My first introduction to offshoring was 15 years ago when they shipped in a bunch of consultants to shadow a floor of mainframe developers who were all told they were being fired in 6 months. Felt bad for both sides. The young kids shipped off to a new country, making little money, getting yelled at all day by people who were told they aren't worth paying anymore.
But, that's a free market economy. If someone can undercut you and do the job just as good or better, people are going to do it. I've found that IT people can value their contributions differently than the business and when the two aren't aligned these things can happen. (And yes, sometimes business just plain doesnt understand and fucks up).
Ultimately, if someone can do my job with limited english skills and 3,000 miles away then I'm clearly not as good as I thought I was. It's on me to make sure that doesn't happen.
Slashdot Mirror
To be clearer on the story - the Indian contractors they brought in went back to India after learning the systems to do their job from there.
My first introduction to offshoring was 15 years ago when they shipped in a bunch of consultants to shadow a floor of mainframe developers who were all told they were being fired in 6 months. Felt bad for both sides. The young kids shipped off to a new country, making little money, getting yelled at all day by people who were told they aren't worth paying anymore. But, that's a free market economy. If someone can undercut you and do the job just as good or better, people are going to do it. I've found that IT people can value their contributions differently than the business and when the two aren't aligned these things can happen. (And yes, sometimes business just plain doesnt understand and fucks up). Ultimately, if someone can do my job with limited english skills and 3,000 miles away then I'm clearly not as good as I thought I was. It's on me to make sure that doesn't happen.