I recently accepted an offer at a large hospital after six rounds of interviews. I'm a data scientist and my work would involve doing data wrangling and statistics on their medical data. I'm working 100% remotely, and they knew that I was concurrently wrapping up an existing position and were okay with this from the jump.
A couple of days before I started this new job, I realized that they had never sent me a company laptop. It honestly had never occurred to me that they might not send one – every data scientist I know has received a company computer for their job, especially if they're working with secure data. Moreover, they had never mentioned it in the job description, interview rounds, or offer letter that I would need to use my own machine.
So I reached out to my new supervisor and asked for a laptop. He said that IT had complicated rules and they couldn't do that, and that they expected remote employees to use their personal computers w/ a VPN connection to their on-site computers and set up a remote desktop system. He also offered to give me a $100 Amazon gift card to “furnish my office” – which was nice, but that wouldn't even make a dent in the cost of a standard laptop. My current laptop is a piece of shit and definitely can't handle the sort of thing he's describing – plus, I am just not comfortable as a concept with having my work and personal stuff on the same computer. It doesn't even sound fully secure from their end, though I'm down to hear people's thoughts on that one.
I told him that I can't use my personal computer and that I didn't realize that I'd have to, since it was never mentioned in any of the job steps. After a while, he responded saying that IT would be sending me a 2-3 year old retired laptop to keep. Great, I figured that would be the end of it.
He reaches out again to say that IT is refusing to give me a laptop that has an operating system installed on it/I'm not allowed to use their license, and that I would need to buy the Microsoft license myself for $150. They described this as a “small purchase” that they wanted me to cover, because they were sure that if they tried to reimburse me it would be “flagged and denied”.
I told my supervisor that while I understand how frustrating this process is, I just don't feel comfortable paying – they never told me that I would need to pay for anything out of pocket to even start this job, and $150 is a lot, and that I would want to be reimbursed. He said that they can “try” to add it to my sign on bonus, which can be revoked within the year if I quit and so wouldn't be guaranteed.
He got annoyed, said “c'mon, you're getting a free laptop! …. As an extremely large organization, there are many hoops to jump through in terms of personal reimbursements. The $100 Amazon gift card I was planning on giving you would have been personally paid to you out of my own pocket. We’re already being extremely flexible allowing you to work both positions at the same time. I ask that you extend a touch of flexibility to us in these first couple weeks and we will iron it all out.”
Here's how I see it – I never asked for a “free” laptop. I wanted a loaner so I could get the essential tools I needed for my job – which is, a laptop that has a functional OS. He chose to give me an old computer they weren't using anymore instead of just giving me a loaner, and it's not my fault that IT won't add the license. I also never asked him to offer to pay for anything out of pocket, and while he might see that as a nice gesture, it's making me feel kind of guilted for something I never requested. Also, they hired me with the *knowledge* that I was working another job for a while over other candidates who weren't in that situation, and I don't see how that has anything to do with my need to have the basic tools for me to get my job done. I also feel like I need to be firm about needing the reimbursement upfront because, as he said, there are lots of hoops to jump through and I don't want to take his word for it that it'll be ironed out 'eventually'.
I've heard that some hospitals have really archaic systems like this, but I wanted to hear from people if you think he's being reasonable here. This is a prestigious hospital and I feel like having it on my resume would be amazing, but I also don't want to be a doormat. What would you do?