I eventually caved and installed stuff on a Pixel 1.
If they wanted a phone with security updates they would have given me one.
The solution for their use should have been standard TOTP and/or yubikey. But apparently some vendor came in with a fancy PowerPoint for their proprietary project.
I used to have Teams and Outlook on my phone, so I was accessible for work at almost any time. I know a lot of people think that’s dumb, but I was an hourly employee so I never minded the occasional work ping after hours, since I didn’t mind getting paid to reply with a few sentences from my couch. It worked out well for both me and my company.
Then they decided to make MDM mandatory on your phone to access Teams and Outlook. I declined the install and removed both apps from my phone. Now I can easily miss IMs for weeks at a time if I don’t open a 2nd laptop to check them. I’m more disconnected than I’ve ever been, which is probably better for my mental health. I don’t bill as much as I used to, but that’s fine for me.
“you’re welcome to try”
hands over my brain-dead flip phone with no ‘app’ capability
Virtually all current flip phones run either Android or KaiOS under the hood. The giveaway would be any Google app pre-installed, or any app you already recognize.
The era of “dumb” flip phones is long over. I would be very surprised if any are still being manufactured.
