OK, this goes back to about 2009ish, so not looking for advice, rather than sharing a weird scenario. I'll try to be as brief and descriptive as possible.

Call center job for organizing and dispatching service for appliances (fridges, dryers, etc)

Canada (ontario)

We were each given a company laptop to use, with the intent that they could be taken home by the employee, because working from home was allowed and encouraged for folks commuting from far away. I lived locally, did not have a decent workspace at home, so I just worked at the office. No intent to ever work at home, and I told my manager(s) so.

We were told by ownership/management that we, as employees were responsible for these laptops, and we had to purchase insurance policies for them, in case anything happened, like being stolen, damaged etc......

That seemed very bizarre to me, why would I need to purchase insurance for YOUR computer? I work at the office, I don't want to take the laptop home. I live 15 minutes away tops, I will never work from home. (we were told everyone had to keep their laptop with them no matter what).

my guesses would be

1. to save them money obviously.
2. to be able to call people in to work at any time since they have their laptop with them.
3. shifting as much responsibility to the employees, in order to blame them when there are problems with equipment or software

I remember talking to my home insurance provider about this, and being told "I've never heard of something like this. If the PC is in your possession at home it would fall under homeowner's insurance if something happens, even if it belongs to this weirdo company." I didn't even call my car insurance company about it.

It didn't really get to be an issue, as some kind of restructuring was happening behind the scenes and most of the new hires were let go one day randomly after about a month.