After a period of time, you get used to the accents.
Three members of my team are based in India. The time difference is annoying, but the ability for them to work while we in North America sleep, and vice-versa is nice during crunch times.
The accent is different. But Iāve spoken to plenty of US-based customer service reps with ordinary mid-western accents who are reading from a script and not listening to the details of my problem. I still prefer them to voice recognition software.
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Wow that sounds creepy.
But on a related note, it was weird talking with BlackBerry customer support. They were based somewhere in East Asia, but spoke with a pretty decent Canadian accent. Theyād obviously been trained to do so. But they werenāt especially shy about where they were located. They were helpful and took their time, and while they were waiting for answers from second line support, we sometimes chatted about time zones and our local weather.
I know Iāve mentioned this multiple times before, but the problem I have is missing the incidental conversations w/ people outside my core group. Just a quick chat when I get coffee, overhearing other peopleās convos, etc.
Thatās really tough to do remotely.
So my key relationships, which were already pretty strong, I had my 1-on-1 convos all the time while remote, and there was no trouble. But I got disconnected from other things going on that I used to know about just from hanging out & randomly hearing people talking as people were walking around the office.
But hey, IT, let me sample other peopleās emails, and Iām good to go!
(note: I do not actually want this feature, because covos in emails suck compared to actual spoken communication. Even looking at chat messages wouldnāt necessarily help me. Listening in on 1-on-1 calls also wouldnāt help. Itās not the same interaction.)
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not campbell eavesdropping on people to be able to work
Iāve been working with offshore labor for over two decades. I have yet to work with anyone in India that I have even a little bit of respect for. You get what you pay from my experience. Iāve had a lot less problems with Philippine labor and Ireland IT staff.
My coworker just got a new laptop from work and they arenāt even requiring the old one back.
They now have a free laptop.
I was astounded at the lack of data security. Keyboard, mouse, etc. yeah whatever we donāt need your gross crumb-filled keyboard.
It may be because they have less access to material non-public information, but still.
Jeez, one of my girlfriends was fired after her laptop was stolen from her locked vehicle. She was working in HR and thus did have access to sensitive employee data, but stillā¦
Itās interesting the spectrum of concern about that sort of stuff.
(This was the employer with the BS managers where my team had > 100% annualized turnover as measured from the day I started until approximately when I handed in my notice and stopped caring to track. Since she wasnāt on my team, she is NOT one of the data points in my calculation, but basically same bulls***, different department.)
Well, my company decided that the entire IT department can be moved offshore. And that it wouldnāt cause any problems whatsoever if some of the IT team worked local hours. They didnāt just move it all offshore, they took the very cheapest option, and it shows.
i donāt think the laptop my company provided would have confidential data stored on it upon termination. itās stored on the network, not on the laptop itself. before recently, i used my own personal laptop to log into the network.
re accents. This will become less of a problem as customer service moves to chats instead of phone calls. I prefer chats as itās much more convenient than calling
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Ha, reminds me of how the body is supposed to replace all of its cells every 7 years.
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Yeah, or the Ship of Theseus
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weāre a brand new person every few years or so I believe. All the cells are replaced if Iām not mistaken
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we have a lot of people who spend their entire careers at my company and retire (or die) from there. not sure if this is a good or bad thing.
Tough to say without knowing what percentage of them are good workers vs. ādead weight.ā
most of the long timers are pretty good.
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Yeah, with around 8,000 life-day observations, there were something like 24 employees who either were fired or resigned. Most of the resignations were either fear of being fired or generally being disgusted with the place although one was ostensibly for other reasons although I have my suspicion that the stated reason wasnāt precisely identical to the actual reason.
Anyway, I think I calculated the annualized turnover correctly. Thatās about 21.9 life-years observed and 24 terminations so 24 / 21.9 > 1
Yes, a small sample size, but it represented several years.