Is My Job 'Offshorable'? You Might be Surprised

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  srinivas.prasad07/22/08 Report as spam
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  Re: Is my Job 'Offshorable'?

  Can anyone imagine the GLOBAL implications by protecting free trade policy? Would US Government address problem areas personally?

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  Ian P07/23/08 Report as spam
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  An amusing choice of subject

  Because of the fall in the value of the dollar, many European companies now see the US as a low cost economy where significant cost savings can be made by outsourcing European work to a relatively controlled and safe environment.
  The only thing that has stopped a major rush to send work to the US is your draconian border control measures, especially your governments recent measures to seize data and hardware passing your borders, wether electronically or physically. Although this is notionally an anti-terrorist measure, it is being widely used and seen as an anti-competetive measure, giving your government access to other peoples trade secrets. As a result big European businesses are holding back on sending sensitive information and hence work to the US.
  This problem is further aggravated by non-US citizens being treated equivalent to criminals with long delays while fingerprint and bio-identification data is taken. Again this was a well meant border defense that is being misapplied by your border agencies and so interpreted by a large number of Europeans as xenophobia taken to extremes. Of the people I regularly talk to this is cited as the key reason they will no longer visit the US. Preferring to holiday / do business in other parts of America / Carribean rather than the US

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  rogert7307/23/08 Report as spam
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  Offshoring is Short Term fix NOT Long Term Solution

  Offshoring is good for the CEO of the first few companies that do it, but if all of the CEO's offshore all the jobs they can, there will be no one left in this country to buy their goods and services.
  In other words, offshoring is a Short Term fix, not a Long Term Solution.
  Roger T

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  SSMC07/23/08 Report as spam
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  But...they won't need American consumers

  Problem with that hypothesis: as all companies of any size globalize (directly or indirectly)...they no longer need American consumers to buy their products...we'll see what happens when this little tidbit finally sinks into the heads of most Americans...

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  figrantham07/23/08 Report as spam
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  Turn it into an opportunity not a threat

  I am a marketing strategist and about to embark on a freelance life which i hope will give me more control and flexibility to be able to work wherever i may be in the world. I think its amazing that we have the opportunity to introduce a global perspective to our working habits and people should embrace the opportunity not be afraid of it.
  
  I do agree there has to be some boundaries set particularly when the quality of the product or service is being jeopardised but isn't that just about adjusting and evolving our working practices to accommodate the global, networked, connected world we live in?
  
  I expect billions are lost on people sitting comfortably in their working ruts. Introducing competition in any market raises the stakes and just like brands, if people can make themselves indispensable; build relationships and generate added value then their jobs won't be offshored to cheaper alternatives.

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  minoakhtar07/23/08 Report as spam
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  Offshorable is wrong frame

  I find the term "offshorable" to be a narrow and misleading frame to start the discussion from. After all, aren't all our profits offshorable too? Didn't some of the largest US companies make more profits abroad than in US this past year? So I think we need to start with the frame of globalized economy, and begin to assess what various scenarios are for a true globalized economy to work. What does it imply for developed countries, like ours, and what does it imply for developing countries, like the one I left at age of 15? I think it is a very important discussion.
  
  I also think it is an opportunity for those of us in HR to rethink how we organize jobs, and begin to invent more fluid and agile ways of resource acquisition and sustainability, so that we do not have this feast/famine or "either/or" choice but rather winning combinations where more people can work for most of the time, rather than few people work for more money and the rest are chasing 20th century organization design models and some empty slots therein! Thanks.

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  john.decoville@...07/23/08 Reported as spam
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  Offshoring versus "Hollowing" out our country

  I read with interest you argument for agility in the management of Human resources/capital.
  
  If the country you left at the age of 15 is India, bravo! India is certainly becoming a success story. I do not begrudge India climbing up the ladder.
  
  There are good stories and bad stories about the impacts on India, too. Mittal Steel makes Man-Hole covers that are poured from big hods into moulds by men wearing only a tong. They are bare-footed. Eww gross!
  
  I want people to have employment but with some standards. If I consume something here made elsewhere, I want to know that no child-slavery was performed that noone sacrificed their youth nor health producing that product for me.
  
  The Cosco, Price-driven society we live in has a high cost. We indulge ourselves at our peril. In Europe, Emploers cannot ship jobs elsewhere without approval. Maybe the US Government ought to start really working for our workers as Labor Secretary Elaine Chao is not.
  
