Using a colleague's laptop without asking for permission

Question

In one of my previous jobs, I had the following situation, and I'm not sure what would have been the right way to react.

Once, during a team meeting, I was showing something work related on my laptop (I think, slides for a presentation) to my colleagues, and one of them wanted to search for missing information on some website. He took my laptop without asking for my permission, opened the browser and started typing the address of the website. I panicked, because it was my private laptop, and I had been using it to search for some very personal stuff. I didn't want my colleague to type "a", searching for amazon, and to see a suggestion like "am I pregnant?" instead. So I covered the screen with my palms and said something like: "Please don't, there can be something private!".

He apologized, but of course I felt very embarrassed because I overreacted. Most likely my colleagues thought that I had a collection of porn sites bookmarked there, or something similar to that.

I'm not sure if I actually had something incriminating in my browser's search history, but it just made me feel very uncomfortable. To me, using someone's laptop to google something is as impolite as opening this persons' backpack and rummaging through it. Maybe it's a cultural thing.

The laptop I'm currently using for work belongs to the company, and I wouldn't mind my colleagues using it, since I don't store anything private there. However, I might encounter a situation like this again sometime in the future, so I wonder how I should act.

Does one have to ask for a colleague's permission if he/she wants to use this colleague's laptop? Does it matter whether it's a personal laptop or a laptop provided by the employer? Does it depend on the country (I live in Germany)?
What would be a polite way to say that things like that make me feel uncomfortable? Should I even do that in case using a colleague's laptop is perfectly fine?

Update: I did not have a separate laptop for work, and there was no possibility to get it. Since all this happened in the past, I cannot change it now.

@LaconicDroid "He took my laptop without asking for my permission". A guest account wouldn't have been much help — Mawg says reinstate Monica, Feb 04 '19 at 09:35
Huge WTF is: "how could he use it, without knowing the password?" — BЈовић, Feb 04 '19 at 09:48
@BЈовић "I was showing something work related on my laptop" - i.e. it was unlocked because it was in use. It seems perfectly normal to pass round a machine with a small screen, you should be able to trust your colleagues to the extent that they don't go through your stuff in front of you. — Chris H, Feb 04 '19 at 10:05
@Mawg AconicDroid wasn't suggesting a guest account, but a work account and a personal account. It would help with the personal aspect, but not with anything work-related that might be problematic (e.g. google: "how can I report someones who's harrassing a colleague?") — Chris H, Feb 04 '19 at 10:06
@ChrisH He didn't go through OP's stuff, he opened the browser to (I guess) show something work related. — BЈовић, Feb 04 '19 at 10:07
@BЈовић They're the same (IMO) - starting a browser, that tends to show recent pages immediately, is no different from going through the papers on someone's desk to look for a reference book. It's much more than glancing at what's on the surface — Chris H, Feb 04 '19 at 10:21
Related: https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/95495/how-to-request-the-password-on-a-companys-laptop-that-is-dedicated-for-me/ — mustaccio, Feb 04 '19 at 15:50
Also related: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=incognito+mode&atb=v136-3b_&ia=web — Rob Grant, Feb 04 '19 at 16:31
@Robert because I didn't have a laptop for work, so I had to use my private laptop — lawful_neutral, Feb 05 '19 at 20:55
It is extremely rude, even for Germany. Like grabbing your wallet to pick out the right amount of coins at a counter, taking a city map out of your hands to check for an address, rummaging in your handbag for a napkin, flanging their oily fingers on your screen, grabbing your glasses to see something in the distance better... For all this, they may have a very valid reason, but it's never ever done without permission. You didn't overreact. You underreacted ;-) — Captain Emacs, Mar 20 '20 at 15:42

score 179 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 07 '19 at 08:55

179

Does one have to ask for a colleague's permission if he/she wants to use this colleague's laptop?

Yes, even if it's a company laptop.

Now, you shouldn't be doing anything on a company laptop which you shouldn't be doing, or which can embarrass you. (I'm not saying you shouldn't do anything private -- whether that's allowed or not is company policy; the company I work for allows you do some personal stuff on your laptop.) But your laptop is an extension of you. It authenticates you and not your colleague. You may have information in a window your colleague isn't allowed to see. You may be logged in to a machine your colleague has no business to. You may be half way typing an email to HR with personal information. You should always ask to use someone else's computer, and you should expect other people to ask before using yours. Etc.

