Featured on @StorylineReddit: November 8, 2025
She is home with strep throat when the call comes: install the timer or stop working. A browser extension. A few clicks.
The request sounds procedural. It lands differently when the computer is hers. So is the phone that logs her location. So are the hands that move from patient to keyboard all day, sanitizer still damp, until the mousepad gives out.
The conflict here is not loud at first. It is administrative. Practical. Efficient, even. But something shifts when personal property becomes standard equipment and refusal is treated as disruption. The tension builds through small permissions bring your laptop, download this app, clock in that way until drawing a line feels disproportionate.
The escalation is procedural. The discomfort accumulates. And the moment of resistance is quiet enough to miss if you are not listening for it.
At its center, the dispute concerns expanding managerial reach inside a profession already defined by responsibility. What begins as an unexpected expectation—use your own device—gradually widens into a network of monitoring tools and cost-saving measures that alter the daily environment.
From management’s perspective, the logic is straightforward: billing requires documentation, documentation requires time tracking, time tracking requires software. Efficiency is presented as neutral. Yet each addition redraws the line between what belongs to the practice and what belongs to the employee. The timer request crystallizes that shift. It is not technologically complex. It clarifies who carries exposure and who retains control.
Then the scope broadens. GPS tracking on personal phones. Security cameras. Reimbursement hurdles. Protective supplies missing. Lunches eaten in cars because there is no breakroom. These details accumulate without announcement.
By the time resignation and reporting occur, the conflict is less about a single policy than about two operating logics sharing one space clinical duty and managerial economy without ever fully aligning.
Text Version
I (27F) am being asked to use my personal computer and download a tracker for work
CONCLUDED
I am not The OOP, OOP is u/Cuteasducks
I (27F) am being asked to use my personal computer and download a tracker for work
Originally posted to r/legaladvice & r/ProRevenge
TRIGGER WARNING: hostile workplace, health hazards, unethical business practices
MOOD SPOILER: horrifying but some schadenfreude at the end
Original Post Oct 11, 2018
Hello,
As the post says I am a 27 year old family nurse practitioner in Virginia. I work in private practice, think family doctor, and my company from the beginning has required me to use my own personal computer. When I was hired I wasn’t told about that, but instead on the first day, they told me to bring it and use it daily as it needs to go in with me to see the patients. I think this is crazy for a variety of reasons- lots of wear/ tear that I’m not compensated with, bring back/ forth- risk of losing it or it being stolen, patient’s records on my personal computer, sick people getting germs on my computer and on and on. I have been at this position for 5 months and so far the mouse pad has stopped working because my hands are always wet with hand sanitizer. So then I had to buy a wireless mouse. I have a nice computer and I hate that it’s being “destroyed” like this.
Today I have strep. Strep as an adult is terrible. I told my boss I could either stay home or stay home and work at home clearing lab results, ect. That night on the phone she said yes please work from home. First thing this morning they wanted me to install a timer to my personal computer that allows the practice to see how much time is being spent in each chart, for billing purposes they say. It is a google chrome timer extension. I told them that I would be more than happy to use that on a work computer (we have a few desktops) but I was not comfortable downloading a timer on my home computer. She said OK, but was clearly mad, then 5 minutes later had her assistant call me and tell me to stop working for the day since I wouldn’t install the timer and that I was now only allowed to use a desktop at work.
This is on top of the fact that I have to clock in/ clock out on an app on my phone that tracks my gps. Yes, I have a master’s degree and have to clock in/out even for lunch. During the entire time it is on, gps is tracked.
So listen, I know I need a new job but- is this legal? How do I approach this? I am now going to have to use sick/vacation time that I wasn’t planning on using. I think I should be paid for my time today.
RELEVANT COMMENTS
Illuminator007
As a side note, I would be extremely worried about the liability of having patient information on your personal laptop. This alone would give me pause.
OOP
I know, I go to great lengths to keep my laptop safe related to it having patient information on it. They do require me to send emails with patient information via gmail, and they keep a ton of patient info on Google drive, so I feel like my computer is the least of the worries.
J3ll1ng
Former HIPAA security officer here to warn you that HIPAA is not only the responsibility of the practice but also your responsibility. Not only are you responsible but you personally can be fined for violations. The fines can be quite severe. So please take this into consideration.
~
TehSavior
Sorry. But. Do you know if they’ve done this?
Do they have you using your personal GMAIL account, or do they have business accounts set up for everyone to use?
If they’re using your personal account for stuff. Holy fucking shit.
OOP
They had me make a gmail account that I use just for work
TehSavior
just a regular old, run of the mill, brand new, standard user account?
theletterqwerty
Uhhhhh…… yeah, if you’re trying to stop the hippo from running I think you just did the opposite of that.
