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Why would you bring a personal laptop to work?

morganw 6y ago
In case you need to do something personal that can't wait until you get home. More of an issue with a longer commute. Might have to pop down to a local coffee shop or use the personal phone's hotspot to avoid using corp net. I've had to check an account while at work to deal with my kid attempting to pay college tuition with one of my credit cards. Also looked up records so he could call the DMV to rectify something. Yeah, sometimes they're things that can wait a day, but a break from bug hunting can be nice.
- jen729w 6y ago
  It’s this sort of thing that makes me really appreciate my cell-connected personal iPad, with keyboard cover. It’s a “personal laptop” in 50% of the volume that I can ~always have with me.
sneak 6y ago
I sometimes need to do time critical things, or use sites or services, and I'm never giving personal credentials of any kind to client/employer hardware. My personal laptop comes everywhere with me. Doesn't yours?
- jldugger 6y ago
  Nope. I find the personal phone sufficient. If corporate IT wants to know when I'm browsing linkedin, im fine with that. Also, corporate has given itself the right to search any and all devices on me while at work, so that's double incentive to leave the home laptop at home.
benhurmarcel 6y ago
Sometimes your work computer is so locked down that some work tasks are made much easier by having a machine you have full access to. For example we needed to program an Arduino-type board, but that's not possible with our work laptops (no admin rights, USB ports disabled, etc); we never found a solution other than a personal laptop. Or a colleague needed to run a supplier's simulation tool that needed admin rights, and couldn't get an exception fast enough. Or you need to run a Linux tool.
- jldugger 6y ago
  > Sometimes your work computer is so locked down that some work tasks are made much easier by having a machine you have full access to. This is not very persuasive. What you really have there is two work laptops.

In case you need to do something personal that can't wait until you get home. More of an issue with a longer commute. Might have to pop down to a local coffee shop or use the personal phone's hotspot to avoid using corp net. I've had to check an account while at work to deal with my kid attempting to pay college tuition with one of my credit cards. Also looked up records so he could call the DMV to rectify something. Yeah, sometimes they're things that can wait a day, but a break from bug hunting can be nice.

jen729w 6y ago
It’s this sort of thing that makes me really appreciate my cell-connected personal iPad, with keyboard cover. It’s a “personal laptop” in 50% of the volume that I can ~always have with me.

sneak 6y ago

I sometimes need to do time critical things, or use sites or services, and I'm never giving personal credentials of any kind to client/employer hardware. My personal laptop comes everywhere with me. Doesn't yours?

jldugger 6y ago
Nope. I find the personal phone sufficient. If corporate IT wants to know when I'm browsing linkedin, im fine with that. Also, corporate has given itself the right to search any and all devices on me while at work, so that's double incentive to leave the home laptop at home.

benhurmarcel 6y ago

Sometimes your work computer is so locked down that some work tasks are made much easier by having a machine you have full access to. For example we needed to program an Arduino-type board, but that's not possible with our work laptops (no admin rights, USB ports disabled, etc); we never found a solution other than a personal laptop. Or a colleague needed to run a supplier's simulation tool that needed admin rights, and couldn't get an exception fast enough. Or you need to run a Linux tool.

jldugger 6y ago
> Sometimes your work computer is so locked down that some work tasks are made much easier by having a machine you have full access to. This is not very persuasive. What you really have there is two work laptops.