Should Employees Buy Their Own Computers?

Local ID10T writes "Data security vs. productivity. We have all heard the arguments. Most of us use some of our personal equipment for work, but is it a good idea? 'You are at work. Your computer is five years old, runs Windows XP. Your company phone has a tiny screen and doesn't know what the internet is. Idling at home is a snazzy, super-fast laptop, and your own smartphone is barred from accessing work e-mail. There's a reason for that: IT provisioning is an expensive business. Companies can struggle to keep up with the constant rate of technological change. The devices employees have at home and in their pockets are often far more powerful than those provided for them. So what if you let your staff use their own equipment?' Companies such as Microsoft, Intel, Kraft, Citrix, and global law firm SNR Denton seem to think it's a decent idea."

Comments

Bad idea.

[commodore64_love]

Having email on your phone, or your computer, gives the company authorization to scan the whole thing including your personal data. That was already ruled in court.

I'd sooner keep my work and life separate, and that includes my gadgets.

Re:Bad idea.

[vux984]

huh... not if it's YOUR property

Agreed.

However, as soon as you enter into an agreement with the company wherein you are expected to provide your own computer for work, they are likely going to require that they have SOME control over it. And odds are that 'some control' may prove to be close to 'total control'.

They may need to audit that you have up to date antivirus, they may feel they need to scan it for sensitive documents, licensing compliance, and other company IT/security related stuff. If the company gets sued, they may need to turn YOUR computer over as evidence.

that YOU pay for
Often if they have you using your equipment, you get some sort of compensation. This is usually spelled out in a contract. That contract may contain all kinds of terms and conditions...

Good for everybody but the IT guy?

[Skarecrow77]

That's just what I want, to support 30 or 40 different models, brands, or hell even architectures.

To say nothing of when their own personal laptop that they used to surf horse porn last night brings some nasty viruses to work to test the corporate network.

And finally, what happens when I tell them "Sorry, you're going to need to downgrade your os/office suite/creativity suite/whatever to be compatable with the tools we've already paid thousands of dollars for and aren't going to get a new license just for your special snowflake hardware there".

No thanks. I'm happy with standardized hardware. if you keep facebook and yahoo messenger off it (thank god for corporate virus protection that can prevent unauthorized installers/msi files), it'll run nice and quick.

Seriously, a 5 year old pendium D with 2gb of ram running XP will tear the fuck out of office 2003 or 2007. This is work. Do work.

step one: allow them to do so

[Surt]

2: Require them to do so.
3: Don't pay them to do so.
4: Profit!

They're call consultants

[ArhcAngel]

Aren't people who use all of their own equipment to do a job called consultants? I'll happily use my equipment but you will pay for the privilege.

Re:Nah

[nospam007]

People who bring their own tools are called contractors, not employees.

Compter vs Salary

[RichMan]

Your company needs to seriously rebalance its internal strucutres if the productivity of a >$50k salaray employee is being impacted by the failure to make a yearly $2k investment in hardware. The simple numbers say a 5% increase in employee productivity justifies the expense.

If the problem is staff funding vs IT funding the managers need to escalate it. Save on the staff funding by doing the IT funding. If the company can't do the math and do the rebalancing then it is a bad corporate structure.

Re:NO!

[xdroop]

Do you know why IT folks hate personal devices? It is because it isn't IT's. We cannot make rules over what you can or cannot do with your equipment. We can't tell you not to download spyware. We can't tell you not to let your teenage daughter install cute cursor packs. We can't make you buy decent (or any!) anti-virus or security software or force you to stay up-to-date with patches.

And what plusses are brought by personal equipment? Well, we are now on the hook to support your own weird applications, like some graphics package that was downloaded off a Russian server and is entirely in Korean(*). We are now on the hook for keeping your eight-year old second hand clone (built by your son's super intelligent friend) running(*). We have to get the company VPN solution working with your weird combination of hardware and software(*). We are now encouraged to install "field evaluation copies" of corporate software(*) so you can do your job when your not-entirely-compatible open source package(*) causes hilarity.

And, when you ignore all this and corporate security is compromised and thousands of pieces of private data are "accidentally circulated more widely than initially intended", it is OUR ass on the line.(**) Frankly, if I'm the one getting canned when it doesn't work, it's MY F***ING network.

You bringing your equipment in may save you time, but it doesn't save the company any money.

(*) = actually happened to me.

(**) == happened to someone I know.