OOP
I reviewed that link, that’s not what we are using. it is just regular gmail and regular google drive..
TehSavior
so basically this just turned into one of those situations where someone in management who wanted to save a few hundred dollars potentially cost their practice a couple hundred thousand.
~
theletterqwerty
“I work in private practice, think family doctor, and my company from the beginning has required me to use my own personal computer. When I was hired I wasn’t told about that, but instead on the first day, they told me to bring it and use it daily as it needs to go in with me to see the patients.”
Hi, I’m Harry the HIPAA Hippo and I have an important announcement, but instead of an announcement it’s just going to be me screaming in horror, running through the wall and off into the horizon!
AAAAAAAAAAAAA CRASH AAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa….
Where you do you live?
OOP
Yes- I whole hearty agree. I will say I have NEVER worked for a company that was so causal about breaking hipaa rules/ regulations.
I am in Virginia
Update Nov 15, 2018 (1 month later)
Shitty employers get a nice surprise after I leave
Ok so I worked for a small family doctors office. My first job out of school, I always wanted to do right by my patients. All these employers wanted to do was make money. No concern for employees (who dropped like flies) and patients (who were constantly mad). Instead of actually caring about the patients concerns, they spent more time micromanaging staff- to the point where they even put timers on our computers and a GPS app on our phones that functioned as a punch clock. They even had managers monitor security cameras to make sure everyone was slaving away. None of us had workspaces and doing simple things like taking break or listening to music were not allowed. Clearly, if we had time to be human we couldn’t possibly be working hard enough.
The owners would NEVER spend money. They didnt buy paper towels, our bathrooms did not have soap, we didnt have water or even cups. There was no coffee or breakroom, people ate lunch in their cars alone because there was no space or utensils.We also had to pay for our own training because they would offer to cover it and then make getting reimbursed really hard. But that is just the beginning they also cut corners when it came to patient safety and privacy.
They were too cheap to buy masks for providers for when patients came in with diseases like Tuberculosis. When I asked about this they told me I was being a baby.
Lastly, they required providers to use personal computers for tasks involving patient data. A major HIPPA violation. Once again, they told me I was wrong when I brought it up. Btw these are the same personal computers that they put timers on.
Now for the fun part. One of the owners’ favorite employees was pregnant. The owners wanted to have a party for her- but spend no money… how would they do it! Well they knew I had a good relationship with pharmaceutical reps. It just so happened that I had one coming on that Monday. The baby shower was scheduled for Friday. Now the pharmaceutical reps usually brought lunch for everyone and taught about the newest drug. They also brought samples and coupons for the patients.
So cheap owners had a grand plan- move the baby shower to Monday so that the pharmaceutical rep brings lunch for everyone and they won’t have to buy it. They even told me to switch the order from my usual chickfila to some fancy vegetarian restaurant because they were vegetarian.
I ended up quitting one day before. The drug rep called my cell phone and asked about the lunch. He knew it was a baby shower and thought it was weird. I agreed and cancelled the lunch, did not tell the owners. I wish I could see their faces when the free food wasn’t showing up!!! A day or 2 after I left two other employees quit and more will soon follow!
I also reported them to the board of health and HIPPA. Their day will come soon. #CountofMonteCristo.
Source
The first rupture is procedural. Install the timer or stop working. An assistant delivers the message. Five minutes earlier the supervisor had said “okay.” Five minutes later the permission narrows.
From there, oversight multiplies. A personal laptop becomes standard equipment. A phone tracks location during shifts. Cameras confirm movement. The language stays administrative—productivity, billing, workflow. Nothing dramatic. Just tools layered on top of tools.
There is a managerial rationale here. Small medical practices run tight margins. Accurate charting protects revenue. Time documentation shields against audits. In that frame, tracking software appears practical. The friction begins where exposure settles—on personal hardware, personal accounts, personal liability. The risk does not disappear; it relocates.
And then the physical environment. Bathrooms without soap. No masks provided for tuberculosis exposure. Employees eating lunch in their cars because there is nowhere else to sit. No commentary is necessary.
The escalation continues, but not in a cinematic way. Timers. GPS logs. Camera checks. Reimbursement delays. Being told to stop working when a boundary is asserted. Each step small. Each step documented.
What surfaces gradually is a compression of professional identity. Healthcare workers remain individually responsible for patient data and safety, even as institutional choices narrow their room to act. The refusal to install a browser extension reads as technical. It is also the clearest line available in that moment.
She leaves. She reports. A pharmaceutical lunch quietly fails to arrive. The practice carries on, for now.
What remains unsettled is whether the problem is contained within one office or reflects something wider, something easier to normalize than to confront.