Wouldn't wiping a company phone without permission be akin to destruction of company property? Especially if you did it with the intent to... destroy company property (records of activities you took on company time using a company device)?

The status of your private info on a company issued phone is an excellent topic to discuss with the company HR department when you are issued the phone (and laptop).

I just had two phones, work issued and mine, after 6pm the work phone went on 'do not disturb' until 9am next day

Ive noticed that work issued phones aren't the perk they appear, its a social pressure of 'we know you have a phone, we gave it to you' combined with the expectation you'll answer.

I was a software engineer at that job, I wasn't on call and I was salaried for X hours.

I still have two phones noe even though I work for myself, one for work one for home, I did think about dual-sim but I like the separation of concerns.

That works, though I'd really rather not carry two phones around. I'd make an appointment with HR first.

For me its not about checking with HR (and even trusting them) its about the complete seperation of work/life devices, I don't want my employer having access to any of my personal data/metadata and using a work phone as a personal phone does that.

As for carrying two phones, I just leave my personal phone in my coat pocket, I don't get a huge volume of calls anyway since people long ago figured out I don't answer them (and I disabled voicemail), if it's urgent text basically.

Why would you have anything personal on a work phone? That's as bad as using a work email address for personal business.

Just don't do it.

Yup, this is completely stupid. All my coworkers would wipe their laptop before leaving the company.