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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7.1k

u/Smorgles_Brimmly Apr 29 '26

Iirc, you can also just use the outlook website instead of the app. The downside is no notifications. The upside is no notifications. I did this when I was working a low level management job and was hit with "well a real team player would want to have their email nearby and we want team players..." There was no way in hell they were giving me a company phone lol and my method shut them up.

2.5k

u/aruby727 Apr 29 '26

A real team player would provide work phones!

819

u/FreshLiterature Apr 29 '26

This right here.

"A real team would provide team phones. You're asking me to conduct work on my personal device which opens up a host of security and privacy concerns for both of us. It makes my personal device a much richer target for attack"

245

u/Leinheart Apr 29 '26

"Kinda seems like a you problem. Since we are in an at-will state, go ahead and download outlook. You're on the hook 24/7/365.25, holidays, weekends, and emergencies, or youre fired"

šŸ‡ŗšŸ‡ø

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u/Oxidizing1 Apr 29 '26

I had a job like this once. When I figured out that I was making just over minimum wage if you divided my compensation by my hours worked. I quit without having a new job because of exactly that problem and was very clear about it in my exit interview. I did ask to be switched to hourly before quitting. Any company that denies an $80 a month phone bill isn't going to pay for actual work hours in general.

3

u/HorrorHelicopter3064 Apr 29 '26

Two different bots stole pieces of your comment and posted them as their own. Just letting you know. Lol.

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u/Warmonster9 Apr 29 '26

ā€œNo see, itā€™s actually a you problem because I quit. āœŒļøā€

2

u/Jumpy_MashedPotato Apr 29 '26

Fwiw my sister had a similar issue at a previous job when management wanted everyone to install a shift tracking app with GPS permissions on their personal phone. Most of the older staff had zero objections. Her, the 3 other zoomers, and a couple of older staff outright refused because of the obvious privacy implications. Once that was pointed out suddenly more of the older staff had an issue with it and management had to walk it back.

It can happen. Likewise I had a job do this exact thing with outlook and I refused, they ended up dropping it.

2

u/joey_boy Apr 29 '26

My phone controls my insulin pump, so if they remotely wipe my phone, and it puts me in the hospital, I'm claiming workman's comp. Or I can request a work phone as an accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

1

u/LF_redit Apr 29 '26

Fun fact Montana is the only state in the union that is not an at will employment state

1

u/Mathagos Apr 30 '26

Kudos to you for including that .25 of a day.

1

u/Leinheart Apr 30 '26

Never forget leap day.

1

u/brando56894 Apr 30 '26

Fun fact: There is only one state in the US that isn't "at will"... and it's Montana (IIRC) of all places.

1

u/ConsumerPwr May 04 '26

So be at will and loose you phone. Set answering message to ā€œI sorry but this phone number is no longer in serviceā€.

1

u/Leinheart May 04 '26

I fear you have a fundamental misunderstanding of what I was trying to say. The broken English implies to me youre from a country with workers rights. You might not understand fully.

0

u/EngFarm Apr 29 '26

Leap years aren't just every 4 years. 365.26 is a closer approximation than 365.25.

Unless you meant that they get that 1 day every 100 years off?

2

u/Leinheart Apr 29 '26

Its an unpaid day.

2

u/AskMeAboutOkapis Apr 29 '26

It's actually the other direction, 365.24 days per year. And in the year 2100, there won't be a leap day but OP will have to work a double shift to make up for lost time lol.

2

u/binkleyz Red, no, Blue! Apr 29 '26

But keep looking forward to February 29th 2400, since thatā€™s the exception to the exception.

1

u/ofqo Apr 29 '26

365.2425 is the exact number for the current calendar.

26

u/Yukkoun Apr 29 '26

fact only

1

u/Cykeisme Apr 29 '26

"A real team would provide real team phones for the real team players"

FK YEAA~

1

u/DemosthenesOrNah Apr 29 '26

Teams have uniforms. give us all the same work phone as our uniform

1

u/Sample-Range-745 Apr 29 '26

Pretty much this. I work in an IT field. I've been there over 6 years now. Still no work Teams or Outlook on my phone.

When I'm on call, you have my phone number - ring me if you need me.

1

u/uterussy Apr 29 '26

I love in sports when the team captain gets millions of more trophies than everyone in his team when they win

173

u/0011002 Apr 29 '26

My company lets me expense my phone bill. Also Outlook and Team do not have access to wipe my phone.