That's why I always lock my screen even if I step one meter away from by desk.

edited Feb 07 '19 at 08:55

Appulus

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answered Feb 03 '19 at 21:19

Abigail

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Coming from an infosec perspective, I completely agree with this. The issue isn't so much the physical laptop itself, but the session logged into the domain and likely several secure sessions in the browser. Even if the coworker has access to the information, any actions they take would be logged as the OP, interfering with future audits. Of course, if the company policy allows this, or the CEO comes and personally takes it, I guess there's no right to complain, but I highly doubt that's the case here. – Aidan Feb 04 '19 at 04:27
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"even if it's a company laptop" Nope. You need the companies permission to use a company laptop, but that's about it. If Joe goes on holiday for a week, leaves his laptop, and I want to use it; the last person I'll ask is Joe. Of course, using someone elses account on that laptop is another story – UKMonkey Feb 04 '19 at 11:49
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@Abigail the question was also about a personal laptop. Your extra information is wrong as I pointed out. As for your encrypted disk - almost every disk encryption system offers multiple keys to decrypt - allowing the sysadmin to use the machine. Your password is not required. – UKMonkey Feb 04 '19 at 12:33
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"That's why I always lock my screen even if step one meter away from by desk" - Awesome advice. Windows Key + L is your friend on Microsoftland. – OnoSendai Feb 04 '19 at 18:50
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@UKMonkey And most places I know would strictly limit what can be done with sysadmin access to a machine that belongs to a co-worker. Where I've seen a general encryption with sysadmin backdoor on personal machines, even actions by the sysadmins were under a 4-eyes-only protection and they have to document what they do. Under no way that access would have been granted to a coworker that needed some laptop. In urgent cases where the worker to whom the machine belonged would not be reachable, they would extract required information for that co-worker. – Frank Hopkins Feb 05 '19 at 17:48
@darkwing sure, stopping sysadmins seeing data used by the laptop user is common... But that has nothing to do with them allowing another user onto the machine. – UKMonkey Feb 06 '19 at 09:34
@UKMonkey If the hard-drive is encrypted with a personal key of its main user and a sysadmin backdoor, then it is related - as in they cannot tell them the password of the other user nor will they tell them their super-password. (Not to mention that it opens the door to the colleague/sysadmins to accidentally screwing something up by rebooting the machine when it was in suspend mode, and it weakens the security concept around the laptop). They would rather just give the colleague another laptop from the storage. – Frank Hopkins Feb 06 '19 at 09:55
@Darkwing you have a fundamental misunderstanding of how disk encryption works. It's not an admin backdoor, but another acceptable password to access the key used to encrypt the disk. They can add another password to access the key... allowing ANY number of users to access the disk, without giving any passwords away. If it wasn't designed like this, you'd have to re-encrypt the entire drive when you changed the password - which just isn't practical. – UKMonkey Feb 06 '19 at 13:35
@UKMonkey The hardware based encryption on one of my last laptops did only know of two passwords, a "normal" one and a special one use by IT. That being said, adding another password doesn't change anything, you still get access to the same hard-drive with all the security issues involved. Now if we are speaking of per-user encryption, that is a different matter. But that typically - with networked accounts - doesn't require IT at all, simply login on the machine with your network account. – Frank Hopkins Feb 06 '19 at 13:44
@Darkwing sorry - this has gone so off topic it's not funny - my point is that if it's a work laptop, you need the companies permission to use it, not the current user. Your comment about "it might break" is a policy; as is the security concern. That's for the company to decide - thus ... my point. – UKMonkey Feb 06 '19 at 14:11
@UKMonkey And my point is that the company typically delegates responsibility for that laptop to the main user and thus it is valid to ask him first and can easily cost you social malus points if you go behind his back via the company to access it, in particular if you have other options. You are right though that this is quite far away from the issue of OP where he was right there to have been asked (but also might have given the impression of having granted access by holding the laptop in front of the co-worker unlocked). – Frank Hopkins Feb 06 '19 at 14:35
@Darkwing You're getting confused between "must" and "can" and "often" - it is, in fact, VERY bad form to use a company laptop without company permission but with current user permission - the company policy may well be relaxed about it - or they might see as you attempting to hack and covering your tracks. As I keep saying - it is at company discretion. – UKMonkey Feb 06 '19 at 15:02
@UKMonkey I'm also not getting confused, you might want to stop assuming the state of mind of your conversation partner. Yes, company policy needs to allow granting access to some coworker to your machine in general or to your account as well, but that does not mean you can just grab the machine as it's in the responsibility of the machine's main handler to enforce the company policy. So you typically still have to ask him as only he knows the exact circumstances of his machine and whether it is prudent to grant you access. This can be overriden by getting higher up approval to access [cont] – Frank Hopkins Feb 06 '19 at 15:53
@UKMonkey the machine. Or in case there is a general "sharing is always supposed to be okay" policy in place, which would mean OP should know it, thus is unlikely in this case. Anyway, since this is gone way too off topic, I shall stop this conversation at this point. Have a nice day. – Frank Hopkins Feb 06 '19 at 15:55

