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Comment by raxxorrax | Hacker News Reader

Really? A second phone is awesome. Pretty big fan of compartmentalization of business/private, even if i am not a heavy phone user and not prone to change employers much.

But I do have my own phone anyway. We even have a separate wireless network for private devices and guests that is not subjected to any filtering or security screening. All that is really worth having 2 devices in my opinion.

There are also a lot of security benefits if work phones are only used for specific tasks and are locked down as much as possible.

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I guess I just don't see much downside to putting both on the same device. I have trouble picturing a situation where I'm significantly worse off because of the path I've chosen compared to having two devices. The 99% worst case scenario is something like what happened to the person who was fired: my phone gets wiped when I didn't want it to be. Ah, well. With Android's backup capabilities, it takes me about an hour to be back to normal from a completely wiped device. I've wiped my device voluntarily just to give it unlocked to a repair person. It would not be that much worse to have to recover it involuntarily. The 99.9999% worst case scenario is that my employer is monitoring my private communications for some sinister reason, but I consider that pretty unlikely. I just can't see a way that would benefit them, and I'm not sure they even have the capability in the first place -- compartmentalization is what work profiles are for.

On the other hand, having to manage two devices would be a daily tax. So, yeah, I'm happy with my choice, but I'm happy to accept more information if you have other things I've not thought of.

Imagine having time off from work, leaving your work phone off/at home, but still able to check online topo maps/restaurants/flights/weather/connect with people with your normal phone.

It can be annoying, or not. Depends a lot on personality, type of work, boss etc.

I mute my work chat when I am on vacation and I never have email notification for work emails anyway. Having a separate phone wouldn't really move the needle on that, at least for me.

With a work profile on Android, I can temporarily disable all of my work account stuff with the push of a button. It may not be as physically satisfying as throwing the phone in the bottom of a drawer for a week, but the vacation experience is the same.

Monitoring personal communications benefits them if they're concerned that you might be sharing company secrets. The work profile gives them the ability to remotely install apps, so they have pretty wide latitude to take advantage of any vulnerabilities on your phone.

Android supports clear isolation between work and personal profiles, so you don't need to lug around two phones just so you can have your separation. Unfortunately it seems that said people used iOS which doesn't allow that.

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