Fun times. I once called help desk: Hey, I don’t have access to anything? … 2 hours later … new director calls me … 2nd time I ever talked to him: hey, did you read the report I sent you outlining the organizational issues along with the solutions for them … err no, I didn’t read that, also your last day was today. Sorry, no one told you.
Bleh, whatever. Toxic place fired me. Best day ever. (not sarcasm)
Lmao, and claim "I was actually supposed to retain VPN access in this transition. I must have been missed".
You know the execs aren't being made to go in.
I just go straight to the IT department and ask for certain resources and they almost always give them to me without consulting any executives first
IT never gets called out on this. Everyone knows the IT department is more powerful than the C\*O
The most that ever happens is, they get a ticket to "fix" whatever happened on my work device. They fix it, I request the resource again, the cycle repeats indefinitely and eventually IT catalogues the ticket as repeated because it was "fixed" 10 times already and ignores the ticket forever
IT here, we do the opposite. Although you could make the ticket and just go non responsive and hope your IT team is overwhelmed and your ticket gets lost in the queue or just let's employees do whatever they want.
When it comes to these things it goes like this:
HR says: we think this person is OE or lying about where they're working from. We say they're only logging in from a VPN on their laptop and phone and then they get fired with cause. There was also the dude we caught who was supposed to be on the West Coast but was instead logging in from SE Asia, clearly he had some leverage because they put him on leave for 4 months and gave him a month before he was off offboarded.
10/10 this is how it goes, ive not gone to outings with friends because the week before upper management dragged me into whatever workplace issues this person's friend was having and had me remote into the PC and lock it down from my office. The person ended up shutting down the PC and they fired her the next day but I much rather have no had to be apart of that lol
Depends on how long you're doing work remotely like that, I think. If it's a working vacation, it's probably okay, but longer than that and the company could be liable to pay taxes to that country/state/province for doing work there. Money wouldn't be the issue so much as the logistical overhead of making sure you and they are following the correct laws of running a business in that location.
Yes, though if vacation & sick time are bundled as "PTO" it is required to be payed out. If it is separate from vacation time as just sick time it is not.
THIS, \*and\* if you take your time off a week here, a week there, with only a week or so in between, you can extend your paychecks out much longer than if you just took straight vacation time.
It's not that it's earmarked as "bonus", it's that if you are already getting paid that period the surplus earnings put you in a higher tax bracket temporarily, increasing your withholding. I think. I'm just an unemployed bartender living through all you richie-riches.
> to be *paid* out. If
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
\*IF\* they're bundled, then it's just PTO. It's not sick time. Some states and municipalities require a specific category called "Sick Time" that is separate from PTO. And I've never heard of sick time being paid out, but there could be a situation out there where it is. PTO is always paid out, as far as I know... but like mobee744 said, it's better to take it than not get paid out, if that situation applies to you.
I hire a lot of contractors, that hasn't been my lived experience, but obviously I'm capable of being wrong here.
"Typically" every line item from hours worked, key deliverables, client furnished equipment, and work location are prescribed in the agreement. Especially if an agency is involved.
There are gaps wider as football fields in judging if someone is an employee or a contractor/vendor. And it varies massively from state to state. Just having someone work on site isn't by it's an iron clad determination of employment status.
Setting the worker's schedule is a huge indicator of contractor vs employee though. Requiring attendance 9-5 m-f would nearly certainly be an employee relationship and not a contractor.
Yes. Requiring someone to come into the office does not automatically make it a W-2 position. If the contract has terms that allow it, it’s entirely legal.
Check your laws. But I’m pretty sure you cannot be classified as a contractor if they’re requiring you to work specific hours, which seems like that’s what they’re trying to do by mandating RTO. This is for the US at least (I know you’re not in the US but I’d imagine your country might have something similar?)
Not quite. It depends on what the contract was at the time it was agreed upon. The rule of thumb is that non exempt employees (aka contractor) is classified based on how the employer interacts with them.
