(30-Jul-10) Do you hate the computer you use for work? Maybe you're a Macintosh fan and your company is wedded to Windows? Wish your employer would let you use your own PC?
If so, maybe you should be working at Kraft Foods. Starting in early May — and so far only in its U.S. operations — Kraft is allowing some employees to pick their own notebook or desktop computers for work.
Kraft is one of the latest in a string of employers trying out the idea of giving employees money to buy their own office computers. So far most of the pioneers have been technology companies, including Microsoft Corp. and software vendor Citrix Systems Inc., but the idea is starting to draw interest outside the tech sector as well.
Kraft gives employees enough money to pay for a computer that will comfortably meet their work needs, but if the employees want to add some of their own money and buy a fancier machine they can, says Roberta Badieux, director of workplace services in the food giant's information systems department. And they can choose the make and model they prefer. "One of the items that we're focused on is providing choice."
