[homosaur]

I don't think this is appropriate for general office use simply because you might leach private data from employees (bank accounts, retirement accounts, medical records, whatever), but in secure, restricted environments I think it's totally appropriate and probably needed.

[pc86]

There is an argument to made that you shouldn't be looking at your personal bank accounts or medical records on a work computer, particularly if you work at a company that cares so little about their employees that they'd implement a system like this.

[ghshephard]

It's not so much that the company cares so little about their employees, but that they have so many responsibilities for the data and systems they are entrusted with.

Seriously, though - what everyone I know does in this situation does is just bring their own laptop into work for personal stuff, and treats the work console for precisely that - work activity.

[pc86]

Is this common?

I have a few coworkers that bring in personal laptops and have them sitting right next to the work laptop. It absolutely blew my mind the first time I saw it. It would have been unheard of at my previous employers and probably gotten you called into an office.