Sounds like a pretty sweet employee benefit. Why do you care if you are fixing employee owned computers versus company computers? If you don't have the staff to meet the demand, then you need to discuss that with your supervisor.

Can you force the company to employ you if you say no?

As a warning to those making the demands: I have heard more than once that companies provided that kind of very generous benefit, and at some point employees got greedy and rude out of a sense of entitlement, and then the boss decided that if they can't play nice, then the benefit stops.

Is the company not paying you when you are fixing the personal computers of employees? Is it preventing you from completing other tasks on time? If the answer was no then is there really a problem with it?

@Dopeybob435 - Since all of IT is salary, the answer is "no"-- they are not being paid for staying late and fixing people's personal systems, phones, tablets, etc.

@ChandlerMasters As a side note to this, you may want to look into the legality of rank and file IT being on salary in your location. Where I am this is against labor law and you would be entitled to overtime.

Are the personal devices the only tools available to them to work outside of business hours or are they able to take the business owned devices home?

To thicken the plot. The owners have other family members that own their own companies (no connection to our company outside of blood ties). Two months ago, two of these companies have moved into our very large headquarters presumably to save on office space. My IT team is now tasked with handling all their IT requirements as well including the personal employee assets - prior to their move they paid external IT support for all their needs. These are separate companies with separate tax id's, payroll, infrastructure, and employees.

@Eric A few folks have company owned cell phones but that's it. If an employee works at home there is no device for them to take home.

@ChandlerMasters If these requests are primarily so they can do with they need to from home, then they seem reasonable and the issue is more the lack of company provided tools to get work done outside office hours.

@ChandlerMasters If IT is consistently running overtime due to fixing personal equipment, that's an issue, and I would suggest pushback specifically on that issue. Make it clear that this could be resolved by hiring extra people to handle the extra load, or allowing IT to deny/delay requests to fix personal equipment. (Maybe have a few "loaner" laptops for people who need to work from home, but who's laptop is in for repair.) In addition, I see that you're now supporting 2 extra companies. I'm hoping that you got extra manpower for that. If not, use that as an excuse.

I agree with @Myles. In the U.S., I don't think basic computer support people can be salaried so to deny them overtime. I worked at a computer assembly facility and if they could have salaried the repair department, they would have, but they couldn't.

I don't know the exact rules, but I think as a salaried employee you may be required to do overtime when required by the business. Fixing private computers wouldn't be "required by the business". Worth checking.

@Ghost It's been a while since I've looked at any of that, but, IIRC, there's a pay level above which IT employees may indeed be salaried in the U.S. The rule has to do more with pay level than exact position, IIRC. So, as long as they're paying at least that minimum salary, they're allowed to be considered "exempt salaried" for the purposes of federal labor laws. It's been a while since I've looked at that stuff, though, so I might be remembering it wrong (or it might have changed.)

What about material costs? Who pays - your company or the user privately -.if a fan needs to be replaced, if additional RAM needs to be bought, if software needs to be licensed, if the whole box needs to be replaced with a new one?

"Those personal PCs/cell phones are sometimes used to VPN/Remote in to work outside of business hours" This is IT, so it may be VERY IMPORTANT that these devices are kept working for a whole host of reasons. I'd say this is a completely legitimate request. Now, if the requests are more like demands with short deadlines and no acknowledgement of the other work you have on your plate... that's a whole other issue you should bring up with the appropriate parties.

@Lilienthal - Yep, I'm familiar with the difference - been spending some time cozying up to the HR Director for advice and the like. Answer: They are exempt

@Andrew Whatever- they are demands that come out of nowhere- they're unscheduled and not a care has been given for the workload. Unfortunately, that's the company in the general. They seem to lack the discipline I'm used to.

Additional comment. One of the key members of the team just quit over this. Though it hurts us, I'm happy for her. 12 hours/day 6-7 days a week is just nuts when their's no end to it. I'm a pretty good chearleader for my team but it's becoming untenable. We're the only team outside of retail (though they are scheduled in advance - if they work on Saturday or Sunday they get equal time off during the week - if we work we're expected to still show up M-F) that has to work on holidays to keep up with the demand. Today they introduced a 4th, albeit small, company to our support demands,

@Hagen von Eitzen: Thus far, all repairs have been in software so no OpEx yet- just time. If it did come to purchases I would put the expense on the user for their personal property-- especially since we have no control how it's used which brings me to the other nagging concern. All of the personal laptops, phones, etc. compromise our security. This is the first time I've not been given the budget for some kind of closed off LAB environment that we can wall of from the enterprise.

@eric- it sometimes is so they can work frome but that makes up about 20%. The rest is just personal property that has nothing to do with their job.