score 49 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 03 '19 at 19:54

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Lets make this simple. Don't use your personal laptop for work. Don't bring your personal laptop into a team meeting.

If I needed to hijack or borrow a machine somebody is using at work I would ask for permission, but I would expect that they would not have a problem with it. Of course I would also expect that at a team meeting all the machines are owned by the company. The fact that you were using it to go over work slides would reinforce my belief.

answered Feb 03 '19 at 19:54

mhoran_psprep

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It was the only laptop I had, and I couldn't afford buying a new laptop just for work. Sometimes our meetings were in rooms without computers at all, and I don't think my colleagues would have been happy with me sending them the slides, the code and all other things before each meeting. So I had to use my personal laptop for work. – lawful_neutral Feb 03 '19 at 20:04
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@lawful_neutral If you need a computer at work the company must provide it. If the room has no computers and you do not have a portable then the company wants you to use printouts etc. You never have to use your own computer at work. – mmmmmm Feb 03 '19 at 20:28
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@Mark the company didn't provide it. It was a part-time job and I was working from home, probably that's the reason. And, obviously, I couldn't work without a laptop. Well, it doesn't matter, I can't change the fact of not having a laptop for work now. – lawful_neutral Feb 03 '19 at 20:36
I understand that having a computer for work is better than not having one, but this doesn't really answer the question. – lawful_neutral Feb 03 '19 at 20:38
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@Mark Some companies are moving to BYOD (bring your own device) so it's quite possible that the OP would be expected to use a personal device at work. – Eric Feb 04 '19 at 00:01
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If you really had to use your personal laptop for work, then create two different accounts. That would solve 95% of your privacy problems. And if you still want more safety, use a different OS. – P.Manthe Feb 04 '19 at 03:54
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I would never "expect that they would not have a problem with it". The device may contain confidential data. It could very likely be a data privacy/security violation to allow access to an unauthorized person. It's also quite a personal privacy intrusion if private use of company devices is allowed (like it is in many companies). – kapex Feb 04 '19 at 11:08
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If the fact that you have to use your own laptop at work is common in this organisation, and if it was known by the colleague, then their grabbing the machine was really quite rude and inappropriate (though it sounds like it was simply due to not thinking rather than being malicious or boisterous). However indeed there are ways to mitigate the potential problems of this. – Lightness Races in Orbit Feb 04 '19 at 12:02
"Don't bring your personal laptop into a team meeting." as a corollary, you might put it up to the company to provide some sort of "presentation laptops". You don't need that many of them. They don't even need to be that good - second hand laptops either from inside the company (old machines) or refurbished outside ones are enough. Put any presentation materials in a central place like a NAS or even just email them to yourself and this can be easily solved. – VLAZ Feb 04 '19 at 13:45
We tried to address people bringing their personal laptops into meetings by making sure the users had work laptops. They still brought personal laptops to meetings. We ensured that every meeting room has a dedicated computer. They still brought personal laptops to meetings. We then provided a second dedicated laptop in every meeting room for note-taking. They STILL bring their personal machines into meetings. People really really really want to use their personal devices in meetings. – barbecue Feb 04 '19 at 16:15
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@Mark "If you need a computer at work the company must provide it." I need to wear clothes when I come to work but my employer doesn't provide me with any. Why are laptops different? – David Richerby Feb 04 '19 at 18:30
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If they are specific work eg uniform or protective they do. For a costly item like a laptop I want an advance. – mmmmmm Feb 04 '19 at 18:49
Maybe I work at alpha company as a contractor and you do too. alpha cuts a large check to beta1. beta1 pays my salary and buys my equipment. alpha has a similar deal with beta2. beta2 pays your salary and buys your equipment. From the outside, it might appear as if we are all happy alpha company employees and our laptops all belong to alpha company. But beta1 is going to be pissed if a beta2 employee uses beta1 equipment. – emory Feb 04 '19 at 23:45
@DavidRicherby do you need to bring your own uniform if there is a company one? Also, clothes are in general not very costly. Moreover, they are ubiquitous - you also need them when going almost anywhere. A computer capable of handling certain tasks is not cheap to begin with comparatively and you don't need to have one when going for a coffee or even have one at home. So, all in all, clothes are a computer are a flawed analogy. Try it with a desk and chair - see how many people are required to bring their own furniture in an office. – VLAZ Feb 05 '19 at 15:29
If you work as a consultant or a remote employee, you may not have a choice but to use your personal laptop for work. – Makoto Feb 05 '19 at 17:30
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This is horrifying. I work for a defence company. In some of our projects bringing your personal device to a meeting is a sackable offence. In some projects you can't bring them into the building. – RedSonja Feb 06 '19 at 13:59

