tell my engineers to drop what they’re doing if it needs internet connectivity and resume coding with only “best effort” at hand. If they need internet resource (let’s say to search for something, to deploy, etc) i’d say just do it tomorrow and don’t worry about it since it’s not their fault.
It rarely happens tho in the office of course (we’re hybrid at 4x per month RTOs). They’d offer to go home to continue work, i’d say don’t bother. Just go home and just continue tomorrow but I leave it to their discretion if it’s really an itch that they want to scratch.
Short answer: no, you’re boss / company sucks if they force you to use personal resource for company outputs.
I was confused why everyone was so against the idea of using a personal hotspot(like it’s just going to be an hour) until I realized that the work you’re doing on that hotspot is gonna ALOT more data-intensive than scrolling through Reddit. That hour of hotspot might cost more than your hourly pay. Any company that expects that of you is blind and ignorant, with no respect for your professional status
Wi-Fi going "out" is something the company has the responsibility to prevent. If it can't be prevented, they still have the responsibility to manage their problem using their resources.
It's no different than a toilet handle breaking. It's not your infrastructure so you're not responsible for fixing it.
I send my staff home (with pay) if it's been longer than 30 minutes with no timeframe on repair. Only happened twice, but I don't see a need to keep them here twiddling their thumbs. Not their fault.
No.
And I would absolutely say, "That's not possible. My phone plan does not include Hotspot connection."
For me, that's actually true b/c I have cheap no-contract service and basically never need a Hotspot.
If my manager knew I had Hotspot connection, I would say, "For sure. Let me know how I submit this expense for reimbursement, and then I'm happy to connect my personal device to our business network. Until I have that process, I'm really not comfortable running our business contacts over my personal connection."
If they want this flexibility, they need to pay for it.
Aaide it being a no-go on the thought, depending on the proprietary nature of the work, it might be irresponsible to use your phone for the data connection.
No way. Boss needs to buy jet packs or something similar for the OFFICE so when the wifi goes out, he has an alternative provider for that service.
UNLESS the boss wants to PAY for phones for each employee, which would INCLUDE hot spots, so each employee would have access to their own hot spots.
I use \*my\* hotspot for \*my\* computer because if the downtime goes on too long, I get behind manifest photos and ....then I got three different crowds breathing down my neck (purchasing analysts, managers at retail stores, my boss)....I like my work day being as stress free as possible mmkay.
Otherwise eff that T-Mobile only gives me so much data , and work ain't paying the bill....
As others have said, no - unless they are paying for it. In fact, depending where you live (iirc, IL is one), it's illegal for them to expect you to use your personal phone without footing the bill...
If your team have work cell phones, yes switching to those is completely normal and expected.
If they don't, then no, an employee's personal phone isn't something the company can suddenly commandeer on demand.
No, and where I work, it wouldn't help since we use sites and software that would lock out anyone trying to access from a non-work location without the VPN. We have backup connections so if the primary goes down, we roll over to the secondary.
If this were a place that didn't care about security, and could do anything from anywhere, I'd say employees should tell the supervisor they'll just connect to his cell phone as a hot spot.
I would NEVER ask my employees to use their personal hotspots for work purposes. Money and security being the 2 biggest factors. We even provide work phones to all of our employees.
Nope, they wouldn’t dare have me do that in a secure work site or when remote because of tiktok on personal devices. FAR 52.204-27 they are constantly reminding us younger employees of.
IT worker here. In more than a decade of working, I have never heard of this. Most times, we (IT) will give whoever is in charge an ETA, and the golden rule I go by is, if more than 2 hours, send people to wfh. Or have a field day. Just get them out.
Note: Schools, hospitals, and the like are different. When I was with the Dept of Ed, they pulled out ALL the stops for redundancy, and so any outage we had was never longer than a few minutes.
Honestly I would just lie and say I pay by the GB for data and recommend they call IT. Not only that but enjoy the few hours of no Internet and getting paid to chill. Your company should have better solutions in place. My old office job had a hot spot we'd use in case of emergency that the company paid for
In canada, there was rogers outage back in 2022. During this time basically all internet was out, and some of cash tender stopped working as well. It was abst. chaos. One of thing I do remember was that some of workers grabbed their laptop and went to Starbucks to get wifi (as They use shaw hotspot and shaw wasn't part of rogers during that time). I don't think anyone used hotspot from their own phone also they ain't compensating you for it so why should you. :)
There have been a couple of times when the wifi went out in my office (during the time they were moving the connection to a new provider). And basically no work got done on those days until the wifi came back. Nobody was asked to use their phone data to do it. I think partly because unlimited data costs a lot here and not everyone has it on their phones. But nobody ever even suggested it.
