Comment by g_p | Hacker News Reader

Comment by g_p | Hacker News Reader

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Often in telecoms, the root issue is they don't want people on payroll. They're trying to outsource everything possible - their vendors now provide managed services etc. Telecoms companies in Europe at least are just financing a range of contracts to keep things running.

Having to hire in more staff creates cost liabilities for them. They'd rather outsource things. That means they lose the skills in-house, and often end up needing consultants to help fill the gaps in their knowledge (after having lost their skilled people to the outsourcing companies, or other sectors).

Some telecoms companies have outsourced their development to Tech Mahindra and others already... And yes, in my personal view, they'd be far better hiring random software engineers and undoing the decline in control and understanding of their own business they've overseen.

Spot on, its often middle management not really understanding engineering, and think they can do better by just have someone else do it for them, but total lack of foresight on the consequences, which to be fair they probably won't have to deal with before they switch jobs.

The chronic short-term thinking seems to come from the "business" pressures to deliver results by financial quarters to meet specific dates/deadlines. The business is expected to align around these timelines, even where inconvenient.

I've seen car dealers offering significant discounts because they are trying to hit their end-of-quarter target. I've locked-in phone contracts with service at below the actual handset cost (when multiplied out by the contract duration) because I called late in the day on the last day of the quarter, and staff are trying to hit bonuses.

Something you do see a lot in telecoms is entering an outsourcing contract where you transfer your own (skilled, experienced) engineering staff out to the contractor - this is long-term suicide, but in the short-term it reduces your outgoings on the balance sheet.

To me, this is proof that it's just a game of short-term balance-sheet bingo, and I think you hit the nail on the head - the managers won't have to deal with this, as they'll bounce to another "generic business role" and ruin that organisation in a few months.

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