AIBU to want to keep hold of my laptop during ML?

[1Catherine1]

This is the wrong forum really for this but since its due to my ML I thought I'd find the most well informed people here.

Firstly, from the "Maternity Matters - January 2011 Edition" from NUT website:
women on maternity leave must not be required to return school lap tops during their leave simply on the grounds that they are on maternity leave.

Today I was asked for mine to be returned to be given to my maternity cover for when I leave. I happen to know there are spare lap tops in school as I have occasionally borrowed one if I have forgotten mine or when mine broke. I also know the first guy that was supposed to be covering my ML was given a lap top but then he left and now this new guy is supposed to be getting mine. I really don't want to hand it over as it has all my home made resources stored on it that probably accounts for a good amount of hours work - I also have them backed up on an external hard-drive but that is exactly that, my back up. I really don't want to end up having only my back up which then gets damaged (easily done with external hard drives) and I lose years worth of work. My home computers hard drive is full already.

Would I be unreasonable to say no? I was really caught off guard when she asked me and was sure she wasn't supposed to ask for it back but just told her I had reports to write and she said I could keep hold of it for my first week of my ML and then arrange to have it returned.

I am hormonal atm and tend to make a big deal out of nothing so I need to be sure that I'm not doing that before I say something

Hmm, I guess you've not been asked to return the laptop 'simply on the grounds that you are on maternity leave', but because they need it for your replacement.

I do think YAB a bit U. Just ask that they don't delete your files?

I guess it isn't your property, but for you to use for your job, and as you won't be doing your job whilst on maternity leave, you shouldn't need to keep it.

Are you worried that A) New guy is going to pinch all your stuff and use it as his own or B) They will delete it?

If it's A, you could password protect the files so no-one can access them.

If it's B, then you can only hope someone doesn't, but maybe stick them in a folder entitled "1Catherine1 files DO NOT DELETE" or something.

I think if I was you I'd do all of the above suggestions, and also do a 2nd back-up (to flash drives or something) if possible, and then hand it over.

Do you really want it hanging around reminding you of work when you're on mat leave?

I'll probably have to hand my laptop in (due to the nature of the business they are worried about security) and I'll happily be doing so!

I'm surprised that you'd be allowed to keep it during mat leave, but that's indicative of my background career. Work stuff belongs to work etc - the laptop isn't "mine" and the files I create aren't mine either... Since the NUT have made a statement about this though, it seems you're covered and just need to state the facts.

Well he'll get his own username and password so won't be able to access my files assuming they don't reset the laptop to factory settings. From what I've seen previously though it is standard practise to clear the laptop of files belonging to previous users.

I am only worried about losing my files. Saving them onto a flash drive isn't possible since it's just too big. That's why I invested £80 into a large external hard drive as a back up. But these things break and sods law says they break when you don't have them saved elsewhere. Seems ridiculous for me to have to go out any buy another so I can back up my back up. To be honest since this is my first baby and I'm about to go onto maternity leave I just don't have another £80 lying around to go and buy another anyway but to lose years of resources would be deerstalking as any teacher can tell you.

Just checking... but does the school not provide you with an area of the network drive to store your files? Otherwise it all seems very shoddy. You can no more trust that the laptop won't break than the flash drive. It seems an odd way for schools to work.

How about using free services e.g. Hotmail has SkyDrive, they usually give a lot of free storage space. You'd just need to be careful of course of confidentiality depending on what the files contain, who they belong to etc. There's no way I'd be able to do this as files can't be copied from a work computer unless to a work-recognised resource and even then they are encrypted. I feel a bit about encouraging this sort of thing and really think your school should provide a better solution.

You're allowed 10 Keeping In Touch days during your ML, by law. Could you argue you need your laptop in order to have these? I'm certainly keeping my laptop so I can use KIT days to dial in to our quarterly all hands meeting from home.

I was under the impression that any resources you produce whilst employed by a school belong to the school anyway, so should be shared (ie on the shared network at school as well as stored on your laptop).

When I worked for an LA, all work I produced whilst in their employ HAD to be stored on the shared drive, and we weren't suppose to save ANYTHING on our laptops

...Or am I opening up a whole new can of worms?

Doesn't your school automatically back up your documents? At our school, anything we put in the 'My documents' section is automatically backed up. It's only the files on the 'C' drive (the computer itself) or the desktop that I need to back up.

TBH, I'd be cross if they ask for my computer while I'm on ML. I have no intention of even looking at work for the first few months, but I'll definitely need it for the final month or so as I will want to get planning etc sorted.

I had to hand back blackberry, its company resources, not a perk
If you had a desktop you wouldn't be able to use it so I think YB a bit U
It also protects employee - they're not asking you to work when youre off etc
FWIW our email is disabled & we're locked out of systems when we're off

How many gigabytes of files do you have? You can get some pretty big memory cards for not too many ££'s these days, or as suggested go the online storage option.