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I love my job and I love my life and I deliberately blend them together. This makes me substantially more productive as an employee, and incalculably happier as

I love my job and I love my life and I deliberately blend them together. This makes me substantially more productive as an employee, and incalculably happier as a human being. If I want to see a friend in the middle of the day, I do it. If I want to take a 3 hour lunch, I do it. When someone 8 time zones away answers a question I asked earlier at my 1AM, and I’m awake and see it, I’m excited to learn the new whatever thing, and may take an hour (or three!) to chat with them about it. Everything I do in life I have opted into and enjoy. I gain nothing by firewalling some parts of it from other parts. I have tried every modality of managing work and personal life and this one is by far —- by far —- the best one for me. The notion that there is a work laptop and a personal laptop and naer the twain shall meet is a complete anachronism. It’s fine if that separation helps other people but it actively hurts me.

50 5y ago
For some odd reason, I instantly thought of Foucault's idea of biopower[1][2] after reading your comment as a possible counterpoint, despite not being well-versed in the subject. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biopower https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biopower [2]: https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/8237/8/Review%20article%20-%20When%20life%20itself%20goes%20to%20work%20-%20Reviewing%20shifts%20in%20organizational%20life%20through%20the%20lens%20of%20biopower.pdf https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/8237/8/Review%20article%20-%20...
- sagichmal 5y ago
  That’s fun! Yeah, I buy it, but to the extent it works as a counterargument I’d say it’s actually more of an inevitability.
jjav 5y ago
> The notion that there is a work laptop and a personal laptop and naer the twain shall meet is a complete anachronism. It’s fine if that separation helps other people but it actively hurts me. Wow.. All I can suggest is think through the consequences. Unless you work for yourself or a very tiny startup, your employer is monitoring everything you do and store on the work computer. You may also get cut off at any moment with zero notice if there are layoffs. If you had any personal content there, you've lost it. Also, depending on where you live, but it can also mean now the company has a strong ownership claim to anything and everything you do in side projects since it is being done on company equipment.
- midasuni 5y ago
  I work for a large company, I have a desktop machine, I fail to see how the company would have access to it (assuming they aren’t using any zero day exploits etc to attack it). They don’t have my private ssh key so can’t ssh in, it sits on my desk at home so they have no physical access. It came straight from the factory and I installed vanilla Ubuntu on it.
  - 5560675260 5y ago
    Not your case, obviously, but there is a plethora of management software (like Workspace One) that is mandated in some companies.
  - jjav 5y ago
    > It came straight from the factory and I installed vanilla Ubuntu on it. In that case hopefully not but as seen elsewhere in this thread, for other OSs they can fully own it even if shipped factory direct. Unless manufacturers are putting these spyware hooks directly into the firmware? Haven't heard of that yet, but those things change.
- oauea 5y ago
  This is such a hilariously American post. I realize most of this forum is American, but still. :-)
  - sagichmal 5y ago
    I know, right ;)
  - ghaff 5y ago
    And it's not really representative of the US. I work for anything but a tiny startup on a personal MacBook and no one is monitoring everything I do.
    - jjav 5y ago
      > on a personal MacBook and no one is monitoring everything I do Well you said personal MacBook, this topic is about work laptop or phone. These days (sadly) for any non-small company, all work computers and phones have remote control spyware. If you think that's not the case in your large company, you're probably wrong. At a recent medium size engineering company, I was constantly surprised how even extremely technical engineers in the company didn't realize all the company spyware that is running on their laptop.

50 5y ago

For some odd reason, I instantly thought of Foucault's idea of biopower[1][2] after reading your comment as a possible counterpoint, despite not being well-versed in the subject. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biopower https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biopower [2]: https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/8237/8/Review%20article%20-%20When%20life%20itself%20goes%20to%20work%20-%20Reviewing%20shifts%20in%20organizational%20life%20through%20the%20lens%20of%20biopower.pdf https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/8237/8/Review%20article%20-%20...

sagichmal 5y ago
That’s fun! Yeah, I buy it, but to the extent it works as a counterargument I’d say it’s actually more of an inevitability.

jjav 5y ago

> The notion that there is a work laptop and a personal laptop and naer the twain shall meet is a complete anachronism. It’s fine if that separation helps other people but it actively hurts me. Wow.. All I can suggest is think through the consequences. Unless you work for yourself or a very tiny startup, your employer is monitoring everything you do and store on the work computer. You may also get cut off at any moment with zero notice if there are layoffs. If you had any personal content there, you've lost it. Also, depending on where you live, but it can also mean now the company has a strong ownership claim to anything and everything you do in side projects since it is being done on company equipment.

midasuni 5y ago
I work for a large company, I have a desktop machine, I fail to see how the company would have access to it (assuming they aren’t using any zero day exploits etc to attack it). They don’t have my private ssh key so can’t ssh in, it sits on my desk at home so they have no physical access. It came straight from the factory and I installed vanilla Ubuntu on it.
- 5560675260 5y ago
  Not your case, obviously, but there is a plethora of management software (like Workspace One) that is mandated in some companies.
- jjav 5y ago
  > It came straight from the factory and I installed vanilla Ubuntu on it. In that case hopefully not but as seen elsewhere in this thread, for other OSs they can fully own it even if shipped factory direct. Unless manufacturers are putting these spyware hooks directly into the firmware? Haven't heard of that yet, but those things change.
oauea 5y ago
This is such a hilariously American post. I realize most of this forum is American, but still. :-)
- sagichmal 5y ago
  I know, right ;)
- ghaff 5y ago
  And it's not really representative of the US. I work for anything but a tiny startup on a personal MacBook and no one is monitoring everything I do.
  - jjav 5y ago
    > on a personal MacBook and no one is monitoring everything I do Well you said personal MacBook, this topic is about work laptop or phone. These days (sadly) for any non-small company, all work computers and phones have remote control spyware. If you think that's not the case in your large company, you're probably wrong. At a recent medium size engineering company, I was constantly surprised how even extremely technical engineers in the company didn't realize all the company spyware that is running on their laptop.