[thorin]

I have worked with many offshore developers as well as private contactors in India, China and Eastern Europe. There are absolutely many cases of people working on multiple things at once (especially in support) when they are supposed to be exclusively working on one thing. It's been very common to see only half of the team actually "working", many times experts have been learning as they go along with less experience than I have in a particular area (I've very much a jack of all trades). However, I've built up many good relationships with excellent and committed staff over the years. If it was my own money, I'd absolutely be wanting to verify that the staff were working the agreed hours and getting stuff done. However in the most part it's not been in my best interest to get involved in those kind of discussions.