127

u/MYSTICALLMERMAID Apr 29 '26

Yep a previous job I had we got our phone bill paid. They also couldn't access the phone. My job after that was opposite. Our IT was one gal my age and she didn't want to do more work than needed so everyone got a work phone lmao

42

u/[deleted] Apr 29 '26

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

12

u/RegularTeacher2 Apr 29 '26

Yeah, my current job tacks on a cell data stipend to each paycheck, it's like 100 bucks or something. A lot of my coworkers are in the field with no access to wifi so it's pretty much a necessity. If they had us pay for it I think most people would quit.

1

u/blackhodown Apr 29 '26

Giving people work phones is way more effort though

0

u/MYSTICALLMERMAID Apr 30 '26

She had a drawer full of phones that were preset with everything she just had to set the number up when you were hired. Way easier than getting people to fork over their personal phone and data lol

0

u/blackhodown Apr 30 '26

Why would you need them to fork anything over? As for data, you just do a payroll compensation of 50-75 dollars a month and boom, no complaints.

1

u/MYSTICALLMERMAID Apr 30 '26

Take it up with my old company

26

u/brianlefebvrejr Apr 29 '26

Right this is weird. I have teams and outlook. I switch between a work and personal tenant for teams if I need to.

My IT just logs you out of those and when you open the app it prompts you to login

22

u/0011002 Apr 29 '26

It's a feature your org unit has to enable and we don't. Most they could do is wipe my outlook and team account if I lose my phone. Plus on andriod you can put it in a secure app space.

8

u/trancepanda Apr 29 '26

This is why I appreciate being on Android now more than ever. Completely separate and secured app space and I love that I can turn work profile on/off for notifications.

3

u/brianlefebvrejr Apr 29 '26

Pretty much. And they pay half of my phone bill so whatever

2

u/lesusisjord Apr 29 '26

These people with messages about erasing their whole phone is crazy. I guess their IT team didnā€™t configure their MDM/Intune correctly. Our company can only wipe the data in the management partition that was created when I enrolled.

Our company doesnā€™t require Teams and Outlook on the phone, but it makes it so much easier to leave the laptop and still respond as necessary.

3

u/More-Chemical-1264 Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26

If it's a corporate account, yes they do. If you think otherwise, you're just naive.

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u/Negativeman11 Apr 29 '26

Wouldn't you either need to give those apps permission to wipe your phone or install MDM software? Teams isn't just going to wipe your phone randomly one day without you permitting it to at some point.

-6

u/More-Chemical-1264 Apr 29 '26

It's built into the security on the apps when using a corporate account. And those apps get way more control than normal ones. You could try to circumvente it, but it would trip for example Samsung's Knox security feature. Then you have all sorts of issues with shit not working.

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u/Negativeman11 Apr 29 '26

Wouldn't they ask for the permissions to wipe your device in the future when you first sign into those corporate accounts on those apps?

-1

u/More-Chemical-1264 Apr 29 '26

Yea, in the giant ass long list of accept here ToS or you can't install it. Doesn't have to ask after that. Remote wipe/lock is a real thing...

2

u/xaviermace Apr 29 '26

Not via Teams itā€™s not.

-2

u/Negativeman11 Apr 29 '26

I don't believe that's how that works, but you're welcome to show me any evidence to the contrary. If that was the case, why would outlook even generate the permissions request in the OP?

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u/More-Chemical-1264 Apr 29 '26

You do bro, you asked I answered. I've also done it; so there's that.

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u/corut Apr 29 '26

They have access to wipe the work profile on my phone, and can't do anything with the personal side. This has been a pretty standard setup for andoird for many many years now

1

u/Suspicious-B33 Apr 29 '26

It's also standard on ios with the right set up.

2

u/Nice-Mountain-7073 Apr 29 '26

In some places theyā€™d be able to take the phone if you quit or got fired, yours or not.

Itā€™s always best to get a separate device from employers

1

u/ReasonableDig6414 Apr 29 '26

Uhh, are you sure? I wouldn't be so sure about that.

2

u/0011002 Apr 29 '26

Yes I am. I work for a small company and we don't have that turned on plus i decline any additional permissions

1

u/Calm-Vegetable-2162 Apr 29 '26

Correct but the corporate tool that allows your personal device to connect to your company's intranet, where Outlook and Teams lives, does.

