> I've used my company laptops for my personal life for the last 15 years.

Counterpoint: I've been completely and utterly allergic to opening anything personal from any company system for longer than that.

Same here.

I get MDM profile updates from IT on my work machine. One time they auto-installed a cloud backup service and sent out a company-wide email after they already did it. Something like: “Now nobody has to deal with lost data. You’re welcome!”

Huge backlash from employees on that move. But I get both perspectives. These are work machines, and a mundane accident with the equipment shouldn’t incur significant losses to the business.

But apart from the potential loss of personal privacy, it feels wrong. Especially so, when you’re looking for other jobs.

I travel with a HP Spectre x360 for personal stuff. It is barely a weight or bulk addition compared to my work machine.

When I was on the road all the time I also had separate phones to ensure I never got stuck with a dead phone.

lol

do you at least dual boot?

have a separate user account?

I guess its fine as long as your computer doesn't have the credentials to the company slush fund.

Friend of mine I traveled with carried 3 macbooks with her: school issued, work issued, and personal. They had different software licenses tied to the machine, whadyagonnado?

I hope this is satire.

No, it's not satire! I use a separate chrome profile for my personal life, and I keep my personal files in google drive. I'm not sure what the fuss is about?

Me too, but I have to say there is literally nothing sensible I have access to, only git repos without secrets and useless code.

I think you are joking to bait us. At least use a VM running a VPN within it. It won't protect you from screen captures or keyloggers your employer put on your machine, but it will segregate files and network activity.

I regularly use my work laptop for unrelated purposes. Working from home has encouraged this behavior.

I know they monitor some things because they are upfront about it: Chrome says it's company managed, and there is an antivirus and some VPN software that must be always one.

But why do I care? They don't crack down on us, and know everyone plays games or visits non-work-related sites, watches YouTube, or even do homework on these laptops.

I'm not going to work for the competition using the company's laptop, so why worry?

Nope, not joking. I use a separate chrome profile for my personal life, and I keep my personal files in google drive. Even if your employer is monitoring you (which I doubt), what are you doing that you think will be so interesting to them?

It is not that weird. For several jobs now I got a laptop from work and it was agreed upon beforehand that I could install Linux on it. I trust a machine that I installed myself.

Believe it or not, not everyone gets a work-issued laptop (although this might be more common with hourly contractors)