Death to VPN: Why working in an empty office sucks.

I happen to work in the office that allows their employees to work from home with VPN. For those who don't know, it allows employees to read their emails, chat on their company messaging system and access their company servers from their home. Now, some praise this kind of work environment as being considerate of their employees needs and increasing efficiency and bla.. bla.. bla..

Well, I on the other hand, end up like this...



And this is very much a growing trend in Western companies. Its a ponsey scheme to save money and make their employees think they actually care. The company doesn't want to pay for the extra footage, and instead, make you stay at home to slowly chip away the things they use to pay for. It starts by not providing the morning coffee and donuts, then expecting you to pay for own cellphone service, and ultimately you are paying for everything, including the VPN token. Believe me, I've seen the future and it means no corporate credit card for you!

But then why am I subjected to this torture of corporate isolatism?????

1. Cause I work for people who's main drive is to make the client think you are working hard. Not to say that I am not working hard, but honestly, would you want to work in the above picture? And so working hard means being at the client space all the time - even when no one is there.

2. I work for an Asian company. I simply can't conceive Asian companies ever thinking working a 9-5 job from home is a good thing. Asians are all about making sure other see how much you are working (going back to point 1), and doing every little thing as a group - across the board for Asians.


And I'll add another Asian sterotypical explanation when it comes to Korea and Japan. In Korea, ogashies (married men) would actually have to stay home with their wives, and lack the justification to go out drinking with their boss and other surly activities. Whats even worse, the bored every day Korean cougars could never find time to spend their husband's money.

So while my offshore team is working in an environment like this




I got nothing going on. Honestly, wouldn't mind going back to India, and working for rupees, even if my boss looked like this