So one of my fellow employees handed me an article today from some e-news site. The article was new, however the subject was not. The article regaled the plight of the axed IT professional forced to train his foreign replacement. It also delved into the ethics, future legislation to prevent this type of thing, etc, etc. Man it gets old fast.
Don’t get me wrong. I think the whole outsourcing/off-shoring plot is much akin to betraying your country and companies that practice it should be tried for treason. But let’s face facts. The wheels of justice and legislation turn very slowly. Most of our representatives in congress and the senate are fueled by money and lucky if they can send their own email. They think their AOL “screen name” is all they need to know about the Internet. I’m sure that some special interest group will have them somehow believing that in the long run, it will be good for the American Economy. By the time they realize the economic impact caused by outsourcing, the rest of the world will control our economic fate.
I think one of the first and most productive things we can do is to assign blame. A good round of finger pointing usually makes us all feel good and less responsible. Heck, the National Public Radio service is built upon it.
On to the finger pointing!
It seems to be that the root of the problem is the school teachers. First and foremost, the English teachers. Who was the brain surgeon that thought it would be a good idea to teach the children in India English in the first place?? Let’s look at the big picture here. Many of the worlds conflicts are caused and/or sustained be the inability of cultures, religious and ethnic groups to communicate. If instead of allowing other cultures to learn our language, we had instead learned THEIRS, we wouldn’t be in this situation. Just think, all the countries in the world would love the United States because we could actually understand them! We would be the sweethearts of the free world. Plus, it would be a little difficult for IT workers in India to give Americans tech support if they couldn’t speak English, right?? Okay, ’nuff finger pointing and circular logic. It’s not getting us jobs.
It seems hopeless, it feels hopeless and for many of us that enjoy working in the IT profession, it may indeed be hopeless. That is, if we are not willing and able to change.
For any of you who don’t know me, (there must be three or four people out there who don’t) I will tell you that I am a big “system-bucker”. If there is a system out there, I will try to buck it. It’s the reason I am pro-Linux and anti-Microsoft. It’s the reason I hate rebates, the IRC, coupons and store-member-discount cards. It’s the reason I despise Wall-Mart and adore Mozart. I don’t like things that lead to the dumbing down of my fellow Americans. I resist things that lead to those ends. And so I fear change. I fear change because almost everything “new” that is designed to “make things easier”, makes it easier for people to become lazy, ignorant and more dependent on something they cannot control.
But alas, I find myself employed in an industry that big-business would like to make obsolete. And there is not much a system-bucker can do to stop it. To quote one of my favorite Dire Straights songs, “the man’s too big…the man’s too strong”.
Stronger than my will to buck the system is my will to survive. And so I look back at the course of my life and see where my resistance to conformity has taken me…hmmmm…well, I can pay my bills on time and type rhetorical drivel all day long, but that’s about all I can say. In a few years, my job will be eliminated and I will be forced to change anyway. My integrity will not buy my coffee nor afford me high speed internet service. There’s only one thing left to do…
SELL OUT!
So what are we supposed to do in an economy where everything that can be done elsewhere, will be done elsewhere? First let’s look at the types of jobs that will remain impractical to outsource to other countries.
Actors, comedians, and musical entertainers have a fairly secure hold on their future. I would have a hard time picturing Aerosmith being upstaged by some Chinese replacements or “Live from New Delhi, it was Saturday Night .. ten hours ago!”
Restaurant and food service workers should be in good shape. People generally need to eat and it would seem unlikely that it would be cheaper to make a toasted sub in Pakistan and ship it to Pittsburgh. Everyone knows that the best Mexican food comes from Texas, the best Chinese food from San Francisco and the best Italian food from New York.
When people need medical attention, time is of the essence. An ambulance ride to Malaysia would require a series of trauma center stops along the way and would not be a profit center. Although considering the average emergency room wait, who knows? It would appear that currently doctors migrate here from other countries which may be a good indication that medical jobs will continue to stay.
As long as we have still have petroleum for cars, we are going to need automobile mechanics and tow truck drivers nearby. Unfortunately, the oil will eventually dry up and we will drive fuel cell/electric cars so we will need to have knowledgeable service personnel, but until then mechanics are safe.
Finally the safest jobs to have in any economic climate will, as always, be bartenders and cocktail waitresses. When times are good people want to drink to celebrate them. When times are bad, people want to drink to forget them. Chances are that if you are in an American town or city, there will be at least one bar within crawling distance.
None of these occupations can provide me with the kind of desk and pay to which I am accustomed! I need an office or at least a cubicle where I can grow and surf. However will we manage to survive? The answer is the same as the question as I shall demonstrate. The only thing left is to follow the outsourcing trend to its logical conclusion.
By careful examination we can see that despite the swapping of local workers for ones in third world countries, the business model is still unchanged. The top of the pyramid is still overpaid owners and corporate executives. The bottom of the pyramid is the foreign labor. As a matter of fact it’s a huge labor force. So big in fact that it will soon be unmanageable. This is where we enter stage left. The new global economy is going to need lots and lots of managers! Just think there are billions of Chinese laborers that I can hire, fire and make work overtime! You know, Beijing has been spending way too much time at the water cooler talking with Shanxi, I might need to put them on different shifts. Bolivia needs another drug test, and Mexico falls asleep everyday after lunch. You can expect some corporate VP to sort out that kind of mess!
Our most important job as managers will be to keep our global workers from forming labor unions. As soon as the labor unions figure out how much money they can fleece from offshore workers, it will drive the cost of labor up so high that we might as well start making things here again.