New job - requires a laptop purchase

I just got a job! The pay sucks but it is close to home but I will be getting my hands dirty with domain controllers and IIS servers, some linux, monitoring bandwidth, some desktop support. Overall a few things I really want to work with.

There were a couple things that came up that felt odd.

One thing was I got the job offer right then and there! That never happened to me before, well actually a crappy phone sales job in college did the same thing but it was total crap, not a company that deals with fortune 100 companies as its clients. I thought I was doing well but I have had way better interviews and didn't get the job.

The other thing that came up in the interview, there was a lot of things covered, but was purchasing a laptop for company use. As in Me buying a laptop and using it for company business. I have never heard of employees having to buy their own laptop for daily use. My current personal laptop works fine. I did not ask if I could use one I already own but I been laid off for a while now so wont rock the boat plus a new laptop would be kinda nice.

Any thoughts on this?

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Comments

networker050184

Sounds strange to me. If I bought my own laptop I sure wouldn't let them touch it.

erpadmin

That is definitely some bootleg crap.

When I started my probationary period, I was required to work from home. However, I had to insist on receiving my own laptop. They said if you pass the probationary period you will get one. I was thinking, "ok, fair enough..." Probie periods are slept through and when I wake up it's over. (When I go through one, I go to work sick if I actually am sick....I wake up super early to make it to work on time...lateness/sick days don't even fall in my vocabulary...especially when a probie period is 4 months...)

When I woke up, I got the laptop (and a phone....).

I don't understand why a company wouldn't buy one as they could just write off the expense during tax time....

Seriously, I know it's rough, but I would seriously RUN, not walk away from this "offer." Sounds very fugazi to me.

Forsaken_GA

DarthLysis wrote: »

I just got a job! The pay sucks but it is close to home but I will be getting my hands dirty with domain controllers and IIS servers, some linux, monitoring bandwidth, some desktop support. Overall a few things I really want to work with.

There were a couple things that came up that felt odd.

One thing was I got the job offer right then and there! That never happened to me before, well actually a crappy phone sales job in college did the same thing but it was total crap, not a company that deals with fortune 100 companies as its clients. I thought I was doing well but I have had way better interviews and didn't get the job.

The other thing that came up in the interview, there was a lot of things covered, but was purchasing a laptop for company use. As in Me buying a laptop and using it for company business. I have never heard of employees having to buy their own laptop for daily use. My current personal laptop works fine. I did not ask if I could use one I already own but I been laid off for a while now so wont rock the boat plus a new laptop would be kinda nice.

Any thoughts on this?

Depends. Are they setting you up as a full time employee, or as a contractor? If the latter, it's not uncommon to require a contractor to bring their tools.

chrisone

if you were a network engineer then yes every network engineer needs a laptop for obvious reasons, whether purchased on your own or given by company.

When i got hired at my current job they gave me the option to order a laptop or use my own. So instead of taking a crappy dell business laptop i just used my own dell studio xps. Its like working at home away from home

plus no one puts any **** or touches my laptop because its my own personal equipment. So absolutely hands off! lol

DarthLysis

I was hit with so many questions. I was grilled by 2 mangers and the ceo. Tons of general and technical, it was very friendly and somewhat fun actually. I am hoping somehow I misunderstood about me buying the laptop. I was told before the interview I would be within the office for a hour but it was almost 2 hours from the time I started talking to people. The company has a large % of employees who are sales and some development who work off site so maybe I misunderstood. It was a tough interview in many ways.

@erpadmin part of me thought that still thinks that. I have been laid off for most of a year now. If I pass on a valid job offer I can lose my unemployment insurance. I want to work. It is doing things I know and want to know. I think it could be fugazi as well, but I think it will be easier to get a job if I have a job already. There are some other things that I don't really like and haven't mentioned, but a job that pays to me learn things that I am trying to learn by myself is tough to pass on. Plus after taxes I will be bringing in a little over $1000 a month more than I am now.

@Forsaken_Ga it is full time. Actually I was told upfront that the first two months would be 45 to 50 hours a week. They said it would be very tough and a real challenge. I wonder if they do a hire then fire thing if you don't meet exspectations? At least the commutes should be 30 minutes (in good weather) 35 minutes today with some icy spots.

Man like Han Solo said, I have a bad feeling about this!

eMeS

I read a Gartner report a couple of years ago where one of their analysts was predicting that into the 2010's it was going to become more and more common for corporations to require employee to purchase their own equipment.

I also remember thinking it was total nonsense. It makes zero sense to me for an organization to sacrifice the depreciation.

Your post here is the first case I've heard of a potential full-time employee being asked to purchase their own laptop. Not sure how I'd feel were I put in this position. Serious alarm bells would raise if they told me that I had to purchase it from them.

That leads to a question..is the job offer conditional in any way? It's not clear from your post whether the offer was in writing. I would want it in writing with any conditions of employment clearly stated.

Let's hope this isn't a trend, as this will lead to less standardization in organizations, which is exactly what most of them that I see don't need.

MS

gateway

So if this is going to be used in a corporate environment, are they going to issue you with an AV package to install since you will have to meet corporate licencing? I presume they also don't care if it's patched or not? Sounds a bit iffy to me.

