Ann Brackbill, an AOL Time Warner spokeswoman, said other things on the plus side included the ability of employees to gain access to AOL's e-mail system from ''just about anywhere'' and its integration with AOL's instant messenger system. She also said that the latest version of the service is better at handling attachments, and other features may be added.

Of course, AOL is not the only technology company that expects a certain esprit de corps from its employees. A spokeswoman for Sun Microsystems, Elizabeth McNichols, confirmed that the company did not use any products made by its competitor, Microsoft, including Microsoft's popular Office suite. Instead, workers at Sun use the company's StarOffice system, which Ms. McNichols said was capable of translating documents created with the more common Microsoft programs.

But an executive at a software company that does business with Sun said his experience was plagued by incompatibilities. ''Anything we sent to them involved some kind of trauma,'' he said. ''And the onus was on us to somehow prepare a file they could read.'' The executive said the reaction to an offer he once made to a group of Sun employees to leave digital copies of a Microsoft file he had used in a presentation had an almost Prohibition-era feel to it. ''Someone came up to me after the meeting and said, 'Listen, if you can get me a floppy, I can use my daughter's PC at home to read it.' ''

Microsoft has its own technology preferences. Andrea Jenkins, formerly creative director at Microsoft's Sidewalk San Francisco Web guide, said when she showed up for her first day at work, she was surprised to learn that she would have to use a computer running Microsoft Windows, as opposed to a Macintosh computer. ''I tried to say I could design better or faster or more efficiently on the Mac,'' Ms. Jenkins said, ''But it wasn't like I couldn't design on the PC, which was their argument.''

Ultimately, she said, she adjusted to using a PC. ''In retrospect, I'm glad because I learned how to design on the PC and it's been invaluable,'' she said. But now that she runs her own design business, she says she is back to using Apple Computer machines. ''I still tell people designing on the Mac is the only way to go,'' she said.

Outside the technology industry, it seems companies tend to favor the carrot approach over the stick -- no doubt because their products generally do not sit on employees' desks and are not paid for with a company requisition slip.

Stacy MacLean, a spokeswoman at Gap Inc., said it offered employees a discount on Gap clothing, but did not require them to wear Gap brands. ''In the stores, wearing the clothes can help sell the clothes in some cases,'' she said. ''But we don't have any policy around that.''