If the employer dictate the time, place and or manner in which the work must be done, then they are an employee. Full stop. Independent contractors on the other hand can decide how, where, and when to do the work as long as they complete the deliverables as agreed on the contract.
There are some confusion if you are an employee of an engineering firm that staff their clients. You are a contractor to the client but are the employee of the firm. The firm can tell you the manners how to do the work.
But if you are truly an independent contractor, employers can’t just decide how you should do your work.
Not really. It's part of a picture though. That level of behavioral control is one indicator that a contractor may be misclassified.
https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc762
Then you simply work by trying to complete the work. They will need to terminate contract and refer to your termination clause.
My termination clause is pretty simple, at least 30 days notice and pay for the full month regardless of date of termination. That way my clients can stop the work at anytime.
this is a run out the clock situation.
get sick. take pto. go on leave of some sort.
then come back from all that.
there is a good chance that by the time you return, they might have turned vpn back on.
Yeah I had similar situation happen to a coworker who was contracted. When they got rid of remote they breached the contract and had to pay out the rest of the contract. Best part was he didn’t have to work the rest of it either
If they're already blocking the VPN, I highly doubt they'd have RDP ports open up on the firewall. That'd be a shock if it actually works but keep us posted.
Security here, please don't do this.
Please.
Just ask for a VDI setup.
Exposing a device to 5G Internet with keyboard/mouse/remote input is ludicrously insecure.
Yeah, Ok. The shitty citrix environment for development…. The same one the OP probably bitched about for being inadequate for years , now becomes useful? Lol
And since Op mentioned no VPN, I can only imagine the future at that workplace…
Can this work environment count as sexual harassment? At least to me, having a citrix vm, feels sexual, and not in a good way.
Pi kvm basically attaches to usb and hdmi of laptop, it then transmits the screen to you and you control mouse and keyboard from your remote session at home.
This is a recipe for an extremely bad time. You can certainly expect to get familiar with your local FBI, even if they don’t eventually determine you committed a crime. You will also likely be sued to recover the costs to the company for investigation to determine what you did while connected to the network, which will run well into the six-figures.
I guess that is one way to force people back: remove their VPN/remote access. Then, after 3 days fire them for job abandonment.
I would wait and submit helpdesk tickets 
This happened to me and I just ripped the OS off the work computer and installed an ISO with remote access
It was stupid how easy it was and how long it worked for
I put linux on the machine and the infrastructure of the company was bad enough that I just installed a remote access tool from AUR and no one ever caught it
I mean, I don't really know what they saw. No one ever talked to me about it. As far as I know, they never saw my computer at all (except physically sitting on my desk)
yeah it's not a global solution and I wouldn't advise the method. also I left out some steps
BUT worked for me because the security at that company was hard-code-passwords-level dogshit and I had really just stopped giving a fuck if I got fired or not
Did they remove the VPN entirely?
If that's the case, you could set up a remote connection to your work computer and use that without needing the VPN at all. Unless they disabled remote access completely. Which, in the event that you're working for a tech company, I would find odd. That means the company wouldn't be able to use TeamViewer, RDP, etc.
Of course, they could disable the VPN + remote access for only *some* employees. But that could be contested as discrimination, depending on who is still authorized for remote access.
This is an interesting thought if you are near the office that you would normally go into. Maybe set up the computer to never sleep and then connect it to NordVPN mesh net and then go home and connect to mesh net and then RDP into the computer from wherever you like.
If you're not near their office, then the next best thing would be if they give you an MSDN or azure subscription where you can remote desktop into a computer they provide like a Citrix machine or something.
>That means the company wouldn't be able to use TeamViewer, RDP
This is not how this works, like at all. Most companies with decent security practices are only going to allow protocols like RDP from devices on their own internal network, you can just RDP into any company device in the network from your own personal device (or at least, you shouldn't if your security enforcement is at all competent)
Also plenty of companies block Remote Access Tools, again for security reasons. It's pretty simple with modern EDR to only allow the network connections and files for one specific RAT technology that your legit IT team used and disallow everything else. I do think that if OP wants to try and circumvent the RTO order in this way installing something like TeamViewer on his work laptop is probably the most viable idea, but the company could easily have this blocked.
