Are you our new Community and Support Manager?
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We’re looking for a new Community and Support Manager to join our team in Oslo. Read on for the details!
Click here to see the full blog post
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Wow, you'll be away on maternity leave?? Congratulations!!!
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I do find one thing a little odd. Why do so many companies feel that it is absolutely necessary for employees to report to an office in order to do their work? Or even live in the same part of the world to do their work?
I've been doing technical support for software companies for a combined total of more than 7 years, and I have never once needed to be in an office to do it. The company I work for now, and have been with for over 5 years, doesn't even have an office. Everything the company does is online, and every system can be accessed remotely (if not directly then via a VPN), so there's no need to have everyone in a single location, or even in the same part of the world. Employees and management simply log in to systems, do their work, and if anyone bills for time they didn't work then it's fairly easy to verify. Everyone communicates through a team chat system, which supports quickly and easily sending logs, screenshots, links, and pretty much anything else we need to do our jobs. If voice communication is necessary, then VoIP can easily fill that role. This allows a team of talented people from all over the world to work together, reduces costs (no office makes business much cheaper), and makes reporting to work much easier for everyone (to go to work I literally just open my browser and click a few speed dial thumbnails).
Lets think about this. The Vivaldi team needs someone to manage their online community, social media, and a few other things. Which of these systems can't be accessed from home? With today's technology, what meetings couldn't be held from home? Vivaldi is a company which makes products for people to download and use on the Internet, so why is it set up like a traditional company that makes traditional productions, and why does it require employees to work in an office like a traditional company?
If there are security concerns, then anything that's only accessible on the internal company network can be accessed via a properly configured VPN, and every other port in the firewall can be closed and configured to drop packets for security purposes. If keeping a VPN port open globally in the firewall is an issue, then many firewalls support opening ports only for specific IP addresses and dropping packets for all other addresses, and if employees have dynamic IP's there are things such as port knocking and single packet authorization that can open the port only for those who are authorized. Security can be maintained in such situations (at least as well as it can be with a traditional office), and you don't have to limit yourself to employees in the area near your offices or require new employees to relocate to the area near your offices.
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This is an opportunity for those who want to travel and experience a different part of the world while meeting new people . I'm glad that in these connected times, that's still a possibility. Not everyone wants to work from home.
I would gladly apply if I felt that I met the requirements, but c'est la vie.
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