My prior employer was the same, I wouldn't use it to make tooling or do anything that might be for my own business, or open source for that matter, they had been known to strong arm staff into giving over IP that might have ever been on that laptop or was ever created during your employment.
But they were quite frank about allowing us to do what ever we want on the laptops providing we delivered positive outcomes for the business.
If this meant the laptops were used to browse porn at home or even during business hours (clearly not on the shop floor if you were in the office) or playing video games, it was fair game.
This employer also had _incredibly_ poor standards and culture for removing misogyny and bigotry, in fact it was one of the worst I've ever seen. Not saying causation = correlation or similar but an interesting data point nonetheless.
But they were quite frank about allowing us to do what ever we want on the laptops providing we delivered positive outcomes for the business.
If this meant the laptops were used to browse porn at home or even during business hours (clearly not on the shop floor if you were in the office) or playing video games, it was fair game.
This employer also had _incredibly_ poor standards and culture for removing misogyny and bigotry, in fact it was one of the worst I've ever seen. Not saying causation = correlation or similar but an interesting data point nonetheless.