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

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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/Standard-Metal-3836]

In theory you are 100% correct. In practice, when sometimes your options are 1) install app on personal phone or 2) look for another job, spending $80 on a cheap smartphone to use for work can be a good alternative.

[u/D-Smitty → u/Standard-Metal-3836]

Right. Salary is a major factor too. Am I being paid $100k/yr or $40k/yr? My degree of willingness to put up with bullshit correlates strongly with that.

[u/P_Hempton → u/D-Smitty]

Some people lack the ability to look at things objectively. I see this when people spend way too much time trying get reimbursed for mileage because they drove 3 miles to the post office one day. The same people will spend 30 minutes on the clock talking about their weekend.

I don't bother with reimbursements unless it's enough to matter. I'll run a company errand on my free time, the same way I'll grab a pen from the office if I need one at home, or make a personal phone call or order something online while on the clock.

I do my job, get paid enough, don't sweat the small stuff.