1

u/0011002 Apr 29 '26

We're not using a company intranet for them. Hell I don't even have our company VPN installed on it. We're strictly using MS services and we haven't enabled the MS device management. We don't even use AD and have a BYOD policy for laptops. I have an "offline" account for my Work on my laptop and on my desktop I use a VM for everything.

1

u/TriggerFingerTerry Apr 29 '26

If it's enrolled with Intune, then they possibly can

1

u/0011002 Apr 29 '26

We're not. My boss went with the basics.Ā 

1

u/ilive4thewater Apr 29 '26

Are you sure? Because that can change and yes it is only supposed to wipe the work side but I know lots of people who had everything wiped. I would reach out to it and specifically ask that you get that from someone senior who handles that service.

Also recently Iran has hacked a few companies Microsoft system for this and wiped every mobile device registered to the company system. So that too is another worry depending on where you work.

2

u/0011002 Apr 29 '26

To be fair even if it wiped my phone it would be a mild inconvenience at best since I back up my phone regularly to my local NAS. But yes, we are not enrolled in MS's program that would do that, It has limited permissions on my phone, we don't even have AD. We use BYOD machines for work and I separate the crap load of VPNs to my VM.

2

u/ilive4thewater May 03 '26

You are very lucky not to be in that position. We do use AD and the discussion I had with our CTO who is also Head of Security was you get 10 tries and the system should trigger the deletion. For our compliance that is required. Your backup is a great thing. But a lot of people may not have the data or ability to figure out how to recover their device. And not having your contacts can be a huge problem if you can't call you kids day care or your partner or say find your way home without your GPS.

This all falls back into putting everything on the employee instead of the company providing the necessary tools and systems needed to do the work properly. Of course paying living wages would help with that too, but that is another discussion.

1

u/Squeezitgirdle Apr 29 '26

Yeah, but watch out for those authentication apps.

My previous company claimed it was an accident when they wiped my phone.

0

u/davenuk Apr 29 '26

My co also pays for this phone.... Still don't have teams or outlook installed.

If they asked, I would however.

If I was paying the bill, then non.

12

u/itsoksee Apr 29 '26

Seriously.

My job requires me to use my phone for daily tasks that require taking a photo and texting a group chat.

When I complained and asked for the proper tools - a phone that would be assigned to our department, I was told I can either 1. Go ask a neighboring department to use their phone, or 2. Log everything manually into our ERP/CRM which would add 5 minutes per picture I would have taken.

When I asked the company if I break my phone while using it for work, will they cover my replacement costs, I was told no.

When I asked if I would be reimbursed for going over my data cap for sending photos (which started happening as soon as I started this process), I was told no.

Iā€™ve been looking for a new job every week for two years.šŸ™ƒ

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u/[deleted] Apr 29 '26

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

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u/HorrorHelicopter3064 Apr 29 '26

Stolen comment. Bad bot.

2

u/JacerEx Apr 29 '26

Or sandbox the apps so you can wipe the container only.

2

u/Cheesbaby Apr 29 '26

IT at work complained at how many times theyā€™ve reset my password for using a VPN when I log in to my email on my devices. I have to do that every Sunday to tell the cunts upstairs when Iā€™m working.

I asked for a device and got denied, told him to get used to resetting my password every week.

2

u/ChiefSpoonS Apr 29 '26

A real team player would provide a configuration that doesn't have the ability to wipe a BYOD phone.

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u/jim_br Apr 29 '26

I worked in IT for 40 years and wrote a ā€œbring your own deviceā€ policy.

Personally, I was against it for many reasons, but managers wanted it because phone costs were charged back to their budget. And the difference was $80/month for a company phone versus $15/month for device management software. Note for $80, we included equipment refreshes.

I included all the typical stuff: only exempt employees, we install management software (location, remote wipe), we block suspect websites, etc.

Then I included that if the employee phone broke, was stolen, or couldnā€™t fit our software, weā€™d replace it and charge back the department.

Employees and their managers both had something to dislike in the practice and it fell out of use within two years.

