Bring Your Own
Have Laptop, Will Travel.
Once, when I started at a new job, someone jokingly suggested that I should have brought my own “tools”, since they didn’t seem to have a workstation for me. I ended up building one from spare parts my first day, and that should have been a warning of things to come. But, now, it seems, that this is a more common thing, at least in Australia. According to this article on AustralianIT, there’s a growing trend down under that employers requiring new hires to supply their own laptop, and the new users seem to prefer it! Frankly, it seems like a security and resource management nightmare, but, whatever works, I guess.
I wonder how long before that happens here in the States?
Are they able to spy on what the employee does on their own computer while at work they way they are doing here? I suppose if not it’s ok, but I wouldn’t want an employer to have access to everything I do online.
Comment by Cheri — 9/10/2007 @ 1:01 pm
Well, that was always my objection to this, as a network admin. If they brought their own computer, then I didn’t think it was right or good management to load software of ANY kind on it. If there was a license we paid for, there was no way we could guarantee that they’d take it off. And, it didn’t seem morally correct for us to install monitoring software on their PC.
I think it’s a bad idea, frankly. But, then, who ever listens to the guys who have to implement the solutions?
Comment by the Network Geek — 9/10/2007 @ 9:20 pm