Computer Policy and Car Policy
Rules for Company Cars
InterFace AG has lots of company cars. An employee who needs a new company car can choose between four makes. If a high mileage is expected, diesel is mandatory. Otherwise it can be freely configured within a defined budget. The Company pays all costs. The employee’s private advantage is taxed in accordance with German law.
Personally, I have not used a company car for years. I don’t want to fall into the psychological trap of thinking that car travel is free.
There is even greater freedom in companies, (for instance car manufacturers), where the employees contribute to the costs of company cars. One can choose a fast sports car, a luxury limousine, a big SUV, or a practical compact car.
I know of no firm that requires every employee to drive a four door 2003 Golf, with identical accessories, maybe in order that the wheels and motors are compatible. But our rules for IT-equipment are just like that!
Rules for Laptops
Our PCs are standardised. Every employee gets the same configuration. No choice, the operating system is fixed for all; a particular browser is specified. The magic formula is “managed service”. It gives no freedom. Computer backups are performed centrally. This is intended to be a service, but becomes a straitjacket.
I regard that as outdated. Modern company software should function like the great web applications. For Wikipedia, Google, Ebay and email providers the operating system and browser are as irrelevant as the colour of a device.
Useful for the Company!?
The straitjacket harms the employees and the company. In order to cope with the resulting strategic questions, staff departments arise and consume more and more resources. Overheads increase, license costs explode, and unhealthy structures are cemented.
Our employees are forced to work with Windows. Then, in the evening they dive into Open-Source projects. They have doubts about the technical competence of the company, but, thank God, can mostly cope with this.
Culture Change
I have now allowed myself the luxury of replacing my four year old XP system with a macBook Pro (having the nice name “Leopard”). This is a serious breach of our strict company policy, so I hereby make a voluntary public confession.
It is a treat – pure luxury! I take this freedom and balance this by spurning a company car . And perhaps the company policy, (all use Microsoft), is not very clever?!
For office software, I use NeoOffice. I backup my own files. There are super possibilities (Time Machine). I shall try to use the standard Mac tools for all activities (Email, Contact, Calendar, etc.).
I expect one or two difficulties. I still have to get used to some aspects of Apple. I tried without success to find backslash and tilde on the keyboard. I still have to port a couple of Word style sheets to NeoOffice (namely two of our company letter formats and the board minutes). And I have to bring my “contacts” across, a bit tedious, but it needs only a reasonably small effort.
And the calendar synchronisation with Exchange will no longer function. Outlook will not come onto my Mac. (That is also a theme where I have problems with our policy). But here there is also an advantage: Previously, only my employees, not my family and friends could access my calendar. (Take a look at Terminkalender-Post). If I now synchronise my Apple calendar publicly, they can see it too.
I won’t let anyone else touch my Mac; certainly no system operator!
RMD
P.S.
I was recently involved in laptop classes in Bavarian grammar schools; a gruesome experience! But that is a subject for a coming “Post”.
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