score 10 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 03 '19 at 20:36

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The other possibility that comes to mind is to have a work account and a private account on the laptop, that way you won't have the risk of "private" or "personal" searches coming up.

But the other answer stands about a work machine, while there are places that do offer "funding" to people providing their own machine...

answered Feb 03 '19 at 20:36

Solar Mike

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I like the idea of having two accounts. I didn't think of it back then, maybe because I wasn't spending a lot of time with colleagues. – lawful_neutral Feb 03 '19 at 20:54
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I suggest it to students, when they are using their own laptops for presentations and their chosen screen background comes up... Never too bad, but enough for them to think for the future. But I always have an ADMIN account and my user account... Even for visitors I create them an account - did one for my niece... – Solar Mike Feb 03 '19 at 20:59
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Same but different type to this is use 2 different browsers. I use chrome for personal stuff and mozilla for work related stuff. – Morthy Feb 04 '19 at 08:26
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@Morthy and when your colleague opens Chrome as they prefer Chrome... – Solar Mike Feb 04 '19 at 08:33
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@Morthy And if your work involves using Chrome, Firefox, IE, Safari.... ;) #webdev – Lightness Races in Orbit Feb 04 '19 at 12:03
And a third, private account that you only use for "some very personal stuff". So that the problem that happened at work during a presentation doesn't also happen at home during a party, when a friend googles something in order to find a song on Youtube. – Eric Duminil Feb 04 '19 at 17:57
@EricDuminil it's a big leap to suggest that OP 1. has parties 2. at home 3. allows guests unrestricted access to the laptop. Not being disrespectful here but parties aren't for anybody. Having them at home isn't for everybody, either. I hardly ever go to parties and I don't hold them at home. A bunch of strangers, or even friends having the opportunity to access to my computer(s), especially without my permission, hasn't happened in quite a while. – VLAZ Feb 05 '19 at 15:33
@EricDuminil still not a situation I've found myself in. Any computers at my home, I'm quite confident that nobody else would just grab and start typing and stumbles upon "embarrassing information". I don't juggle profiles as it's just too much of an inconvenience. I just log out of profiles, if needed. I can also just refuse access and don't expect (and haven't had) my guests bypass me to get to use my equipment. If you have trust issues with your guests, that's not universal. – VLAZ Feb 05 '19 at 15:40
@EricDuminil ...I dropped the parties point the first time I mentioned it. Not sure why you decided to bring it up now and label it irrelevant. My point has been that your example is not universal - you suggested a guest at your home could decide to use your equipment without permission. Haven't had that happen and don't expect that to happen. You suggest you need a different account for personal things...on your personal devices in your own home. Same - never needed to do that, don't expect I would. – VLAZ Feb 05 '19 at 15:47
@EricDuminil that's something I never claimed. You did. My example is relevant when I, once again, tell you that yours is not universal. So, just because you apparently have people using your machines while you're powerless to stop them, doesn't mean everybody is in this situation. That was my point. You can also stop putting word in my mouth. – VLAZ Feb 05 '19 at 16:07
+1 I already deactivated lots of synchronizing, but you lose all those nice personalized features. Just found this solution some days ago. If it's Google Chrome always close the work related instance last, so next time you start Chrome it will come right up with the work account. I have a work laptop and never do precarious searches on it, but I do so on my phone. No matter how hard you restrict Google, the search always synchronizes, except you deactivate the whole activity tracking - but then, why use Google. Two accounts is the one thing that works. – Jessica Mar 20 '20 at 15:05

score 6 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 04 '19 at 12:12

I've worked on my personal laptop at a number of companies and so know this situation well.

