Can I Ask My Company to Cover the Cost of My Damaged Work Laptop? What If They Refuse?

Hi, I am a developer in a small IT firm for the last 3 years. The company provided me with a laptop. Yesterday, while working at home on a company project, my laptop accidentally fell, and the HDD got crashed. I went to the nearest service center and replaced the HDD, which cost 4.5k INR. Now, can I ask the company for reimbursement? The whole purpose of them giving me a laptop is to work from home.

What if they refuse to reimburse me, and I say, "Then don't give me a laptop; I will work on a desktop instead at the company." What should I do?

Hi,

It depends on the company's policy. In case of deductions, certain criteria are taken into consideration to determine the deduction amount. If your company's policy states that any damage or repair costs will be borne by the employee, then you need to adhere to the company policy.

Regards,
AM - HR

Understanding Asset Depreciation and Reimbursement

Normally, every company will have its asset policy wherein they will deduct the depreciation from the value of the object year by year. Electronic instruments, mobile phones, and laptops have a higher rate of depreciation, and after 3 years of usage, the value would be less than 25% of the actual cost. Similarly, these devices given to the employee (for discharging their duties effectively) also have a depreciation value.

My point here is that as you have already used the laptop for 3 years for official use (the value would be very low by now) and the damage that occurred was accidental, you may request the management to reimburse the expenditure that you incurred.

Regards,
Raghavendra.

The company may say "carelessness in handling company's property." You would have signed an undertaking while taking possession of the laptop to the effect that you will maintain the property in good working condition. Have you? The answer is NO! Had you signed such an undertaking, the amount cannot be reimbursed to you. Better to check with your HR department.

Handling Accidental Damage to Company Property

The individual should quietly get the hard drive (HD) repaired or replaced at their own expense. After all, the HD fell while at home for whatever reason.

The employee is expected to take reasonable care in protecting and using company property specifically entrusted to them.

The employee should understand that working at home is a significant privilege. It saves trips on the road, traffic, heat, etc.

Instead of saying, "I will work in the company on the desktop," they should find out what the company policy is on these kinds of accidental damages and adhere to that. Any other reaction will only give them a bad name.