[gruseom]

This story doesn't ring true to me. Particularly the part about how his day consisted of cat videos, Reddit, and eBay — that's a caricature, designed to fit the popular conception of "wasting time at the office". The whole story, in fact, has this quality. The way that it touches on fears of being outsourced to China is another example. And the saucy peasant outwitting his masters is a common trope in folk tales.

The original report, which seems to be gone but is cached at [1], reads more like a chain letter than anything a corporate risk manager would write. It's weirdly unprofessional and internally inconsistent (the salary numbers change along the way). It even shows signs of a liar getting carried away with his own tall tale: by the end of the story, Bob has "the same scam going across multiple companies in the area". How did he arrive at all of them at 9 am in order to watch his cat videos?

This story should be considered guilty – of being an urban legend – until proven innocent. The fact that it has been posted to HN a good ten times under different guises shows what a demand there is to believe it.

[1] http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...

[silverbax88]

That part about 'multiple companies' was a kicker for me, too. That's the part where I thought, 'hmm, really, now?'

That would mean that 'Bob' would have to have multiple identical working situations with several companies, including trust, tenure, workload, bosses (some are more micromanaging than others) and willing to let him work 100% remote over VPN.

I mean, if 'Bob' was smart enough to set up what amounts to an outsourcing business, why wouldn't he just take a higher contractor's rate and go legit with his outsourcing? Why bother with getting hired at multiple companies when he could make so much more as a contracting outsourcing group, while not running into even a smattering of trouble?

Well, because Bob isn't real, that's why.

[alexkus]

If you only need to go into the office once a fortnight (common with telecommuting jobs) you can have 10 on the go at once. Many telecommuting jobs will be much less office time than that too, I've done several where I never went I've never even been to an office.

[silverbax88]

I've had the strange occurrence on two separate jobs where a coworker attempted to work at two companies at once. One was 90% telecommute, the other was about 50%. But both of those guys lasted less than two months before they were found out.

I am not saying it's not possible, but it's much harder to do UNLESS the companies the person is working for are aware the person has other 'clients'. It's completely common for contractors to work for multiple companies at once (often outsourcing to, yes, China) , so my thinking was that the idea that 'Bob' was a talented programmer who could manage an entire outsourcing workforce but never figure out how to do it completely legitimately and make more money just makes the story that much less plausible.

[jiggy2011]

True, but can you handle managing 10 remote workers at once and still have time to watch cat videos?

[doktrin]

This.

Managing multiple remote teams across multiple timezones on disparate and unrelated projects (and for multiple companies, no less) is hardly trivial.

This second-hand article is purporting that not only is it trivial, but it in fact requires so little time that it doesn't even bear mention in the so-called "daily schedule".

[doktrin]

I agree. This entire tale feels highly contrived, and I'm surprised to see it on the BBC. Can anyone here actually picture themselves in "Bob's" shoes?

[tolos]

are you snopes