I think there are a lot of shops that are behind the 8-ball on WFH. We
have been doing it for many years, so we worked out the problems a long
time ago.
Phones are easy, just issue an IP phone device to each worker. It's
getting them NOW and integrating them that is a problem. It might be
cheaper/faster to just buy a bunch of cell phones and send them to each
worker. If you are personally worried, go down and get a burner phone
from the local shop and give that number to your contacts. You just need
voice, so you don't need the super-duper burner phone.
PCs are another issue. While small shops may get by with everyone using
their personal PC, that becomes a pc-virus nightmare when then connect
to the company network. For right now, the "go to my pc" type connection
is the best. Eventually, they can issue work-owned laptops with real VPN
connections to the shop and then they can lock down those laptops to
just company software. I know shops that do this and once they figured
out how to do it, it works well. But, again, can it be done NOW? Maybe
not. Just use the "go to my pc" and get by for now.
Remote conferences may take some getting used to. Everyone needs to know
how to be a participant in a ZOOM meeting. Things like turning off their
mics when not talking. Waiting for others to un-mute when asked a
question. We use ZOOM for small meetings, and it can work, but it takes
a little patience. Another problem with ZOOM, and others, is they are
getting a big load right now and it may take them time to scale up.
Tony Thigpen
John McKown wrote on 3/19/20 12:45 PM:
On Thu, Mar 19, 2020 at 11:04 AM Bob Bridges <robhbrid...@gmail.com> wrote:
I've been working from home for the past ten years or so, and haven't
found it boring yet. But that's just me.
I get bored because I'm alone, and am used to the chatter. And, right now,
not much is going on, so I'm mainly idle.
My team lead at one client told me they're all starting WFH this week. In
his case he has something like an hour commute, so it's a blessing for
him. I told him that it may very well work out to be permanent, even after
the corona thingy is over. At least, in my experience when someone works
from home, it started because of some need - pregnancy, recovering from
surgery, maybe a broken leg or something - and once the recovery period was
over the boss said "oh, just keep on with it, this is working fine". There
are advantages to having people on-site, but they're often offset by the
reduced expense of the extra cubicle - which is not just square footage and
a few cubicle walls, but also a phone line, two or three data lines, power
etc, and maintenance of same including evening cleanup. I've never managed
an office but I gather it adds up to an amount that can be surprising to a
worker bee like me to tends not to notice his surroundings.
I don't see how I can't have a company phone line. No way I am taking
company calls on my personal cell. And the reason that I got a personal
cell in the first place is that the company took away all company supplied
cell phones. I am not going to have every <redacted> vendor marketing
monkey calling me on _MY_ phone.
The way WFH works right now here is via Remote Desktop Gateway, so I still
need a desktop at work. The LAN people, at present, are saying no "virtual
desktops", so I need an actual PC somewhere in the building. And someone to
reboot it when Windows freezes or goes walkabout. We have a VPN, but not
enough licenses (seats) for everyone. And, again, the company is NOT going
to "own" my PC by insisting on specific software, including networking
monitoring software, be installed on my personal property. One guy was
raked over the coals for having a lot of traffic to Chinese sites -- his
wife is Chinese and was using their PC. I will insist on a company supplied
& maintained PC, which I would only use for work, in this case. Which means
there needs to be someone to maintain the PC if there is a problem with it.
I won't try to fix company property.
I could well be off base, the company in the past (before the current
owner) tended to go cheap, not frugal.
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