i cant believe that everytime i wanna connect my work laptops to my home
network  i have to change workgroups. Is it my blind stupidity or in all
there infinite wisdom microsoft have set out to piss every pc user off.

Uhm... that's the WHOLE POINT of workgroups.

I can't beleive that your office lets you put that laptop onto their network
after it's been on a home network.

Just change you home workgroup name to the same one as work.

In article <00CADF29-B540-493E-A89A-E65F7083D***@microsoft.com>, Shady
<Sh***@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
You don't need to change the computer's workgroup name.  Windows
networking supports multiple workgroups, and workgroup membership has
no effect on whether computers can access each other.

To see all of the workgroups on a network:

1. Click My Network Places.
2. Click "View workgroup computers".
3. Press the Backspace key.

To access another computer, regardless of what workgroup either
computer is in, type the other computer's name in the Start | Run box
in this format:

   \\computer

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