  Truth in labelling musts include how the labor was obtained to produce the product. Did it come from the Gulag (Soviet-era slave labor camps), from child slave labor? Are the workers organized? Are they allowed to organize?
  
  Think about it.

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  john.decoville@...07/23/08 Report as spam
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  Unexpected effects of completely "Free Trade"

  As with many strategically important activities, Offshoring and Trade must be regulated. Many of the world's great countries suddenly woke up one day and found themselves "Hollowd Out"----- Those include England, Holland, the Byzantine Empire, Venice, Rome, etc.
  
  It is happening here and we need to reverse it immediately. I am in fovor of trade and some offshoring -- but appropriate trade and offshoring. America is on the verge of being Off-Shored os much that we make almost nothing and professions such as IT are dissappearing faster than the Amazonian Rainforest.
  
  --John deCoville

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  KTank07/23/08 Report as spam
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  RE: Is My Job 'Offshorable'? You Might be Surprised

  This country was became an economic power by having a strong middle class who are able to consume the products and services produced here to keep the economic engine going - witness the rise of third world countries who now are employed with our jobs and moving into middle class status in their own countries. People are being squeezed in this country and wages are not keeping pace with inflation. At what point does the "bottom line" that benefits American Corporations give way to personal responsibility for the welfare of our fellow Americans? I fear it is after too many have lost their homes and filed bankruptcy... More of the "I got mine - fend for yourself mentality as far as I can see.

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  adamjdavis07/24/08 Report as spam
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  RE: Is My Job 'Offshorable'? You Might be Surprised

  Great post. No jobs are sacred; nor should they be sacred. As a nation here in the U.S., we have to get back to our more entrepreneurial foundations to become more globally competitive on all fronts. Ducking the real issues isn't going to cut it any longer - the proof is in the pudding.

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  littul@...07/24/08 Report as spam
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  RE: Is My Job 'Offshorable'? You Might be Surprised

  All jobs are offshorable - there is no exception. If something can be done cheaper and better somewhere else, it will be. We have to accept it and plan accordingly.
  
  Having said that, "better" is an important aspect that needs to be taken into consideration before businesses embark on a strategy of offshoring (or outsourcing in general). Your employer should figure out if your job can be offshored "effectively" - producing better quality deliverables through a well-managed process. If it can be, your job can be offshored, but if it proves to be not the fact, your job should stay wherever it is.

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  anand_anl@...07/25/08 Report as spam
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  RE: Is My Job 'Offshorable'? You Might be Surprised

  An excellent example of forward integration. Once put into practice every one will have exposure to the ways which are till date only contained to few. This will definetly make world a one family.

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  JeffZorn07/28/08 Report as spam
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  What I've noticed after 20 years of IT

  Having been it the IT industry for 20 years and having to train H1-B programmers to take my job at several large companies...
  
  The problems with offshoring IT jobs.
  
  1. Displacing American Jobs (myself and many of my friends cannot find IT work in the major city we live it.
  
  2. Brain Drain (Americans have stopped studying IT in college)
  
  3. Enabling IT Departments the ability to treat current American IT workers poorly. Forcing unpaid overtime, giving more work than can ever be accomplished ect.
  
  4. Less income taxes. Most H1-B workers pay little or no taxes to the US Govt.
  
  5. Lower wages for IT employees. Pay rates instead of going up each year, have been going down since 1999.
  
  6. Weaker economy. Over 1 million IT have been lost to East India. That is a lot of money that can be kept in America to fuel the economy.
  
  
  7. Discrimination and Racism in IT towards American workers.

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  unlimited5607/30/09 Report as spam
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  RE: Is My Job 'Offshorable'? You Might be Surprised

  I recently decided to pack up things and come to South America. I thought I would arrive in Buenos Aires and try and teach English. Little did I know that many other people had the same idea and finding a job teaching English was going to be so hard. Not sure whatesle to do I looked in the local classifieds and was shocked to see how many outsourcing companies were set up here. With lesser costs, similar time zones and an abundance of foreigners looking for work, why not set up call centres etc here. www.5ca.com has done exactly that, and can therefore offers its services to other countries for a rate that could not be offered if it was based in the US.

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  unlimited5609/27/09 Report as spam
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  RE: Is My Job 'Offshorable'? You Might be Surprised

  I think today with all the technology we have, it is not surprising that anyones job may be 'offshorable'. If you can get the job done for less, why wouldnt you consider it. Outsourcing to call centers for technical support and customer service, frees up your time to focus your efforts on other aspects of the business. Call centers like www.5ca.com offer very affordable rates, with excellent quality staff.