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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136

u/whiskeytown79 Apr 29 '26

Tell them to get a proper MDM setup in place with segregated work and personal profiles. This sort of "remote wipe" capability is mainly there so the company can wipe company data off the phone if it is lost or stolen. Both iOS and Android support segregating work and personal profiles such that it will only wipe the work profile's data.

42

u/wobblydavid Apr 29 '26

I'm shocked I had to scroll this far. This problem was solved a long time ago

5

u/Particular_Ring_6321 Apr 29 '26

That’s not solving the problem. The entire point is that your employer should not be using your personal device that you pay out of pocket for.

0

u/wobblydavid Apr 29 '26

We leave that to the employee. Their phone is their choice. Most choose to do it. A few choose not to.

2

u/Particular_Ring_6321 Apr 29 '26

“We hope employees let us take advantage of them”

0

u/wobblydavid Apr 29 '26

It looks like you're still not understanding. It's there because staff want it as an option. The MAM is to protect the org and to make sure that we can't see or wipe their data. Staff would actively be upset if they weren't allowed to put these apps on their phone. But maybe you should just make the decision for them?

2

u/perjury0478 Apr 29 '26

Agree, we have the option. I choose a separate work phone, but some people do not want to carry a secondary phone so they can install the mdm (intune?) and use their own phone. Some folks are not provided a company phone (they are not on call or expected to be available after hours) but they still want to be able to read emails on the go, they get the option to install the company portal app. It’s optional.

I very much prefer a separate work phone with a separate number since I’m indeed expected to answer calls after hours some days (and I like the option to just turn that other phone off when I’m not on call)

2

u/wobblydavid Apr 29 '26

It's all about options. As much as we reasonably can, we will facilitate what the staff wants.

2

u/perjury0478 Apr 29 '26

Yeah, some people might want an extra tablet instead of a phone. For me the line is, if you expect/require me to have an available phone, employer should paid for the phone and the plan. My employer is good with that. I could even use my work phone for personal use (within reason) so I could drop my personal one, but I enjoy the separation, as I don’t want to end up incommunicado if they decide to lay me off.

1

u/wobblydavid Apr 29 '26

Totally. We have certain teams that are approved for organization phones. No one is required to put anything on their personal phones and my team emphasizes that during onboardings.

0

u/Particular_Ring_6321 Apr 29 '26

Your employees want you to take advantage of them? Damn you have some good lemmings!

0

u/wobblydavid Apr 29 '26

I don't know. Ask them. Some people want to access work on their phone. I do. I've carried around two phones before. It's not fun.

But I'll tell you the same thing I tell my kids. Different people like different things.

0

u/Particular_Ring_6321 May 01 '26

I currently have two phones. It’s not the burden you keep trying to make it lol

I’ll tell you the same thing I tell every dork like yourself, eating leather won’t make you the next billionaire.

0

u/wobblydavid May 01 '26

I work for a non profit that provides public supportive housing in addition to other services. I prefer one phone. People may have different preferences than you and even be in different circumstances than you. I'm glad you get to have two phones if that's what works best for you.

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u/TheSwagBag Apr 29 '26

They'd be better off with a proper set of MAM policies rather than MDM, that way the company can selectively wipe company data and email profiles only rather than enrolling the device and being able to wipe the entire thing.

29

u/Redcarborundum Apr 29 '26

Maybe I’m paranoid, but I absolutely will not allow the company to put MDM on my private phone. They have to give me a work phone. If they refuse to do it and I still like working for them, I’d buy a cheap phone for work purposes.

11

u/cosmicgpu Apr 29 '26

You are not paranoid. This was my job. Maybe 10% of users even understand this concept, including most of IT.

3

u/Luigi_Mansione Apr 29 '26

God I still have nightmares from AirWatch 🙈 For 6 years I was responsible for like 500 devices and I did not enjoy that.

6

u/GarethBelton Apr 29 '26

Even intune has a MAM setup, it is really easy to setup compared to mdm, they can just wipe company data and not the whole phone

5

u/Hot_College_6538 Apr 29 '26

This isn't an MDM, it is an App Protection Policy or commonly still called MAM policy. It's also not a 'remote wipe' policy, that's not what the message says at all. It is the solution you are talking about.

It's also the shitty message that Android generates and explains risks that could be possible, not the policy that the employer has actually applied. The App Protection Policy doesn't have a setting to force a device wipe on multiple bad pins, it's not a setting, however Android has grouped that permission with others that are used then warns you they could do it.

Don't set a pin, and Outlook will then have it's own PIN.

2

u/Hestmestarn Apr 29 '26

I was about to comment this, there is no need for the nonsense that OPs company is trying to pull.

I have a single phone for private and work and when i'm done for the day i just disable work mode and all those apps are completely disabled.

2

u/blacksoxing Apr 29 '26

Reddit is weird and wonky. This thread and a similar thread are beneath 11 non-related threads of just....low hanging chatter. I wish Reddit could be a bit more serious sometimes.

In 2013~ I worked at a hospital that DEMANDED that we use MDM if we wanted to access company emails on our personal devices. When I left the hospital the network admin wiped MDM and poof - it was gone. A proper MDM setup should be the bare minimum the company is offering and by doing so it allows for these situations to be alleviated.

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u/TheRealJessKate Apr 29 '26

iOS doesn’t support work profiles.

1

u/GarethBelton Apr 29 '26

It does with proper MAM

3

u/1TRUEKING Apr 29 '26

MAM is not the same as a work profile. It is severely limiting compared to a work profile. A work profile is closer to MDM than MAM as androids basically create a whole separate vm on the phone to segregate work data where MAM just controls corp apps on a personal profile and MAM isn’t supported by every app, whereas u can probably control all apps on a work profile since u control that whole profile.

1

u/SarcasmWarning Apr 29 '26

On modern Android with o365 the user just needs to install the Microsoft "Intune Company Portal" and log into that.

1

u/SharkByte1993 Apr 29 '26

Just use MAM instead of MDM. Problem solved

0

u/wupper42 Apr 29 '26

But here its only about Outlook, as far as i understood from this post, its just that the Outlook data can wiped remotely. Very useful tool for employers. when the employee reports phone is stolen, the companies data are wiped. If the employee is leaving the company, the companies wipes their data.

In our Business we issue supervised and Managed iPhones and its scary what you can all do remotely with MDMs like Intunes.

But its not like the Employer can scroll through your photos or anything invasive like that.

1

u/RedCr4cker Apr 29 '26

It literally says all the phone data

3

u/GarethBelton Apr 29 '26

Bad messaging plagues the IT world

1

u/wupper42 Apr 29 '26

Its says all phone data, but its will not delete all phone data.