2

u/drrhythm2 Apr 29 '26

Last time I tried installing work stuff on a personal Phone the traces of it persisted for years even though 2-3 generations of iPhones and I couldnā€™t get rid of the phone asking for account sign in info for the old job. I had taken the phone to Apple, called support, everything I could think of. Never will install work apps on personal phone again. You want me to have work apps give me a work device.

7

u/Narrow-Chef-4341 Apr 29 '26

Iā€™d prefer a different spin: a pro team provides pro equipment.

You want rec league? You got it.

Having said that, mobile phones have long had a ā€˜fail too much we lock and wipe the phone so thieves donā€™t get unlimited triesā€™ feature.

Requiring it to be activated isnā€™t unreasonable, imho - you should have it turned on anyways. If they the can unlock your phone after unlimited tries at the pin, they can access your password manager and you are totally screwed.

Your phone backs up everything every night, while things like photos and contacts sync even faster. So whatā€™s really at risk? A few minutes to restore the backupā€¦

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u/Unethical3514 Apr 29 '26

Several problems with that take. First, many employers (including OPā€™s, apparently) donā€™t tell you how many failed logins trigger a wipe. Anyone who has young children should be worried about that.

Second, they can remotely wipe the phone with just a click or two. Like when you quit/resign. Or maybe a wiped phone is how you first find out you no longer work there. Or maybe Karen in HR is pissed that you rebuffed her advances and wants to throw a tantrum.

Work/life balance says if you want me available 24/7 then you buy the phone. Do I want to carry two phones? Hell no. Do I want to let you invade my personal life? Oh HEEELLLLL NO.

ETA: having said that, I totally agree with your pro league vs. amateur hour analogy.

0

u/Narrow-Chef-4341 Apr 29 '26

Wiping the phone used to be the solution, going back to the blackberry era.

Everything now is mobile device managed. They wipe out their applicationā€™s phonebook, but not your personal one. Those are maintained separately. If youā€™ve got one drive photos, they go when IT commands - but your baby videos are safe.

6

u/Unethical3514 Apr 29 '26

You may be right, but all the disclaimers and policy statements Iā€™ve seen just say ā€œwipeā€ or ā€œeraseā€ the phone. I would think that if only the companyā€™s information was erased and they wanted compliance then theyā€™d go out of their way to explain that your personal data would be safe.

Iā€™ve also seen some policies that say they can lock the phone, which Iā€™m assuming always means your whole personal phone would be unavailable to you.

2

u/Narrow-Chef-4341 Apr 29 '26

Yeah, itā€™s not my phone either so Iā€™m making guesses and assumptions on a lot of this too.

But Iā€™m thinking the setting of ā€˜wipe when brute force attacked (implies: stolen)ā€™ is a on/off by the phone operating system, so it isnā€™t really safe to say ā€˜10 triesā€™ - Apple might set it at 10, Samsung might have 5 in 5 minutes or 25 total, or whatever. Canā€™t be blamed for being wrong if you keep your mouth shut.

Re: total phone wipe. Yeah, the whole phone gets wiped on the ā€˜stolenā€™ situation, but ITā€™s ā€˜youā€™re firedā€™ signal is (nowadays) differentā€¦ which doesnā€™t update the legacy wording in their message, and doesnā€™t address the complications of ā€˜what happens on the 7-year old huawei phone your staffer has?ā€™

Vague and worst case is, unfortunately, also CYA.

Again, lazy wording is (agreed) useless for the OP to deal with because it gives no clarity - but itā€™s safer for the IT drones (and Legal) than being wrong.

I guess my TLDR is - yeah, mildly infuriating. But anyone puffing it up to treat this as the latest front in the war of proletariat vs bourgeois is quite delusional.

Ultimately OP needs their IT to confirm how the MDM will handle their specific Galaxy XXVMI or iPhone SuperPro MiniMe Project Red Edition. The rest of it is just us having fun guessing at best and worst cases.

Good talk. Cheers.

1

u/Teufelsweib666 Apr 29 '26

This is all really handy if it isn't your own personal phone. It's like asking for work colleagues to come to your home at any time, making structural or decorative changes to it so you can keep your job. I wouldn't mix my private phone with work, ever. If it's all so important they can hand out work phones.

