Now this is what I call thinking outside the box

[kombuchakid]

Outsource Your Own Job! -- "Says a programmer on Slashdot.org who outsourced his job: "About a year ago I hired a developer in India to do my job. I pay him $12,000 out of the $67,000 I get. He's happy to have the work. I'm happy that I have to work only 90 minutes a day just supervising the code. My employer thinks I'm telecommuting. Now I'm considering getting a second job and doing the same thing

comments

With the company's approval, fine. Otherwise, I hope he makes a ton of money because that non-disclosure agreement can sure be a bitch. Medical trascriptionists have been doing this too and getting caught.
posted by Feisty at 8:17 PM PST on August 23


Uh, is there any evidence that Slashdot post was anything other than a joke?
posted by Armitage Shanks at 8:20 PM PST on August 23


brilliant, totally brilliant
posted by daHIFI at 8:33 PM PST on August 23


An unnamed programmer at an unnamed company makes a statement and provides no real proof.

This is being taken as actual fact because of what corroborating evidence?
posted by pixelgeek at 8:43 PM PST on August 23


pixelgeek, take it up with the Times of India. I just think it's a good idea
posted by Space Coyote at 8:45 PM PST on August 23


Yeah, it must be true! The Times of India wouldn't do anything weird.
posted by wendell at 8:47 PM PST on August 23


This is smart (/sarcasm). When American companies started outsourcing manufacturing jobs overseas, economists said you have to be "computer literate." Now that "computer literate" work is being outsourced overseas, economists say that's great, now instead of being computer literate, you have to be an innovator. What do American workers do when the "innovating" jobs are inevitably shipped overseas?

This is like Nike, which does all manufacturing overseas, but the design, innovation, and marketing in the U.S. What happens to American marketing workers or innovators when those tasks can be done overseas?

My point is, I think these tech workers are only hastening the pace of outsourcing and hence hastening their own demise. It's like making a pact with the devil -- good for awhile, but what do they do when the time to pay the bargain comes?
posted by F4B2 at 9:25 PM PST on August 23


All of these "problems" would disappear if people could be as mobile as monetary capital. Companies can engage in jurisdictional arbitrage, and people should too.

If, by legal fiction, a corporation can be considered a "person" then a person should be able to acquire the legal status of a corporation. I'm not talking about creating yet another LLC shell; I'm talking about John Doe being able to divide himself up among various legal jurisdictions.

John Doe should be able to say that for the purposes of employment he's a Swedish citizen, while for the purposes of property ownership he's Swiss, and for all financial transactions he's based in the Isle of Man, while he physically is in Bermuda. Any one of these "corporate operations" should be able to shift citizenship at will.

Companies can do it, and so should you. Demand it every time you talk with someone who supports "free markets".
posted by aramaic at 9:56 PM PST on August 23


An unnamed programmer at an unnamed company makes a statement and provides no real proof.

This is being taken as actual fact because of what corroborating evidence?

Gee whiz: It's one the frickin' *Internet*. It _must_ be true.

The only evidence more compelling would be a Google cache of a page that has since been changed.

John Doe should be able to say that for the purposes of employment he's a Swedish citizen, while for the purposes of property ownership he's Swiss, and for all financial transactions he's based in the Isle of Man, while he physically is in Bermuda. Any one of these "corporate operations" should be able to shift citizenship at will.

Companies can do it, and so should you. Demand it every time you talk with someone who supports "free markets".

And when they balk, tell them you were just kidding, then remind them that corporate charters are instruments of the State, and essentially amount to State intervention in the market through the granting of special privileges.

Then ask them to support a phasing out of all corporate charters.