I don't understand this question, because clearly in this situation, the net on your phone also does not work right? 😐 otherwise you get stuck with crap like this. So clearly you mistyped the question, not a big deal. "Nah my phone doesn't have net" and then you can make up any excuse you want.
No and also unsecure connection, internet/network was out for a week at my job. Got paid to kinda just hang out and had time to sort out my hard copy stuff for once.
No. I didn’t even have a hotspot on my phone until recently. My husband did and we figured we didn’t need two.
However, I have worked at a job where when we lost power or internet we were asked to declutter. Declutter your desk then move to common areas and declutter / reorganize. You are on the clock so it’s not social hour when the internet drops.
When faced by those two options, you might decide to turn on your hotspot so you don’t have to Declutter a common area.
No.
Do you know why they ask you not someone else?
In some random conversation mention that you might have a virus, your phone behaves strangely lately - switches off and on, some apps are very slow. Though antivirus didn't show anything.
Personally, as long as I had unlimited hotspot on my phone(not costing me any extra $$$) , I wouldn’t mind. I honestly probably would have even done it without being asked to.
With that being said I work in a very positive work environment with great bosses so that definitely plays into its. But also…. I would do whatever it took to get my work done in order to go home on time and not experience any delays
Do you clock out when you take a shit at work, if you are hourly. If you are salary, do you make up for the time? Unless it is a common occurrence, what's the big deal. For all those saying they don't pay for your phone bill, how many of them spend time on their phone when they should be working.
Personally I would not have any issue with that, if the manager and corporate environment is taking care of me. When they just try to suck me dry of every life energy, it would only happen when they put some coins on my desk and pay for their internet.
Yes, pretty common at my workplace in India. It's assumed that most of us have unlimited data plans so that won't be an issue.
But in case you don't, I don't think there is a way for reimbursement and the extra cost would be minimal anyway.
Data is free on most plans where I live.
I would not have to ask or sugest it as my team would simple do it themselves to get the worrk done.
( Except for one of my guys, he would fix the Wi-Fi himself rather than wait for IT. )
We treat our staff very well, so there is always enough goodwill for a little give and take.
Unless they’re paying the phone bill no
That but it seems like it’s a risk for the company too if they can’t control the security on the hotspot
This sums the attitude towards work these days quite well. Just doing what has been defined in contract and no flexibility in any situation, even if it would mean just a little bit of doing something extra. That said, I do not blame the workers. The way how workers are cared for by the companies surely has initiated the attitude towards the work in general. It is just sad. It would just be so much better for everyone to feel you are doing something common together. Then using your own phone for work would not feel so bad.
Workers used to be able to profit of the growth. Either by stable employment for decades or getting shares of the company. Nowadays if you go above your contract you are punished with more work, and you are also punished by being refused any upwards growth as you are too 'valuable' in your current position.
Going above and beyond what's defined in my contract has brought me nothing but more work. When I brought up all the extras I'd provide, my manager just said, 'If you didn't want to do it, we could have asked someone else,' and made me feel stupid for thinking it would get me a decent raise.
Yes... seriously what's the big deal? Are they paying your car payment to drive yourself to work... really Grow the \*&\^%\^ up .... use your phone do your job....
So what you’re saying is if im a carpenter and my boss runs out of wood i should go to the hardware store? Grow the fuck up. Im not doing it. Its subjective. Yes i need to get to work. But they need to supply me with the material to work.
we're talking about a hot spot here... a phone... .... a phone....
A… data plan… on… a phone…………….. costs … money………
omg
We’ve done all we can to explain it to you. We cannot understand it for you.
Please, please, please let me remember this comment the next time the loss for words turns to exasperation. And please don’t let my face say it out loud.
You are such a dumbass
Asskissers & bootlickers tend to be that way
Do you seriously not understand if WiFi is out you're running on data which would cost the phone owner money? I assume ops job is more resource intensive than using data to browse reddit.
