Do You Think It's Fair?

[DG]

Lets say you work for a company and instead of having Desktops at work they buy laptops to save space.. not because they need to take work home.

Now lets say out of the Godness of his heart the Boss says to the employees they can take the laptops home for totally non work related use, e.g. Personal websurfing or for their sister to write up their assignment.

BUT

If the laptop gets lost, stolen or damaged it will be replaced or repaired out of the person's wages??

Do you think that is fair?

[cymruangel]

Yes it's fair if the laptops are being used for personal rather than business use, and provided they break/are lost etc as a result (ie not if a computer breaks in work a week after someone's taken it home).

[rachie004]

i think so.. if you had your own pc/lap top at home you'd have to pay for it, so essentially when you take the laptop home its your responsibility..

[KoolCat]

yeah that's fair. it's the employees choice whether to take it home or not, so they are responsible. it wouldn't be fair if the boss forced them to take it home to do work on and then charged them for damage.

aaah, my keyboard is so loud and I'm in a really quiet computer lab. people are staring at me! all the other keyboards seem to be quiet

[MySuffice21]

Yes, I think it's fair because if you take it home, for personal use, then it's your responsibility to take care of it and if something happens to it, it should be your responsibility, just as if it was your own.

[Mr_Wobble]

So, they're quite happy for you to take a grand's worth of laptop home, but will make you pay for it if it gets stolen/broken. Erm, that's a bit crap really, even if it's for personal use. Surely the company has insurance on them that covers their use outside of the office? Now if they said you'll have to pay any insurance excess, that would be reasonable.
It's better to have your own computer at home, which is covered under your household insurance. A reasonable basic PC for office work and surfing the Net can be bought second hand for under £200, and you shoulud be able to get one with a printer for that too.

Mr_Wobble ;)

[DG]

Well Mr Wobble you seem to be the Odd man out.

Does that mean if you lent someone your car and they crashed it you'd be fine about it as long as the person paid the excess?? - Neverminding that you'd lose your no claims bonus next year and end up paying much more for insurance then you did the year before cos you made a claim??

Insurance companies don't just lie back if you make a claim and stick their hands in their pocket .. they up your premiums the following year if you make a claim or simply refuse to insure you next time around.

Yes it is better to have your own PC but that's not was what being asked!!

And if it helps you make up your mind the laptop I had in Mind would cost £388 inc VAT brand new. (ECS I-Buddy)

http://image.ebuyer.com/UK/P0051275_C0000010_P0000000.jpg

[Mr_Wobble]

I just think that if a company is at all willing to let its employees take something home, then it ought to be covered under the companies insurance. So what if you're using it for personal use, the fact is that they're willing to let you use it, and have said that.

Now, the point you're trying to make is about a personal friend lending you a car. Not a company. I would expect a friend to replace/repair something they borrowed. Household insurance probably wouldn't cover that anyway.

Going back to the car thing. What about compnay cars being used for personal use? Their insurance covers that.
Why can't the company insurance cover the laptop if they're happy for you to take it home with you.

Either they should have the laptops covered by the company insurance (and I'll bet they are anyway), or simply say no to letting you borrow them.

And my point is that reasonable computers are so cheap second hand that there's no need to borrow a company laptop.
And as that ad proves, even brand new laptops don't have to cost the earth.

Mr_Wobble ;)

[DG]

Originally posted by Mr_Wobble
I just think that if a company is at all willing to let its employees take something home, then it ought to be covered under the companies insurance. So what if you're using it for personal use, the fact is that they're willing to let you use it, and have said that.

NOT all companies are huge multinationals...

Some are very small with maybe just a handful of employees and the seed money to start the company has been provided by the person starting the business with his own money.

You also totally ignored the point about "No Claims Bonuses" and the fact that the company's insurance would go up next year if they make a claim?? And insurance itself is not free, the more items covered the more you pay each year. For instance you can pay one price to have computer equipment insured onsite and need to pay extra to have it covered offsite..

My exact question said the company would allow equipment to be taken home for personal use ONLY if the employee was willing to cover the cost should anything happen. If the employee doesn't agree with that then they don't get to take it anywhere - where it's not being used for company related activity.

For instance at my old company one of the lads who couldn't afford a Laptop and didn't have the space for a Desktop at his rent place used to borrow laptops from work to surf the net on the weekends and do other non business related work.

Also it's not unknown for people to try and con companies and say their laptop was stolen or something when in fact it's perfectly fine and sitting at home!!

And if it helps further - the reason I'm asking is because I'm thinking about starting a company and if I did I'd be investing my own personal money into it and buying things like computers and laptops, etc with my own money. And maybe employing 2 or 3 employees to start off with. And wondering what people's thoughts were if the issue came up and an employee asked to borrow a laptop over the weekend or whatever for their own use. I'd like to offer as many perks as I could because you don't get too many working for small companies ... but I'm not prepared to bankroll other people's misfortunes.

But seeing as everyone else thinks it's a fair deal I'll go with the majority..

[Mr_Wobble]

Originally posted by DiamondGeezer
You also totally ignored the point about "No Claims Bonuses" and the fact that the company's insurance would go up next year if they make a claim?? So don't let employees borrow stuff. Either the equipment is covered, and they're allowed to borrow it, or don't let them borrow it.
I used the example of the company car to cover that anyway. I know it's a bit different with a car. But you can't give someone a company car, and then tell them they can only use it for business and going to and from work. If anything happens while they're driving it while popping down the shops at the weekend, then it's the company insurance that'll pay.
If you want to let someone borrow a compnay laptop, even if it's for personal use, then the company should cover it. If the company won't, then it shouldn't let people borrow them. Simple.

Mr_Wobble ;)

[DG]

...Naaah, I'd rather treat people like Human Beings and let them make an informed choice... people deserve a few perks and as long as it's not costingthe company anything I wouldn't mind .. I'd rather have a happy workforce.

Let the decision be theirs to make ....

And everyone else so far seems to think it's fair too ...

[lil_minx]

completly 100% fair

[SuzyCreamcheese]

definitely fair. More than fair.
If i lent my laptop to someone and they broke it or it got nicked, Id think they should pay for it, so it would be no different for an employer. I wouldnt be that keen on lending them though, what if they just kept the laptop and didnt come back to work.

[paperBprincess]

i think its fair

my bro did some work for nop and they gave him a $3000 laptop. they said it wouldnt be worth it to the company them getting it insured so if he loses it they'll give him another one wtf?!:eek2: