Working From Personal Devices After a Natural Disaster

Stormy writes:

I’m in the Midwest and we’ve been hit hard by storms this summer. My office building was badly damaged in an evening storm two days ago. We cannot access the building to see if any of our laptops, etc., are salvageable. We were in office five days a week so people rarely took them home, but we were required to take work mobile phones home daily. All our work is done via browser (industry software) or MS365 (can access via browser). Management asked us to work from home on personal devices (computers) until they can determine what’s going to happen — temp office space, WFH for a while, etc. — and get us replacement laptops.

However, a couple of my coworkers (I’m not a manager or supervisor) have refused to work on personal devices, even in this situation, as they don’t want work stuff on personal devices. Oddly, they’re even refusing to look at emails on their work mobiles. They’re complaining on Teams that they’re on unpaid leave, but they’re also not working. Have any of you been in similar situations after natural disasters, fires, etc.? How have your companies handled things?

Apple writes:

Yes, I worked remotely for a couple of weeks at a typically non-remote job following a hurricane. Since we had some warning, we were asked to take our computers home, and told to work as much as possible following the storm. Our office was not damaged, but was inaccessible due to flooding.

Standards were way lower, and we were paid our full salary no matter what. I would hope the company would show some grace, as if the office was impacted, I would guess that the employee’s home and family may also be impacted.

Cathullu writes:

In my situation, guidance is to take laptops home with you, even if you expect to be in the office the next day, so this situation wouldn’t really arise. It sounds like your coworkers have laptops and cell phone access but don’t have much of a WFH home option. Pretty cheeky of your company to now demand employees work from personal devices in that instance.

On the Laptop Take-Home Question

Ginger Cat Lady writes:

I would never haul a laptop back and forth every day if I was expected to be in office five days a week. Not every weather-related disaster can be anticipated.

Ally McBeal writes:

Completely agree. I was issued a company laptop and I schedule my WFH so I only have to move my laptop twice a week. On the rare occasions I come to the office on a Friday, I leave my laptop there over the weekend because I’m always in on Mondays. If something happens to the office over the weekend that renders my laptop useless, I’ll figure it out with IT on Monday.

Brokedown Palace writes:

Maybe it’s because I’ve worked most of my career in tech and consulting, but my colleagues and I have always been expected to take our laptops home every night, even for in-office five-days-a-week jobs. It’s never been a big deal for anyone.

E writes:

Not in tech, but same for everywhere I’ve worked. Laptops get taken home at night. Most places would even give employees a company-branded backpack for them.

David writes:

I can only speak to tech, but I’ve never worked at a place that required employees to take their laptops home every day (or at all), so it’s definitely not a universal thing in this industry. Now that I think about it, if I started working at a place that had that requirement, I’d find it odd — not red flag level, but certainly a negative mark against the company culture.

HojiBerry writes:

I’m a software engineer and never took my laptop home when I worked from my office regularly unless I knew I wanted to WFH. There were always coworkers who did and those who didn’t. I never worked in the evenings, so there was no reason to, and I don’t think “what if there’s a hurricane” should be a reason to take a laptop home every day just in case. I think the ability to WFH comes with the expectation to work extra hours, so if I were still in an office every day I wouldn’t take it home either without good reason.

On Unpaid Leave and Refusing to Work

Hyaline writes:

Are they on unpaid leave? I feel like that’s a key piece here — if they are not being paid for their time, I think it’s pretty rotten of a company to make demands on work at all, regardless of which device they’re using. I wouldn’t find it odd at all that employees would say “nope, we won’t be loading a bunch of work stuff onto personal devices without even being compensated.” Especially as, post-storm, they may be sorting out their own damage, power outages, etc.

Stormy writes:

They’re on unpaid leave because they’re refusing to work — they don’t want to do work stuff on a personal computer. They have work mobile phones and they’re refusing to check email, although they are complaining on Teams. The rest of us who are working are getting paid.

Experiences vary widely after workplace disasters, but the common thread from readers is that companies handle these situations best when they maintain pay, lower expectations, and give employees time to sort out their own storm-related disruptions before resuming normal workloads.