Asked to take work laptop home but cannot work from home

[Old Greg]

On a retail bank tech upgrade project I was on many years ago, there was a member of the deployment team going out collecting up the old kit and putting it on eBay. I *think* they may have wiped the hard drive but can't be 100% sure...

A security guy at current client was doing something similar at car boot sales. He didn't remove the service desk phone number sticker and got caught when one of his buyers phoned for support.

[vetran]

Indeed supply a Kensington lock & leave in the office. That stays on their insurance. If they want you to take responsibility you might as well supply your PC and have something that actually runs properly.

Unless you have an autosafe in the car and a safe at home its not like you can keep it safe. I hate having to walk around with a laptop while checking into a hotel, especially a classy joint like the Thistle!

[SueEllen]

What kind of tulip places do you lot live in where you put laptops where children can trip over them and dogs pee on them? Or you leave them unattended at coffee shops?

[WTFH]

The converse side of the argument from all the disguised permies on here is that if you have a desk in the office with a set of drawers with your stuff in them, etc, how much of a contractor are you?

[unixman]

Indeed supply a Kensington lock & leave in the office. That stays on their insurance. If they want you to take responsibility you might as well supply your PC and have something that actually runs properly.

Unless you have an autosafe in the car and a safe at home its not like you can keep it safe. I hate having to walk around with a laptop while checking into a hotel, especially a classy joint like the Thistle!

If the client is concerned about laptop theft, they can supply their own Kensington locks in the office (many do), look after their own stuff, and check their own insurance. I am not carting their nasty laptop around the country, unless it is to WFH. Clients! Know your place!

[Mordac]

A security guy at current client was doing something similar at car boot sales. He didn't remove the service desk phone number sticker and got caught when one of his buyers phoned for support.

I had a client about 10 years ago where a soon-to-be-ex-IT-bod had done the same with some old servers. Several hundred thousand bank customers details ended up on e-bay. He got caught when the bloke who bought the offending server went straight to the press.

[vetran]

If the client is concerned about laptop theft, they can supply their own Kensington locks in the office (many do), look after their own stuff, and check their own insurance. I am not carting their nasty laptop around the country, unless it is to WFH. Clients! Know your place!

I have a couple of locks on me I take the first day clearly marked as mine.

When they say take it home I can reply "I will lock it up"
then when they say "we don't have a lock"
I can reply "I have one you can borrow for a week while you order one".
Lock it up with your lock then put an IT request in for a lock and a week or two later you have your lock back. They want a key so they don't damage the laptop if you get marched off site so they want to buy the lock.

Works like a charm.