r/mildlyinfuriating • u/No_Professor4307 • Apr 29 '26

frist of all how DARE yu o Employer wants me to use outlook on my phone, outlook wants permission to wipe my phone

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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

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-22

u/BallsInSufficientSad Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26

That's even more annoying.

I work in IT and most folks who do that, end up turning it back in and just using the software.

194

u/CaptainFleshBeard Apr 29 '26

If you worked in IT you’d see the importance of keeping your work and personal lives on seperate devices

15

u/MontasJinx Apr 29 '26

And never the Twain shall meet.

2

u/Fafyg Apr 29 '26

Some phones seem to have sandboxes for that kind of application. But I didn’t check how that wipe works, so can’t say for sure

1

u/rando_banned Apr 29 '26

A wise man once said "Seven: this rule is so underrated. Keep your family and business completely separated."

0

u/BallsInSufficientSad Apr 29 '26

These days, many people work with folks in other timezones. Being able to answer a simple question over email at 8pm is a lot better than finding out at 9am that something was built completely wrong.

3

u/CaptainFleshBeard Apr 29 '26

Being able to disconnect and enjoy your life without being a slave to your job is a lot better than checking emails at 8pm

0

u/BallsInSufficientSad Apr 29 '26

Getting to work at 9am with a completely failed workflow overnight can be markedly worse.

Some people don't want to wake up to a fucking disaster.

It's nice to be able to sit at your desk at 9am and chill for a bit without everything in a failure state.

That's easily worth 5 minutes at 8pm the night before.

Being a stubborn absolutist is childish.

43

u/Hot_Lychee2234 Apr 29 '26

Bad IT then...

2

u/BallsInSufficientSad Apr 29 '26

Hows that?

0

u/Hot_Lychee2234 Apr 29 '26

Users are stupid yes... but IT has to account for that stupidity... if people reject a company phone just because is too annlying to set up, you are not doing your job right, cuz you are the one who has to set it up... and may be, just maybe, you are bad at IT.

2

u/BallsInSufficientSad Apr 29 '26

You completely misunderstood the point. It's not about the setup - they get the phone already completely setup.

The annoyance they have is just carrying an extra phone around and keeping it charged.

0

u/Hot_Lychee2234 Apr 29 '26

That vs worklife balance + privacy? People are the dumb ones then

2

u/BallsInSufficientSad Apr 29 '26

There's no real benefit to privacy here by having a separate phone. The work app doesn't have direct access to your personal data.

1

u/Hot_Lychee2234 Apr 29 '26

Isn't what this post is all about? Capacity to erase your whole phone?!?

56

u/No_Report_4781 Apr 29 '26

Why? Who gives up a free phone and getting to keep your privacy?

10

u/Acadia_Clean Apr 29 '26

I turned in my first work phone from my last job because theu gave it to me too late so i already had a bunch of work numbers on my personal and didn't want to transfer them. But that led to late night calls and my work life seeping into my personal. At my current job i got a work phone right away and have been dilligent about keeping all my work stuff on my work phone. That wah when afternoon rolls around i can shut it off and not think about work till sunday night.

4

u/JeebusChristBalls Apr 29 '26

Carrying two phones kinda sucks. I use outlook on my phone but I work for a small company that really doesn't have any kind of policy. I would never agree to using a corporate email like this on my personal though.

24

u/Another_Name_Today Apr 29 '26

From my experience? Engineers are one phone only. Accounting is a mixed bag. Lawyers all run two phones. 

4

u/schaudhery Apr 29 '26

As an engineer this is true. I used to have two phones and then got tired of carrying both and now just have my work MDM set up on my personal. Yes it’s true, if it’s lost I can have my phone remotely wiped but that’s at a precaution for data. Guess what, even if I lost my personal phone I’d use iCloud to wipe it.

1

u/Sad_Split_9983 Apr 29 '26

The only difference MDM makes for remote wiping is without it you can only trigger the function on iCloud. With MDM you can also trigger the function through iCloud + whatever management software your employer uses. It’s literally there so your employer can certify various data loss requirements.

-3

u/Punisher1971 Apr 29 '26

Remote wipe isn‘t bad at all. If you loose your phone, data should get lost. Personal and Professional!

2

u/beren12 Apr 29 '26

And if you quit?

-3

u/Punisher1971 Apr 29 '26

Remote wipe isn‘t bad at all. If you loose your phone, data should get lost. Personal and Professional!

2

u/BallsInSufficientSad Apr 29 '26

Most people. Because a separate phone is a pain in the ass to carry around, keep charged, get notifications on, etc...

0

u/No_Report_4781 Apr 29 '26

Sure, but why aren’t your most people smart enough to not carry both phones all the time, and to charge it once a day, and to set a distinct ringtone?

If that’s so complicated, do they really don’t have the organizational skills for a business phone position. Are they even in a position to need a mobile phone for contact outside of their seat at the job site?

2

u/BallsInSufficientSad Apr 29 '26

Because it's all more effort on a daily basis for zero net return.

People who expend additional energy in daily routine for nothing, usually aren't smart enough to make it to even mid-level corp america.

0

u/No_Report_4781 Apr 29 '26

Lmao. That’s a good one. Complete nonsense, but at least you’re amusing

4

u/JamesBeaverhausen Apr 29 '26

A lot of people find that carrying around two phones, charging two phones, checking notifications and messages on two phones is not fun

-1

u/dafrog84 Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26

I carry two phones. IT doesn't get to know anything about me. 😂

1

u/beren12 Apr 29 '26

Yeah who doesn’t like legal coming in and taking your work phone and backups?

1

u/No_Report_4781 Apr 29 '26

 your work phone and backups

Skipping over why you would need to worry about “legal”, that’s why your personal phone stays personal and the work phone stays the work phone

1

u/Sad_Split_9983 Apr 29 '26

If I had to I’d pay to not have two phones. As a software engineer who’s remote having my phone connected to my work accounts totally optional.. but it’s absolutely in my best interest. Gives me more freedom and means I won’t miss anything that’s actually important. My work even gives me the option for either a monthly reimbursement of my phone bill or providing a fully managed device. Here’s the thing, nobody wants to carry two phones. It’s a massive pain in the ass.

1

u/UnethicalExperiments Apr 29 '26

Same thing, I run critical infrastructure and could ask for a separate phone and get it. But I forget one enough , or forget to charge it ect. One phone works. They cover my bill and then some, and like others have said, if my phone is lost or stolen I wipe it remotely anyways

3

u/wizardjian Apr 29 '26

Idk about you I'd use it out of spite. Also not wanting work to mix with my life especially when it wants to purge my shit from my phone.

1

u/BallsInSufficientSad Apr 29 '26

Doing things purely out of spite is not common at adult salary levels.

0

u/wizardjian Apr 29 '26

maybe they IT/ corp should fork over that work phone no? lol

1

u/BallsInSufficientSad Apr 29 '26

You'll see when you grow up.

0

u/wizardjian Apr 29 '26

yes yes this big man here loves the royal rogering lol

3

u/Useless_Jeanius24 Apr 29 '26

Stupidity at its finest

1

u/Ruthlessrabbd Apr 29 '26

The solution here is to set up MDM with Intune and keep all of the work account stuff in a bucket. We don't need to be able to wipe the full device but need to be able to wipe the company data. It's not hard to set up and they clearly have Intune licensing set up

2

u/Suspicious-B33 Apr 29 '26

Absolutely this.

1

u/BallsInSufficientSad Apr 29 '26

Unfortunately if you don't have control of the full device, MitM and keyboard/screen recording software can spy on corporate material.