I did that in my last job.

The computer they gave me was a piece of crap so I brought an older home computer to work.

And I did all of my work on that computer.

And at the end of the day I used that computer to mine cryptocurrency.

Made about 6,000 extra dollars.

Unethical? Yes. But me needing to use my own equipment to accomplish my work requirements was also unethical so I feel like it balances out.

If, as an employee, you offer your personal laptop or pay for work expenses out of pocket without asking to get it reimbursed, no functioning company will question it or bother.

If you need something for work and they won’t give it to you, then you can’t work. It’s as simple as that.

I don’t work in tech but I’d spend my own dime in a heartbeat on my own hardware and possibly even software if I spent any amount of time doing anything not strictly related to the work I’m performing for the employer. Kinda like how a mechanic is nothing without tools and most maintain their set. I’d want no ambiguity - I was using my stuff to do my stuff and employer has absolutely no say in how I utilize my stuff when I’m utilizing it for purposes unrelated to them, and there can be no claim that they are in any way even tangentially responsible in me doing anything aside from the stuff they are explicitly paying me to do. “We provided them with software and hardware so we feel entitled to some ownership” lol. If you give a corporate entity a chance to leave you bleeding and bankrupt in courts over a million dollar idea they’ll not blink an eye

I hate to say it but company data is most definitely on personal computers.

This is why stuff like adaptive MFA and DLP are a thing. What most people don’t know is if DLP is properly implemented the IT team/department have records of who, when, where, and what device were used to not just access/download data/files.

The problem is a lot of companies don’t properly implement DLP because it’s not a turn key solution. You need to properly classify your data first and that requires essentially a company wide audit with buy-in from all levels of management. After the classifications you can then implement restrictions and compensating controls.

Back in the day you could just block USB/network transfer, but if you have data accessible outside of a corporate network you then need to implement conditional access/adaptive MFA where only registered devices are permitted to access certain systems.

I had a discussion with an exec member at my office about this lately. My direct report’s laptop was failing (we produce videos) and renders were not happening. When they did, they took forever. I explained this was an expensive way to do business and he needed a laptop because he had started using his home battlestation for renders. For those who don’t know, rendering a lot of video content is a very good way to grind down your GPU.

I proposed that they offer him a $50/month stipend for the usage of his computer and not bother with a laptop since they had been dragging feet for months. To me this seems like a no-brainer. That’s enough money for the guy to be worth it but they also don’t have to spend $1200+ on a new computer at once. Everyone kind of wins.

I was told no because others don’t get a stipend. But they all have functioning work laptops! They choose to include their personal computers sometimes - they aren’t video editing mind you - but they don’t have to. My direct report didn’t have a functional piece of business hardware

Eventually his work laptop completely bit the dust and they relented, he’s got a decent laptop now. But man we wasted months on this shit.

Never cross contaminate your personal data and computing with the workplace.

I’ve refused equipment offers from employers because I didn’t want Windows touching my home network. Gotta keep up good hygiene.

Meanwhile, Teachers have been paying for students school supplies out of pocket for like 20 years because of lack of funding…

Not to say that this isn’t fucked up and stupid, it is. However, I kind of don’t feel that bad for knowledge workers who are getting paid enough to invest that kind of money in their personal setups to begin with. No offense, but they took that kind of job because of the kind of pay, and if they’re happy to be a capitalist pay pig and be exploited that’s their bag.

I feel bad for teachers because they actually provide value to society.

No offense but most of these Fortune 500 companies do more leeching on society than providing value to it.

Worker with a company for developing a solution for a blog generation front end as a wordpress plugin and I was not provided with an ai bot so I had to use claude on my own dime

I wouldn’t pay for an AI subscription but I have no problem using my own PC for work on the condition that they give me a VM to remote into. Mainly because I like using my three big monitors and the shitty laptops my previous employers provided are either underpowered or locked down to the point where multi-monitor support is really poor.

I do pay for tools that I use outside of work and if it’s something that helps me with my day job, I have no problem using it for that. That said, using AI to generate code is usually a waste of time. Unless it’s something really, really basic.

Our company does not allow you to use your private computer for anything work related because of security. If you want to work from home they buy you a laptop to use. Which really makes sense from a security point of view.

Mechanics and some plane Techs have always had to provide their own non-specialty tools. For me this included a computer until COVID hit. When we went back from furlough they announced they were allowing us to keep our own devices or use a company provided one. I didn’t like the initial company provided offering but once they started giving out surface pros I took my personal computer home.

My brother has close to $50K worth of tools and tool boxes. I have probably close to $10K in tools. I have a brother and a sister both who are CDL tractor trailer drivers and they basically had to buy their own rigs. I think there’s subsidies for that but I’d have to ask. Seems like plenty of blue collar workers invest heavily in the tools to do their jobs. It seems reasonable that while collar and tech workers would do the same. Not that they should have to. Just that they would because sometimes even the employer provided specialty tools don’t work for everyone. Just my two cents.

Wtf? My company just gave me a Dell laptop, i7 13800H, 32GB ram, 1tb nvme, etc

A computer like that is useful outside of work. I’d pay for it out of pocket if I had to.

I’ve always kept a strict separation between work and personal projects, including a personal laptop, accounts, and yes, paying for AI services. For a while, a few years ago, while commuting on the company shuttle, I even had my own MiFi cell access point and a laptop battery booster so I could work on my own projects on the bus and not be accused of using company resources.

Most employment contracts spell out that anything you create using company resources is the property of the company. Legally, they own everything that passes though their computers, software, and networks.

Also, many corporations run system monitoring services on their laptops and MDM mobile data management on mobile phones (for example JAMF on Apple devices). These monitor things like file access, copying, communications, and web access. This data is sent to central servers for processing and looking for anomalies based on pre-set rules. This might sound tin-foily, but it’s mandated by legal in a lot of companies, including small and medium sized ones.

If you want to use non-company data to do AI work, or develop a service or idea on your own, or even keep your text messages and email private, you’ll want to use your own equipment, accounts, and services.

Edit: also, if you get laid-off or fired, you’ll want to have a decent personal rig so you can continue working on your own projects while looking for work. Even if working on a novel on the side, suggest keeping everything off company systems.

Now you know how this has become a fortune company :)