I view those as separate things. I have a home ESXi server which I use to host all my own stuff. I don't consider that a lab as such. It's just my home product

I view those as separate things. I have a home ESXi server which I use to host all my own stuff. I don't consider that a lab as such. It's just my home production infrastructure. And then I have another ESXi which hosts the stuff I'm testing for work, and only work. In my work home lab I have full access which I don't do even in the testing environment at work due to fragmentation of responsibilities. Or if I do I step on people's toes when trying stuff out that belongs to their realm. Most things are interconnected so testing something at work usually gets slowed down by the need to involve other people who don't always have time or interest. That's where my own lab comes in. It's also a lot faster due to not needing VPN and having to deal with servers halfway across the world. And not having to deal with the evil SSL-MITM Internet proxy at work saves me SO much time.. Of course that work needs to be done to put it in production but a lot of stuff never makes it to that stage and then figuring how to smooth things with the proxy is just wasted effort.