I’ve been with my company for about two years, and overall, things have been fine. But about six months ago, my work laptop broke. I immediately filed an IT ticket and asked the admin for a replacement. When nothing happened, I followed up multiple times, but still received no response.

Eventually, my manager casually told me to use my personal laptop instead. She said, “Everyone does it,” as if I were being difficult for questioning the idea. But my personal computer contains private photos, banking information, and other sensitive files. I also knew the company had data-security policies about where work files were supposed to be stored.

I wasn’t refusing to work. I simply wanted the proper equipment employees were supposed to have. So I gathered every IT ticket, unanswered email, and message in which my manager explicitly told me to store company data on my personal computer. I forwarded everything to HR—not to cause trouble, but to protect myself if something went wrong later.

Now I’m wondering whether I escalated the situation too quickly. At the same time, I feel like I was simply standing up for a reasonable workplace boundary and documenting instructions that could potentially put me at risk. Was going to HR an overreaction, or was it the responsible thing to do?