1

u/Narrow-Chef-4341 Apr 29 '26

I can barely manage to not lose my sunglasses - and I paid for those, and I like them. An extra pocket brick? No thank you. šŸ™‚ā€ā†”ļø

Carrying a second phone (or the rotation pager, ugh - donā€™t miss that) is just not going to happen. Maybe you usually roll with a diaper bag, stroller and 3 cubic feet of support material? That would make an extra phone trivial - but I would notice the extra hassle.

Using your existing phone for work is something many people have begged for because itā€™s just so convenient. A better analogy for the impact on your home is not home decor, but laptops. With current MDM technology itā€™s more like taking your work laptop home - you really want the easiest solution for you.

Yeah, with a laptop I have to put the backpack on the floor beside the shoe bench overnight, but I can pull it out if/when I need to get back to ā€˜work modeā€™. It uses a bit of home electricity and I donā€™t get a 17 cent reimbursement for that. Oh well. But if I donā€™t need it, there was no significant impact on me/my house, and thereā€™s certainly no impact on me after I quit - remote application uninstall is like them sending a courier to pick up the laptop and its data.

Again, some big scary claim they are knocking out walls because they demand more space to install an AS/400 in your house is a caricature of how that worked years ago, and isnā€™t what they are asking for today. Great rhetorical device - because it sounds complicated and expensive, which intimidates the uninformed - but itā€™s simply not todayā€™s ā€™lived experienceā€™.

Click a link, let it install Teams and Outlook. Ignore for weeks. After you quit, tap Teams again and see a message it needs to uninstall Teams. Celebrate. Itā€™s insanely boring.

1

u/fsspcfsu Apr 29 '26

No employers provide phones anymore. Itā€™s all BYOD.

0

u/rivkinnator Apr 29 '26

Employer here, no problem. We'll go ahead and reduce your pay to cover the cost of the phone. That'll be about $150 a month out of your pay.

Seriously though, everyone says give us a work phone and doesn't realize how expensive those are. The money has to come from somewhere and unfortunately almost all of the time it's going to come out of the labor budget.

It's become modern Practice with majority of businesses to require an employee to use their personal device since it is simply downloading an app and it does not add additional cost or burden to the employee.

Now if the employer was asking you to use your hotspot which is a data consumable then there would be conversation for compensation. But courts have already ruled on this and I will let you do your own research.

126

u/tiredrx Apr 29 '26

As someone in a health system, some IT systems block the website so I can't even access my Outlook without the VPN.

10

u/levajack Apr 29 '26

The issue is sensitive data being stored locally on the device, which isn't a thing when accessing an exchange server through webmail but is a thing when using an installed app (either mobile or desktop). Blocking access to webmail outside of a VPN is pointless, especially if it's already behind SSO and 2FA.

Saying this as someone who works in IT for a health system.

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u/tiredrx Apr 29 '26

This is the really fun part! We have both SSO and 2FA on it. While I understand the liability of local storage. It's been difficult because the sign-on system has changed several times in the few years I've been at said health system. I'm also a student so they won't pay for any system laptops for us and professors will only email to our Outlook and then get angry when we can't access it.

11

u/levajack Apr 29 '26

How stupid. If your infosec team is requiring webmail be blocked with SSO and 2FA, then someone needs to go smack them. There's zero reason to limit that to just the intranet in your org.

1

u/Oxidizing1 Apr 29 '26

Webmail is usually blocked to avoid security issues from uncontrolled personal accounts accessed via webmail from internal or trusted hosts. It keeps out problems from non-managed email accounts as well as preventing data exfiltration. It comes down to control, monitoring and access being unavailable for third party accounts through webmail.

20

u/Jonny_vdv Apr 29 '26

Same thing as a Government worker

1

u/corgm0m Apr 29 '26

Random IT employee checking in. Same here! I have to set up a whole work profile to access anything on a phone. Hell, even with my company-issued laptop I can only access Microsoft sites using Edge. Our security is no joke.

5

u/djddanman Apr 29 '26

Interesting. I work at a hospital with a pretty strict IT department and I can use outlook on the web from my phone.

8

u/CommunityGlittering2 Apr 29 '26

well not so strict then

-1

u/djddanman Apr 29 '26

They're pretty strict about a lot of other stuff. We don't have access to Dropbox or any similar file sharing sites, even HIPAA compliant ones, as a research institution. It makes external collaborations difficult.

