ajcjobs > BlogBreak > Archives > 2006 > September > 22 > Entry
The Outsourcing Scramble
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I was recently talking to my son’s good friend from high school days.
Seems he’s been working for a big company for several years and not unexpectedly, they have decided to outsource his job out of the country.
The part that was unexpected was that they planned for him to travel to the other country prior to leaving his job to train the “new” replacement workers. The trip was portrayed as a travel opportunity.
First of all, the fact that the job is being outsourced to another country is irritating, unconscionable and makes me want to never buy anything made by this company ever again.
But come on now, really, should we as Americans ask a fellow countryman to train his replacements? Is this a new level of corporate depravity?
Unfortunately, I don’t think this phenomenon is that unusual. I guess it just supports what I have seen happening as my kids entered the work-force in high school.
It’s my observation that there’s this whole generation out there who have been abused as teens by fast-food and supermarket employers who see them as disposable units. These young people are disposed of easily and don’t require benefits.
One mistake or call-in and you’re out, there are dozens waiting to replace you. While in college, they were abused by the food-service industry as waiters (oh excuse me, servers) and bar tenders or numerous other employers. Now that they’ve graduated from college (or maybe not) their jobs are being outsourced to other shores never to return.
Maybe this sounds too negative but there is a limit to the number of self-employed jobs out there.
I feel pretty hopeless about the future of the outsourcing phenomenon but if we can’t do anything tangible about it, can we at least make some jokes about it?
What’s your best or most unbelievable outsourcing story - but be careful, don’t identify yourself or the offending company - your job may be next!
Comments
By tim
September 22, 2006 11:12 AM | Link to this
Having your own business helps; but isn’t a sure way of being independent.
By donna
September 22, 2006 01:16 PM | Link to this
Are they still doing this? At least I knew one or two months ahead when I lost my job 4 years ago in the tech industry.
By Susan Stinson
September 26, 2006 09:58 AM | Link to this
My job has been outsourced. Since then, I have contracted a rare eye condition. It is not contaigous, life threatening. yes, I look weird because my left eye needs to stay closed until this heals. I CAN work but need to work from home. the only home jobs I have found are scams. I do not want to send out spam emails to people who would just “trash” them. Are there any real, real I mean “work from home” jobs?
By JOHN
September 28, 2006 03:14 PM | Link to this
I worked up in the midwest on a job paying between 30 to 40 dollars an hour. I was in a department that worked almost 24 hours a day. For Ten hours a day someone was in the office handling the required job on the computer. For another Ten hours a day someone in India was working on the same information so when we closed they basically opened. They people were doing the same work for 30 to 40 dollars a day. The majority of work was given to India and anything they could not figure out was sent to our office. If you have not figured it out the Midwest office is going to lose a lot of current postions.