To answer your first question of what now, the answer is simple: keep using work tools on your phone. As I have said, these articles are just scare tactics about privacy. You can read about how MDM actually works in my response above.

If you really want to remove your phone from MDM management, you will need to talk to your IT team. If a management profile was installed on your device, simply deleting your work email will not remove it (most times).