Hmm, it might be because we run Windows on the macbooks, but you're right -- maybe it didn't fully shut down. Even sleep is pretty disruptive; it takes my machine ~30s of playing-dead before it pops back, and I'm booted from the VPN and all my connections. I run into this accidental-coffee-break every now and then.
We bought a USB keyboard + mouse for the candidates.
Do you realise how ridiculous you sound ? You're blaming a Mac for Windows OS behaviour.
On Mac OS pressing the power button does nothing, it takes seconds to come back from sleep and it never drops VPN unless you are going to sleep for hours.
As I understood it the part where you hit the power button when you don't want is the root of the problem. The horrible Mac keyboard is accidentally also the topic here.
If we're talking about the newest line of MacBooks, how does one accidentally press the power button? Maybe it's just my computer but it takes quite a bit of power to accentuate it compared to the other keys.
Well, as noted though, this behavior is determined by the OS; it's not a hard-coded part of the system or anything. Windows has a control-panel option for what Windows should do when the power button is pressed, and for whatever reason, it defaults to "Shutdown". This is not the behavior on macOS, and as such accidental presses are not a problem on macOS, nor would it on Windows if the user desired.
The topic is not "macOS is ruining my life" but "The new MacBook keyboard is ruining my life".
Besides that, I would consider going on standby accidentally a problem independent of the OS (hitting the power button for a shot time usually gets you in standby also).
I don't think you understand the situation though.
On the older Macbook's the power key is still in the top right corner just like it is on the new ones. If you can't type properly it is still possible to hit it.
We bought a USB keyboard + mouse for the candidates.