Illinois company forces employees to use their own phones to authenticate into company systems, leaving them wondering who should be paying their phone bill: ‘They say it’s for security, but they won’t provide work phones’ – FAIL Blog

It’s not always this cut and dry, though. Where this blurry line is is uncertain. And modern tech has made this line even blurrier. Things like software security authentication apps and security apps that turn your phone into keyless entry for building smart locks. These are usually workplace functions that your company relies on, and that might even be used to track your activity, but that live on your devices. And when you’re using these every day and not just “occasionally,” where does that get taken too far? 

Still, there are other instances where occasional use might be doing this. Like maybe answering a phone call from your boss during an important week of a project. While you may be technically correct in your refusal to do this, if your relationship with your employer is good and your employer is flexible with the things they let you do, then a little flexibility going back the other direction just makes a whole lot of sense. Flexibility begets flexibility. 

But if your employer is really rigid about your working hours and tries to scrape you for every second of your paid time. Making demands and just being generally authoritative and inflexible. Well, do you really owe them flexibility over things like the personal use of your cell phone?

“Theyre basically requiring us to own specific personal property to do our jobs…”

This employee was left wondering whether or not they should be making an issue about their company authentication app that is used to log into company systems. The company says it is for security purposes, but they aren’t providing work phones for the app to live on. This isn’t optional either, when they enquired with HR about it, HR let them know that it was a requirement. 

Now they’re wondering if it’s even legal for the company to mandate the use of their personal devices. They shared their question with this online community, looking for advice from other workers who had dealt with the same thing. See their story below, along with some of the responses from the community.