Many readers will know that I have recently retired from full-time work as a local government manager, after almost 24 years in the seat (all of them in one town). I’ve been musing a lot about who I am since I am no longer the Town Manager. I am sure to have a lot of feelings about this transition, but I have decided that the time for self-reflection is most certainly not now. The absence of my second phone, however, is a constant reminder of my altered circumstances. It’s like a phantom appendage that itches to be checked.
Local government managers have a complicated relationship with their phone(s), and we have strong opinions about phone strategies. My first phone was work-issued – I think it was a Nokia – and it had an antenna (seriously). Most people did not have personal phones in the late 1990’s, so my work phone was also my personal phone. The next phone evolution was to my beloved Blackberry. Remember those? It was sort of rounded at the bottom and had a radio/walkie-talkie feature that we only ever used for fun. But that keyboard – real keys!
In the late 2000’s we got iPhones, which were an improvement in every sense of the word – although initially we mostly used the “calling other people” feature. How quaint. The work-issued iPhone was still my personal phone until the late teens. I came back from a conference where I heard about a colleague whose phone was subpoenaed, and promptly bought a second phone. Keeping work and personal data separate became a priority for me.
As far as I can tell, there are two kinds of work cell phone users – those who cannot wait for the new technological tools that will make it easy for them to use one phone for dual purposes (you know who you are) and people like me, who would have to have the second phone pried from our clutching hands.
How about you? Will you fight to the death to keep two phones or drop one as soon as you can?
Let’s practice, one or two phones in our hand, contemplating how to separate our selves from our titles.
Very Kate 
Totally understand the two phone necessity, but I’ll be the first person to admit that the one phone lifestyle is the way to go! Simply put, I only answer to who I want to (no pun intended)!
Cheers
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My current job is the first one in which I have two phones, one supplied by the Town, the other my long-time personal phone (we are talking about an iPhone 8, adequate for my needs). The work phone gets very little use, perhaps six to twelve text messages per week, maybe one legitimate phone call per week. It’s there to separate my work life from the rest of my life and serves its purpose. When the time comes, I’ll hand it over without a tear in my eye if for no other reason that my front left hand pocket won’t be as jammed.
I see my colleagues on them constantly. I suspect that it is a workplace culture thing – perhaps I’m just too old school and continue to use email for 99% of my communications. But I think I’m happier that way, not constantly checking for incoming messages and not thinking that, because I have the ability to send them, I should use it to do that.
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