Shortly before Easter, I found out from my bosses that half of my job is being outsourced to India.
I'm serious. I can't make this stuff up, people.
So, let me elaborate. As a Field Engineer with EDS Automated Operations, I have a dual role. Two weeks out of every six, I am "on call", which means that I carry the pager, and am available 24/7 to solve any problem that occurs with any of the systems that my team supports. The rest of my time is supposed to be spent doing development -- adding new features to our existing tools, creating new tools, implementing someone else's tool -- you get the idea.
Recently, however, the volume of support requests has been increasing, and we are also getting tasked with more projects. In short, we've got way more work than we can handle. And the solution that management has chosen is to hire some additional help, in India.
So, this was all announced, and then I didn't really hear anything about it for awhile. Then today I found that interviews are on-going, and that I'm going to be asked to do some phone interviews sometime this week (at a very inconvenient time -- like 7:00 PM on Sunday night).
My feelings on outsourcing our mixed. After reading the big Wired article, I came away with the sense that outsourcing is pretty much inevitable, good for developing countries, but I'm not so sure what it's going to do to America. The article points out that this isn't the first time we've had widespread outsourcing of jobs to other countries -- the manufacturing jobs have already bolted over the course of the last several decades. But that was okay, because the white collar jobs showed up.
So, what new class of jobs are going to show up onto the scene in order to keep folks like me employed? Wired argues that America will still be a source of innovation. I don't know that I agree (hence the mixed feelings) -- these is no reason why the next "big thing" can't come from India. The human spirit and the drive to innovate is just as alive over there as it is over here. Another idea is that new industries, like Biotech and Nanotech, may be a source of jobs here. A recent Slashdot post, though, seems to cast some doubt on that.
So anyway, I'm still sorting out my feelings on outsourcing. I tend to think that "everything is going to be okay" -- I'm just not sure how.
As for the less theoretical form of outsourcing, i.e., what's going on with my current job, my feelings are mixed there as well. One one hand, it's going to be great to have the extra help, and to get rid of the pager duty. On the other, it is going to be difficult to overcome the communications barriers imposed by distance. I think that it's going to be a lot of work so that we can have outsourced helpers. But, it will be interesting, too.
And maybe I'll get a free trip out to India, in order to do some training.
-Andy.
Posted by andyr at April 20, 2004 11:39 PMWow, harsh.
Lucly for you it sounds like they are just shipping over the parts that suck. communication will be a bitch as I have discovered.
I've heard from a number of people that the quality of support/product typically takes a dive when they ship the work abroad. That might just be a bit of wishful thinking on the part of the people talking but I know for sure that Lucent is pulling back on a big outsourcing push it was making. Aparently there were fraud alegations with their new development center in China.
I swear, I'm going to make my child go into plumbing. good money, can't automate, complicated enough to be stimulating and you can't do it from 4000 miles away. Shit, I may do that.
Posted by: Mark at April 21, 2004 11:39 AMSara,
Are you talking about janitorial jobs or some kind of slop bucket involved in doing plumbing? I'm not too afriad of gross stuff as long as it won't hurt me. I don't think that everyone will be reduced to crap jobs. There are some things that just can't be offshored. Mechanics, plumbers, construction, some sales stuff, shipping, and pretty much anything that requires physical presense or physical contact with something local. Andy and I just got into one of the most outsourcable industries out there. I'll take the money while I can get it and I'm just prepairing myself for the day when I'll have to take a plumbing, garbage or construction position.
I hear garbage men make pretty good money for unskilled labor.
Posted by: Mark at April 22, 2004 01:42 PMThe problem with the "let's all just be plumbers" idea is that the white collar jobs support many other trades and industries. It's because we have well-paid IT workers that we have a strong housing market. And because we have a strong housing market, demand for plumbers remains strong, and they can make a fair wage practicing their craft.
I read a wired online article about South Africa that said that one white collar job in South Africa supported 10 unskilled jobs. I doubt that the ratio is as high here in the 'states, but the same idea still applies.
To me, I think that this is the scariest thing about outsourcing -- that even the "fall back" jobs will eventually be threatened.
-Andy.
Posted by: Andrew Reitz at April 25, 2004 12:44 AM