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TLDR: My company hired two new devs, and they are getting new computers with latest specs, yet, I'm with this company for almost two years, and still use the same computer, that was already used from a senior guy.

Long story:

So recently, my company hired two new guys, and I found out that both of them are getting new laptops for work, yet, when I was hired, I got an used computer from the senior guy (who got the new a one). This laptop as served me well, but as I got into more work, it started to go a bit slow, and every two weeks or so,I need to delete some stuff, so I can have some free space (I must have about 10gb of free space). In terms of specs, I'm taking about a 2015 laptop, with 128gb ssd, and a Core I5 5th generation processor. To give you the feel of this laptop: It takes about 40s to load the app, more 30s to build assets. For every change I work, it takes about a minute before I can test it (front end web dev). Also if that matters, the DB of the app takes almost as 19 GB, the system software takes almost 70gb, and the website itself almost 2gb. Other apps I use for developing range from 1gb to 8gb (xcode)

So far I've resorted to test on production by overriding production assets with my local assets (which is wayyyy faster). Production website takes way less to load, and I only need to test some JavaScript. This is not ideal, I know.

My team leader is aware of my frustrations with my work laptop, and I've complained to him about the space issues and also the slowness of the laptop, yet, everytime I complain, he offers his laptop for me to test, or proposes a solution, but never goes through with it. I don't need something new, I just need something faster with a bit more space. I don't even mind of is one of the senior guys, give them new laptops, I'll happily keep the "new" used ones.

I've been raised by 20~25%, and I was told I was doing a good job, but I feel cheated, because it feels that I was only told that so than they didn't had to hire anybody else (I rejected a very good offer because of that)

I'm considering moving jobs if this doesn't change very soon. I'm also considering stop doing overtime (I do alot of overtime) to fill in some bad management decisions, because this, and also refusing to go on any company events (I wonder how they can afford that)

What's the best course of action here? I don't want go to hard on this problem, but I also find this unfair to me

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    The stuff about overtime and bad management decisions sounds like something totally unrelated. You can cut 99% of this post and just ask "My current work PC is interfering with my productivity. How do I request a new one?"
    – Mars
    Mar 3, 2020 at 2:15
  • I believe it matters in terms of "I feel that I deserve because i do all of this". If I was just working on a 9-5 l, I probably wouldn't had been raised
    – jiffygreek
    Mar 3, 2020 at 9:44
  • For context: I'm not paid for overtime.
    – jiffygreek
    Mar 3, 2020 at 13:09
  • Yet they choose to invest on better pcs for the new employees, even though we have current laptops available to them. Best case scenario, they will only be productive within 6 months, so therefore, the company will only be making profit after that time. What amazes me is that, despite the situation, even a "no we have no budget" would be an acknowledgement that the issue is known, and I would accept that. At least, they are "formally aware" of the problem, so I'm not being ignored. Not even that...
    – jiffygreek
    Mar 4, 2020 at 1:12
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    You deserve nothing. It's work. It's not even your PC. It's a tool that the company owns and forces you to use.
    – Mars
    Mar 4, 2020 at 1:17

1 Answer 1

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The best way to ask for a new laptop is to point out in which ways it will improve your productivity. If you have to wait 60 seconds each time to test a change -- and on average you need to change code about 10 times to get something just right, that is 10 minutes of just waiting. If a new computer could get that down to 10 seconds, that would be in decrease of about 9 minutes, and much frustration. As for the hard drive (ssd) space, if you have to constantly spend time trying to find stuff to delete so you have enough stuff to work with, that time is also wasted when it could be spent actually doing something productive.

As for new employees getting new machines, you can bring it up like

I see that there seems to be some budget available for new machines. I have been putting up with this issue for some time as I was told that there was no budget at the time, but I would very much like to upgrade this old computer at this time.

In general, you need to show the company how upgrading the machine will benefit them. If your team lead does not take action, you can speak to your manager about the issue.

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    Add up that lost time, multiply it by your hourly rate & calculate how long it would take the company to buy a new laptop & how much money they would then save each year.
    – Mawg says reinstate Monica
    Mar 3, 2020 at 6:49
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    @MawgsaysreinstateMonica It always amazes me that so many companies are still so stingy with hardware. An average brand new laptop costs less than a single day of a programmer. And yet there is often complicated bureaucracy involved or people are being told off again and again. On the other hand, wasting a days work is much less of a problem.
    – quarague
    Mar 3, 2020 at 8:47
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    @quarague Less than a single day of a programmer... unless you're outside of California... my current PC is about 20-30 days of entry level Japanese engineers :(
    – Mars
    Mar 4, 2020 at 0:54
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    @Mars I was thinking the same thing...
    – さりげない告白
    Mar 4, 2020 at 1:15
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    @quarague A starting engineer in Japan makes ~5-15 Euro an hour. That's a pretty far stretch to say that administrative overhead brings the real cost to 10x... While I agree that the cost of a new PC can easily be less than the productivity increase, there are other things to consider as well. And if you want to go the hidden cost direction, you'd have to consider the day or two lost to the programmer transferring everything, the time spent for the admin to purchase, check and register the new device, etc...
    – Mars
    Mar 4, 2020 at 7:50

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