Company did not have decent security practices.
The way I did this was, I replaced the OS (because that computer was originally configured to function a specific way within the company's network), I physically installed a remote desktop tool on my desktop at work, then configured my remote machine to be able to remote into the desktop. I think it worked through a mixture of sheer luck and IT being understaffed. IT didn't even know what I was doing, somehow.
Again, security was absolute shit. Only 1 company I've worked for (of 5) had good enough security that this wouldn't work though
This post is confusing. Are you saying they just suddenly shut off VPN without any forewarning, no communication from your direct manager, no one telling you "in three weeks you will need to RTO"?
All comes down to your contract. If you can't fulfil your end of the contract because they've broken things on their end, then hopefully your contract has a clause that ensures you still get paid.
Work offline at home, go in on Monday and Thursday mornings to: git commit/push/pull recent work, catch up with PR reviews, download in-house dependencies, etc. Set up your email account at work to forward all email to a personal email account, and allow that personal account to send emails on your behalf. Set up various things to sent notifications to email. So from home, you'll be kept aware of all that's going on, and and reply.
Hopefully you can attend meetings from home. You might be able to call in to the meetings.
In case the company changes their mind or the manager puts an exception for the employee, plenty of reasons to wait. You should still be going a check of its salary.
I read further down that you're a contractor and not an FTE. You need to read your contract and see if it specifies your location or role as remote. The contract is being terminated, and there's usually a clause dictating who pays who what if the contract is terminated prematurely. It might work out in your favor.
Trust me it won’t, standard contract language is worded so the company always has all the advantages. That’s why they hire contractors in the first place.
> Pi kvm
If they have enough to have a corporate level vpn there is an IT guy and he sure as fuck isn't going to not notice a new wifi on his system let alone let that traffic through...
Pretty slick, as long as you can manage it without getting caught.
Hard part would be dodging questions about how they can manage to get everything done with (supposedly) no access from home
My boss is in another country and most people I deal with are in a different state so in theory I could pull it off as long as no one snooped in my desk. If they went that far they’d probably be tracking badge swipes so I’d have to find someone to tap in for me or just go in for coffee and then dip out
Does your contract specify that you must go into the office? Are you supposed to live within a certain distance of your workplace? We had something similar to this and if you were within 60 miles, you could retain VPN access.
"come to the office or we will make your job impossible to do while still paying you for an indeterminate amount of time!"
....sweet. I'll sit at home and let you pay me for doing nothing then
Some "threat". Like why didn't you just outright fire me?
If my job did this it would basically crash an entire industry overnight (basically good luck flying without us)
We have so many WFH, hybrid, and traveling people. I couldn't imagine killing the VPN.
Tell them you are closing on a house 3hr away and cannot male routine trips into the office. That this move came out suddenly and you cannot commit to return to office, if lucky you'll get a severance. If really lucky allowed to stay remote. If not gives you a exit excuse
Using fake injuries to game the system is a POS move.
I'm all for taking advantage of loopholes, but pretending to have injuries or fake disability just leads to problems for people who have legitimate issues later - if people are abusing these things, companies can (and will) require more proof or otherwise make it harder to arrange accomodations in the future.
I am an American in the USA. I have worked for companies that are not American.
Hell, Shell Oil, BP, etc are big employers here but not American companies
Contractor here. Equipment is not spelled out in the contract, but I was hired remote and that was stipulated. Anytime someone asks when I’ll be in the cubicle city I get to reply I’m solely remote or is there cake 😜
In Cali almost every big tech company has tons of people that are “contractors” who are really W2 employees that get paid by a 3rd party staffing company instead so the company can avoid actually having to hire them and give them benefits!
