diff --git a/crates/db/migrations/20260402030000_strict_employee_separation.up.sql b/crates/db/migrations/20260402030000_strict_employee_separation.up.sql
index 44da563..82db9d4 100644
--- a/crates/db/migrations/20260402030000_strict_employee_separation.up.sql
+++ b/crates/db/migrations/20260402030000_strict_employee_separation.up.sql
@@ -1,10 +1,16 @@
 -- UP: 20260402030000_strict_employee_separation.up.sql
-
--- Drop old employees table (was linked to users — replacing with standalone auth)
-DROP TABLE IF EXISTS employees CASCADE;
+--
+-- Originally: "Drop old employees table (was linked to users - replacing with
+-- standalone auth)" - a one-time schema transformation. The db-migrate tool
+-- (crates/db-migrate) has no applied-migrations tracking table; it replays
+-- every .sql file on every run, which turned this one-time DROP TABLE ...
+-- CASCADE into a destructive operation that wiped the live employees table
+-- (and every employee account, including admin accounts) on every migration
+-- run. The standalone-schema transition already happened in production long
+-- ago, so this is now safely a plain idempotent create.
 
 -- 1. EMPLOYEES (Standalone Table - Not Linked to 'users')
-CREATE TABLE employees (
+CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS employees (
     id UUID PRIMARY KEY DEFAULT gen_random_uuid(),
     first_name VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL,
     last_name VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL,
diff --git a/crates/db/migrations/20260719000926_employees_phone_column.down.sql b/crates/db/migrations/20260719000926_employees_phone_column.down.sql
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..eb01aee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/crates/db/migrations/20260719000926_employees_phone_column.down.sql
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+ALTER TABLE employees DROP COLUMN IF EXISTS phone;
diff --git a/crates/db/migrations/20260719000926_employees_phone_column.up.sql b/crates/db/migrations/20260719000926_employees_phone_column.up.sql
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dce1d31
--- /dev/null
+++ b/crates/db/migrations/20260719000926_employees_phone_column.up.sql
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+-- The employees table has always had a `phone` column in production (queried
+-- by EmployeeRepository::get_by_email/get_by_id/list) but no migration ever
+-- created it - it was added out-of-band at some point outside the tracked
+-- migration files, and was lost when 20260402030000_strict_employee_separation
+-- dropped and recreated the table. Restore it as a tracked column going forward.
+
+ALTER TABLE employees ADD COLUMN IF NOT EXISTS phone VARCHAR(20);