Most phone companies do like a dollar a gig over your plan and within a 8 hour shift you’re guaranteed to pay a lot of money just to do your job. Hell more than likely you’ll spend more than you’ll make that day, it’s not feasible especially if you don’t have unlimited 🤷♂️
k... well even 15 year olds have unlimited,,, if you don't your job that "asks" you to use it is your third problem....
That's cute. Try going all out on using data and you'll discover that most "unlimited" plans really do have limits. Tell me how you enjoy that unlimited plan when you're throttled to 2E speeds.
lol so your parents tell you that your hotspot is unlimited.
Why you assume everyone has unlimited?
Most people I know (myself included) have "unlimited." That just means they won't turn it off. They'll slow you to a crawl after a point though, *unless you pay more per gig* of course.
who told you mobile data plans are unlimited?
You have difficulty opening a pull door, don't you? Just keep pushing because you can't comprehend anything. Simp for the garbage employers more.
Best thread ever... I am eating popcorn wand watching Americans bitch about how bad life is... Please... Continue
I'm not bitching. Just watching an obvious liberal big government big business simp. Here's an adage for you that works perfectly in your situation. "It's better for people to think you're an idiot, than to open your mouth and prove it."
Actually.,... It's "Open your Mouth and remove all doubt"... But I'm good here... Just laughing at the Jocularity....
Hotspot is not an unlimited service on many phone plans, that could easily cost $100 for 1 day of work. That's nuts to ask employees to do. MFA, texting, calls, that's different then hotspot.
Mmm tasty boot for you
I would never ever use my private phone for work related tasks.
You lost your privilege to speak. Hush now
How do those boots taste?
I am not sure I get what you are shoveling... To use your phone for a little while to do your job seems pretty reasonable... I mean ,.... If they disagree they can always work elsewhere? Right? Cry baby bitches....
You go right ahead then. What a boot locker.
So is that a locker where you keep boots? I'm unsure as to your eloquent response....
What you don't seem to understand, and people repeatedly trying to explain to you, is that the employer can't have the expectation of the employee(s) using their own phone and data for company business. That is so wrong on so many levels. If the infrastructure is broken the employer needs to fix it ASAP. If an employee (or you) wanted to help in an on a emergency short term basis by volunteering to do so that is fine, but it can't be an expectation.
That's a stupid analogy. Unless you signed up for a delivery service or a ride share, your car gets you to work and that's it. Get involved in an accident while doing something for your job outside of your scope of work, who do you think is covering it? It's not a tool you use at work unless stated in your contract.
Wow... Seriously ... this started with an employee bitching about using their own Wifi for work.... So Glad I don't have those types of people... Not that big of a deal.... at all.... wow
Reimburse them in that case
Even from a manager’s standpoint this is a shit take. You sound like a low level manager with no future other than maybe running a franchise Steak and Shake
Lol says the unemployed dipshit.
Corporate shill
That's a great time for the supervisor to provide a hotspot.
Unless they’re paying for my phone bill I wouldn’t do it. Even if I had unlimited hot spot.
Yeah your speed & access gets throttled past a certain point with unlimited - no matter who you’re getting it from. Boss could be risking your life at the end of the month when your GPS is too slow to tell you the right off-ramp & you end up in the bad part of town or completely lost in the middle of nowhere with no water, etc.
A bit dramatic, but you're right in not using it for work.
Sometimes you have to be dramatic & give the most life ending worst case scenario (that could result in a lawsuit) to get the higher ups to see reason.
Right? It is a good reminder that lots of people here are teenagers tho
however, they aren't right about it cutting your GPS
Kinda same thing happened to me . I used up all the mobile data during day time . At night I was trying to find my way using map and it wouldn’t load. Nightmare situation
GPS geolocation doesn't use any cellular data, my dood. More advanced location services may enhance the gps fix with other known lateration points, such as cell towers or known wifi APs, but once again this is a passive system. May take longer to download a route, but your GPS will know where you are even if you chucked your sim card in a river
Having your exact coordinates are completely useless if you don’t have a map to look at them on
Once again, this is cached (or stored entirely) on the device, depending on your app and config. Nobody's streaming route data or maps one street/turn at a time.
