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  • #2219889

    Using Personal Computers for Working @Home, after hours.

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    by jlillis ·

    The age old question of what to do when the boss tells you to do work at home on your equipment for him/her?

    After the office closes, can you charge, (should you charge) for equipment rental, ink, paper, network storage, internet connection(s) and email services.

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    • #3033437

      Clarifications

      by jlillis ·

      In reply to Using Personal Computers for Working @Home, after hours.

      Clarifications

    • #3033406

      Look at remote desktop solutions.

      by tony hopkinson ·

      In reply to Using Personal Computers for Working @Home, after hours.

      The thing I wanted cover for is if they got a virus and the setup I had to have to fit in the company network, also made me vulnerable to it….

      Other expenses?. Everything you can think of. Even if you get some agreement, they’ll want to knock off a couple of things just to show they are ‘managing’.

      Dog food is a good one.
      After all you have to pay your security personel, to watch you machine at home while you are at work, so you can work at home when you are not at work….

      😀

      • #3033381

        I tried that

        by santeewelding ·

        In reply to Look at remote desktop solutions.

        With cat food to maintain her after she had chased down and eaten all the mice. The Revenue Service here wouldn’t go for it. Didn’t qualify as an expense necessary to direct conduct of my business; nor as Schedule C write-off for livestock kept to become a meal in event times got tough.

        As you suggest, though, it could work if you hoodwink the company.

        • #3033986

          I know someone who tried and failed on that

          by tony hopkinson ·

          In reply to I tried that

          I was vaguely pleased when management didn’t fall for it. They weren’t as stupid as I’d orginally thought….

    • #3033383

      We don’t allow it period

      by jamesrl ·

      In reply to Using Personal Computers for Working @Home, after hours.

      The only computers allowed to connect to our network are owned by the company, software licensed by the company, anti-virus etc installed etc.

      If people work at home on occasion by choice(when they have a place in the office), we don’t reimburse for internet etc.

      If they are designated as work at home individuals, then they get a laptop, some $ to help defray the internet cost, a cell phone etc.

      Billing for ink, paper etc is probably not worth the time to calculate the bill. Take a ream of paper home when you need it, eat the cost of the ink (for most people).

      James

    • #3034030

      Old clunker

      by oldbaritone ·

      In reply to Using Personal Computers for Working @Home, after hours.

      Take an old Win-95 machine from the boneyard, uninstall the antivirus, anti-spyware, anti-malware and everything. Don’t have any protection.

      Then go on the internet and connect to a couple of warez sites. Browse around for a while. Let the kids play free internet games for an hour or so.

      After dinner, then it’s time to get back to work. Connect in to the office and do whatever the boss wants you to do.

      I’ll betcha you’re never asked to use your home computer for work again. If he asks about it, tell him “I had to kick the kids off their games, but I did what you told me.” If pressed further, do you have the policies and procedures, in writing, for what the company expects in this situation? They probably don’t exist, and you certainly don’t have a copy. If those procedures existed, your boss would never ask you to use your own computer. There are too many risks.

      Let the boss provide a laptop to you, if he expects you to work from home. They’re not very expensive any more, and then use the work-provided machine only for work.

      And if it’s not that important, well, it’s not that important. It can wait until tomorrow.

    • #3034014

      VPN and RDP

      by jellimonsta ·

      In reply to Using Personal Computers for Working @Home, after hours.

      We use VPN that is restricted to only allow RDP to internal PCs. The user connects to VPN and can then RDP to their regular work desktop, and work as if in the office. Only allowing RDP traffic through the VPN minimizes the potential for security issues.

      • #3034012

        Jelli

        by santeewelding ·

        In reply to VPN and RDP

        Pay attention.

        Straight-laced has no place here.

        The goal is to foul everything up beyond redemption.

    • #3033987

      Current job v. Old job

      by jessie ·

      In reply to Using Personal Computers for Working @Home, after hours.

      In my current job, only company owned computers are allowed to connect to the company network. If we have a home user who needs to ship in their computer for repairs, we setup a virtual machine to which they can connect from their home machine which will allow them to be ‘sandboxed’ on the business network.

      My old job, I worked part of my time from home, the rest was traveling around the city from different locations. I used my personal computer and they didn’t reimburse for internet connection because they figured I used it for home use anyway and really didn’t need to spend THAT much time working from my home computer… I ran a couple of reports once a month and did my expense reimbursement requests. I never connected to the work network, just webmail and used OpenOffice for my reports. If I had to print out booklets, they’d reimburse me for toner. That was actually a pretty good gig too.

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