Doing the Laptop Drive of Shame 252
netbuzz writes "If you bring your work computer home with any regularity, chances are good that you've done the Laptop Drive of Shame. (Oh, c'mon, admit it.) It's happening more than ever ... and costing more than ever, too, what with the price of gas and all." I'll spoil it for you — they mean leaving your laptop at home. Yay, Monday news cycle.
Unfunny (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't do that. (Score:4, Insightful)
Don't bring your work computer home. It's unsafe (unless you are very cautious) and it removes the separation of work and recreation. If you're doing it to use the computer for private purposes, buy your own. The price has gone down a lot and owning your personal computer reduces liability issues. Besides, if any of your spare time computer activities ever becomes valuable, there won't be the issue that it was produced with company equipment and therefore belongs to the company.
Sorta... (Score:4, Insightful)
That said, I don't have to worry about leaving laptops since I rarely take one home. However, being a government contractor, I do use a CAC which allows me access to my laptop. Leaving that at the house is effectively like leaving my laptop at the house. There have been numerous occasions where I have left my card at the house and had to the "drive of shame". Within the last two or three months, though, I have been riding to work, so in that case I have to do the "ride of shame".
Good GOD!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
Good God, editors, it's bad enough someone would submit this story, but you guys let it through?
Can we mod the editors out of office?
Would it be possible to add modding to the published articles? Can we prevent this submitter from ever submitting a story again?
Re:Don't do that. (Score:4, Insightful)
Because your workplace is not at a fixed location? Not all of us sit at a desk all day.
Re:Good GOD!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
I wholeheartedly second this. This is an horrifically bad article. It would be good if it were possible to mod articles. Something like:
-1 Slashvertisement
-1 Dupe
-1 What-on-Earth-was-Taco-thinking-Has-he-not-had-enough-coffee-yet?
etc...
The folks over at whatever magazine website TFA was from have just seriously missed a golden opportunity. Rather than convert the slashdot effect in to new readers, this article was so bad that they've just made a lot of people avoid ever visiting their site again. Way to go guys!
Re:Got Fired Over This (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm an absent minded guy so I figure out various tricks when I need to remember things and not lose things. However, it takes a while for me to set that kind of thing up.
What the non-absent minded don't understand is that it takes a while for absent minded people to remember to set up the memory tricks. There are often more important things to think about.
Re:Don't do that. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Do what I do. (Score:4, Insightful)
Sounds like your coworker just lacks self control and/or assertiveness. I find having a laptop and mobile email to be liberating, rather than the 'electronic ball and chain' that many seem to think.
See, I know how to NOT answer every email immediately unless it is truly urgent.
You are lucky you work somewhere that gives you any choice at all though. If one of my employees refused a mobile device when it's been decided his or her job should require one then they'd be looking for a new job really fast. Then again, I also respect that they have lives and don't send them trivial requests after hours and expect them to answer right away.
Worse (Score:3, Insightful)
of course, is when the laptop makes it to the car, just not in the car.
Re:I've never forgotten my laptop (Score:4, Insightful)
But I've definitely forgotten my power supply, so I have about 2 hours to figure how to make that "drive of shame" without being noticed...
For the price of your drive home, or at least my drive home, you can buy another power supply. Yeah, I bought one out of my own money to save me the hassle, even though it's work's computer. (shrug) When lappy goes back on lease-return, I'll put this power brick on eBay and buy one to fit the new laptop, just like I did last time. The hassle savings of remembering and dealing with the power supply every day twice are worth it.
The real question is, why the fark does Dell keep changing the damn plug on the things? Gratuitous change specifically to make the old charger not work on the new laptop is all I can figure.
How to tell that something doesn't matter. (Score:4, Insightful)
You know what helps cut down on this Laptop Drive of Shame? Letting your employees stay the fuck home instead of having to come into your cramped noisy cubicle farm, particularly if your office is on the outskirts of human civilization.
Not only does this reduce the Laptop Drive of Shame problem, it also saves more gas.
Now, raise your hand if your company gives you a laptop. Hi, you guys are most likely middle managers, so blow me about your whining about your company laptop. The rest of us are still shackled to a desktop.
If this whole laptop and gas thing mattered, we'd stop making people trudge into mind-sucking offices every day for no good reason except to make it easier to corral and boss them around.
Re:Good GOD!!! (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm sorry...I work all week for them, the weekend is for me....