In my experience* the vast majority of people understand that just using your laptop without asking isn't OK. The fact that this is your personal machine and that it's in public only increase the need to ask first, but they should be asking every time regardless.

However some people just don't, for whatever reason, get this and need to be politely but firmly told to not do it when they try. This is unfortunate, but you'd hope in most cases will only have to be done once or twice before the message gets across and they don't try it again.

That's exactly what you've done. Rest assured that most people in the room were on your side and would likely have done the same in your position. You have absolutely no reason to feel embarrassed.

*I am confident it's a universal professional norm, and doesn't depend on culture all that much, but for context I've worked in the UK and Germany with colleagues from all around the world

score 5 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 04 '19 at 12:07

First, to answer your question: Yes, you should always ask for permission to use a colleague's laptop, unless it's an emergency and said colleague can't be reached at the moment. It doesn't matter if it's personal or only for work.

Even if the laptop is "just a tool", it's not a tool like a hammer or a screwdriver, we are talking about a tool that saves information about the person who uses it, and that person should have a say in giving you or not access to that information.

Now, a tip I wanted to tell you: Chrome (for example) allows you to save different user profiles. Each one with a separate history, extensions, configurations, passwords, etc.... So you could use one of that for when you want to browse through your stuff (or a specific one only for work-related browsing) in the future, that should help you avoid this kind of situations.

Don't be too quick to call hammers and screwdrivers "just tools." In the days (not so long ago in the UK) when apprenticed craftsmen were expected to provide their own hand tools, "borrowing" from someone else's toolbox without permission would quite likely be an "instant dismissal without a reference" situation. Or at best, you might need medical attention when the matter was settled outside, after work... — alephzero, Feb 04 '19 at 16:38
Alephzero: I think that’s still the case with hairdressers. — gnasher729, Mar 20 '20 at 17:55

score 4 · Answer 6 · edited Feb 05 '19 at 21:33

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I have no idea who would simply start typing at a different users computer, let alone touch it. You reacted with shame; react with indignation.

My responses would have been as follows:

To a colleague:

"Hands off my computer, please."

or

"That is not yours, thank you."

To a manager: I'm not certain.

edited Feb 05 '19 at 21:33

V2Blast

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answered Feb 04 '19 at 21:00

paulj

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Yea I think that's a good way to further turn your colleagues against you. – Jack Feb 06 '19 at 03:21
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"Hands off my computer" or "That's not yours" sound very rude. – Tvde1 Feb 06 '19 at 13:10
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@Tvde1 Your rude is my stern. It would never cross my mind, with my own etiquette, to ever touch a colleague's machine without permission. – paulj Feb 06 '19 at 15:34
@Tvde1: Trying to use my laptop is very rude. I had a colleague who had a fork lying near his keyboard and when you came too close he’d grab that fork. Nobody ever touched his keyboard. – gnasher729 Mar 20 '20 at 17:54

score 3 · Answer 7 · answered Feb 04 '19 at 10:19

I now work in a academia where the line between personal and work is a bit more blurred, so this may give a different persepctive even if the conclusion is similar.

My work machine is a desktop (I do a fair bit of CAD and a little number-crunching) so when I give presentations (and can't use a lecture-theatre PC) I use a personal laptop. This is not uncommon, and people also use work laptops for fairly personal stuff (hopefully at least with different browsers/profiles). Postgrads in particular work on personal machines in work - they're not employees and while they often do have work machines they're often old and rubbish.*

Grabbing someone else's machine and firing up a browser is poor etiquette at best, even (especially?) in an environment like this. My preference is to ask the owner to look stuff up, but general practice is (at a minimum) to ask the owner before starting the browser, even if you've already been using the machine with them .

