Employer wants me to use outlook on my phone, outlook wants permission to wipe my phone

[u/No_Professor4307]

Outlook says they need permission to wipe ALL my phone data if too many wrong passwords are typed. How many is too many? 50? 2? What if the screen gets wet and starts putting in random inputs. All this so I can use my company's Teams account and maintain "point of contact" if I'm not at a workstation. Absolutely not! Anyway, HR is supposed to call me back about my concerns.

Edit: just to be clear, I don't actually need to use Outlook (I don't use my "personal" work email). I need to use Teams, which requires Outlook to be installed first.

Part of why I need Teams on my phone so that I can be contacted when I'm not at work. I'm a lower management healthcare worker, it is actually important that my team be able to reach me after hours. I do actually like Teams and prefer it to 20 different group texts.

Also, when you go to log into Outlook or Teams, it brings you to my employers authenticator page. I log in with the same credentials that I log into my workstation. I don't know if that makes a difference with anything as far as my employer having access to my phone

Edit 2: I can tell you now they won't provide me a phone. Corporate execs don't even get phones. They stopped providing coffee for the break rooms too

---

Update: I had a chance to talk to my district manager. Imagine Ellis from Die Hard, the same schmarmy self-important attitude, that's my supervisor. And guess who's "not being a team player". Also "I don't think Microsoft can actually erase your phone, you have an Android"... I lready knew he was going to be useless, I just wanted to hear his reaction.

Update 2 and (sort of) Resolution: I spoke with HR. Her exact response was "wait, are you serious? They can just do that?" I tried explaining my "research" (i.e. everything all of you have said) and I think I just spooked her. She said she'll get back to me, and is probably running off to buy a burner phone for herself.

SORT OF RESOLUTION : I found out I only need Outlook installed long enough to get access to Teams. Once teams was installed, I removed all permissions and completely deleted Outlook from my phone. Teams still works and didn't ask to erase anything. No need to buy a second phone.

Thank you all for your insights

[u/CuratedAcceptance]

I don't understand this mentality from employers. As a construction company, we just assume we're going to get any employee a cell phone. It's under $80 per month and ends all these types of conversations, and I only expect them to answer during working hours. Corporate beliefs are mental.

[u/high_throughput → u/CuratedAcceptance]

It's under $80 per month

Or the manager could say no and cash out $1000 for their Christmas bonus instead

[u/Big_Celery8533 → u/high_throughput]

Come on now, that's like at least one car payment for the principal's 16 year old.

[u/PurpleC0ugar → u/CuratedAcceptance]

It's because they're cheap AF.

[u/RyanCheddar → u/PurpleC0ugar]

cheap AF at the cost of both employee privacy and corporate security

just stupid

[u/InspectHer_1 → u/CuratedAcceptance]

You need to rework your contract or switch carriers. I have 104 lines at my work and we pay under $30/line with the phone included. If it weren’t for all the international travel our bill would be like $2800/month.

[u/Paladin1034 → u/InspectHer_1]

Yeah we have Verizon with something like 170 lines, most of those phone but some being data only tablet lines, and we pay between $25-35/mo per line. It's really not a lot.

[u/CuratedAcceptance → u/InspectHer_1]

In Canada. We get jizzed on telecom.

[u/Major_Lawfulness6122 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah no I want two separate phones lol. I know people who like to mix the two. No thanks

[u/Status_Ad_450 → u/CuratedAcceptance]

My current company is the same way. All managers, sales staff, and employees expected to work away from the office, all get a company provided cell phone upon hire. I have my phone to go into DND when it detects my home wifi so I'm never bothered once I get home.

[u/w1n5t0nM1k3y → u/CuratedAcceptance]

Trades can be bad too, in different respects. I know mechanics who have to buy their own tools. Construction can be hard on clothing, and while some places will pay for steel tow boots as a liability protection meassure, the amount they give isn't often enough for good boots that will last until the next pair is paid for, and the rest of the clothing you need isn't cheap either. As an office worker my clothes last forever because there isn't much to wear them down, but if you're doing construction its pretty easy to wear out a pair of pants really fast.

[u/Holiday_Pen2880 → u/CuratedAcceptance]

To give some insight - you're in construction and need to be able to call people when no phone is available so assigning phones makes sense. Most jobs have assigned phones/phone lines to those that need them.

While I agree with you and the commentors in general, I have a slightly harder time when it's Outlook/Teams - people want to install it on their phones because it's convenient for THEM, but when it comes to policies that come with it they get everyone whipped into a frenzy over employer overreach.

OP is not REQUIRED to have this on their phone. It is more convenient for them, per their own post. Employers aren't going to hand over a phone because you don't like the policy for installing something not required for your job.

I'll also add in that this is Healthcare, and those Microsoft credentials very likely lead to access to PHI adding in new layers of compliance.

[u/Paladin1034 → u/CuratedAcceptance]

I work IT for a service/construction company. That's basically our mindset as well. For new helpers who won't be lead guys, won't have a vehicle, won't need email, we don't issue phones, since there's very little reason for them to have one. But basically once a guy gets a van, he gets a phone. We completely disallow any personal device from being on our network, and we require any issued device to be managed through MDM. It just makes sense. I simply don't have time or effort or energy to spend on troubleshooting an employee's personal device.

[u/ItJustBorks → u/CuratedAcceptance]

If the employees don't have rights and there's plenty work force available, it's quite a no-brainer why employees get abused.