Homeshoring

[CajunCenturion]

'Homeshoring' to trump offshoring?

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[chiph]

That's not a bad idea -- as long as the home-working contractor has VPN access over broadband, and a good phone line, I don't see why 1st level support can't be done this way. Maybe even 2nd level support.

Chip H.


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[Castor66]

PErsonally, I am all for it. All my work is based around servers in Datacentres. They are all remote from me even when I am in the office. There is nothing I can do in the office that I can't do in the DC so there is no reason for me to work in the office except . . .

The general feeling of management is that you are not being productive if they cannot see you at your desk! We even have to clock in - how bad is that!?!? Give me an enlightened management and I would be a lot happier.

 

[kHz]

Talking with our Sun hardware engineer yesterday, he said that Sun prefers their SSEs to work from home and not have an office.

I wish I could do that!!

 

[AnotherHiggins]

I once worked as a supervisor for my company's tech-support call center. Having folks work from home makes a lot of sense. As a supervisor, I still want to have the ability to listen in on calls (for someone providing phone support) or have some other method of tracking an employee's time. But with high speed internet access, that is not a problem these days.

The reason we started having employees work remote (I refuse to use the term 'homeshoring' - There is no 'shore' involved here and besides, it sounds like you're bringing jobs back from overseas) is because we were running out of office space. It turned out to be much cheaper to set up employees with broadband service than to rent a bigger building. We sent seasoned employees to work from home while all new employees are in the office for at least several months before having the option to work remote. So far it has been very successful.

Another big selling point is disaster recovery. We usually have one or two ice storms per year that effectively close the city for a day or two. If half of your employees work from home, there doesn't need to be an interruption of your service to your customers (except for you being really busy - longer hold times).

kHz, Castor66 et al.,
Assuming your job could be done remotely, you should really bring the subject up with your boss. Perhaps starting off with a laptop and working from home 1-2 days per week.

[tt]-John[/tt]
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[Stevehewitt]

Whist looking about on the job market I applied as a tech support @ 3rd level (only phone / remote support through). I wasn't aware that this was done from home!
I got offered the job and was informed that I will be issued a IP Call centre phone and it will run over my broadband connection. Had VPN access, Citrix servers etc.
Nothing to it.

I ended up cheating a bit by purchasing some 'extra' kit and plugged in a wireless headset so I can make coffee and grab a bite to eat whilst not on calls.

Saying that, I ended up leaving after 4 months as the work was crap, dull and boring. And of course, there is no social life at all when you go to work.

Steve.

 

[BocaBurger]

Depends on the level of support needed. I work for a large software company and I have to sit down and discuss things with devewlopers and maintenance engineers to help resolve issues. I sometimes do work from home, like during a hurricane, until I lost power, but with the complexity of our product, interaction between upper level support is often needed to resolve an issue.



BocaBurger
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[jwenting]

I turned down an offer to work from home part of the time.
Knowing myself I'd be working nearly fullstop, leaving the office is for me a way to leave work behind for the day and switch my mind to other things.
And yes, sometimes I have to force myself from leaving for home in the evening...