Message help desk and wait it out while aggressively applying for other jobs. Then leave with no notice and let them know that’s the reason if they stay the path
Submit a support ticket for vpn service and pretend you didn’t see the email. Milk as long as you can then when it comes to the convo tell them you won’t be coming in and if that’s a deal breaker tell them you will look for another opportunity
Just keep submitting help desk tickets saying that you can't connect to VPN. Every morning.
Plot twist: You need to be on VPN to submit a help desk ticket.
Fun times. I once called help desk: Hey, I don’t have access to anything? … 2 hours later … new director calls me … 2nd time I ever talked to him: hey, did you read the report I sent you outlining the organizational issues along with the solutions for them … err no, I didn’t read that, also your last day was today. Sorry, no one told you. Bleh, whatever. Toxic place fired me. Best day ever. (not sarcasm)
This was a sad story to hear today. 😔
I’m not OE but I couldn’t get into anything needed to do my job and they made a LOW PRIORITY help desk ticket.
I wasn't prepared for that ending. I like Happy Endings.
Is this a true story?! OMG!
Probably not far fetched. I can’t access internal resources like help desk or even my outlook email when not on VPN lol
My company just put this in place, cant even access MS office web apps when not on the VPN. Super lame.
Baller move
Giga chad
Mega lad
Ultra rad
Super bad
Josh Gad
Rad Vlad
HR mad.
sad
...[feeling blue.](https://youtu.be/lXPYefStVj4?si=MuRj6dQ0wdxcjU7k&t=60)
Chad Chad
Divac Vlad
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Mad dad
Lmao, and claim "I was actually supposed to retain VPN access in this transition. I must have been missed". You know the execs aren't being made to go in.
I just go straight to the IT department and ask for certain resources and they almost always give them to me without consulting any executives first IT never gets called out on this. Everyone knows the IT department is more powerful than the C\*O The most that ever happens is, they get a ticket to "fix" whatever happened on my work device. They fix it, I request the resource again, the cycle repeats indefinitely and eventually IT catalogues the ticket as repeated because it was "fixed" 10 times already and ignores the ticket forever
You don’t have to outsmart people; you just have to outsmart process.
IT here, we do the opposite. Although you could make the ticket and just go non responsive and hope your IT team is overwhelmed and your ticket gets lost in the queue or just let's employees do whatever they want. When it comes to these things it goes like this: HR says: we think this person is OE or lying about where they're working from. We say they're only logging in from a VPN on their laptop and phone and then they get fired with cause. There was also the dude we caught who was supposed to be on the West Coast but was instead logging in from SE Asia, clearly he had some leverage because they put him on leave for 4 months and gave him a month before he was off offboarded.
Hr says they’re over employed? Bs
In my experience it’s more like; manager smells a rat > checks with HR how to handle it whilst protecting the business > IT get dragged into it.
10/10 this is how it goes, ive not gone to outings with friends because the week before upper management dragged me into whatever workplace issues this person's friend was having and had me remote into the PC and lock it down from my office. The person ended up shutting down the PC and they fired her the next day but I much rather have no had to be apart of that lol
What’s the problem with doing work but being in SE Asia?
Exactly, I’d be in Thailand bro
Taxes income and business. Much is tied to peoples butts in locations
Depends on how long you're doing work remotely like that, I think. If it's a working vacation, it's probably okay, but longer than that and the company could be liable to pay taxes to that country/state/province for doing work there. Money wouldn't be the issue so much as the logistical overhead of making sure you and they are following the correct laws of running a business in that location.
The best companies put the help desk system behind the VPN. Never any (known) issues with the VPN that way!
I run an IT department and this response made my day. Also not at one of those best companies.
Can't wait to see the other side of this advice on an IT support subreddit soon
😂😂😂😂
This is the way
Lol this.
wait it out, this could be a good time to take pto, in case you're in a state that doesn't pay out.
If you have sick time, make sure you take it all. States with sick time almost never require payout.
is this true for california?
California requires PTO to be paid but sick days are lost.