* _{Some more to horrify the sysadmins and infosec specialists: We also end up with systems where one user has to log another on (essential software that only functions when run as an admin, but getting admin rights for a new user can cause massive delays). I'm atypical in locking my work PC when I walk away from it; that's probably an industry habit, and I've had people email me passwords unrequested so I can send them data.}

score 3 · Answer 8 · answered Feb 05 '19 at 13:46

Frist of all there is the politeness factor: If I have to borrow your hammer or your knife, good manner dictate that I ask "May I borrow your hammer, please?". We're not talking about a piece of steel with a wooden handle, but a delicate and costly electronic instrument, one could easily break it.

Second thing, on a work computer normally who is logged on is responsible of what happens from their login, think about typing the wrong command in a remote root shell, and in some case is even required by law that the loggen on user must not allow other people to use their credentials.

score 2 · Answer 9 · answered Feb 05 '19 at 10:51

It is a breach of privacy, even if it is a "work" computer. Same goes for phones. With the way we use electronics today they tend to become an extension of our personal space rather than simply exchangeable objects. I would make the analogy to work clothes - even if these are provided by the company, for a specific purpose, you normally wouldn't borrow someones personal boots or lab coat.

Another reason is hygiene, as a lot of people don't wash their hands. One of my pet peeves is people handing me their phone to take a call with someone. You spend 1/3 of your time using that phone in the bathroom and I don't want it anywhere near my mouth.

Anecdote: My boss once borrowed my laptop (without asking) to show videos (or whatever) at an expo booth, leaving it unattended in a public space for the whole day. After this I started using full disk encryption, so the machine won't even boot without me present.

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Feb 06 '19 at 10:34

Too many of the existing answers beat around the bush. Which is:

What the heck is wrong with your colleague ???

Yes, he absolutely needs to ask for permission before using your machine. That is common etiquette. Not doing so is a lack of respect, disregard of boundaries and possibly a domination gesture. It may well be a violation of company policy as well.

No, you don't need a polite way to point out that it makes you feel uncomfortable. You need a polite way to say "what is wrong with you?"

What could you have done different?

Not much.

You did not need to point out that there could be something private. Simply stating something along the lines of "my machine, not yours" or "you know it's polite to ask first?" would have been good as well.
You had no reason to be embarrassed.

In short: You were right, he was wrong. He apologized, no harm was done, I hope the answers here give you closure because moving on is all that's left to do.

score -1 · Answer 11 · answered Feb 04 '19 at 01:12

-1

Your laptop is your personal property and nobody gets to use it without your permission. If you are going to give someone permission, they'd better be gracious enough to let you secure any personal stuff that you might have left open on it too.

Work computers, on the other hand, are company property. They can and will be co-opted by your colleagues at a moment's notice and you're going to have to have a very good excuse if you want to refuse them. It's still the done thing for them to ask politely first, but you shouldn't always count on that. For instance, if your CEO walks in with a broken laptop and needs to send an urgent e-mail, you'd better be prepared to hand it right over.

answered Feb 04 '19 at 01:12

Matthew Barber

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Hand over laptop - yes. Hand over laptop with my account logged in and laptop unlocked - never ever. If he needs it, let him re-log into his own account. In most companies I worked in (all that mentioned that case), it was serious offense to let anybody access your account. – Artur Biesiadowski Feb 04 '19 at 08:05
@Artur Biesiadowski No arguments from me. To access their own e-mail, etc. they'd typically need you to log out in any case. – Matthew Barber Feb 04 '19 at 21:37

score -1 · Answer 12 · answered Feb 04 '19 at 23:22

Let's assume that this was your work laptop. There will be lots of people saying "it's your work laptop, your employer has the right to access it". That may be right, but your colleagues are not your employer. They have no right to access your computer unless your manager tells you otherwise. And many people are not allowed to give anyone access to their computer for security reasons.

However, this wasn't your work laptop. This was your private laptop that you had to use because your company was too tight to buy a laptop for you. In this case, I don't even think the company has a right to access that computer without your permission.

Forget about all the technical solutions. And forget about being polite - what this person did was absolutely rude, and I very much doubt he would have done that if you hadn't been a woman, but a (strong) man. In this situation, the first move would be to go to your manager, tell him or her what happened, ask him to make it stop, and in your particular situation, if he doesn't assure you this happens again, tell him that you won't bring your private computer to work anymore.

Using a colleague's laptop without asking for permission

12 Answers12