1

Does your company allow users to bring in their own equipment? ie. wireless keyboard/mouse, larger monitor etc…

Had one lady terminated and she called wanting ‘her’ LG speakers back and I told her since we did not allow outside equipment it must belong to the company.

Aside from the COsomething bringing in their iPad wanting to ‘use it’ for work…

26 Spice ups
2

Our company does not allow users to bring in their own equipment. Just too dangerous.

3

That is a huge no over here.

4

+1 to what to as been already said.

I’ve worked at place that go both ways. In either case this kind of policy is hard to enforce with regards to keyboard and the like. People get really picky about plug in hardware. My current company does let users bring in their own plug in hardware to save money. It can be a real headache with drivers and the like.

So my point is…asset tracking is your best route for termination to find out true ownership of hardware. No policy is going to followed by everyone.

5

We have some users which have brought in speakers before, but overall it is preferred to keep your personal belongings at home. If a laptop must be brought in for some reason, it must be looked at by IT and scanned for viruses and to make sure there is some type of virus protection installed BEFORE it gets plugged into the network. Our wireless is password protected and the password is put in by IT, never given out.

6

Policy is one thing, What actually takes place is another.

Our policy does not allow it, but it is mostly for the situations you just described. If you bring in your own stuff for your office (pictures, books, etc) you need to clearly define it as yours.

If you bring in something of your own, we claim no responsibility for returning it to you. If you take the effort to 1) Check with the IT Department before plugging it into company property and 2) Check with your manager letting them know you brought in your own device for specific reasons.

If all that took place, and at the time of termination (not a week later) it was asked to be returned, there is a chance we would return it. However our policy is that anything that enters our office can be considered company property.

If you are at work, then your tools should be used for work purposes. If the tool is needed for your work, than it should be provided by the employer. If the tool is needed for your work, and your employer won’t supply it for you, and you are willing to supply it for yourself, you MUST go through the proper channels to define it as personal property in order to have an exception made to the policy.

7

+1 to the first posts.

we do have some who insist on ‘sneaking’ their stuff in and using it.

the most interesting was when i noticed a Garmin GPS on our network. It was not used by the agency, so it was summarily blocked from everything. Eventually a user came and complained that the internet was not working correctly. After several minutes of questions about the work laptop and all then answers indicating that the web access was not down, the user said it must be because her GPS cant download the update data. our data connections are burdened enough with legit business traffic, so i suggested she try the local coffee shop’s connection to update the GPS.

8

Awesome topic and has has been discussed at great length before. Somewhat divided as me as the IT person I do bring in my own laptop as honestly the equipment they provide me to do my Job is way old. But end users??? We have a public WiFi (VLAN’ed outside our main LAN) and if anybody brings in say an iPad or laptop, they get that and that is it…

9

Being that all of our users are long term employees, many do bring in their own equipment (speakers, keyboards, mice, etc). I require them to log the item in with me before doing so though.

I have even had some users bring in their own monitors, I guess they really wanted that nice 32 in LCD the company wouldn’t buy them.

It does not cause too much of a problem, and as long as they report it, they can take it if/when they leave.

Under no circumstances do I let them bring in their own software. If they insist, they must bring the packaging, license, media and everything to me, which I will hold on to for the duration of their employment. This usually discourages them, as the real reason is that they want to install it in multiple places, and once it is in my hands, they don’t get it back until it is removed from the computer.

Unfortunately I have to be a little soft on policy, as the owners insist on making policy that would not even come close to what I would want. and if I argue too much against something they want, they remind me who pays my check. so I make sure the poily is written, and signed by them (not me), and attach my objections…

10

Yeah - our people tend to be long term, so if they want to bring in personal gear, that’s fine.

In fact, we give them a fair bit of choice in the gear we buy from them along the way as well, as we’d prefer the company pay for it, within reason.

It’s yet to be an issue.

11

I don’t mind, but also take the stance of not supporting it. I usually buy 19" widescreens, I’ve had one user bring his 24" from home. A few have some nice speakers they brought. Heck, I brought my nice Logitech mouse from home because I don’t buy anything expensive here.

Personal computers, however, better not get plugged into the internal network, or they’ll be hearing from me. I have a guest wireless network, I don’t mind them using that.

12

Not supposed to, but they do anyway. Probably the biggest hassle is folks going out and buying their own laptops (why I don’t know).

13

We have a few people that bring in their own stuff, mostly laptops. MOST people are good about asking and generally as long as they have a quality, working, up-to-date anti virus on it I am ok with it. I’d rather have people use company owned computers rather than bringing in laptops but when your company does not provide laptops for outside sales people who sometimes work between two offices, at home, etc, I will live with it. I’ve also had a few people bring in their own keyboard and speakers (my boss included). If people ask for special items, wireless keyboard for example, if the boss will approve I’ll get it.

14

Yea, that could be a bad issue, especially if management has a liberal policy about it. I can just envision a user going out to the local WalMart and buying some piece of junk unit that will be lucky to even last the warranty period and then it is ‘your’ problem. Grrrrr…

rmuniz9336 wrote:

Not supposed to, but they do anyway. Probably the biggest hassle is folks going out and buying their own laptops (why I don’t know).

15

Users are not allowed to connect any personal item to a computer. If they want to bring in their iPod or cd player and list to music that is fine, but they can not charge it via PC or sync it to a PC.

16

Randomly, hardware shows up. When we find it, it is removed quickly and by the employee. One even brought his own printer in and hid it under his desk. He must not have known I run SpiceWorks… muahahahahaha! Popped right up on my screen as part of the lower toner message.

He even asked how we knew it was there when you couldn’t even see it. All this to avoid walking down to the end of his row to the main printer. Funny too as the main printers are all color, scan, copier, etc…

17

No Way! Equipment from home stays at home.

18

If it has a CPU, NO! It can’t be brought in.

If an employee wants to bring in a peripheral, that’s okay as long as I know about and insure compatibility.

They also have to agree that anything they bring in becomes company property. I don’t have the resources or desire to keep track of who belongs to what. We’re always willing to accept donations! :wink:

HTH

Ken

19

A few have asked over time about personal monitors,etc. But now, they don’t even ask. Always a big NO. I don’t allow it for a number of reasons.

20

I would really prefer that they left their personal stuff at home, but there are a handful that bring things like speakers and mice in. A couple have monitors in as well. My company has no set policy on it though.