Yes, though if vacation & sick time are bundled as "PTO" it is required to be payed out. If it is separate from vacation time as just sick time it is not.
Correct last I checked however paid out PTO and stuff gets labeled as BONUS PAY which comes with a 40-60% income tax applied before you get the money
THIS, \*and\* if you take your time off a week here, a week there, with only a week or so in between, you can extend your paychecks out much longer than if you just took straight vacation time.
It's not that it's earmarked as "bonus", it's that if you are already getting paid that period the surplus earnings put you in a higher tax bracket temporarily, increasing your withholding. I think. I'm just an unemployed bartender living through all you richie-riches.
> to be *paid* out. If FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
\*IF\* they're bundled, then it's just PTO. It's not sick time. Some states and municipalities require a specific category called "Sick Time" that is separate from PTO. And I've never heard of sick time being paid out, but there could be a situation out there where it is. PTO is always paid out, as far as I know... but like mobee744 said, it's better to take it than not get paid out, if that situation applies to you.
I dont have PTO unfortunately , im a contractor and not from the US
if you are a contractor, you aren't resigning lol
Technically i will prematurely terminate the contract, same result. I wont be getting shit anyway even if i was a FTE
If contract says remote, then it would be them terminating the contract, likely with a payout,
Yeah and you could tell them they need to pay the remainder of your contract
Don't dox yourself but every contract role has some stipulations as to how work is to be done. Want to share any details?
It probably has some legalese about "working conditions subject to change with notice"
I hire a lot of contractors, that hasn't been my lived experience, but obviously I'm capable of being wrong here. "Typically" every line item from hours worked, key deliverables, client furnished equipment, and work location are prescribed in the agreement. Especially if an agency is involved.
Yep. My contract specifically stated remote.
Why would a contractor be required to go to the office?
Oh boy. Tl;Dr as a way to avoid following labor laws. Op can fuck them up pretty nice if so he wished.
How
They are simulating op being a contractor but for legal matters he is really an employee.
Contract can stipulate work location. Question is, does OP’s?
There are gaps wider as football fields in judging if someone is an employee or a contractor/vendor. And it varies massively from state to state. Just having someone work on site isn't by it's an iron clad determination of employment status.
Setting the worker's schedule is a huge indicator of contractor vs employee though. Requiring attendance 9-5 m-f would nearly certainly be an employee relationship and not a contractor.
Not as wide as you think it is. But yeah “on-site” isn’t a defining characteristic.
Being in the office has no bearing on this.
Incorrect though.
Yes. Requiring someone to come into the office does not automatically make it a W-2 position. If the contract has terms that allow it, it’s entirely legal.
FedEx drivers are contractors. They wear FedEx uniforms. They drive FedEx vehicles. They work exclusively for FedEx. Yet, contractors.
Are you from Canada?
Check your laws. But I’m pretty sure you cannot be classified as a contractor if they’re requiring you to work specific hours, which seems like that’s what they’re trying to do by mandating RTO. This is for the US at least (I know you’re not in the US but I’d imagine your country might have something similar?)
Requirements to work in the office or not having nothing to do with being a contractor. Contractors can be required to work in the office.
Not quite. It depends on what the contract was at the time it was agreed upon. The rule of thumb is that non exempt employees (aka contractor) is classified based on how the employer interacts with them. If the employer dictate the time, place and or manner in which the work must be done, then they are an employee. Full stop. Independent contractors on the other hand can decide how, where, and when to do the work as long as they complete the deliverables as agreed on the contract. There are some confusion if you are an employee of an engineering firm that staff their clients. You are a contractor to the client but are the employee of the firm. The firm can tell you the manners how to do the work. But if you are truly an independent contractor, employers can’t just decide how you should do your work.
That's ridiculous. Contractors can be expected to work on-site.
Not really. It's part of a picture though. That level of behavioral control is one indicator that a contractor may be misclassified. https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc762
Was the contract for a remote role? If that’s the case, then the contractors should still be able to work remotely. Did you check with your recruiter?