That always gets a laugh.
posted by Ayn Marx at 11:27 PM PST on August 23


via BBspot

Last time I checked BBSpot was a very mildly funny 'comedy' site.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:44 PM PST on August 23


As a programmer, I'm offended that anyone would believe that it only takes 90 minutes to review the code I write in a single day. Quite frankly, you could look at some of my code, even quite small bits, and still not know what it does after days.
posted by krisjohn at 1:43 AM PST on August 24


When I have kids I'm going to start them off on the right track and get them to outsource their homework. Of course if I am very happy with the job the outsourcee does I may adopt him instead. All in the name of efficiency, you know.
posted by Space Coyote at 3:03 AM PST on August 24

[HKFella]

Poetic Justice
*
Washington DC - Congress today announced that the Office of President of the United States of America will be outsourced to overseas interests as of June 30th, the end of the fiscal year. The move is being made to save not only a significant portion of the President's $400K yearly salary, but also a record $521 Billion in deficit expenditures and related overheads.

"We believe this is a wise move financially. The cost savings should be significant" stated Congressman Thomas Reynolds (R-Wash). Reynolds, with the aid of the GAO (the General Accounting Office), has studied outsourcing of American jobs extensively. "We cannot expect to remain competitive on the world stage with the current level of cash outlay," Reynolds noted.

Mr. Bush was informed by email this morning of his termination. Preparations for the job move have been underway for some time. Sanji Gurvinder Singh, Indus Teleservices, Mumbai, India will be assuming the Office of President of the United States as of July 1.

Mr. Singh was born in the United States while his parents were vacationing at Niagara Falls, thus making him eligible for the position. He will receive a salary of $320 a month but with no health coverage or other benefits. It is believed that Mr. Singh will be able to handle his job responsibilities without support staff. Due to the time difference between the US and India, he will be working primarily at night, when few offices of the US Government will be open. "Working nights will allow me to keep my day job at the American Express call center," stated Mr. Singh in an exclusive interview. "I am excited about this position. I always hoped I would be President someday."
*
A Congressional Spokesperson noted that while Mr. Singh may not be fully aware of all the issues involved in the office of President, this should not be a problem. Mr. Singh will rely upon a script tree that will enable him to respond effectively to most topics of concern. Using this tree, he can address common concerns without having to understand the underlying issues at all. "We know these scripting tools work," stated the Spokesperson. "Mr. Bush has used them successfully for years."
*
Mr. Bush will receive health overage, expenses, and salary until his final day of employment. Following a two week waiting period, he will be eligible for $240 dollars a week unemployment for 13 weeks.*Unfortunately he will not be eligible for Medicaid as his unemployment benefits will exceed the allowed limit. Mr. Bush has been provided the outplacement services of Manpower, Inc. to help him write a resume and prepare for his upcoming job transition. According to Manpower, Mr. Bush may have difficulties in securing a new position due to limited practical work experience. One possibility is re-enlistment in the National Guard. Should he choose this option, he would likely be stationed in Iraq, a country he has visited. "I've been there, I know all about Iraq," stated Mr. Bush, who gained invaluable knowledge of the country in a visit to the Baghdad Airport non-smoking terminal and gift shop.
Sources in Baghdad and Falluja say Mr. Bush would receive a warm reception from local Iraqis. They have asked to be provided with details of his arrival so that they might arrange an appropriate welcome.

[kombuchakid]

ten characters
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[kombuchakid]

Outsource university administration to India or China?

Nearly all American universities have experienced tremendous growth in administrative staff in the last 30 years. At most schools the ratio of admins to faculty has doubled. As this trend continues necessarily tuition prices continue to outpace inflation. Within our lifetimes it is likely that the cost of a college degree will exceed the cost of a twin-engine business jet airplane (in the 1950s four years of tuition cost about the same as a new Chevrolet).

If colleges cannot get by without adding more labor per student why not do as for-profit corporations do and add that labor in China or India? As noted in a December 1, 2003 entry, MIT has had great success outsourcing OpenCourseware programming and editing to India. Think about all the jobs at a typical university that are done primarily via phone and email. Obviously the entire IT department could be in India. Why not the registrar? How about most of the coordinating and tracking functions of the alumni office?

