I once joined a company of couple of thousand employees (as software engineer). The interviewer assured me that employees can pick whichever laptop or PC they want. Ok, great, I thought, then asked for a Thinkpad. A funny thing happened after I started to work - IT department was unable to procure me that laptop. After ~3 weeks they said that the company they order hardware from can't provide Thinkpads for the forese…
I'd just like to comment as someone who's done sysadmin work - the nightmare security scenario for us definitely includes employees bringing their own unsecured hardware to the office and connecting it to the corporate network. So many security issues with that - that it was never a reasonable request on your part. Moreover, having also helped with support and procurement. BY FAR, the most efficient thing to do is ge…
It's a reasonable request.