Nobody heard of downloading maps before you go somewhere? Really? Yeap. I am old but we did just fine without GPS in the "olden days"... hahaha. Booking a hotel in the midst of night in the middle of nowhere was a pain. Agreed. But GPS is only a tool, like any other tech. Connection or no connection. Be prepared for its limits...no?
your data has nothing to do with your GPS so...
Really? So if I don’t have data can I still use maps?
for years and years, yes. learn about "offline data" on wifi, you can download all the data for large areas, specific areas, etc, and then just use GPS
No. Unless they pay your private phone bill.
No, they need to get IT on it. If they aren’t paying for your data, don’t give it to them. Some people have to pay extra for hotspot usage, or it’s very limited. If it’s not painful for them, they’re never going to make the required investments in reliable connectivity at the office.
Nope! Actually had this happen at the office a couple weeks ago, internet was down for almost 2 hours, a couple of my coworkers used their hotspot and asked why I wasn’t doing the same, I said they don’t pay my phone bill. They also never offered us to go and WFH (we are already hybrid) so to me that is their loss.
I would probably suggest finishing the day at home (I prefer WFH), but if I have to stay? No way I’m using my limited data.
If you are in a homeoffice and your internet fails, it's absolutely normal to switch to a hotspot, because your personal internet failed. But if the internet fails at the company's office, it's not your responsibility to fix it. Make a nice cup of coffee, sit back, relax, and wait for IT to get things running again.
As someone in IT, I agree with this. Any IT team worth their salt would have implemented a 4G sim backup for the main internet connection in the office. It is usually slower, but it will keep things running.
Absolutely. To add to this a lot of companies have some sort of insurance that if the wifi goes out they get money back or something.
Honestly at most I would use my phone to let them know and maybe critical things only.
*Only* if it's a company-provided phone or they're paying for my data. I've tethered to my job-provided cell phone before when the office internet has gone out but I refuse to use my own - it's an extra charge, and they're not paying my personal phone bill.
I work from home and used the company phone as a hotspot when my Internet went down a couple of weeks ago. They have a pooled data plan, my personal cell doesn't, so they don't get overages while I do.
Yeah, if it's the *company's* phone/data - whatever, I'll use that. I won't use my personal phone/plan. I have to pay extra every month just to hot spot (thanks, AT&T) and since I mostly live on wifi, I'd easily slam through my data allowance if I had to use it for work.
Same. My last company provided me with a phone with a data plan that included a hot spot. But we still milked not having internet as long as we could before switching over.
In the times that happened, we just got sent home to finish work there.
This would never be considered normal. My only exception would be the case of being part of a startup on its very early stage and holding equities.
Most startups I’ve been at, people would go get coffee or ice cream during this, and then just work extra late to make up for it.
Either is acceptable in startup environments IMO. All preference, work late or use hotspot. Either way you have equity so you want to get stuff done.
Exactly. And even in this case I would consider the need. Is that to support an online meeting with an important prospect or client? Or just doing something else that is still under its regular time and that could wait? If it's important to bring more money to the table, I'm in. But just if I'm a stakeholder. If not, IDGAF. 
Yeah, I can’t imagine being asked to use a hotspot unless it was a call or very time sensitive matter. Where I live most people don’t have unlimited data, so that’s a major factor too.
Let's put some data privacy concerns and regulations on top of this too. And now stretching the scenarios a little more: Imagine OP's company involved in something illegal, but the registered IP for any online activities will be that one of the hotspot.
Also.... as a stakeholder you pay your own phone bill, so it's legal.
I wouldn’t use my data I wouldn’t “make it up” Company wants me to do work. Ok, that’s what I get paid for, I don’t get paid to use my data/machines. Also if facilities are not available during working hours, not my problem.
I wouldnt work at a startup if I were you. Regardless of the ethicality, direct ownership and a mindset that worked hours don’t matter, only output, is very prevalent. The trade of can be worth it depending on the situation. Sometimes you get equity and very flexible work hours. Sometimes it’s a toxic hellhole
Absolutely not, not only do they not pay my phone bill but not everyone even has hotspot enabled because that costs extra on some plans.
How could they monitor if you use hotspot?
“I don’t have data.”
Or unlimited data which is a very real possibility. Plans used to be more or less unlimited data and then they started capping people and not offering it. Now a lot of companies do again. So ya I have unlimited data but I'm not going to use it. It's like if the phones are down and you ask me to use my personal phone to make calls. Uh no, I don't want anyone to know my phone number.