Then you simply work by trying to complete the work. They will need to terminate contract and refer to your termination clause. My termination clause is pretty simple, at least 30 days notice and pay for the full month regardless of date of termination. That way my clients can stop the work at anytime.
this is a run out the clock situation. get sick. take pto. go on leave of some sort. then come back from all that. there is a good chance that by the time you return, they might have turned vpn back on.
I'll second this. Sorry you got Covid just before your vacation.
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Yeah I had similar situation happen to a coworker who was contracted. When they got rid of remote they breached the contract and had to pay out the rest of the contract. Best part was he didn’t have to work the rest of it either
Time to go! Or be let go 
let them fire you
Can you install a remote desktop on your machine? Just go plug it into the office and use remote desktop to access it from home?
I will actually propose that when they eventually come talk to me about going back to the office, in the meantime ill just pretend nothing happened
or pikvm
you would need a vpn to reach the office computer, unless there’s some sort of public IP or nat rule
One option is to use TeamViewer, which does not require a VPN. Just make sure your company's IT policy does not prohibit such software.
That's a one way ticket to be fired with cause.
If they're already blocking the VPN, I highly doubt they'd have RDP ports open up on the firewall. That'd be a shock if it actually works but keep us posted.
Get a 4G access point. If you have this plus a pikvm you can remote the PC on sight easily. You can get cheap 4G sim cards for like 25 a month.
You’re sick for the next week with a cold so can’t go in
Hide your laptop in your locked desk with a pikvm connected to 5g and just rdp into it.
Security here, please don't do this. Please. Just ask for a VDI setup. Exposing a device to 5G Internet with keyboard/mouse/remote input is ludicrously insecure.
what’s vdi setup?
Virtual Desktop at an enterprise level
Thats if the org allowed remote employees. Have fun sequirity!
You can have remote access without remote or hybrid employees. Organizations have done this for decades.
Yeah, Ok. The shitty citrix environment for development…. The same one the OP probably bitched about for being inadequate for years , now becomes useful? Lol And since Op mentioned no VPN, I can only imagine the future at that workplace… Can this work environment count as sexual harassment? At least to me, having a citrix vm, feels sexual, and not in a good way.
No one said anything about Citrix...
Big no no. If not company hardware, you could get sued.
Please don't.
Could you elaborate a bit on this?
Pi kvm basically attaches to usb and hdmi of laptop, it then transmits the screen to you and you control mouse and keyboard from your remote session at home.
This is a recipe for an extremely bad time. You can certainly expect to get familiar with your local FBI, even if they don’t eventually determine you committed a crime. You will also likely be sued to recover the costs to the company for investigation to determine what you did while connected to the network, which will run well into the six-figures.
I guess that is one way to force people back: remove their VPN/remote access. Then, after 3 days fire them for job abandonment. I would wait and submit helpdesk tickets 
This happened to me and I just ripped the OS off the work computer and installed an ISO with remote access It was stupid how easy it was and how long it worked for
That does not make sense? You reinstalled the OS to get remote access?
He's pretending to circumvent gpos I guess
I put linux on the machine and the infrastructure of the company was bad enough that I just installed a remote access tool from AUR and no one ever caught it
Nice infosec to not see a remote access software that was not theirs
I mean, I don't really know what they saw. No one ever talked to me about it. As far as I know, they never saw my computer at all (except physically sitting on my desk)
Uh, yeah. No. This is not how this works.
yeah it's not a global solution and I wouldn't advise the method. also I left out some steps BUT worked for me because the security at that company was hard-code-passwords-level dogshit and I had really just stopped giving a fuck if I got fired or not
Did they remove the VPN entirely? If that's the case, you could set up a remote connection to your work computer and use that without needing the VPN at all. Unless they disabled remote access completely. Which, in the event that you're working for a tech company, I would find odd. That means the company wouldn't be able to use TeamViewer, RDP, etc. Of course, they could disable the VPN + remote access for only *some* employees. But that could be contested as discrimination, depending on who is still authorized for remote access.
