Ask HN: Laid off employees, did the company ask you to return equipment?

I have returned all company equipment in the past after getting laid off except for one ex company's laptop, now paperweight, I have had since January, because they have not offered to pay return shipping fees and haven't bothered following up. Also got a free monitor from them. Their stock is floating around $3/share right now so I don't think they have the resources to pay for return shipping.

No but they lock it down via MDM so it's basically junk now.

I still have my SAW machine from Microsoft (quit, not laid off) and nobody has ever given me any indication what to do with it.

Having run Ops it is sort of a company by company thing, that said the most common thing is yes, you return the equipment and the company generally sanitizes it and then sells it for scrap/resale to a third party (there are a lot of them out there, set your LinkedIn job title to "VP of Operations" or IT and they will seek you out.

From a governance perspective, the important thing is to be sure employees return all IP which is typically on laptops and phones, so generally folks are less concerned about getting monitors or keyboards back. Local backups should be returned as well if you have them.

For my last few jobs I negotiated that I would keep what ever company issued laptop I had at the time of my separation, with the company having the option to reset it to factory before releasing it to me. One of my managers thought it was a good idea (because he didn't have any use for "old" laptops)

I was fired from a FAANG and was told to return my hardware. I didn't have a personal machine and didn't want to pay for one with no income so I just... didn't. I got one or two reminder emails and never heard from them again. I'm typing this comment on it.

I'm now employed elsewhere so if they ever ask again I'll happily send it back.

nope. laid of twice this year I now have two brand new MBP

I had an employer buy our phones and they were then ours. As person property, they couldn't be FOIA'd.

If the employer is at risk of getting sued, "giving them away" may be a very good consideration.

I haven't been laid off, but as far as I can tell, my company does zero tracking of anything besides the laptop itself. I'm sure they're require it to be returned, but it's got MDM stuff all over it, so I'm not sure there's any reason to keep it.

My previous employer did not ask me to return the laptop and smartphone.

So, I stowed them on a shelf and after some time, I found a use for them in my familly. I did not sell them, just in case they asked me to return them later.

Technically you and the employer both owe taxes if you keep it because it is considered compensation. This is why it is usually returned.

No. In fact, they informed us we were being gifted out MacBooks to help with our jobsearch.

I once had a VP that told us to take anything that wasn't bolted down as they had closed the branch and laid off all but three people. I got a desk, computer, several monitors, big nice shredder. I only have the shredder left, it still gets the job done.

Another place, a small biz, wanted everything, including the Kindle I had been gifted earlier in the week. Even tried to get me to give up the laptop case I purchased for the work laptop. Nothing worse than having to take back a cheap Kindle, hours after being laid off.

Personally I wouldn't want any of the company's equipment. My own equipment is better. The company's is configured to let me access the corp network including cloud builds but otherwise it's not that great. I'd have no use for it and selling it wouldn't be worth all that much.

Laptops had to be returned, we got to keep our phones though.

The weird bit was that they insisted on keeping the keyboards, earphones and mice that were at the office.

Like they're actually going to re-use someones crusty 5 old keyboard, but corporations corporate and we didn't fight the matter.

Yes. forgot the laptop charger so i had to run back for it

We were told to return the laptop + charger, but not any othe accessories (keyboard etc).

Our company tracks all the laptops and mobile phones. On onboarding we send them to the programmer and during offboarding we collect them back. Shipping label are always generated by us. At the end of life we sometimes give away devices to their users after resetting them. In case of laptops we mostly have a second life for them as long as they are fully functional - they are used by administration, as a second device for projects as needed, etc. But we do not plan to wind down anytime soon, so this might be a different story with a startup going bankrupt. In particular once the person responsible for administration is no longer with the company ;)

As a contractor I might get to keep a mouse or set of headphones sometimes, but that's it.

Furniture is interesting because in the one instance I know of the company just wrote it off as a loss - apparently that's fine from an accounting standpoint - at least in this corner of the world.

I wasn’t laid off but when I left my last job it was during the pandemic. My employer made it super easy since the IT folks tracked everything. They simply sent me a FedEx slip, I took it to my local place, they put my laptop in a box, end of story. It couldn’t have been easier. (For those wondering I got a follow up saying thanks for returning the equipment)

I miss the old days where your books collection would have already vanished before you exit the building. I'm showing my age.

Not that I’m caught up here, but everywhere this has happened to me: yes

The only time that hasn’t happened was when I left aol, where our biz group was sold off to a new shop, I wasn’t needed, but the equip belonged to the new shop and they didn’t care.

They bought me a 1500GbP desktop when I started. When I left 9mos later I offered them 1000 for it and they accepted.

YMMV, but I expect most companies would consider such deals.

Oh yes. Had to return the pretty crappy old Macbook to China.

Not laid off, but my employer just requests the laptop back, which is either recycled or reimaged for the next user. Mobile phone is all yours - no MDM.

Last time I was shown the door without even the chance to remove personal files or unlink self-paid software licenses

Got to keep my monitor and macbook, with more than enough severance to find a new job. Not a bad deal overall.

No, it was gifted to us at my current place.

My previous employer wanted it back even though they’re a trillion dollar company.

Return it or be charged for it.

They were supposed to, but they never sent the box.

Prior companies did require me to return it.

Yes, always. They get nervous when you don't ship your overpriced macbook pro back within a few weeks (they need to give them to the interns they're replacing you with).