Bored with your job? Outsource it.
Posted on: January 16, 2013 - 8:21pm
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Bored with your job? Outsource it.
Quote:
Bob was his company’s best software developer, got glowing performance reviews and earned more than $250,000 a year.Then one day last spring, Bob’s employer thought the company’s computer system had been attacked by a virus.
The ensuing forensic probe revealed that Bob’s software code had in fact been the handiwork of a Chinese subcontractor.
Bob was paying a Chinese firm about $50,000 a year to do his work, then spent the day surfing the web, watching cat videos and updating his Facebook page.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/how-a-model-employee-got-away-with-outsourcing-his-software-job-to-china/article7409256/
Quote:
The Chinese contractor Bob picked did an excellent job.“His code was clean, well-written, and submitted in a timely fashion,” Mr. Valentine noted. “Quarter after quarter, his performance review noted him as the best developer in the building.”
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
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Outsourcing is a brilliant way to make money. Tim Ferriss wrote a book a few years ago suggesting exactly this same strategy. Money is made by providing people with what they want, whether you personally create what they want is irrelevant and usually you will make far more money being the middle man than you ever will working.
http://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Anywhere-Expanded-Updated/dp/1441737588
If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X
Just be careful the company doesn't find out, else they might hire your employees from you. XD
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
seriously, this company's just pissed they didn't think of it, and bob is the one who got the profits they would have gotten from outsourcing.
as several comments on this story have said, if they had any intelligence they'd make him CEO, or at least an exec of some sort.
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
HAHAHAHA. Brilliant.
Kudos for him.
Which is why the way the world works is retarded. The middle man is rewarded more than the person who actually has the skills.
Source, I work for one such middle man, he doesn't do crap, he just phones another company and gets them to do it for less money. I can only marvel at the stupidity of it all. Customer wants a container delivered from the port, we don't have a single truck, we just phone another company have them do it and skim 10% off the top. Because the trucking side of the business basically has 0 expenses except 2 minimum wage girls on the phones, as they don't actually have trucks or drivers they are making big money. The trucking side do absolutely nothing of value, they just pass on the work to another company taking a cut. The most ridiculous thing happened the other week, we took on a new customer, we passed on the work to another company that passed on the work to a company that actually has trucks. 2 companies that do nothing each taking a cut before the work finds a truck. Why the customers put up with this crap I don't know.
If I worked in the trucking side of the business I would die of shame, at least I actually do useful things.
Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
No animal shall wear clothes.
No animal shall sleep in a bed.
No animal shall drink alcohol.
No animal shall kill any other animal.
All animals are equal.
The vast majority of the business world works that way. One of the reasons I concluded that capitalism was hopelessly flawed. Just the middle man waste alone would feed, house, educate, and provide Canadian level or better healthcare to everyone on the planet.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
By far the most complex and important thing an economy does is distribute goods and services to the people who want them and when they want them. The middle man is the person who makes that happen- they find people with needs and make sure those needs are satisfied. Without them an economy runs far more slowly or worse, people can't get what they need when they need it. There is plenty of physical labor available in the world, and plenty of people (and increasingly machines) with the skills to provide it. While the middle man might not produce the end product, what they do provide is efficient access to it which is itself desirable and extremely important to creating true wealth.
If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X
The only benefit to a middle man in the transport industry is truck owners have limited trucks, so if you sent them more work than they can handle you are going to have to organize a new transporter for the excess, but in most cases the transporter themselves will do it for you. A middle man is just out sourcing that work. It is not like it is hard to find people who actually own the trucks, they will give you a better price, just play hard ball phone around and drive there prices down. There is no need to go to a middle man, it is just lazy and it will cost you more.
Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
No animal shall wear clothes.
No animal shall sleep in a bed.
No animal shall drink alcohol.
No animal shall kill any other animal.
All animals are equal.
And why do you suppose that people use middlemen?
Sure, for any given product or service I could pick up my phone, run around on the internet and waste my time saving 10%- which some people are inclined to do. Or I can call someone who knows the business and I know will hook me up with a reputable company and provide me the product or service that I want with a single two minute phone call, thus freeing up my time to spend doing other things. Generally if I am using a middle man for something like transportation I expect them to handle any customer service issues as well to keep me happy so I use them again in the future.
Lazy? Perhaps, but laziness is a virtue when it comes to building a fast economy (note I said fast, not necessarily efficient- unlike many economists I do not believe that efficiency is the most desirable attribute in an economy). Rather than wasting my time negotiating every little detail that my business needs handled I have a much smaller group of trustworthy middlemen that I can speed dial, that I trust and know will make sure my needs are met. Sure it costs me a little bit more, but it saves me time and time is more valuable than money since I can spend that time doing what I am expert at or better yet, doing something I enjoy.
If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X
You are not wrong with the time thing and if you got better things to do sure, will cost you but it is your choice. The majority of the time that is used in our office is fighting with the guys with the trucks over pennies, increase in fuel price, they raise prices 20% more than necessary and I have to listen to people around me arguing for 3 days about what the new price will be. There driver crashes into a clients wall they send us the bill (literally happens once a week). They get a speeding fine, they send us the ticket, hell we get court summons over that crap. A container gets unloaded wrong and the trailer flips, they send us the bill for the towing company to right it. Just stupid crap like that, you have to be extremely firm with them or they will rob you blind. Obviously I am generalizing across an industry but that is how it is with the guys we deal with.
Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
No animal shall wear clothes.
No animal shall sleep in a bed.
No animal shall drink alcohol.
No animal shall kill any other animal.
All animals are equal.
The problem with middle men isn't that they exist or that they take a cut, it's that they get more money for less work than anyone, and increase costs significantly when they should be the lowest paid workers who have little to no impact overall. No better than scam artists. Like insurance companies.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Why do you think that the wealthy use middlemen so often if they provide so little value compared to how much they cost?
If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X
Because to the wealthy the cost is less an issue than the end result. And because companies are restricted from forming sufficient divisions to do it themselves.
And yeah, it's a bit more complicated than two sentences, but I'd have to write an essay to truly lay it out.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
The main thing is that because of expenses involved in-house (largely wages and govt bureaucracy/regulation), it's cheaper to contract. As long as the contract is cheaper than in house, yet satisfies clients and shareholders alike, the wealthy are satisfied. Then the contractor shells out minimum wage to those filling the contract and makes a killing doing fuck all.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.