Doing the Laptop Drive of Shame

[Andrew]

Doing the Laptop Drive of Shame -- NetworkWorld

If you bring your work computer home with any regularity -- or especially any irregularity -- chances are good that you've done the Laptop Drive of Shame.

Here's me shouting to no one in particular the other morning: "Hey, look, Brad's gotta do the Laptop Drive of Shame." Gales of laughter ensue.

Stuff I bring back and forth:

• Personal laptop
• Work laptop
• Personal phone
• Work phone
• Power brick for personal laptop
• Bluetooth headphones

Odds that I will forget at least one of these on any given day: pretty high.

[b52hbuff]

Stuff I bring back and forth:

• Personal laptop
• Work laptop
• Power brick for personal laptop
• Bluetooth headphones

Odds that I will forget at least one of these on any given day: pretty high.

I snipped your list. I don't know how viable it is in your situation, but I find encryption (via IronKey and TrueCrypt) to be quite convenient in your situation. Instead of schlepping a personal laptop, I keep an encrypted TrueCrypt partition that stores any personal/confidential information.

The other side benefit is the ability to put more wear and tear on the work laptop that gets refreshed every several years.

[Bytebear]

Actually, with me it's my name badge. It's like a credit card, but it clips to my belt, and is the key to the building. When I forget it, I have to go to the other building and have security give me a temporary pass.

Funny though, in all the years of taking my work laptop home, I have never forgotten it. I don't use it at home either, as I have my own laptop, but I do need it in case I need to VPN into the network. I also have a pager, in addition to my cell phone (they will pay for pager service, but not for text messaging. Go figure).

[stan4d_steph]

I forget my badge sometimes too. I don't take my work computer home that much, so I think I've only had to turn around a couple of times. Don't think I've ever made it all the way in before noticing.

[Andrew]

I've forgotten my badge twice; once I remembered about halfway there and turned around, the other time I didn't realize it until I reached for it at the entrance. It's a real pain, because they have to issue me a temp badge and that actually inactivates the regular badge until I show them that I've found it.

[Bytebear]

Hmm... the temp badges we have are only good for 24 hours, and then go doinactive, but they do have a huge red dot, so everyone knows if you forgot your badge.

[mohavewolfpup]

those who forget your badges where you work, do you get written up for that?

[Andrew]

I've only done it once, but I wouldn't be surprised if multiple infractions would get some kind of written notice.

[Bytebear]

those who forget your badges where you work, do you get written up for that?

I actually forgot my badge last week, (well, really it was in the Washing machine). They take my name and ID number, and that's it. No biggie. When I signed the sheet, I was surprised to see about 10 people a day forget their badges. It's really easy to lock out badges, so it's just no big deal. If I lose my badge, they will just issue a new one, and the old one is invalid. Managers aren't even told about individual infractions so I don't think it's a big deal.

I did interview at a place where every single person had to scan in and out of the building, to track their comings and goings, but we don't have to. If you go in as a group only one person scans to open the door. They also had to check out laptops going in and out. That would be so nice... to be able to leave your laptop at work over night! We are pretty lax when it comes to security, now that I think about it.