Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Do you use your personal Mac for corporate work?

if your referring to using your personal Mac to access work VPN and WFH, then Yes. My Mac was configured with the VNP to access MS remote Desktop to work. My company never offered to provide. Only that if you want to WFH, you need to use your personal computer.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️
I was willing to use my personal computer connected to work VPN for training and HR materials. For real work, no way.
 
I use only my own computers for work, but only access my work through a virtual network. This in my view is the best of all possible worlds -- I use the computer of my choice for everything, my personal materials are not accessible by my workplace, and I avoid work-related materials on any personal physical media.
 
I am fortunate enough to have a 2021 16" M1 Pro supplied from my job, and that acts as my desktop machine 99% of the time. I work from home, so the work Mac stays connected to the work VPN. I keep all my work-related files in our corporate OneDrive, and I only access them through that official account. I also keep my work Safari unsynced from my personal Safari, just so bookmarks and histories and things stay separated.

But your question was about personal use. I will say that I used to have an M1 Air for personal use, and once I had the 16" Pro from work in my hands, I loved the form factor and speed so much that the M1 Air got upgraded to a 14" M1 Pro. I do access work email and any other of my web based work tools from there if needed, but I do not have OneDrive incorporated into my personal Finder, nor do I have any local instances of work apps on my personal Mac, or even on my iPad for that matter. (iPhone is a little different story--I like having native apps to access on that size screen)

For me, there are many benefits to this setup: 1) My work computing and personal computing are kept relatively separate. 2) I don't put work wear and tear on my personal Mac. 3) I don't run the risk of any confidential files accidentally being mishandled on non-company equipment. 4) The 14" MacBook Pro is a wonderful computer, and I was pretty in love with the M1 Air.
 
For the most part, I use my work laptop for work and my Mac for personal stuff. I don't want work related wear and tear on my personal devices when hardware is provided. I'm not an independent contractor and I feel that my employer should pay for the tools I use.

The exception is when I travel and anticipate needing to work while away. In that scenario, I only want to take my own devices and will work from them only during that period. I've also used my personal Mac for work when my work laptop has broken.
 
I will from time to time log in to the Jamf console to check status on things, but thats about it. I prefer to keep my work stuff separate from my personal. I was so happy when I switched jobs and they said they dont provide corporate cell phones, because I wouldnt be on call and not expected to return email after hours - no more carrying two phones!
 
I did this at my previous job. I had a 2014 MacBook Pro and they gave me a 2015 MacBook Pro 13 which was under-powered and ran hot and the fan was annoying for Zoom calls. So I bought a used 2015 MacBook Pro 15 with 2.5 Ghz i7 and AMD graphics. It had dents in two corners, scratches all over the place, and a gouge on one of the sides. Great price though. I used that at work for three years. So it's more that I bought another laptop to use at work. I used my 2014 for personal stuff. My son is using my 2014 as a backup for his work laptop (2021 MacBook Pro 14) and the 15 has mostly been in my backpack since I got my 2021 MacBook Pro 16.

The nice thing about buying your own hardware is that you get to choose it. One of the downsides is that you have to put all of the corporate security software on it and just only use it for work. I do think that it's far better to keep personal and work partitioned by machine.
 
pshufd said:
I did this at my previous job. I had a 2014 MacBook Pro and they gave me a 2015 MacBook Pro 13 which was under-powered and ran hot and the fan was annoying for Zoom calls. So I bought a used 2015 MacBook Pro 15 with 2.5 Ghz i7 and AMD graphics. It had dents in two corners, scratches all over the place, and a gouge on one of the sides. Great price though. I used that at work for three years. So it's more that I bought another laptop to use at work. I used my 2014 for personal stuff. My son is using my 2014 as a backup for his work laptop (2021 MacBook Pro 14) and the 15 has mostly been in my backpack since I got my 2021 MacBook Pro 16.