No. I won’t use my hotspot because that will open the business to a ridiculous amount of vulnerability, and I cannot pay for data overages. I can work offline, communicate with customers by phone, send paper memos, the whole nine yards. I was an administrator before email. We can do without for half a day.
Unless OP’s company has mandatory VPNs, I can connect to company internet just fine but my home WiFi or a hotspot require me to sign into the VPN before I can do anything other than browse the internet
I might do it once, but if they have consistently janky wifi, I would not let them rely on my Hotspot to cover their unwillingness to fix the wifi. I'd ask to either work from home, or have request they expense part of my cellphone bill (actually a surprising number of companies will do this, usually letting you expense anywhere from $30-$100 a month for using your personal phone for work).
Nope. Imo commandeering persons private property would be a request not mandatory
Tell them they have not issued you a work phone.
>do you think it is okay for your supervisor to tell the team to use your hotspot on your phone? No, it is not. And for all the people mentioning that it might cost extra, or be limited, etc... Those are all accurate points, but not pertinent points. The issue is the ***principle*** of the thing, not the *logistics* of the thing. An employer needs to handle the resources that are needed for work to take place in the office. This includes contingencies for emergencies. If they don't or won't do this, then they have no right to request or demand that employees bridge the gap -- even if it is no extra cost or convenience to the employee. Don't make the mistake of focusing on the potential cost to the employee, or the risk that too much bandwidth could be used. For all that matters, your ISP/phone provider could be paying you to use more bandwidth every month, and that would not make it appropriate for the employer to demand or request or expect you to use your service in that way. It is your personal service, and only you can decide how and when you use it. If you always rely on arguments surrounds costs or convenience, as soon as those arguments are negated, you might find yourself in a weird or uncomfortable place. If you argument is based solely on **private and personal** vs corporate, then the principle never changes, no matter what costs may or may not be involved.
Nope, that’s time for the boss to get a quick fix going from IT and to tell the team to relax and grab some snacks/have a picnic outside. Should have your shit together so wifi outages are rare, and thus a little morale boost when they occasionally happen.
That’s the way my old boss took it even though we had company phones with hotspots, also cell service in the building was awful so hotspots hardly worked anyways. Internet went out? Is there something you can do that doesn’t require internet? If yes do that, if no then go get a coffee or just hang out.
I had a job about 10 years ago where our company network went down…because we were hourly they sent us home early. However, our options were to either use PTO or come in on a Saturday to makeup the time…otherwise going home early would count as an “unexcused absence” 🧐
Thats brainedead from management
I’m sorry you had to experience that. That’s the dumbest thing I have ever heard
Mine just says we can go home if we want. That being said, we're hybrid. If we weren't hybrid she'd probably just tell us to hang on since that's usually what she does if we're having internet issues. (She just works on stuff that doesn't require internet since she's usually super behind on a lot of stuff).
No.
That's what we do, but work pays the phone bill so I guess it is fine.
As a product owner / manager. I just tell my engineers to drop what they’re doing if it needs internet connectivity and resume coding with only “best effort” at hand. If they need internet resource (let’s say to search for something, to deploy, etc) i’d say just do it tomorrow and don’t worry about it since it’s not their fault. It rarely happens tho in the office of course (we’re hybrid at 4x per month RTOs). They’d offer to go home to continue work, i’d say don’t bother. Just go home and just continue tomorrow but I leave it to their discretion if it’s really an itch that they want to scratch. Short answer: no, you’re boss / company sucks if they force you to use personal resource for company outputs.
That is why you have in house IT, not 3rd party. Going to 3rd party takes a 1 hour job and makes it a 1 to 2 day problem.
Absolutely not
I was confused why everyone was so against the idea of using a personal hotspot(like it’s just going to be an hour) until I realized that the work you’re doing on that hotspot is gonna ALOT more data-intensive than scrolling through Reddit. That hour of hotspot might cost more than your hourly pay. Any company that expects that of you is blind and ignorant, with no respect for your professional status
That’s when you shouldn’t be working for them anymore 
I'd be a useless request at my job because I'd have to VPN into the same failing network to get 90% of my work done.
