Originally Posted by
JBord
It's likely a very good business decision actually. The company usually still owns the software, typically including required security software to be installed. Remote IT can be used, as can software to allow remote supervision.
All the employee is responsible for is buying the computer and, normally, paying for their internet service. They will have to meet certain requirements, such as the OS.
Customer service agents working at home is not new, its well supported from an IT perspective. If you work for a large company, there's a fairly good chance that if you call your payroll department or even your IT department, you are speaking to someone at their home these days.
I'm not defending the closing of the centers or how UA is treating these employees overall, but the computer thing is probably not a big deal for most employees.
In addition to this (from an IT perspective) , there are platforms (already in use in many places, especially the sCO work from home agents) that facilitate this.
No matter what the computer is, not much (if anything) is installed directly. The agents utilize a remote desktop or citrix session to connect to a server somewhere. All their work is done on a virtual console that isn't their PC, so the risk of security issues is limited. In addition, they usually have a "soft phone", an app that runs on the computer that acts as their telephone, so no physical phone needed either.