American labor is wonderful but it is a luxury that most American families can't afford.

Business idea for the young readers: Start a university "back-office" service bureau in India or China. The folks who've done this for Wall Street have been very successful (New Yorker magazine did a great article this summer on Office Tiger, started by two Princeton alums). Most university administrations lack the initiative to manage staff overseas (or do anything innovative, actually) but they would all appreciate the potential cost savings. So they'll need a contractor to do it all for them.

# Posted by Philip Greenspun on 9/19/04; 4:57:19 PM

[kombuchakid]

Just keep clicking
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/stdn/s.../FJ14Df02.html

[kombuchakid]

Google, the world's largest Internet search engine company, has
launched an online sales and operations centre at Hyderabad.
Google's Hyderabad Engineering Centre is its second centre in India
and it will focus upon online sales, human resources, engineering,
and operations. The Hyderabad centre supports Google AdWords and
this facilitates the global advertising-related activity and
revenues of the corporation. AdWords advertisers and AdSense
publishers across the world will receive seamless online sales
service and support in their local time from the Hyderabad centre.
After the recent IPO, co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page have
been traveling to oversee global operations. They commissioned a
centre in Dublin, Ireland, and had visited India to localise their
services.

They said Google would be expanding the Hyderabad centre, which will
serve as a support centre for the company's worldwide advertising
clients.

"We chose Hyderabad because of its large technology talent pool,
competitive economic environment and infrastructure. At the moment,
we can't reveal the number of people we would
hire here and investment plan. Engineers at Google Hyderabad
Engineering Centre would mirror Google's other engineering offices.
It is a part of worldwide efforts to create the best search
experience for Google users, and the centre can expect to tackle
some of the most interesting challenges in computing today. India
will turn into a larger destination for Google," the promoters said.

However, both Brin and Page declined to discuss either Google's
investment in the Hyderabad centre or its research and development
centre at Bangalore. The Bangalore centre will be involved in
product development with a focus on research for its search tool and
products such as Gmail.

Google is committed to grow faster in India as it sees a huge
potential in the country. Google was listed on the Nasdaq Stock
Exchange in August with a $2.7 billion initial public offering.

Answering a question on whether Google would offer stock options to
its Indian employees, Brin said that Google is planning compensation
packages for its employees and these would be similar to stock
options. Google is likely to introduce search services in a number
of Indian languages. The search engine currently offers services in
Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Telugu and Tamil.

[kombuchakid]

A piece by Tony Glover in The Business tells us that the most popular off-duty pursuit among Bangalore’s young IT professionals is not computer games but giant quiz sessions revolving around the Jeeves/Wooster stories of P G Wodehouse. By day many of them work in Britain’s outsourced industries, but evenings and weekends are spent in the "I say, tally-ho" world depicted in the Wodehouse stories.
According to Saurabh Srivastava, executive chairman of IT outsourcing company Xansa India, Britain's long-standing cultural ties with its former colony have given it a lead over non-English speaking European countries, who have not be able to take advantage of India's regiments of low-cost IT professionals.

Offshoring has given Britain a massive opportunity to dominate the [Indian] continent. UK banks and financial services companies have drastically reduced their overhead by outsourcing back office functions, while Continental financial institutions in Germany and France are still carrying the weight of massive in-house IT departments.

This adds more strength to the case that outsourcing generates jobs by making home industries more competitive, as well as creating new markets for home goods and services. The Confederation of British Industry says, "The practice of offshoring is but one manifestation of the growing integration of the world economy and is expected accelerate in coming years." It also makes the point that jobs being lost overseas tend to be semi-skilled, while those created are generally skilled or graduate jobs.

It is good that our cultural ties with India and its widespread use of English have given the UK a lead in this area, and satisfying that India’s rising class of educated high achievers takes pleasure in the timeless world of pre-war English social life. Dashed good, in fact.