Ha! This is one of many things that motivated me to FIRE. I was self-employed in my industry, so had my own cell phone, which was a business expense. Due to wonky brain, I must have phone number with a good pattern, so it sticks to said brain. (Even years later, I don't remember the # first, I remember the pattern, then the number magically materializes. Weird, but that's my workaround.)
Eventually, I switched to a mega-corp in the same industry with many of the same customers. There was a phone allowance, so seamless transition, more money in my pocket. All good for about four years. Some time around 2009 or 2010, mega-corp announces they're taking away the phone allowance and giving us...Blackberries! Ignoring the virtually obsolete technology aspect, the number I was assigned was gobbledygook, with absolutely no pattern. No, they couldn't give me a better one. But I could give them access to my existing number, with no assurance that I'd ever get it back. Uh...no.
Further, my number was my parent's emergency contact with every single one of their medical providers. As I recall, all of this was going down while my parents were hospitalized after a serious traffic accident, so, NO, you cannot fucking have my existing phone number and NO, I will not make my customers or my weird brain learn a new phone number.
My solution was to keep my phone and my number, and use it as I always had, but back to my own frugal dime. I took the BlackBerry and used it to read company emails only. It stayed in the (company) car all day. Even my boss knew not to call me on that phone. It came in sorta handy. I could talk on one hand with my phone and scroll through emails with the other hand while driving. Just kidding about the driving part, officer.
When I finally pulled the RE trigger, I changed my VM message, and fairly quickly, the business calls stopped, but I still have easy contact with the people I actually care about post-FIRE.
Since then, mega-Corp has gotten much worse. Their sales force is a revolving door. The reason they keep the phone numbers is so they can drop the Fucking New Guy into the Fucking Last Guy's territory with minimal effort. So glad I didn't trust them, kept my number and paid the extra money not to use their phone.
Even if it was a great company, I wouldn't do it. It's too easy to have a change of regime. New boss comes in and wants you out so he can make a place for one of his cronies from his last firm? Don't give him the ammo of access to your phone records. Some productivity wonk starts analyzing how much time you spend doing X, Y, or Z? Don't make yourself an easy target. If they don't have easy access to your stuff, they'll find someone else to micro-manage.
Writing posts like this just reminds me that every little sacrifice on the road to FIRE has paid off magnificently. So amazingly worth the effort.
Not surprisingly, DH, who loves his job, carries a personal phone in his pocket and has a work phone in his truck. His job is such that he's not expected to answer every call on the first ring. He uses his personal line even to talk with his work buddies during the work day. And I can send him any message I want, with no fear of invasion of privacy by his employer.
