Same Job - New Company - No IT

Ms_Chocaholic

Good evening

The company my partner works for has recently been taken over by a new company (Company 2).  He was previously assigned an email address for the client (rather than Company 2) but that has been removed by the client for all Company 2 employees.  He is receiving introduction emails (to my personal email address as months ago they asked if he could sign up to a website for the new company) from Company 2 to say log onto online learning, do this, do that but doesn't have a laptop/PC and it's not okay for him to be doing this in his own time at home.

The client's laptop/PC was removed from all employees of Company 2 and he's asked many times over the last few months regarding when the promised laptop/PC will arrive but it's still not here.  What should he do? 

He's also been asked to sign up to log on shifts/annual leave etc but has no work email address.

Also how can I stop the emails, I don't want to keep getting them - would it be okay to say stop sending these to me please.

Thanks

Ms C

Savvy_Sue

Does he not have a personal email address? If not, can he not set one up (gmail, hotmail etc) and use that? Then he (or you) can change your email address to that one, and at least you wouldn't be bothered by them any more. 

And if he doesn't have a device other than yours on which he can access work-related 'stuff', then it really depends how much he wants to keep working for them. If he says "I can't log on to shifts etc because I do not have a personal device on which to do so", will that be the end of his job?

If it would be the end of his job, and if he doesn't have a smartphone, how much would a cheap tablet cost? Not great for some purposes, but would it be good enough?

If your device 'broke' and he really couldn't access things, would that mean they'd get on with providing a work laptop for him, or would that be the end? 

(By the way, there has been some difficulty in obtaining laptops over recent months. Not that NONE are available, but prices have gone up, and if the company insist on buying a particular spec, they may be struggling. Not saying this excuses their failure to provide, but it may partially explain the delay: if they are assuming that everyone CAN access what's needed on a personal device, they may not see any urgency.)

Ms_Chocaholic

Thank you. I guess it’s difficult to answer without all the details but suffice to say this is a huge UK company not a company with a dozen or so employees. 

it’s laughable because they’ve asked him to do online learning including acceptable use policy. Without a laptop I’m not sure that is relevant lol. 

Thrugelmir

Ms_Chocaholic said:

it’s laughable because they’ve asked him to do online learning including acceptable use policy. Without a laptop I’m not sure that is relevant lol. 

Company's learn a lot about their employees when times get difficult. Sometimes you just need to get on with things in the best manner possible. Rather than standing out from the crowd. 

AskAsk

Thrugelmir said:

Ms_Chocaholic said:

it’s laughable because they’ve asked him to do online learning including acceptable use policy. Without a laptop I’m not sure that is relevant lol. 

Company's learn a lot about their employees when times get difficult. Sometimes you just need to get on with things in the best manner possible. Rather than standing out from the crowd. 

employees should try and work with their employer and resolve issues.  if the employee finds that the issues are long outstanding and have no chance of being resolved after a long time of working together then it is time to leave, but yes i agree, try to help the company and work together rather than throw toys out of pram.

Sandtree

Ms_Chocaholic said:

Thank you. I guess it’s difficult to answer without all the details but suffice to say this is a huge UK company not a company with a dozen or so employees. 

it’s laughable because they’ve asked him to do online learning including acceptable use policy. Without a laptop I’m not sure that is relevant lol. 

When I started my latest gig the company was very clear that they were just about to start the process of rolling out new laptops and moving platforms towards M365. As such they didnt want to issue me with an old laptop and set me up on their previous platform but that it'd be a few weeks (turned out to be a couple of months) before the new ones would start hitting doorsteps and so could I use my own laptop in the interim.

Its not the first time its happened either, have had an interview on a Tuesday and started the next morning and clearly all IT departments have a lead time for setting up new users.

Clearly this is a period of significant change and whilst TUPE provides protections the reality will be Company 2 have a load of staff that are a known quantity and a bunch of new staff formally from Company 1 that are yet to prove themselves. This is a time to shine and show that you can overcome minor issues and still deliver rather than show yourself as the sort that looks for roadblocks to hide behind (unless you are looking for redundancy) 

Ms_Chocaholic

I forgot to say that he needs a laptop
for work, that would have been useful to say at the beginning, sorry. 

since the client removed the pc/laptop then he is having to ask the client to email rotas, leave requests etc to his company which is clearly not appropriate. The client have even asked the company for a laptop not just OH btw. 

Sorry not to provide this additional context at the start as it would have made it clearer and explain that laptop needed to do job not just to log onto systems to book leave etc. 

Andy_L

So the client (rather than his company) supplied him with a laptop & have now taken it back?

Why, & what is the client expect to happen next? That the new company supplies laptops or they wait, providing no services, until the client supplies new laptops?  

Ms_Chocaholic

Yes you’ve got it in one. The client aren’t going to give a laptop back or the email address either 

Ms_Chocaholic

Presumably it was agreed in advance I’m not sure and oh is at work so cant check. 

Ms_Chocaholic

The client also removed his client email address so he doesn’t have a work email address either. When it was removed I emailed oh at previous email address (from my work email address) but there was no bounce back so there could still be people emailing him unaware