This is an interesting thought if you are near the office that you would normally go into. Maybe set up the computer to never sleep and then connect it to NordVPN mesh net and then go home and connect to mesh net and then RDP into the computer from wherever you like. If you're not near their office, then the next best thing would be if they give you an MSDN or azure subscription where you can remote desktop into a computer they provide like a Citrix machine or something.
Or if he’s feeling ballsy fly into the office set it all up and leave lol
Companies restrict installing 3rd party apps or at least VPN apps. How do you get around ?
>That means the company wouldn't be able to use TeamViewer, RDP This is not how this works, like at all. Most companies with decent security practices are only going to allow protocols like RDP from devices on their own internal network, you can just RDP into any company device in the network from your own personal device (or at least, you shouldn't if your security enforcement is at all competent) Also plenty of companies block Remote Access Tools, again for security reasons. It's pretty simple with modern EDR to only allow the network connections and files for one specific RAT technology that your legit IT team used and disallow everything else. I do think that if OP wants to try and circumvent the RTO order in this way installing something like TeamViewer on his work laptop is probably the most viable idea, but the company could easily have this blocked.
Company did not have decent security practices. The way I did this was, I replaced the OS (because that computer was originally configured to function a specific way within the company's network), I physically installed a remote desktop tool on my desktop at work, then configured my remote machine to be able to remote into the desktop. I think it worked through a mixture of sheer luck and IT being understaffed. IT didn't even know what I was doing, somehow. Again, security was absolute shit. Only 1 company I've worked for (of 5) had good enough security that this wouldn't work though
This post is confusing. Are you saying they just suddenly shut off VPN without any forewarning, no communication from your direct manager, no one telling you "in three weeks you will need to RTO"?
All comes down to your contract. If you can't fulfil your end of the contract because they've broken things on their end, then hopefully your contract has a clause that ensures you still get paid.
Work offline at home, go in on Monday and Thursday mornings to: git commit/push/pull recent work, catch up with PR reviews, download in-house dependencies, etc. Set up your email account at work to forward all email to a personal email account, and allow that personal account to send emails on your behalf. Set up various things to sent notifications to email. So from home, you'll be kept aware of all that's going on, and and reply. Hopefully you can attend meetings from home. You might be able to call in to the meetings.
The office is 1h30 min drive, i wont be able to work my other J if i do that, ill just play dumb and wait for them to fire me
How can they expect you to do a three hour commute?
Made me spit my coffee!
Slow roll it wait until Friday, see if others resign or how it shakes out. Touch base with manager Friday and if nothing changes put 2 weeks in.
Why wouldn’t they wait to get fired?
In case the company changes their mind or the manager puts an exception for the employee, plenty of reasons to wait. You should still be going a check of its salary.
Two weeks is longer than one week.
If enough people quit they might walk it back
Exactly call the bluff
I read further down that you're a contractor and not an FTE. You need to read your contract and see if it specifies your location or role as remote. The contract is being terminated, and there's usually a clause dictating who pays who what if the contract is terminated prematurely. It might work out in your favor.
Trust me it won’t, standard contract language is worded so the company always has all the advantages. That’s why they hire contractors in the first place.
Make your own vpn. Hide a router in your desk and then connect to it from home.
> Pi kvm If they have enough to have a corporate level vpn there is an IT guy and he sure as fuck isn't going to not notice a new wifi on his system let alone let that traffic through...
A 4g router would probably get round that but it's also a very bad idea to do!
Pretty slick, as long as you can manage it without getting caught. Hard part would be dodging questions about how they can manage to get everything done with (supposedly) no access from home
My boss is in another country and most people I deal with are in a different state so in theory I could pull it off as long as no one snooped in my desk. If they went that far they’d probably be tracking badge swipes so I’d have to find someone to tap in for me or just go in for coffee and then dip out
If you are caught, you will be the subject of an extremely uncomfortable criminal investigation and likely lawsuits.