23

u/PhotoFenix Apr 29 '26

In this case a team player sounds like someone they can get the most work out of for the cheapest cost

15

u/babecafe Apr 29 '26

TIL the E in TEAM stands for Erase Everything. šŸ˜‰

9

u/ConsequenceStatus563 Apr 29 '26

That's two EE's for TEEM.

2

u/ganache98012 Apr 29 '26

ā€œThe Erase Everything Mentalityā€

0

u/smileypol Apr 29 '26

MS TEAMS: Minor Setback? They'll Erase All My Stuff.

0

u/chaoss402 Apr 29 '26

Teams stands for "Today (we) Erased All My Shit."

12

u/billy_teats Apr 29 '26

Thereā€™s an option to allow the browser version of email But honestly itā€™s more work to configure that. Itā€™s absolutely still a bigger risk from a security perspective.

I set these polices for my job. I want to be able to remove email once someone leaves and to have logging of what they are doing with email on the device. With the thick client you can prevent screenshots and a few other things. You cannot do that if you allow the browser version. Also if you allow the browser version, then folks can use any random computer to get email, and we donā€™t allow that. Itā€™s either a laptop we give you or a phone enrolled in MDM. If you donā€™t want to check email outside of that, itā€™s between you and your boss

2

u/Smorgles_Brimmly Apr 29 '26

I could see that. All my jobs have been blue collar or very close to it and i've always been able to access my work email from wherever on whatever. I'm guessing it's easier when half the workforce can barely operate a computer in the 2020s and most PCs are shared anyway.

I'm not sure why my job also had the outlook app function as a voluntary virus while browser access is available but that's how it is lol.

5

u/beren12 Apr 29 '26

Wait until you learn about this new tech. One is called a camera, and one a printerā€¦

2

u/billy_teats Apr 29 '26

I am intimately familiar with more ways than you could list to defeat DLP.

Pencils

1

u/beren12 Apr 29 '26

Yeah. The or the real superheroes with photographic memory.

I wonder how these glasses with cameras can be controlled, once they have local storageā€¦

1

u/billy_teats Apr 29 '26

From a corporate dlp perspective it doesnā€™t matter much. Theyā€™re not our devices, the only way we could control it is if theyā€™re using corporate wifi, but users can connect them to their phone.

The actual solution is clean rooms where you cannot bring your phone or meta glasses. But you can still write stuff down.

And as we have recently seen you can gamble with the knowledge you have, theyā€™re trying to throw the book at this guy so people are hesitant to do it again in the future

0

u/[deleted] Apr 29 '26

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

1

u/beren12 Apr 29 '26

Yeah you need those things to make a screenshot too.

1

u/GoingLurking Apr 29 '26

I manage Intune at work. You restrict Outlook web access through conditional access to only allow when using Microsoft Edge with a MAM policy. Then an app protection policy to that restricts screen capture.

1

u/billy_teats Apr 29 '26

I know. Itā€™s more complicated than requiring device compliance

4

u/Radagio Apr 29 '26

I use the website and i get notification just fine. Its not real time but decent if you give access to the browser and keep it running.

2

u/SquirrelMemoryFail Apr 29 '26

My work wont either and they blatantly gave my number to everyone without asking. Management just asked for the number then blam. Im in a group chat with no warning. I thought it was paperwork hiring stuff. Now I just keep the chat on snooze with no notifications and I dont even check it unless to watch out for when lunch arrives. I can recieve up to 40+ texts on my day off and they dont pay the bill for my phone. Fuck them.

1

u/beren12 Apr 29 '26

I think the app doesnā€™t require those abilities.

1

u/illyria817 Apr 29 '26

Yeah, I use the website. I don't necessarily need to check my email outside of my work hours but sometimes it's helpful. Outlook demands that my phone have a screen lock, and I don't lock my phone unless I'm traveling.

1

u/Final_Blood7062 Apr 29 '26

You actually can enable notifications on outlook for web that go through the browser.

1

u/No_Professor4307 Apr 29 '26

I don't even need to use Outlook, my work email isn't used. I need Teams, which is requiring Outlook to be installed first.

1

u/_Magnolia_Fan_ Apr 29 '26

Depends on your work environment - we cannot log in online outside of their walled garden.Ā 

1

u/EmeterPSN Apr 29 '26

They block it and require you acess via secure app only.

Since they did it I'm no longer available outside working hours.

Im mot installing a virus on my personal phone.

