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Exact same story happened to me. I am an Indian contractor working for a US client in US. I asked for work from home in India. Customer manager said security co

Exact same story happened to me. I am an Indian contractor working for a US client in US. I asked for work from home in India. Customer manager said security council didn't approve it. He said something like their policy is 'don't take anything to China that you are not ok with loosing, India is one level below it, safeguard everything'. Now Corona happened and the entire team in India has been working from home for last 5 months. Another one is AWS Workspace. I think its the same reasoning - that it is more secure and not having to deal with hardware. But that thing is horrible to use. Constantly getting Windows is on low memory, disconnections which can be recovered from only by a reboot that takes 40 minutes. Even on a good day, everything is slow, you can see the Window maximize/minimize in slow motion, run an IDE and try to debug to get 100% CPU. Join a conference call, can't even open any other Window without frustration. Once I am no longer working for this client, I want to give a piece of my mind to who ever is in charge of this.

zucker42 6y ago
> He said something like their policy is 'don't take anything to China that you are not ok with loosing, India is one level below it, safeguard everything'. I can't imagine someone hiring a person they have such disdain for. That's a pretty sad attitude on the manager's part.
- mylinkedlist 6y ago
  I believe he doesn't have any disdain for me (except may be for my skills). He had a meeting with the company's security council, and told me the decision afterwards. I think he just heard this line regarding trust from the council meeting. Not sure why he chose to tell me that. I would like to think he was just saying that to convey the mindset of the council people.
  - zucker42 6y ago
    Ah that makes sense. I didn't necessarily think he held personal disdain, just I've noticed beyond this situation the way some people seem to treat outsourced workers worse or in a disrespectful way.
lioeters 6y ago
> ..you can see the window maximize/minimize in slow motion Oof, that's painful to imagine the daily frustration. There must be a better technical solution - but, as long as the current setup is working (and generating value), probably no one with decision-making power has an incentive to improve anything. They can ignore the cost, the wasted time, effort, stress and loss of morale.
- mylinkedlist 6y ago
  Its incredibly stressful on some days, especially when I am dealing with a production issue or a deadline. This is one of the main reasons I will be soon looking for a new job. One of the questions I would ask the interviewer would be to find out if I will I be working on a AWS workspace/Citrix VDI/something similar or will I get a dedicated hardware. I tried to bring this issue up a couple of times, but got turned down saying no budget for laptop (though they must be paying more to AWS within a year or two, we all have been on Citrix VDI or AWS for 6 years), or that it is easy for IT this way, and recently manager just told me to reboot everyday when I leave (which seemed to have solved the low memory issues, but others still occur). 2 weeks ago, the workspace wasn't registering the key presses (it does this sometimes and I have to reconnect). I got so angry, next thing I know I punched the laptop keyboard. The laptop screen froze with lot of lines on it, and there was a loud sound (probably from something getting in between the fan). Fortunately, everything was fine after a reboot. I never knew I would respond like this. I probably need to see a psychologist soon before this becomes a major issue. My dad also had such angry outbursts and I used to hate him for that.
  - brokenmachine 6y ago
    I would try keeping a log of when it happens and how long it takes. Presenting a logbook of wasted time makes it their responsibility, not yours. And try not to worry about it. One trick that I use is trying to think if such frustrations will be important 2 hours, 2 days, 2 weeks or 2 months from now. Usually they won't.
  - lioeters 6y ago
    Yes, I picture it like having to wear shoes with little stones in them. Wishing you good luck in finding a better situation! A way to stay optimistic may be, to see it like Kung Fu training, where they wear heavy weights around the feet for building strength and endurance. When the weights are taken off, they can jump high and run fast - as I imagine you would be when you finally transition to a workplace that provides an actual work machine.

zucker42 6y ago

> He said something like their policy is 'don't take anything to China that you are not ok with loosing, India is one level below it, safeguard everything'. I can't imagine someone hiring a person they have such disdain for. That's a pretty sad attitude on the manager's part.

mylinkedlist 6y ago
I believe he doesn't have any disdain for me (except may be for my skills). He had a meeting with the company's security council, and told me the decision afterwards. I think he just heard this line regarding trust from the council meeting. Not sure why he chose to tell me that. I would like to think he was just saying that to convey the mindset of the council people.
- zucker42 6y ago
  Ah that makes sense. I didn't necessarily think he held personal disdain, just I've noticed beyond this situation the way some people seem to treat outsourced workers worse or in a disrespectful way.

lioeters 6y ago

> ..you can see the window maximize/minimize in slow motion Oof, that's painful to imagine the daily frustration. There must be a better technical solution - but, as long as the current setup is working (and generating value), probably no one with decision-making power has an incentive to improve anything. They can ignore the cost, the wasted time, effort, stress and loss of morale.

mylinkedlist 6y ago
Its incredibly stressful on some days, especially when I am dealing with a production issue or a deadline. This is one of the main reasons I will be soon looking for a new job. One of the questions I would ask the interviewer would be to find out if I will I be working on a AWS workspace/Citrix VDI/something similar or will I get a dedicated hardware. I tried to bring this issue up a couple of times, but got turned down saying no budget for laptop (though they must be paying more to AWS within a year or two, we all have been on Citrix VDI or AWS for 6 years), or that it is easy for IT this way, and recently manager just told me to reboot everyday when I leave (which seemed to have solved the low memory issues, but others still occur). 2 weeks ago, the workspace wasn't registering the key presses (it does this sometimes and I have to reconnect). I got so angry, next thing I know I punched the laptop keyboard. The laptop screen froze with lot of lines on it, and there was a loud sound (probably from something getting in between the fan). Fortunately, everything was fine after a reboot. I never knew I would respond like this. I probably need to see a psychologist soon before this becomes a major issue. My dad also had such angry outbursts and I used to hate him for that.
- brokenmachine 6y ago
  I would try keeping a log of when it happens and how long it takes. Presenting a logbook of wasted time makes it their responsibility, not yours. And try not to worry about it. One trick that I use is trying to think if such frustrations will be important 2 hours, 2 days, 2 weeks or 2 months from now. Usually they won't.
- lioeters 6y ago
  Yes, I picture it like having to wear shoes with little stones in them. Wishing you good luck in finding a better situation! A way to stay optimistic may be, to see it like Kung Fu training, where they wear heavy weights around the feet for building strength and endurance. When the weights are taken off, they can jump high and run fast - as I imagine you would be when you finally transition to a workplace that provides an actual work machine.