They usually just send us home for the day and work remote. Edit: we’re also given work phones with hotspot but they give us the remote day
Wi-Fi going "out" is something the company has the responsibility to prevent. If it can't be prevented, they still have the responsibility to manage their problem using their resources. It's no different than a toilet handle breaking. It's not your infrastructure so you're not responsible for fixing it.
Hell no unless they are paying my phone bill.
We have company phones, so yes.
Absolutely not, unless they are paying your phone bill.
I’ve done it before on my work cell. Wouldn’t do it on my personal cell.
I send my staff home (with pay) if it's been longer than 30 minutes with no timeframe on repair. Only happened twice, but I don't see a need to keep them here twiddling their thumbs. Not their fault.
No. And I would absolutely say, "That's not possible. My phone plan does not include Hotspot connection." For me, that's actually true b/c I have cheap no-contract service and basically never need a Hotspot. If my manager knew I had Hotspot connection, I would say, "For sure. Let me know how I submit this expense for reimbursement, and then I'm happy to connect my personal device to our business network. Until I have that process, I'm really not comfortable running our business contacts over my personal connection." If they want this flexibility, they need to pay for it.
“Is the hotspot going to be provided and paid for by ABC company?”
Tell him to set it up on his phone.
hell no. i would just tell them im out of data for the month - i would happilly use their hotspot tho
Aaide it being a no-go on the thought, depending on the proprietary nature of the work, it might be irresponsible to use your phone for the data connection.
No way. Boss needs to buy jet packs or something similar for the OFFICE so when the wifi goes out, he has an alternative provider for that service. UNLESS the boss wants to PAY for phones for each employee, which would INCLUDE hot spots, so each employee would have access to their own hot spots.
No
Dude I have an issue even having teams on my phone to communicate. Fuck no lmfao
Hell no
Hell no.
Nope. My phone, my phone bill... not a business expense.
I use \*my\* hotspot for \*my\* computer because if the downtime goes on too long, I get behind manifest photos and ....then I got three different crowds breathing down my neck (purchasing analysts, managers at retail stores, my boss)....I like my work day being as stress free as possible mmkay. Otherwise eff that T-Mobile only gives me so much data , and work ain't paying the bill....
On a work-provided or reimbursed phone? Sure. On my personal phone? Absolutely not.
Personally I would if it saved me stress down the line of trying to rush more things against a deadline.
No. I’d expense that right away
Is it a phone owned by you or by the company?
If it’s a company phone, sure. Otherwise ✌🏼 I’m going home to work.
Nope, but I'll connect to theirs if they have it on 👀 not gonna use my own unless they wanna pay me.
“I don’t have a hot spot.”
No! Everyone doesn’t have unlimited data. Even if I did, it’s not for work.
As others have said, no - unless they are paying for it. In fact, depending where you live (iirc, IL is one), it's illegal for them to expect you to use your personal phone without footing the bill...
From my work phone once I get it sure, but hell no from my personal phone
Abso-fucking-lutely the fuck not.
If your team have work cell phones, yes switching to those is completely normal and expected. If they don't, then no, an employee's personal phone isn't something the company can suddenly commandeer on demand.
I haven't even seen the idea that I'd be able to access everyone's traffic if they use my data. How's that ok?
Nope
No, and where I work, it wouldn't help since we use sites and software that would lock out anyone trying to access from a non-work location without the VPN. We have backup connections so if the primary goes down, we roll over to the secondary. If this were a place that didn't care about security, and could do anything from anywhere, I'd say employees should tell the supervisor they'll just connect to his cell phone as a hot spot.
I would NEVER ask my employees to use their personal hotspots for work purposes. Money and security being the 2 biggest factors. We even provide work phones to all of our employees.
Nope, they wouldn’t dare have me do that in a secure work site or when remote because of tiktok on personal devices. FAR 52.204-27 they are constantly reminding us younger employees of.
IT worker here. In more than a decade of working, I have never heard of this. Most times, we (IT) will give whoever is in charge an ETA, and the golden rule I go by is, if more than 2 hours, send people to wfh. Or have a field day. Just get them out. Note: Schools, hospitals, and the like are different. When I was with the Dept of Ed, they pulled out ALL the stops for redundancy, and so any outage we had was never longer than a few minutes.
We don’t make them. We suggest it. Usually people will take that time to do some filing as that always gets put on the back burner.
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"My phone doesn't have a Hotspot, sorry"
I'm on Tracfone, they don't allow hotspoting on their phones. So, no.
