I did this because my friends who were already there advised me that the company did not supply phones but did expect you to load a crapload of apps on to do your job.
Serious question: what if you don’t have a smartphone (I know several people) or simply don’t want to install work stuff on your private phone? Is this a prerequisite, do they fire you or how would this be resolved? Also, this sounds like a security disaster waiting to happen (I also know people without a passcode on their phone)
As wffurr said, you have to pick your battles. I was in a similar situation: absolutely didn't want to install work apps in my personal phone, so when told to install a crapload of software I asked if the company provided phones. When they said no I said:
Sure, wait a few days since I am getting a new phone. Spent ~$80 in what is probably the crappiest no-brand Android I could find in Amazon with questionable preinstalled software. Cleared it with IT and that's what I use to test my work-related stuff.
In my location they could not fire me for requiring a phone for my job-related work, but didn't want to make trouble for $80, specially when I was already fighting for my holidays (a much more important thing for me).
Since US laws tend to be somewhat bonkers, a european perspective.
If you need some applications installed on a smartphone in order to perform your jobs duties, the smartphone is a work tool. This must be supplied by the employer if requested. In practice, our company offers two choices if your position requires this.
For one, you can be issued a company owned and managed phone. This phone is registered with the MDM and the MDM manages the installed software. Additionally, because the MDM can wipe the work phone after loss or theft, company data may actually be stored on the phone. The drawback is that you now have two phones.
Alternatively, there is a small number of use cases authorized to be done on personal phones with basic security enabled. For example, access to mails with a web browser, an authorized messaging client, or a TOTP MFA application, like google authenticator. These are fine, because they either don't store company data on the phone, or because they are not critical on their own. You can have my MFA token generator, because you don't have my password, for example.
So for example, personally speaking, I have to have a TOTP app around, a messaging app - threema for work - installed due to on-call and maybe duo in the near future. I consider those reasonable, especially because I have a TOTP app and something for oncall anyway. Or used to. RIP Firealert :( However, once I'm supposed to install teams, outlook or some of these, I'd balk.
Also, this sounds like a security disaster waiting to happen (I also know people without a passcode on their phone)
Some of the corporate phone stuff will require a passcode of a certain length. When I was in this position, I had two phones, but the corp phone stayed in my bag, mostly off (would use it for tethering for work incidents when out of town, and as a backup 2fa device), and I ran corp email on my phone until it got too ornerous (outlook for android ate my battery life and/or was impossible to auth with); then I only checked from the corporate laptop, but outlook for macos would drain my battery in standby, so I couldn't leave it running and forgot to start it.
OTOH, I was established with seniority, so I could do whatever. I'm not sure a new hire could do whatever; especially outside of my group where we didn't really accept the corporate norms.
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Serious question: what if you don’t have a smartphone (I know several people) or simply don’t want to install work stuff on your private phone? Is this a prerequisite, do they fire you or how would this be resolved? Also, this sounds like a security disaster waiting to happen (I also know people without a passcode on their phone)
As wffurr said, you have to pick your battles. I was in a similar situation: absolutely didn't want to install work apps in my personal phone, so when told to install a crapload of software I asked if the company provided phones. When they said no I said:
Sure, wait a few days since I am getting a new phone. Spent ~$80 in what is probably the crappiest no-brand Android I could find in Amazon with questionable preinstalled software. Cleared it with IT and that's what I use to test my work-related stuff.
In my location they could not fire me for requiring a phone for my job-related work, but didn't want to make trouble for $80, specially when I was already fighting for my holidays (a much more important thing for me).
You insist that you won't do it unless they buy you one. Then you get labeled as a troublemaker, and fired for unrelated performance reasons.
Since US laws tend to be somewhat bonkers, a european perspective.
If you need some applications installed on a smartphone in order to perform your jobs duties, the smartphone is a work tool. This must be supplied by the employer if requested. In practice, our company offers two choices if your position requires this.
For one, you can be issued a company owned and managed phone. This phone is registered with the MDM and the MDM manages the installed software. Additionally, because the MDM can wipe the work phone after loss or theft, company data may actually be stored on the phone. The drawback is that you now have two phones.
Alternatively, there is a small number of use cases authorized to be done on personal phones with basic security enabled. For example, access to mails with a web browser, an authorized messaging client, or a TOTP MFA application, like google authenticator. These are fine, because they either don't store company data on the phone, or because they are not critical on their own. You can have my MFA token generator, because you don't have my password, for example.
So for example, personally speaking, I have to have a TOTP app around, a messaging app - threema for work - installed due to on-call and maybe duo in the near future. I consider those reasonable, especially because I have a TOTP app and something for oncall anyway. Or used to. RIP Firealert :( However, once I'm supposed to install teams, outlook or some of these, I'd balk.
Some of the corporate phone stuff will require a passcode of a certain length. When I was in this position, I had two phones, but the corp phone stayed in my bag, mostly off (would use it for tethering for work incidents when out of town, and as a backup 2fa device), and I ran corp email on my phone until it got too ornerous (outlook for android ate my battery life and/or was impossible to auth with); then I only checked from the corporate laptop, but outlook for macos would drain my battery in standby, so I couldn't leave it running and forgot to start it.
OTOH, I was established with seniority, so I could do whatever. I'm not sure a new hire could do whatever; especially outside of my group where we didn't really accept the corporate norms.