I think that piece of paper spreading FUD is a simple attempt by the IT department to minimize the number of people trying to charge their laptop off of an 10-18w cell phone charger and generating charging failure tickets in the system

Dell famously won't charge off anything less than 65w USB-C PD when turned on, and I think 30w when turned off. Apple will trickle charge when off, on 15w (standard phone charger) if the charger truly is USB-C PD compliant (about 50% of the time these days)

Given that most people don't own a 65W USB-C PD charger (yet) I can see the IT department adding warnings in an attempt to avoid confusion and reduce the amount of extra work.

That said, I've been using USB-C 65W chargers since the original Pixelbook came out + Nexus 5, and later Anker branded 65W chargers and I've never had any problems. I generally don't use off brand stuff though.

Not working? Totally true.

Damaging it? There's definitely historical evidence for it [1], but I think the situation is a little improved these days. I personally had a nexus 5x charger damage a Pixel 3a such that that charger and usb a-c cables were the only ones which would work in that device from then on.

[1]: https://www.engadget.com/2016-02-03-benson-leung-chromebook-...

Not at all - its likely they wanted to reduce support calls from people who try and charge the laptop using mobile phone and other inappropriate chargers.

I use dell, Lenovo, & apple PD chargers interchangeably without issues.

You can charge with any cable that supports that power level. The problem is you can buy cheap cables that don't meet standards and can burn up. Or, the laptop won't charge at all because the user's own charger doesn't support Power Delivery, and IT doesn't want to deal with supporting 3rd party chargers—I know my Dell XPS 13 won't charge over normal USB at all, and needs a 45W charger to charge at full speed.

Off brand chargers are probably more of a concern than the actual cable. There are some really shoddy ones out there.

The Nintendo Switch famously has this problem on third-party USB-C docks

My own work laptop is a bit old and has a barrel plug and USB-C. When the laptop is truly out of juice, only the barrel plug will charge it. So I can't leave it at work. YMMV.

Not common, but there are models more susceptible to issues than others. For example I've got a Lenovo Yoga which breaks when connected to an apple charger. The touchpad starts to misbehave and if you put it to sleep, it won't wake up until you disconnect the charger. (no long term damage though as far as I can tell) OnePlus 6 phone behaves correctly, but gets much hotter with the apple charger than with its own / google nexus / lenovo.

Not very, barring some ridiculous chinese knock-offs. Normally low power cable wouldn't be able to negotiate more power than what it is rated for.

I burned out my XPS 15 USB-C charging electronics by using a high-end charger. I think many laptops of a certain age were not rigorously tested for USB charging. Hopefully that's changing.

Bad USB-C cables and hubs could brick M1 Macbooks as recently as February of this year before Apple issued an update.

Lots of Nintendo Switch charger/dock anecdotes revealing issues here.