IT Outsourcing

By now everyone has read at least one blog or article about all of the US Technical jobs being shipped to India and other places. This trend has hurt us directly. Lisa was laid-off when pretty much her whole department was outsourced. Don't bring up the fact that the department was poorly managed in the first place. Also, don't mention that expensive projects were routinely started only to be canceled weeks from roll out, add to that the fact that the company in question posted great earnings for the year. Sorry to all the people that worked hard, because they thought they had a stable job. Grrrr.

I'm not too happy with this trend. In what seems like just a few months the whole Software Industry has shifted. What was once a promising career that everyone wanted to get into has suddenly turned into a mess. Most of these companies will not see the kind of savings they think they will. The overhead costs and slow turn around times can eat away at the expected savings.

All most everyday now someone at work mumbles something about outsourcing. However unlikely it is that our jobs will head overseas, we are still worried. You never know what could happen when the whole industry is looking at outsourcing as the magic pill to cure all their woes.

I don't know what the answer to this problem is. Too be honest I'm a little scared. What kind of job am I going to have in 5-10 years. I think the real problem here is that companies have never viewed employees as people. We are just another resource to be moved around and allocated in whatever manner they like. Making some profit with happy people should be more important than making a lot of profit with fewer people. Constantly trying to make more money should not be the goal that everyone shoots for. Sure you have to stay innovative, sure you have to have new and better products, sure being efficient and not wasting money is important, and sure some people don't know what they are doing and need to be let go. But, indiscriminately firing people so the officers of a company can add another zero onto their income is pretty damn lame.

Current Music: Neil Young "Old Man"