[CS-FSLUG] Jobs at Rackspace, tech "telework" in general

[Jason Franklin]

Sorry Ed, but I didn't follow where you were going.  I'm kind of  
obtuse.  Are you talking about remote work in general (e.g. disabled  
people could work from home)?  Or something else?

Jason Franklin
Christian/Husband/Father/Missionary
Westwood Bible Fellowship
pastor.jason at westwoodbf.com
web: www.westwoodbf.com
blog: www.westwoodbf.com/tboc


On Nov 15, 2007, at 6:32 AM, Ed Dodds wrote:

> I realize this is off list topic but I saw a recent article where at
> least some Indian support centers are experimenting with underwriting
> MBA tuition expenses to deal with the employee churn rate due to the
> inflation of wages. There either is or isn't a global tech worker
> crunch going ( hard to figure given the US CS grad rate decrease ) and
> it seems like C-Suites are throwing money down the HR whole to put up
> hoops for folks to jump thru in order to take a gig in the US but
> don't mind off shoring completely. I just don't get the dichotomy of
> thought...
>
> My real concern re: this list is related to my wife's work in
> disabilities services ( UCP in NAshville ). In the US 70% of folks
> with disabilities are unemployed -- the number one and two reasons
> being the cost of accessible transportation to the work site and the
> cost of health insurance. The catch 22 is that if you don't have a job
> you can't afford insurance or the accessible van. If you don't have
> your health, you can't get a job. Since a lot of these folks live in
> rural areas with poorer healthcare systems to begin with ( and don't
> even get me started on how many petro dollars we could save for better
> use elsewhere if we cut out unnecessary commuting ) it seems weird to
> me that more "church" techies don't take up the banner to promote this
> theme given its self-enablement possibilities.
>
> I step off my rant box...
>
> On Nov 15, 2007 6:46 AM, Micah Yoder <yoderm at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Just curious -- has your management ever considered sturcturing  
>>> the work so
>>> that at least some of these positions could be done remotely a la
>>> culturerx.com ? I monitor the tech press re: the C-Suite complaints
>>> regarding hiring tech workers and they all ( gross exaggeration )  
>>> seem  to
>>> miss the point that the "relocate your family to another local --  
>>> often {
>>> not in your case apparently } to a real estate market which isn't
>>> supportable with typical tech salaries only to by outsourced when  
>>> you
>>> arrive" fear is a relevant factor in these decisions.
>>
>> I can't speak for management, but I don't think so.  Being on the
>> phone with customers is a big part of it.  There's no inherent reason
>> why it couldn't be done, in fact there is a VPN where you can work
>> remotely if you need to (though I think the phone integration  
>> requires
>> Windows).  But there's also the teamwork aspect.
>>
>> There's not too much to worry about in this case -- the company is
>> growing like mad.  If you haven't heard, they bought an abandoned  
>> mall
>> in San Antonio to relocate to, and have a bunch of new tax breaks
>> contingent on hiring about 3000 more people in the next 5 years. :)
>>
>> Of course you may have heard about our datacenter outages this week.
>> That was kind of nuts. :)  By far the biggest interruption in service
>> the company has ever experienced.  There was a bit of fear as to how
>> it would financially damage the company, and it obviously will to  
>> some
>> extent.  But I think we came through it strong, showing customers  
>> what
>> real service is all about.
>>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Ed Dodds
> Strategist, Systems Architect
> <Conmergence />
> facilitating convergence
> dodds at conmergence.com
> http://blog.conmergence.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> ChristianSource FSLUG mailing list
> Christiansource at ofb.biz
> http://cs.uninetsolutions.com

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ofb.biz/pipermail/christiansource_ofb.biz/attachments/20071115/661a0a8e/attachment.htm>