Adding another anecdote, when I said I did not want to let work control my mobile phone, my boss told me I could figure out whether I wanted to keep the job or not

Switch jobs! Environments like that will grind down your soul. Or at least they did for mine.

Perhaps I'm projecting a little, but: please don't feel like you're stuck there. It's an illusion more often than not.

Switch from a well paying job instead of just getting another cheap phone?

Of all the hills I am willing to die on, getting another phone isn’t one. Especially if they provide a credit for your cell phone.

https://www.teamblind.com/post/Amazon-Cell-Phone-Reimburseme...

Perhaps when I was younger I would, and did, switch jobs immediately when something like that came up. I've gotten older and the cost of switching jobs is not zero for me anymore

I agree with my co-commenter. At least in Germany your employer isn't allowed to do this. They must provide the means to do your work, if they have specific requirements (having a mobile phone, being reachable, accessing company email and so on).

Well I am commenting from America and there is very little they cant do unless they go out of their way to officially state they are doing it for an illegal reason

You can always show up next day with a dumbphone or without phone at all if you are feeling risk-taking.

I personally just bought the cheapest $60-80 Android phone from a random Amazon seller.

Well, for me, that is a hill I choose to die on.

What if you don't have a smart phone?

Depends on the jurisdiction. In Germany they do. Labor rights explicitly says that your employer needs to provide the means for you to do your work. And that includes mobile phones if they want you to access your work email (or whatever) from a mobile device.

Yes they do... The problem is some users in Germany actually prefer to use their personal one so they don't have to carry two.. But due to this mindset they can't.

I don't think the German approach is always the best.

Sorry for the late reply. I use only one. I have a dual SIM phone with a clear separation.

So I call private contacts from private SIM, business contacts from business SIM. I have Apps separated into business and private and the respective profiles are in place. Business partition (so to speak) is managed by employer. Private partition is MDMed by myself.

So I have both worlds - in one device. If my employer decides to delete the business partition. I have exactly no problem with that (we tested it and it worked like a charm - private data wasn't affected. We also tested access to private data being nil).

Pretty sure that's what he's saying. The company gets to choose between dropping the requirement, providing a phone or hiring/retraining.

I don't think you understood. I _would_ switch jobs. That's what I meant by they have to.