your company made it easy... If you left on bad terms, or with an immature company/boss/process, you might need days to go through the process... Or the company might argue and say your number is on to many cards/documents/etc and want to fight you to keep it... Even if it's clear on paper the number is yours.

I get where Rachel is coming from here. I think a decade ago when I had a separate phone for work was my least stressful time working... Unfortunately (in this case) I work for a University which I also attended school as a benefit, so the work/personal line got blurred for 6-7 years. Even though I finished my masters degree, it's become familiar to have "work" on my personal device now, when I used to be like Rachel -- separate work phone for the first 7-8 years I was working.

I'm happy she wrote this article, it's encouraging me to consider a low cost provider like Google Fi with an old phone and going back to the work/personal separation.