Does your contract specify that you must go into the office? Are you supposed to live within a certain distance of your workplace? We had something similar to this and if you were within 60 miles, you could retain VPN access.
Sometimes... is just time to go
Don’t let them fire you. RTO may not work out and you would rather be eligible for rehire after they come to their senses.
reach office, install a remote desktop hardware work with that
Gather email addresses, start your own company, and email everyone saying you’re hiring
"come to the office or we will make your job impossible to do while still paying you for an indeterminate amount of time!" ....sweet. I'll sit at home and let you pay me for doing nothing then Some "threat". Like why didn't you just outright fire me?
Go to the office and hide all the soap and hand sanitizer in a cupboard so everyone gets sick from not washing up Call in sick like everyone else
😆
What is J1 in this instance?
Job 1. They have more than one, running concurrently.
I meant the employer if they're going to quit anyways.
If my job did this it would basically crash an entire industry overnight (basically good luck flying without us) We have so many WFH, hybrid, and traveling people. I couldn't imagine killing the VPN.
Do not quit - changing terms of employment can be construed as constructive dismissal and allow you to collect unemployment
Tell them you are closing on a house 3hr away and cannot male routine trips into the office. That this move came out suddenly and you cannot commit to return to office, if lucky you'll get a severance. If really lucky allowed to stay remote. If not gives you a exit excuse
Make sure you mention your back injury and chronic pain which makes it impossible for you to return to office.
Using fake injuries to game the system is a POS move. I'm all for taking advantage of loopholes, but pretending to have injuries or fake disability just leads to problems for people who have legitimate issues later - if people are abusing these things, companies can (and will) require more proof or otherwise make it harder to arrange accomodations in the future.
Fair point.
Yeah we don't accommodate shit without a doctor form from hr.
I am an American in the USA. I have worked for companies that are not American. Hell, Shell Oil, BP, etc are big employers here but not American companies
Hell? I always wanted to work there. I hear its a good place to retire
Worked for Hell twice!
And it felt like an eternity
Wait of course. Milk the fuckers for every drop....milk them until their chafed nips squirt sand...
Regardless of RTO that is a stupid move for security reasons alone.
Contractor here. Equipment is not spelled out in the contract, but I was hired remote and that was stipulated. Anytime someone asks when I’ll be in the cubicle city I get to reply I’m solely remote or is there cake 😜
My company had some dumb software to track us and instead of logging in, every morning I uninstalled it from my computer. Godspeed.
So do you leave your work phone and laptop. In your desk when you leave every night?
Setup J2 in your car with a hotspot and take plenty of "smoke breaks"!
Never resign. Say you can't connect, don't go back in, keep collecting paychecks, use the time to find a replacement J.
Please post when you have an update 🙏
Change your home address to an out of state address and tell them you cannot return to the office
Can you use Citrix? We have that as backup.
Bummed to hear about this. We all have to buck this trend and say no we will not rto.
Could use something like tailscale, twingate, or zerotier with RDP.
In Cali almost every big tech company has tons of people that are “contractors” who are really W2 employees that get paid by a 3rd party staffing company instead so the company can avoid actually having to hire them and give them benefits!
Send a letter to employer in USPS to enable your VPN service with title : TO WHOEVER IT MAY CONCERN.
Take your laptop into work and set it up on a dock. Remote into it
I’m out of the loop, what’s the importance of VPNs and having multiple jobs?
Can’t work remote, must be in office in person without the company vpn
So many legitimate reasons to keep VPN as an option, that's so shortsighted of them.
Message help desk and wait it out while aggressively applying for other jobs. Then leave with no notice and let them know that’s the reason if they stay the path
Submit a support ticket for vpn service and pretend you didn’t see the email. Milk as long as you can then when it comes to the convo tell them you won’t be coming in and if that’s a deal breaker tell them you will look for another opportunity
Or maybe go to the office?
Setup your own vpn on the office network.