Part 2 of a 3-Part Series on Baby Boomers, New Technology and the Job Market

Since My Job is Now in India, Can I Go There and Continue Working?

Some of the most feared words in the English language these days, other than “press 1 to continue in English,” are “downsizing,” “layoff” and “outsourcing.” Add to that the latest noun turned verb, “offshoring.” Any of these words, when carelessly mentioned in an average American office these days, can trigger off waves of rumors and calls to loved ones to get the children ready to starve.

White collar America is experiencing what blue collar America went through some years back, namely, being told they are too expensive and having their jobs sent overseas to be done by third-world workers for 32-cents an hour. It’s a gut-wrenching experience for most. It’s rejection without recourse, it’s a slap in the face, it’s a kick in the ass, it’s a ball-busting…ahem…and of course it’s important to always remember not to be bitter and to remain calm. Even if the company you gave your blood and soul to until two minutes ago is nothing more than a collection of blood-sucking jackals and hell-spawned demons from (expletive deleted).

Some feel the practice of outsourcing American jobs is harmful to the overall economy, worsens the unemployment problem and even creates structural and process problems for the companies that do it. The other viewpoint is that workers are scum and that the imperialist, war-mongering, running dog lackeys of the military-industrial complex are perfectly justified in doing anything they want in order to line their pockets with blood money. I prefer to remain neutral on the issue, but I do encourage everyone to learn as much as they can about today’s robust global economics.

Even if you’ve never experienced a downsizing, layoff or outsourcing, you have no doubt experienced some of the results of it. Have you ever tried to call any company these days for support, only to be shuffled into some pre-colonial territory where one worker using multiple names pretends to be an entire service center? It’s a little known fact but one person somewhere in India will handle calls from at least 30 American companies. Now you know why big companies are going that route. Multi-million dollar call centers can cost just a few cents a day when set up overseas.

The other area particularly hard hit by outsourcing has been IT (all the computer guys). Once a proud and highly trained group of technical professionals, many IT staff have been retrained to work as hot dog vendors at ballparks. Apparently it takes a fair amount of “if then, goto” kind of logic to  get a hot dog handed to someone in a crowded stadium. Meanwhile, programming and technical analysis is done in remote areas where up to a dozen workers are assigned to work on just one computer workstation to save costs. I did read recently that they are now providing chairs for every three programmers, so working conditions overseas are definitely improving.

Amid all the cutbacks, vetoed labor bills and politicking, one small event occurred that seems huge but was never covered by the mainstream media. As part of the economic recovery program, bailout funds were given to private companies to give to their stockholders, so costs had to be cut elsewhere – and they were. By the end of this year most American monuments and landmarks will be outsourced or closed down due to rapidly escalating maintenance costs. This includes the venerated Statue of Liberty, Lady Liberty herself, who simply earns too much for the job she does. Some have suggested she is also too old for this position, but we know that companies adhere closely to age discrimination laws so that is highly unlikely.

Apparently a group of unnamed Congressmen have decided that symbolizing liberty and freedom can be done much cheaper overseas, so Miss Liberty has been asked to depart. She is getting a nice package to cover rust and paint, but after January 1st she will no longer be an overhead cost in our federal budget for national landmarks. We heard that Lady Liberty is considering relocating to somewhere in Asia to look for work at a new emerging nation, but the field of new nation development is pretty slow these days especially for republics and democracies. We will miss her and certainly wish her well. If any of you doubt our reporting on this, we were able to get a copy of her initial unemployment application. It makes for very sad reading:  

Note:  Forrester estimates 12,000 to 15,000 jobs per month are being sent overseas and some other estimates run as high as 20,000 jobs per month. Forrester also predicts that by 2015, 3.3 million service jobs will have moved offshore. McKinsey predicts white-collar offshoring will increase by 30-40% in the next five years. A March 2010 ComputerWorld survey showed that companies are frustrated with the quality of offshore work and 94% of respondents admitted that the focus on cost versus quality contributes to the likelihood of project failure. On September 26, 2010, a bill to reduce corporate tax incentives for offshore outsourcing was defeated in the Senate by a vote of 53 to 45.