Working from home tech

[Wineloffa]

Hi

Can I please have your opinions on this? I’ve been working from home since March 2020 using a borrowed company laptop. I have recently secured a temporary internal promotion so I’m moving out of my current department for one year. I have been instructed to give my laptop to the agency worker who is filling my place while I’m gone and as there’s a waiting list for a loan laptop, they can’t offer me a replacement.

Today IT advised me to go into the office and take home an entire PC. They have also offered to provide with me a network cable of required length to connect to my router as the PCs aren’t WiFi enabled.

Our WiFi router is on the ground floor and the room I use as an office is on the 2nd floor of our house so obviously running a wire this distance is totally unsafe /impractical. I also don’t want this big piece of kit in my house which I can’t move around.

Also concerned that when we do return to the office on a phased return, I may have to lug the entire thing between my house and the office?

Anyway, tonight I’ve decided to bite the bullet and purchase my own laptop. AIBU to feel angry and unsupported over this and is my company out of order to treat employees like this? Or am I being a bit of a princess? Thanks

By all means feel angry but sadly I think many were treated like this. DP and I have, in the past 15 months spent nearly £1500 on equipment for us to both teach from home, including new laptops, tablet, significant upgrade to the internet that could handle both of us being live at the same time.

It is absolutely shit.

People at my office have had to have desktop computers working from home. The company wasn't set up for WFH activity. Have you checked you can use your own laptop as we wouldn't be able to. It's not great but not all companies can spend thousands getting laptops out to everyone

Thanks for your reply. Sorry you’ve been treated like that, we have also recently upgraded to high speed broadband as DH is also wfh and we do a lot of calls each day. I agree, it’s absolutely shit that this is all being thrown back on employees..

You can buy a thing that plugs into your router and the mains and the other end plugs into the mains and your PC. Costs about £30, cheaper than a laptop. That's what I use for my PC which is miles from my router. They work very well, I've not had any problems. I just went into my local computer shop, described it as above, they knew what I meant and tadaaa, I was online! I'd recommend trying that first on your company pc instead of buying a laptop that they may not allow you to use.

Powerline adaptors is what OldTinHat is describing. You can get them on Amazon, Argos and other places.

Other people in our company use their own laptops so it should be ok. If not, I’ll look into that extension Oldtinhat. Thanks

It's a bit give and take to be honest, a simple pass through plug from amazon will help the situation and you should be able to get your employer to pay for it, costs around £20, even if they don't, it is far cheaper than buying a laptop and will save the inevitble time raising tickets on the IT system because you expect systems to just work because you have bought a new laptop.