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Comment by H8crilA | Hacker News Reader

Simple rules that work for me: a) don't take my work laptop home, no corp provided phone (if they insist I'd keep the phone at my work desk, where it belongs). b) work 40 hours on average per week. Just go home already! Helps if you're a late sleeper (like me), you can simply arrive later at work to compensate for the hours you've recently donated to your employer. This works very well for me, although I'm based in Europe, ymmv.

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This is what I did too, leave the laptop at work, arrive relatively late, as I knew I had to leave late anyway.

It makes it more bearable, but it still kind of sucks, and everyone in your team is doing it (taking laptop home, answering calls), eventually, it's going to cost you.

You get to work in the morning, and there is this long email thread about how something was "urgent" or went wrong and they tried to reach you and they couldn't... all that good email delivered peer pressure stuff, passing the bucket blame it on the absentee kind of thing.

I think that BS only persists because not just because people allow it to, but some people positively get off on it. They love the opportunity to be the hero "I was up from 4 til 7 rebuilding the database -- you're welcome" and the ability to differentiate themselves without actually being competent at their jobs.

Some roles (junior investment banking analysts, junior lawyers, etc) the long hours and weekends are part of an apprenticeship type weeding out process, and are almost a form of hazing ("I did it - you have to do it too") But at least in those cases there is an expected path out.

It sounds like you are in a dysfunctional shop. If it's possible, move. It's not like that everywhere.

> "I was up from 4 til 7 rebuilding the database -- you're welcome" and the ability to differentiate themselves without actually being competent at their jobs.

Some do this because it's in their nature. They don't spend their free time doing enjoyable, fulfilling tasks for whatever reason, so work is really the only form of stimulation they have. Older women without children (or adult children) seem to be particularly susceptible to this.

I would argue not only that early rising is totally unnatural but also that lying in bed half awake - sleep researchers call this state "hypnagogic" - is positively beneficial to health and happiness. A good morning doze of half an hour or more can, for example, help you to prepare mentally for the problems and tasks ahead.

--The Virtue Of Idleness By Tom Hodgkinson

I wish I could wake up naturally, when I feel rested, but my 2 y.o. Won’t let me. Also, my wife is nuts and thinks it’s lazy to sleep past 7. I want to wake up at 9... but have to be up around 5:30-6 every day. Thing is, I’m self-employed and have nowhere to be, no one to answer to. What went wrong...

You married a morning person, and you need to buy blackout curtains for your kid and let them stay up as late as they like.

Not taking your laptop home is poor information security practice. We had a break-in where dozens of laptops were stolen. We had to do key rolling, password resets, etc for the whole organization. Many people couldn't even work until new computers were shipped in. Of course me and the people who took our laptops home were fine.

Sounds like the organization you work for should have spent more in security.

The thieves climbed up to the second floor and smashed a window. I'm not sure what kind of security could have prevented this.

Eyes on the building. Bars/shutters on the windows. An alarm system. Caltrops on the floor. A locked room with a decent door for the laptops, and/or a strongbox. Africanized killer bees. Full-disk encryption on the laptops themselves.

There's plenty of reasonable measures that organizations can take to protect their equipment and data. "Give the laptops to the employees, they might be stolen if left in the building" is not one of them, not if they care at all about information security.

This is a curious statement. Why would someone having a bunch of laptops require password resets? Weren’t the laptops properly configured so physical access != network access? If not, then having people commuting with these timebombs is not a good idea. As it’s much more likely that a laptop will be stolen from a worker’s home or car or anywhere than the office.

you cant be serious

In a recent office I worked in they were just looking for the large iMac screens :-) Although I don't think there were any laptops lying around...

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