Comment by tomashubelbauer

Dr is the big one I've seen, from an ops side. If anyone with a laptop that can work remotely takes it home and the building burns down, well your company can still mostly work until replicated.

Not my idea, not my decision, but someone must have weighed the costs of laptop w/docks vs desktops and risk of one site going offline for a few weeks and decided it was worth it. For a finance company, I guess those days could carry a lot of cash flow if not regulatory risks as well which could help push the laptop argument.

I really liked the model laptops we were deploying and how the push allowed us to clear out some real old desktops. It was helpful to be mobile but I did keep an old desktop at my desk with tools and more that I could remote to from another desk or from home to do things on site.

I believe it's partially with the quantity of theft/damage (i.e. a fire) that could occur if all laptops are left in a single location overnight.

A theft at the office, could result in dozens of computers going missing.

A theft a single employee's home, is likely limited to a very small amount of devices.

I agree, I meant to address the point the grandparent made about what grade you could possibly need as a software developer which I read as implying that surely you must be good to go with just a laptop. And I wanted to bring attention to the fact that for many developers, "gear" would be that specific work laptop, not any given laptop. So it's not like there would be no disruption, you still need to grab it in advance to work from home.

I put that restriction on myself, a selection of reasons follows: I don't use AV software but my employer requires it on machines in its domain, I won't allow remote management of my personal hardware but my employer uses remote management for wiping lost devices, and it helps to maintain a clear separation between personal and work time. All of the requirements my employer places on its hardware are reasonable for work hardware and I'm not opposed to these measures, but that's why IMO work hardware needs to remain work hardware - you can't compartmentalize a single device so that say an accidental remote wipe only affects your work files on the machine / phone.

It's a really, really good practice, whether or not one's firm mandates it. An employer has every right — moral everywhere, legal many places — to monitor your usage of its hardware, software and networks, which implies that if you are doing personal things (say, your finances, or even social networking) that it would be exposed to your passwords and activity.

Meanwhile, you have a duty to be responsible with your employer's data. Your employer can secure its own hardware, but it cannot secure resources you own — which means that if you use your own hardware & software to work with your employer's data that any breach is your fault.

Given those realities, I prefer to use my employer-issued hardware, software & network for my employer's work, and my hardware, software & network for my own purposes. That way my employer is secured from my mistakes, and I am secured from my employer's mistakes (or nefariousness).