40% of All Employees Use Their Own Laptop @Work? (!)

I guess I'm lucky that all the companies I've ever worked for - big and small - have taken care of all hardware I need to do my job.  Apparently, that's not the case everywhere, with as many as 40% of professionals surveyed stating they had to pay for a laptop they regularly carried.

Really?  From USA Today:

"Many employees — frustrated that their companies are unwilling to pay for the laptops, cellphones and other electronic devices that they want on the road — are spending their own money to get them.  Nearly 40% of professionals recently surveyed by researcher In-Stat paid for a laptop that they regularly carried."

I dug a little bit, but was unable to find the demographic breakdown of the companies that forced/allowed this to happen.  I was interested, because the biggest obstacles to allowing your staff to use their own equipment at work have traditionally been security and manageability considerations. I've worked with a lot of competent IT groups, and none of them - including the credible one I currently work with - would touch this situation with a 99 and a half foot pole.

Some employees would love to use their own laptops on the network (can you say Apple users?), even if the company is providing the standard issue Dell/ThinkPad/HP hardware.  Still, I think most of the 40% cited fall into one of two buckets - they either work for a very small company that doesn't buy hardware for their employees (or at least viable hardware), or they work for a company that doesn't have super strong IT.

Where companies have allowed staff-owned devices onto corporate networks, it has not been because those companies have solved the security issues, but rather because they have ignored them. The classic, we don't have standards, so we're not going to police it hard if you do it....

Which leads to all kinds of problems....like the one below...

Comments

[Alex]

I love my Mac and I am the only one who uses it in the office. It is my personal computer and I am basically in charge of anything graphical or media base (aka cool things). I don't think my company would have invested in one. They really did luck out on my having a Mac. PC can't do anything fun.

[JRC]

Sounds like companies that provide the basics, i.e., a desktop and the like, and if you prefer a laptop because you are frequently away from work then you are on your own. That is as frequent as the article says. Only directors and above get a laptop at my company, but you are always allowed to make the business case for a laptop and you'll probably get it.
My previous two employers only provided laptops to everybody to avoid these issues. You could take your laptops to meetings, etc and now the whole buildings are wireless so it is really a breeze to move around.

[Erik]

40% sounds really, really high. One guy in my current office (a small one) uses a Mac; the rest are corporate Dells. The last company I was at, one guy used his own computer; the rest were company Dells. I can't imagine that 40% of employees use their own computers.

[Tris]

What percentage of companies provide cell phones or PDAs to traveling employees? What method do they use for tracking business/personal use for IRS guidelines so that only business use is paid for tax free?

[Cheap Electronics]

think this is a great post. One thing that I find the most helpful is number five. Sometimes when I write, I just let the flow of the words and information come out so much that I loose the purpose. It’s only after editing when I realize what I’ve done.