The nice thing about buying your own hardware is that you get to choose it. One of the downsides is that you have to put all of the corporate security software on it and just only use it for work. I do think that it's far better to keep personal and work partitioned by machine.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't do that, it's my company's responsibility. I actually complained to HR about the laptop I was given (2012 monstrosity) and how abysmal performance was. HR managed to get me a new laptop.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Danfango
Honestly if they're not supplying a device or are not paying for it I'm not going to wear my own kit out on work stuff or have it draining my battery. I won't even have any of their apps on my phone. And I made them pay for my electricity bill and internet connection!

From a data security perspective, mixing the two domains is a big no no as well. If anything goes wrong, you know where the finger is going to be pointing. Right at you.
 
  • Like
Reactions: barkomatic, WP31, spiderman0616 and 1 other person
Only for a tiny bit if I'm testing something that needs another computer connecting at the same time to recreate an issue. I would never use a personal machine for work regularly for many of the reasons already listed.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Danfango
TotallySolarGuy said:
My work issues a Dell Latitude but my personal preference is the Mac environment (i have a new M1 MBP, iPad Pro, iPhone, etc…). Most of our work is done in the MS Office suite, plus MS Teams and MS Project.

I understand the good practice of keeping work and personal virtual space separate. My question is: Is it possible to use Boot Camp or Parallels, or Windows Virtual Desktop, to have a totally separate virtual work environment, but still take advantage of the superior hardware of my M1 MBP? Any resources on how to set that up would be much appreciated. I don’t want or need to mix work and personal business data, but also don't want to carry around duplicate hardware if i don’t need to.
Click to expand...

I'm an IT PM job seeker. I mostly used my own laptop for my previous job, I connected via VMWARE Horizon Client for Mac. I also could connect to work via VPN and I did this in my own VM via Parallels https://kb.parallels.com/125375
 
jav6454 said:
I wouldn't do that, it's my company's responsibility. I actually complained to HR about the laptop I was given (2012 monstrosity) and how abysmal performance was. HR managed to get me a new laptop.
Click to expand...

I like to work efficiently and my previous employer compensated me quite well.
 
I like to keep work and personal stuff separate so I only use my Mac to access my office computer on the days I work from home. But I do it in a very roundabout way. I have a mini PC that is only used to log in to my organization's VPN so I can access my workstation at the office. Then I use Jump Desktop on my Mac to access my PC. My Mac and PC are on the same network and wired so it is super fast, and I don't have any issues with this setup.

I do this because I would rather have no work applications installed on my main computer (my Mac). I just have the necessities on my PC and don't keep any personal files on it and only really use it to access my work VPN and some light Windows gaming when I have a chance. This setup works really well for me.
 
Yes, my company only has Dell Latitude models and they heat up like crazy. Rocking my personal M1 Pro to work because I want to have a computer that doesn't heat up as soon as I boot it.
 
MrGunny94 said:
Yes, my company only has Dell Latitude models and they heat up like crazy. Rocking my personal M1 Pro to work because I want to have a computer that doesn't heat up as soon as I boot it.
Click to expand...

And, of course, you don't have to carry the charging brick back and forth. I always used to carry a charging brick when mobile with my 2015 MacBook Pro. I don't carry the charging brick when I'm outside the house anymore unless it's a multday trip.
 
pshufd said:
And, of course, you don't have to carry the charging brick back and forth. I always used to carry a charging brick when mobile with my 2015 MacBook Pro. I don't carry the charging brick when I'm outside the house anymore unless it's a multday trip.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I mean I always carry one when I travel but not when I go to to work nearby the beach or something else. The battery life is for sure one one of the benefits, my work laptop only lasts 2-3h.

Love my M1 Pro, as I got iMessage on it to answer my friends, alongside having a native Linux shell and being able to just work freely... I did have Arch Linux on my Dell Latitude but for me macOS is the best of both worlds in terms of OS.

And man the M1 Pro is just an check of a chip for any workloads with 7h-10h battery life guarantee again.
 
  • Like
Reactions: pshufd
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back