No thank you, I don’t want a brand new laptop for free!

September 26th, 2007

I just heard something very strange. An employee of a big corporation was complaining about the new laptop his employer gave him. His complaints were not about a crappy screen, or too little memory or even a short battery life. I saw the laptop, there is nothing wrong with it. In fact I wish I could upgrade to his model. No he was complaining because of the fact that his employer expected him to carry around this machine during his working day in order to improve his productivity and make his job a little easier for him.

Like me when I first heard his complaints, you’re probably wondering why anybody would complain about receiving a free laptop from your employer. In the rest of the world there is no reason to complain about this, but remember, South Africa isn’t the rest of the world. The person that told me this is a technician from Telkom, South Africa’s main telecoms provider. In reality he is really grateful for the privilege to have such a beautiful machine to work with everyday. The only problem is, that carrying around this laptop in broad daylight puts his life in danger on a daily basis. After hearing about another colleague who got high jacked or ambushed next to the road or on site to steal his laptop, who could blame him for saying things like, “I wish my boss didn’t buy me this brand spanking new laptop!”.