Forsaken_GA

With the exception of the technical operations team (we're expected to know better than to let our personal machines get fragged up), our policy is that we don't allow non company laptops on the corporate network in any way shape or form, even via VPN. This is mostly to keep our idiot sales people and certain clueless executives from breaking things more than they already do. Not a week goes by that I don't have to hunt down which user has/had a given IP and shut it's port off because someone did something stupid and got their machine infected and it's now trying to talk to something in the outside world that it shouldn't be.

With a company owned, standardized laptop, it's a simple matter for a tech to go pick it up, scan it, and either remediate the problem, or reimage it.

Try confiscating a users personal property when they manage to get it infected. It doesn't go over well.

tpatt100

At my last job the company FedEx me a box containing a laptop, blackberry and a bunch of paperwork plus a company handbook. I think some day it will be "just the norm" to assume if you take a job you will have a computer and phone with unlimited long distance like employers assume you will have a car to get to work.

By then though I am assuming everything will be done through web portals, VM machines they push to you, etc.

DarthLysis

I got the skinny on this. It is a laptop purchase plan.

You can use the company issued piece of crap laptop or buy your own.

The company pays a portion of the cost of the laptop. No exact % but was told as an example if I pay $200 a month to lease it the company might pay 125 to $150 of it, there is some formula. After 2 years you actually own it. I assume if you leave or are fired before the 2 years you lose the laptop. I will use the piece of crap company issue. I did not ask if I pay for the laptop 100% up front if I still have to wait 2 years for it to become mine.

The job is a network/desktop support and whatever other crap the heap on you but a job.
I really honestly wanted to walk out the first day but I can’t as I need the money, and I am not that type of person. But I have a job and that will allow me to get caught up on some bills and let me gain some additional back office side of things experience.

After some listening to other employees it looks like a lot of people are not happy. Two peoples last day was yesterday and the person I am replacing is leaving today. The position I take over is completely screwed up (documentation wise, and others) and I really expect to struggle for a while but with struggle there comes knowledge! Plus many things to change to my liking.

I can’t wait to find another job but for now it is slowing the my financial bleeding.

erpadmin

DarthLysis wrote: »

I got the skinny on this. It is a laptop purchase plan.

You can use the company issued piece of crap laptop or buy your own.

The company pays a portion of the cost of the laptop. No exact % but was told as an example if I pay $200 a month to lease it the company might pay 125 to $150 of it, there is some formula. After 2 years you actually own it. I assume if you leave or are fired before the 2 years you lose the laptop. I will use the piece of crap company issue. I did not ask if I pay for the laptop 100% up front if I still have to wait 2 years for it to become mine.

The job is a network/desktop support and whatever other crap the heap on you but a job.
I really honestly wanted to walk out the first day but I can’t as I need the money, and I am not that type of person. But I have a job and that will allow me to get caught up on some bills and let me gain some additional back office side of things experience.

After some listening to other employees it looks like a lot of people are not happy. Two peoples last day was yesterday and the person I am replacing is leaving today. The position I take over is completely screwed up (documentation wise, and others) and I really expect to struggle for a while but with struggle there comes knowledge! Plus many things to change to my liking.

I can’t wait to find another job but for now it is slowing the my financial bleeding.

Oh so you have a choice then between a "crappy" laptop or one that you purchase on your own that's not so crappy, and you are dealing with limited funds? Well, I guess the saying "beggars can't be choosers" certainly applies then.....

Listen, based on your current situation, take the job if you must, but don't buy a laptop if you have the option to take one from them...especially if you can bounce to something that is much better later on down the road. That money that you would have spent on a laptop could be best spent on bills and other things you need to spend money on (like perhaps clothes or something).

N2IT

tpatt100 wrote: »

At my last job the company FedEx me a box containing a laptop, blackberry and a bunch of paperwork plus a company handbook. I think some day it will be "just the norm" to assume if you take a job you will have a computer and phone with unlimited long distance like employers assume you will have a car to get to work.

By then though I am assuming everything will be done through web portals, VM machines they push to you, etc.

Makes sense to me.

DarthLysis

erpadmin wrote: »

Oh so you have a choice then between a "crappy" laptop or one that you purchase on your own that's not so crappy, and you are dealing with limited funds? Well, I guess the saying "beggars can't be choosers" certainly applies then.....

Listen, based on your current situation, take the job if you must, but don't buy a laptop if you have the option to take one from them...especially if you can bounce to something that is much better later on down the road. That money that you would have spent on a laptop could be best spent on bills and other things you need to spend money on (like perhaps clothes or something).

I have had worse company equiptment. My last job I had TWO Dell 505's with 1GB of RAM and 40GB hard drives. There were about 3 maybe 4 years old but they did work.

More cloths would be nice but what is actually really cool I can wear jeans every day.

keenon

I did years ago when i was doing network gear installs when I was first starting out. I did buy a used laptop as i was broke back then

themagicone

About 7-8 years ago I worked for a company that serviced car washes. Well I got into servicing the new line the company had and they needed laptops to fix. The company I worked for wouldn't buy me one or let me use one of the spare ones they had. I finally broke down and bought a cheappy to use. When I quite they wanted to go through it and inspect what I had on it. I told them without a court order you aren't touching anything. If I have to purchase it myself, it's mine and they have no right to tell me what's on it or inspect it. This is a plus to me as I value privacy and if they provide it you don't have any.