Productivity and Company Equipment Policy

While working at balena, we want to give you the tools to work as comfortably and productively as possible. We offer all new team members $2,500 USD for hardware and peripheral equipment they need to be able to work remotely (ex. headphones, keyboard, mouse, docking station, screen, etc). This is to be treated as the hard limit of the amount you can use when you join balena depending on your needs. You are able to pick the hardware you’d like to use (see the Purchasing Information section below).

You will receive an e-mail with ordering information. We have company accounts with major, worldwide vendors (Apple, Dell, Amazon etc.) so you can just send us links from those vendors for the products you would like. If you feel that the worldwide vendors would cause unnecessary delays or customs fees, please talk to us about better local options.

note

Note that the hardware you purchase on this budget is owned by balena. At termination, it will either be returned to balena or it can be purchased by the team member. 

Purchasing Information

Your purchase should include a laptop with the necessary specifications to run your job-related software and be future-proof for at least three years. (Please do not purchase a desktop computer so that you can travel and work on the occasion of a summit/mini-summit.). Alternatively, you can choose a laptop from the list you were sent duing your onboarding. The list is comprised of slightly used, recently purchased company laptops.

Apple, Dell, and Lenovo are three laptop brands that are recommended. Avoid brands that provide custom laptop builds, such as System76 and TUXEDO, as they are unreliable in our experience. Choose at least 16 GB of RAM, but more than 16 GB is recommended (for devs). Choose at least 500 GB of disk space with the machine ideally having a Solid State Drive (SSD).

Specifically, if you choose an Apple laptop, choose the most recent model (note that Macbook Pro has more battery life than the Macbook Air). For Dell, we recommend the XPS models, as they are high-end, and for Lenovo, we recommend a laptop from the ThinkPad T series or X1 series.
Please take the time to choose carefully, as we do not recommend adding additional RAM or hard drives later. 

If you do not already have high-quality noise-canceling headphones, you can use for work, please purchase some within the hardware budget. Having good audio quality is very important in our communications. Here's a list of headphones we recommend,

1. Jabra Evolve 75 or Jabra Evolve 80 (balena recommended, most used)
2. Bose Noise Cancelling 700 (or, a newer version)
3. Sony 1000xm5 (Might need a additional boom mic)

Other items you could buy with your hardware budget include: monitor, docking station, keyboard, mouse, laptop stand, power supply & extension.

If you’re not sure what to purchase, take a look at recommendations from your coworkers. If it helps in planning your needs, here is a list of the software that your coworkers use.

Please send a hashtag order request in a Zulip stream.

If you aren’t sure if something is included in the budget, let us know!

Laptop Refresh

We understand that your equipment might need to be repaired, upgraded, or replaced and we are here to support you to do so and optimize for productivity. 

• If your laptop needs to be repaired, please find an estimate of the cost and wait time and reach out to TeamOS. You should also confirm whether the laptop is under warranty. Note that tampering with a laptop under warranty might void the warranty which can incur extra costs that the team member can be called to cover. 
• If you ever find that your laptop is not capable of what you need, our offices have an inventory of used laptops that are often in great condition and relatively new. Contact TeamOS to see if we have something that suits your needs.
• If you need to replace any of your peripherals or need additional hardware to increase your productivity at balena, please reach out to TeamOS to discuss. 
• If your use case is not covered by the above bullet points, we will work together on ordering a new laptop for you. 

What we would not consider a good reason for a laptop refresh and/or purchasing a new one. 

• Replacing your fully functional laptop with the latest Model
• Deciding to switch from Apple to Windows
• Having a scratch on your laptop's lid

Please treat the above as a live and work-in-progress guide which should expand as you continue to communicate your needs and feedback to TeamOS. We are here to support you maximize your productivity :)

What do we do with the old laptop?

It can either be purchased by the team member or returned to balena. Bear in mind that the company follows specific accounting practices to define the value and price of a laptop which often sets the price lower than what you can find on the market. 

Your Recommendations

If you’ve worked here for a while, you probably have a good idea of what works and what does not. We’d love to hear your feedback for both hardware recommendations and what software you’re using to help others.