Use of personal laptop to work from home

19 Comments

1. AnonymousJanuary 7,2025 at 1:02PM UTC

   Hi Friend, I'm a Seasoned Cyber professional. I say, please, for the love of all that is good, don't do it.

   While there will be a claim that they won't be able to see anything on your machine, the cyber team can. BYOD is not safe for your privacy nor will the device be safe from seizure if there is a lawsuit.

   If they insist, buy a $200 laptop and write it off as a business expense.

   Love and respect! Good luck

2. JoAnna BlackJanuary 7,2025 at 2:28PM UTC

   Agree except most employee expenses are not tax deductible i.e. you cannot write them off if you are a W2 employee

3. AnonymousJanuary 7,2025 at 3:34PM UTC

   25 years years in tech, if you are using a secure VPN tunnel with a token to connect to a virtualized desktop for work - the 'cyber team' cannot see anything on the user's local machine, unless it is voluntarily shared via ZOOM or WebEx.

4. AnonymousJanuary 10,2025 at 8:56PM UTC

   Funny. Can you explain how the organization knows if the laptop being used is up-to-date and using an approved operating system?

   Exactly!

5. AnonymousJanuary 11,2025 at 6:42PM UTC

   If you are connecting via a company specific VPN - you will effectively be using a virtual Windows session (via something like VMWare), hosted by your workplace. Your local laptop will effectively be a 'dumb terminal' in such a scenario.

6. AnonymousJanuary 8,2025 at 1:28PM UTC

   Is this true even if you're not connected into their network and just logging in via internet sites? Like logging into Outlook on the web or a site on the web?

7. AnonymousJanuary 10,2025 at 8:53PM UTC

   If it touches their network, it is game for seizure.

8. AnonymousJanuary 7,2025 at 1:33PM UTC

   I agree, buy a cheap laptop if you must use your own device. We allow BYOD for phones and you can sign into your Microsoft 365 work account from just about any computer, but their are rules and safeguards that have to be enabled on those devices . The fine print of the BYOD agreement states, they have a right to Wipe your device clean if you quit, lose the device or they think that it is compromised. That means any personal documents, pictures, etc. are gone.

9. AnonymousJanuary 7,2025 at 2:30PM UTC

   My previous company had this same policy about being able to wipe your phone if you use it for work. It actually happened accidentally when an IT person was trying to wipe one employee's phone and ended up doing it to ALL employees by mistake.

10. AnonymousJanuary 7,2025 at 1:46PM UTC

    I would never do that.

11. AnonymousJanuary 7,2025 at 2:31PM UTC

    I've done it. However, I don't let them control my laptop. In addition, they eventually got the budget to give me a labtop.

12. AnonymousJanuary 7,2025 at 3:14PM UTC

    If you can log on without signing an agreement allowing your company to wipe your device or load any software that will cross over into your own stuff then it’s OK. Most IT professionals won’t support anything less than policies which give them ownership over all activities on any device that touches the company’s business. In those cases it’s a hard no for me. My stand is who owns the device owns its use so if a company wants total control they have to buy the device. Posts like those on here on FGB are none of their business.

13. AnonymousJanuary 7,2025 at 3:25PM UTC

    It would be better if you could find a cheap laptop or if your company's software requirements (like Office products and Zoom) will run on Chrome OS; some nice and fairly cheap Chromebooks are out there. Use that for your work stuff, and keep everything separate. Question: Do they allow you to bring your personal laptop to work and connect to the company's network? If not, then using your own would be a hard no because it is the same problem. The person below who talked about making sure they don't want supporting software that could potentially track your usage or require access to your personal computer while you're using it was spot on.

14. Joan Williams, Senior Talent Acquisition SpecialistJanuary 7,2025 at 10:27PM UTC

    Because of secruity concerns my company would never let us do this.

15. AnonymousJanuary 8,2025 at 1:23PM UTC

    I use my personal laptop for work stuff on occasion. There are certain things I have to be logged into the VPN to access that run off their servers, but much of the work is internet based and I can log into it from anywhere.

    And I DO have a work laptop (I work from home), but this summer I was nursing a shoulder injury that meant sitting at a desk was painful after a time and I got tired of lugging the work laptop back and forth from upstairs to down, having to plug it all back into the monitor, etc. upstairs. So when I needed a break from the desk, I used my personal laptop downstairs.

    The company has no access to my personal computer however as I don't VPN into their system on it.

    You could ask them about the possibility of a laptop though and I'd definitely ask about that before using your own equipment.

16. Elizabyth HarringtonJanuary 8,2025 at 3:29PM UTC

    Don't do it. If your company gets into any legal issues, (all of) the contents of your personal computer can be introduced as evidence. Keep those lines between company and personal VERY clearly defined.

17. Leader411953January 8,2025 at 4:22PM UTC

    BIG NO NO! From the company's standpoint, it's a huge security risk. They wouldn't have to spend much on a laptop. It would protect both you and the company.

18. AnonymousJanuary 8,2025 at 6:17PM UTC

    Keep all your work, emails, etc. on a separate hard drive.

    This way you can track your work product and n0t have to turn your laptop for someone to verify, etc.

19. AnonymousJanuary 8,2025 at 10:33PM UTC

    Nope (I'm HR). I'd actually encourage people to push for the company to provide a mobile phone, too, rather than doing BYOD (when the position requires the regular use of a phone). It just gets messy when a departure happens. Besides, me personally, I prefer to keep my work devices and personal devices separate. I carry two phones (I went down to one at one time, but I got burned on that).

    Now, all that said, if they say you have to use your own laptop to work at home, I'd respond with "I don't have one."