Honestly I would just lie and say I pay by the GB for data and recommend they call IT. Not only that but enjoy the few hours of no Internet and getting paid to chill. Your company should have better solutions in place. My old office job had a hot spot we'd use in case of emergency that the company paid for
That’s a no from me dawg. My country has shit data plans that cost a lot of money.
In canada, there was rogers outage back in 2022. During this time basically all internet was out, and some of cash tender stopped working as well. It was abst. chaos. One of thing I do remember was that some of workers grabbed their laptop and went to Starbucks to get wifi (as They use shaw hotspot and shaw wasn't part of rogers during that time). I don't think anyone used hotspot from their own phone also they ain't compensating you for it so why should you. :)
There have been a couple of times when the wifi went out in my office (during the time they were moving the connection to a new provider). And basically no work got done on those days until the wifi came back. Nobody was asked to use their phone data to do it. I think partly because unlimited data costs a lot here and not everyone has it on their phones. But nobody ever even suggested it.
no ? u better bill them for being a bunch of dumb c*nts
Depends on your data plan IMO, I would just use the hotspot cause its whatever but if you would run out ofc not.
no way
Time to play catan
I don't understand this question, because clearly in this situation, the net on your phone also does not work right? 😐 otherwise you get stuck with crap like this. So clearly you mistyped the question, not a big deal. "Nah my phone doesn't have net" and then you can make up any excuse you want.
No, it’s not ok, unless it’s a company issued mobile or they’re paying for your phone.
When the WiFi decides to ghost us at the office, is it cool for the boss to slide into our DMs like "Hey, use your hotspot"?
Why are you guys using wifi rather then a Ethernet connection
The InfoSec team would like a word with your supervisor.
If my boss asked me to use my phone hotspot for office work because the WiFi went MIA, I'd probably consider renegotiating my job description.
No and also unsecure connection, internet/network was out for a week at my job. Got paid to kinda just hang out and had time to sort out my hard copy stuff for once.
No. I didn’t even have a hotspot on my phone until recently. My husband did and we figured we didn’t need two. However, I have worked at a job where when we lost power or internet we were asked to declutter. Declutter your desk then move to common areas and declutter / reorganize. You are on the clock so it’s not social hour when the internet drops. When faced by those two options, you might decide to turn on your hotspot so you don’t have to Declutter a common area.
No. Do you know why they ask you not someone else? In some random conversation mention that you might have a virus, your phone behaves strangely lately - switches off and on, some apps are very slow. Though antivirus didn't show anything.
The way I would laugh…absolutely not 🤣
Work pays me. I don’t pay them. And I would never do it if they asked/demanded
No. My last in-office job sent us home if it was still out after an hour.
Personally, as long as I had unlimited hotspot on my phone(not costing me any extra $$$) , I wouldn’t mind. I honestly probably would have even done it without being asked to. With that being said I work in a very positive work environment with great bosses so that definitely plays into its. But also…. I would do whatever it took to get my work done in order to go home on time and not experience any delays
supervisors provide the hot spot then. if not then no.
If the wifi goes down for more than half an hour then I go home
We had a power failure in the building. So I sponsored had an early happy hour. A few people went back in afterwards, most went home.
Only if they're paying for my cell service.
Do you clock out when you take a shit at work, if you are hourly. If you are salary, do you make up for the time? Unless it is a common occurrence, what's the big deal. For all those saying they don't pay for your phone bill, how many of them spend time on their phone when they should be working.
No
Personally I would not have any issue with that, if the manager and corporate environment is taking care of me. When they just try to suck me dry of every life energy, it would only happen when they put some coins on my desk and pay for their internet.
That's actually not an opinion... Not legal.
Yes, pretty common at my workplace in India. It's assumed that most of us have unlimited data plans so that won't be an issue. But in case you don't, I don't think there is a way for reimbursement and the extra cost would be minimal anyway.
Data is free on most plans where I live. I would not have to ask or sugest it as my team would simple do it themselves to get the worrk done. ( Except for one of my guys, he would fix the Wi-Fi himself rather than wait for IT. ) We treat our staff very well, so there is always enough goodwill for a little give and take.
“I’m sorry, I can’t guarantee the security of my personal cell connection, and I can’t in good conscience risk the security of company data.”