It is safe. I also require it in my office. It only pertains to the stock apps for email, calendar, and contacts... Many years ago before I turned it on, anyone could setup an email profile on their phone without going through IT. And for the most part, no big deal (this was before apps like Outlook were available). The problem became when people would would quit or get fired an walk out the door with non public information on their device (stock email app). So we changed things on the back end and now when people try to do that, it says their device must be approved first, and then they have a look at our mobile device policy, which discusses the ability to remote wipe a device. And most say no when they read that part. So I tell them to use a third party app instead like Outlook or to check their email on their devices web browser. I have only used remote wipe once, and that was for an actual company owned phone. The user quit and went to a competitor and thought they could take the company owned phone with them, not on my watch. So I issued the remote wipe command, and then called our cellular provider and shut the number off once I got confirmation the device was wiped. I heard later on from a little birdy this person was in an electronics store demanding they get the pictures, and contacts and emails off the device because they were missing. They shouldn't have done what they did, but hey I was looking out for my company's best interest.
Basically a MDM is designed to keep the company safe. Depending on what your company does, they don't want their information falling into the wrong hands. And an MDM helps them achieve that. So we state in our MDM policy, that if you quit or get fired, please see IT so they can make sure no company data is on the device, it takes all of a few minutes. And if you fail to do that, we have the right to issue a remote wipe command, resetting the device back to factory conditions.
