I’m homeless and living in a shelter. I had recently attained a remote WFH tech support job which was perfect because I wouldn’t have to pay for transportation and they were providing me with the equipment I needed. I was sent a PC and monitor and I had tried setting it up in a semi obscured place in the shelter but the supervisor there informed me that I couldn’t continue to work this way because “they don’t know what I’m doing on it” which is a load of shit imo because they don’t know what anyone is doing on the internet.
I had to be connected to the internet via an Ethernet cable. I tried:
- going to the library (inaccessible router)
- going to a cafe
- going to a local college (company blocked captive portal)
- using a travel router (company literally blocked the connection once I set it up, called coworkers and they said the same thing)
I was finally able to find someone who was offering a private room just for work but by the time I was set up I had already received a notice of termination in my email.
I’m beyond furious at the shelter staff and I don’t know what I could have done to prevent myself from getting fired. I was to move into a place next week contingent on me keeping the job and getting my first paycheck but I had to contact my would be landlord yesterday to let him know that I can’t move in. I keep replaying this scenario and I don’t know what I could have done to not get fired. I guess I’ll go fuck myself.
location canada if relevant
Can you explain the Ethernet requirement more? Was that just that the computer didn’t have WiFi, or was it set up such that only the wired interface worked with their VPN, or…?
Can you explain your travel router situation? Did you use the travel router to access WiFi and provide an Ethernet port for the computer (I think this is called “WISP mode”)? Or was this an 4G/5G router?
In any event, at least on Android you can connect to WiFi and tether to a computer over USB. It’s very useful for setting up a computer without WiFi drivers, as Linux will almost always recognize the shared Internet (so, it’s functionally a USB wifi dongle with very good driver support).
Ethernet is a hard requirement for most remote call center jobs, and they will use network analysis to make sure your connection is within specific latency and jitter requirements and fire you if your internet Isn’t good enough.