The Future of International Employment?

[Osvir]

Hi!

This is an idea rather for a worldwide and international opportunity and what I believe could be a step forward towards a unified world. Live wherever you want, work wherever you are capable. Technology is savvy enough today to allow people work from one location in the world for a company at another location in the world.

I am aware that not every profession would be able to handle this, but an office based, computer/technology/web-based profession could. Programmers, Journalists, Website Managers etc. etc. professions where you work in front of a computer.

A solution?

Skype or similar service.

How am I envisioning this?

Skype (in this case) has several features, the one I am most interested in is the "Share your Desktop" feature. So in essence, one could get a cheap dedicated computer at an office in, let's say France, and then work from India. The employees in France could see everything the worker does on their computer through the "Share your Desktop" interface, they could hold conversations with them and direct them as well.

It'd be like having the employee at the job, except he'd be invisible.

I am also curious about the QA implications a format like this could have.

Thoughts?

EDIT: Does there exist jobs like this or similar?

Edited September 25, 2013 by Osvir

[Orogun01]

My thoughts: **** that!

Thanks to globalization I'm now competing against a bunch of art farms in China that because they are run under slave labor can afford lower costs, outsourcing eliminates low level and mid management jobs which in turn ruins the local economy. Unless you develop a global standards for working environments it is an awful idea.

[Osvir]

Whilst I somewhat agree, I also somewhat disagree.

Let's take an example, a job in France which is a job where you sit in front of the computer 8 hours a day:

A) Physical Presence
- I go to France, become a citizen of France and all that.
- Get an apartment.
- Get the job and I work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week (40 hours).
- Get paid by French standards.

B) Virtual Presence
- I stay in Sweden.
- I already have an apartment.
- I do the same amount of work, as good as I would if I went there, I work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week (40 hours).
- Get paid by French standards.

Why would I get less paid if I manage to do the same amount of work?

[alanschu]

 

 

Why would I get less paid if I manage to do the same amount of work?

 

The globalization of the marketplace has allowed people living in countries with lower costs of living (for whatever reason) to have a competitive advantage in terms of their pricing.

 

To take an extreme (and hypothetical) example.  Say that you need $50k/yr to live a comfortable life.  But, some guy in another country can live a life of equivalent relative comfort for only working for $5k/yr.  As such, he can take advantage of enjoying a relatively more comfortable life (relative to his countrymen) for, say $10k/yr, be very happy with his compensation, and charge roughly 1/5 of what you feel is your absolute minimum.

 

 

Note, however, that I don't necessarily consider this a "bad" thing.  (I'm actually pretty neutral on it mostly on account of not giving it that much thought)

[Gorth]

Live wherever you want, work wherever you are capable.

Mate, you are 10 years late

 

Ok, so that wasn't quite what you meant. You are still 10 years late though, as outsourcing to cheap labour countries has been common practice for way more than a decade. Problem is, it's not going to be *you* sitting in Sweden doing work elsewhere, it's going to be somebody else doing *your* work in Sweden at salaries you could never match.

 

I think it's funny (in a very sad way) that large companies think of cost cutting = less employees and then they all reduce their workforce, just to whinge about nobody buys their stuff. Hello? You just put low and middle income out of work, how are they supposed to buy your goods?

 

I've worked in companies that have occasionally "tested the waters" with outsourcing of non-critical stuff and it the results have been unanimously been disastrous. The old adage of you get what you pay for certainly holds water in my own anecdotal experiences. Much better results from importing skilled workforce to your geographical location, then "upskill" them further and then they can carry their own weight. Just my own experiences with the subject over the last 20 years, your mileage may vary.

[ShadySands]

My company already does this in some ways. All of our data loading and data entry and the vast majority of our DBAs are based out of India. Even my team is spread all over the country

[Spider]

Where I work, development teams have Swedish and Serbian members. From my experience there is no great difference in skill between the two countries, but the Serbs do get paid less.

 

Only real difference is that the swedes tend to get higher responsibility positions (architects, tech lead), but that has nothing to do with skills just proximity to clients and project management who are both in Sweden.

 

So distributed development is certainly a thing.

[Walsingham]

The key problem with distributed working is individual work ethics.

 

IMO brain workers are of two types:

 

1) Those who are strongly group identified, who can be trusted to work alone for short bursts because they are loyal. But then over a long period lose interest.

 

2) Those who are weakly group identified (selfish ****holes) who cannot be trusted to work alone for short bursts. Or long ones.

 

But really the issue is that humans are designed to work within farting distance of each other. Not only don't I mind this. But if I thought you had a technological way to overcome that ...I'd shoot you dead on the spot.

[ShadySands]

I'm not sure which group I would fall into

 

The office where I work is full of people who do a completely different job and work for a different company in our group. I mostly work from home but even when I go into the office I'm pretty much there by myself. The nearest person that belongs to the same company as I do is 2 or 3 states away and I only see the rest of my team once or twice a year.

 

I'm also a bit of a workaholic (Mmm... tasty, tasty workahol) and it makes it harder to disengage if work is just down the hall instead of across town or down the street or whatever. Always the temptation of trying to finish just one more thing

Edited September 29, 2013 by ShadySands

[Gfted1]

I would love to work from home...for a few months. I think I need to "get out" of the house or cabin fever would set in.

[Walsingham]

It took me about 5 years to get really used to working from home.

 

- I socialise with anyone I don't meet regularly at least every couple of months.

- If I'm working on something with a remote worker I call them in the morning, and in the evening. Something like a scrum; if you know the methodology

- I accept I'm not going to be able to avoid distractions, so I try to allow for them.

- I accept that I'm going to work longer hours, although this is offset by no commute

- I bought a few really REALLY good dressing gowns.

 

It's still not great though.