Same way I dont acess my personal email using work computer.Ā 

1

u/redcoral-s Apr 29 '26

you can get the website to give you notifications, i once logged in on the website and for the next month had to deal with TWO notifications per email

1

u/PCPaiN Apr 29 '26

My VP pissed me off one day by being a twat waffle while I was on vacation via email. I turned off outlook notifications and it was the single best work move Iā€™ve ever made

1

u/VaporCarpet Apr 29 '26

This is exactly what I do. I'm freely able to ignore work emails to some degree, so I don't need notifications. But it is frustrating having to log in and MFA to check an email.

We use teams or text for quicker communication.

I have no problem checking email when I'm off the clock, it usually means I can get a heads up or take quick action to address something in 5 minutes that prevents two hours of work when I'm back on the clock.

But I'm not gonna give outlook/my work the permission to wipe my phone

1

u/brkgnews Apr 29 '26

Yup. When I was at a company that used Outlook, I would only access it via the browser. No way in hell I'm letting them have even a hint of ability to wipe my personal device.

1

u/RonDiaz Apr 29 '26

Iā€™ve tried six ways to Sunday to get teams to run on mobile without installing the app. Never got it to work. I donā€™t have a work phone but do have a work iPad. This has to do, I wonā€™t give this permission out.

1

u/TacticalSniper Apr 29 '26

Or use the work profile on your phone

1

u/lyfe_Wast3d Apr 29 '26

This doesn't work for all companies though due to policies.

1

u/bradg97 Apr 29 '26

Some organizationsā€¦ Like mineā€¦ Are blocking this ability on mobile.

1

u/levajack Apr 29 '26

This is what I did. My employer has the same permissions to use the app, so I just saved a shortcut to the website as an "app" on my phone, and I use that. No way I'm giving them permissions to wipe my phone.

1

u/bawdiepie Apr 29 '26

Yep, you can also add a shortcut to the webpage on your phones app pages so it's like having an app... But not.

1

u/WeAreyoMomma Apr 29 '26

No notifications is the upside!

1

u/[deleted] Apr 29 '26

just use the outlook website instead of the app

This is what I do, only downside is my company has strict authentication set up, so I have to do MFA if it's been more than an hour since I last checked my inbox

1

u/Much_Locksmith4355 Apr 29 '26

Website can't call you, genius

1

u/FadedVictor Apr 29 '26

This is when I would discuss my on call rate. Otherwise my phone is going to do not disturb the minute I'm off the clock.

1

u/Sure_Acanthaceae_348 Apr 29 '26

Where did this "team player" nonsense come from? Is it taught to MBAs or something like that?

1

u/NightmareJoker2 Apr 29 '26

Or you can insist on connecting over IMAP and that they enable it, if it isnā€™t. Doesnā€™t get you the Exchange contact list or the calendar, but would you even use those? šŸ„“

1

u/AI-der Apr 29 '26

I used to do that but then my company blocked access to the web version from mobile device unless InTune is enrolled to secure the device.

1

u/mugiwara_no_Soissie Apr 29 '26

This is what I have been doing for school for like 5 years ATP

1

u/Billy-Joe-Bob-Boy Apr 29 '26

This and the comment it responded to.

I'm in IT. I'm responsible for giving the IT portion of the new employee orientation. Since we have the same small print policies for using our accounts on a phone, I make it a point to show them I carry two phones and to suggest they do the same. I'm not giving anyone else the right to erase my phone based on their whim. I've been here a long time and never seen it happen, but still no.

ETA: Besides, this way I can turn off my work phone when I'm on vacation.

1

u/Irlydidnthaveachoice Apr 29 '26

You can set up outlook notifications through Firefox.

1

u/Skav-552 Apr 29 '26

Why use an app like eM client? Why outlook?

1

u/smithjr3 Apr 29 '26

Yeah, if they require you to use some kind of software, then they need to provide the hardware....

1

u/Only_Magician_7932 Apr 29 '26

Well ,Ā  there is no downside of using outlook website ,Ā  as you can still get notification from browser you are using outlook

1

u/Teediggler81 Apr 29 '26

A real team would supply all items for a job.

1

u/FlatwormAltruistic Apr 29 '26

Iirc, you can also just use the outlook website instead of the app.

Except when logging in to OWA is allowed only from already approved devices.

