The laptop debacle of 2021

 There are times when something that should be simple and easy blows up into a big mess. There are toothpaste tube moments, which obviously aren't about the toothpaste tube at all. Then there are times when unnecessary hurdles and obstacles are thrown into paths for various reasons. Which is the variety that seems to plague the acquisition of work laptops here in Singapore.

One friend has a laptop that can take up to 30 minutes just to start up. I've watched the screen think for 10-15 minutes as it attempts to bring up one screen. The fact that this laptop hinders this person's productivity in such a major way (this person spends much of their workday typing emails on their phone) would make me think the company would want to get this person a new laptop. How can they actually do their job with a defunct laptop? But their IT department negates the request time and again. It's not time for the laptop to be replaced yet.

Another friend just started a new job and it took two to three weeks for them to get their laptop, which delayed the start to their job. 

I'm no stranger to laptop hurdles myself, and at my last job they ended up buying three laptops before I had one that worked. I also spent probably 15 hours on the phone with IT trying to get it sorted--talk about a waste of resources. The most ironic part is that it's at a tech company. Ha!

Previously, though, the vendor companies I've worked with have provided me with a laptop, and I was surprised to get copied onto an email chain with the top message asking if I have a laptop of my own I could use. To which I had to respond negatively, as my laptop is four years old and not up to snuff for this company's system. Reading further down the chain, I saw that the vendor companies here don't provide the laptop, and if they do, they charge the client for it. It also takes two to three weeks. My team doesn't want to wait an additional two to three weeks, as they've already waited more than a month for my employment pass to be approved. (Side note--my employment pass was approved! Awesome, awesome news!! It was a week from the day it was approved to when they actually told me, despite multiple inquiries from me--but hey, it was approved!)

Naturally one to facilitate a process, I put my hand up and offered to go buy one. They agreed to this suggestion, with someone adding the caveat that it had to be "compliant." I'm used to this lens, but usually I've usually had someone that knew what "compliant" meant or I had access to a list of compliant machines. And so ensued a days-long email back-and-forth whereby I tried to ascertain what compliant meant and tried to find a laptop available for purchase in Singapore that met the specified requirements. 

This saw me in an appliance store for three hours last week, discovering that the model I was looking for wasn't in stock (despite being listed online) and the supplier had no ETA on when it would be. Followed by multiple calls with the person on the email chain, and various conversations with a surprisingly, wonderfully kind and helpful salesperson. Getting people who are helpful (rather than just saying no to your question as it's out of their box) is not a super common thing here. 

It took a week and a half from the day I was asked to use my own laptop to the day I purchased a compliant laptop. My threshold for "normal" and for inefficiency must drastically increase if I'm going to maintain sanity.