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Ask HN: Do you use your work computer for personal stuff?

2 points by photonios ↗ HN
The question is rather broad. Do you have a personal conputer besides the one provided by your employer? If not, to what extend do you use your work computer for personal things such as chats, banking and side projects?

Personally, I always had a big and powerful work station at home which I would use. I also had a laptop for when I travelled. Until, I got hired by a company which gave me a powerful Macbook Pro. Ever since, I rarely use my personal computer and almost always use my Macbook. I take it on holidays, I use it for side projects etc. When I first got hired, I asked whether this was allowed. The answer was that they don’t care and that I should treat it as my own. With the condition that if it breaks, I pay. Mind you, I work for a small startup. The laptop came brand new and I unboxed it myself. My employer never had access to it.

I am curious to see how others do this and whether this is common practice.

7 comments

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dozzie
> Do you have a personal conputer besides the one provided by your employer?

If you don't, it's very stupid (unless you carefully considered the situation, obviously). You tie yourself this way to your current employer and changing jobs will be a big hassle.

The same stands for every piece of equipment provided by your employer, be it a computer, phone (or phone number), car, oscilloscope, or anything else. Don't rely for personal purposes on employer's hardware.

photonios
What if you're operating on the assumption that every employer gives you some form of laptop to work on then you're good to go. This assumes you don't do too much customisation. For me this works since I mainly use vim, so keeping my dotfiles in a repo is enough to transfer to another computer.
dozzie
> What if you're operating on the assumption that every employer gives you some form of laptop to work on then you're good to go.

If you're operating on this assumption and also on the assumption that you don't have any personal data whatsoever, barring maybe a few text configs.

twobyfour
I avoid using my work computer for personal purposes for reasons of both professionalism and privacy. I don't care what the company says about the computer. Unless they're outright giving it to me, it's company property. And every employment contract I've ever signed says a) company property is not to be used for personal purposes and b) the company will do as it sees fit with the data that's on company property.

I would never do things like banking on a work computer. I only use the work computer for online shopping on occasions that I need something personal for the office (say, snacks or a new mug). I open personal email on it only in a browser (I'll occasionally respond to something there that's too long to type out on a phone and can't wait till later). I don't really use social media in general, but will occasionally visit LinkedIn on the work computer because that's sort of work-related. Personal chats during work hours (if necessary) are conducted on my phone.

Everything else waits till I get home. For the privacy and security of a computer that belongs properly to me.

photonios
Isn't it inconvenient to only use your phones for chats? During the day, I have quite a bit of chatter with my girlfriends, random friends, family. I'd hate to have to grab my phone to be able to quickly reply.

EDIT: Are you in the US? I've been in the industry (in Europe) for a while and I've never seen an employment contract that said anything like that.

twobyfour
Yes, I'm in the US.

I try to avoid chatter during the day. It distracts too much from deep work. I do most of my chatting on the way to and from the kitchen or restroom. And my phone is never out of arm's reach.

dataminded
It depends on the employment contract. Some employers in the past have claimed via the contract that they own all IP for anything built on their tools.