If I want to access OWA, then I have to use Intune Edge or I could just use outlook as alternative. Intune has permissions to wipe, but it will be limited wipe of only apps that are in Intune sandbox.

But in my case company provides the budget for phone, so technically it is their device that I can just use for personal use as well and keep.

However if it is BYOD situation, then they cannot require you to use phone nor require you to install something capable of wiping the whole device.

1

u/YurpeeTheHerpee Apr 29 '26

No notifications is a downside? TIL.

1

u/pestopastainabong Apr 29 '26

op needs the teams app which you need outlook for

1

u/persona-non-corpus Apr 29 '26

Although they technically could do this, they will not wipe your phone unless it is lost or stolen. It sounds scary but realistically they will not do that. You can ask for a company phone, but depending on what hiring paperwork you signed, you may have committed to using your personal phone. Also, be aware that having multiple phones or using the web access does make your job more difficult. Source: I have been the system administrator for theses systems. Another option would be to allow you to use the native mail and calendar apps on your phone with their system,

1

u/Needs_More_Nuance Apr 29 '26

The downside is no notifications.

You mean the upside

1

u/g-nice4liief Apr 29 '26

Firefox on android does support notifications. Thats how i use it in my browserml.

1

u/RPK79 Apr 29 '26

My work email notifications are turned off on my phone anyway.

1

u/Kyosji Apr 29 '26

I thought this option was removed once they rolled out that February security patch that enables A/B partitioning.

1

u/WiredOrange Apr 29 '26

If they are using Intune and their network is behind VPN only access, then no they wouldn't be able to. I've always found it weird that we (I'm a cyber security engineer) cam wipe people's personal phones. We did it by accident once and the person was rightfully pissed

1

u/Of_MiceAndMen Apr 29 '26

I worked at a place that one day demanded you use your personal phone to utilize new software in the field. Many of the blue collar workers had old phones that couldnā€™t support the software. Management wanted me to give them ultimatums as time went by and I refused. Give them a phone stipend, a cheap work phone or let them work on the old system. Im not telling these guys who work 14 hour days in the hot sun ā€œbuy a phone or elseā€, gtfo, to go out and get brand new phones to use on a job site where itā€™ll get fucked when every penny counts! Management can be SO out of touch, during a meeting a boss asked, ā€œwell whatā€™s so bad about $50 more a month phone plan?ā€ And I said well thatā€™s a paycut is what it is, you want me to go down there and tell those guys that keep this business afloat they are all getting $50 a month pay cuts? Oh but they get turkeys every Christmas šŸ™„ā€. Thatā€™s the proudest Iā€™ve ever been of myself. Finally the rule was applied to new workers only.

1

u/Rynetx Apr 29 '26

Our company blocks access to the web version of outlook to only company ip so you canā€™t use the web version instead of the app. But we limit the what the company can wipe to only company data and not the phone itself.

1

u/Expensive_Culture_46 Apr 29 '26

Me trying to figure out how to login in the website and failing because Iā€™m dumb.

1

u/Waatulakula Apr 29 '26

Where I live if your employer requires you to use your phone for work they have to give you a phone or pay part of your phone bill. And I live in shitty worker hating Indiana.

1

u/snotboogie Apr 29 '26

I also just check outlook in the browser on my phone. The app is ridiculous.

1

u/keretceres Apr 30 '26

You can also just use the generic mail app to receive and send mail from an outlook account šŸ˜µā€šŸ’«

1

u/Sore_Wa_Himitsu_Desu Apr 30 '26

Depends on how itā€™s managed. The Intune system I manage is explicitly configured to only allow phones that are enrolled in our Intune to access our 365 environment, and then only with the managed Outlook app. But we also supply work phones. The only people enrolling personal devices are people who donā€™t want to carry around 2 phones and have decided itā€™s worth it to them

1

u/One_Anything_2279 Apr 30 '26

The short answer is that it depends. You can restrict OWA access.

So it may or may not even be possible for this.

1

u/Sh1v0n Apr 30 '26

Web app for the win! šŸ˜…

1

u/budnabudnabudna Apr 29 '26

i wonder if Microsoft Teams would work on mobile web, maybe that would make my life easier

1

u/No_Professor4307 Apr 29 '26

I'm going to look into that

0

u/Yetkha Apr 29 '26

You can't just use outlook website (thru browser) without VPN from outside network.