Next Wave of Remote Work Is About Outsourcing Jobs Overseas | Hacker News Reader

Next Wave of Remote Work Is About Outsourcing Jobs Overseas

wsj.com

4 pointsdmm7 comments

Wasn't that the previous wave of remote work? And didn't it end badly for IT and software engineering?

I'm currently cleaning up a mess left by some well-meaning but unskilled and improperly managed overseas teams. They spent months and didn't deliver. My team cleaned it up in a few weeks but it wasn't cheap. And consider months of opportunity cost for lost execution time. In a startup with a fixed runway that can mean death.

The IT story is even worse. Poor outcomes, unhappy employees, data breaches. I heard from a neteng friend that when Google purchased Motorola the offshore neteng contractor was so bad Google that classified the Motorola network as actively hostile. The contractor was so deeply entrenched it was impossible to get them out and they were actively serving malware. Any machine that visited the motorola network had to be wiped before being allowed back on the corp network.

So yeah, if that's the next phase we already know how it ends.

Seems like lazy journalism to me.. are we saying in 2023 that there were jobs that obviously could've been outsourced but were overlooked? I have to say that anything not outsourced by now is either too granular or niche to be put into a professional-services contract, or is a job in which having the Varsity or JV team is needed and/or the best value proposition. We may see a rethink of that value-prop/cost equation - but articles and pitches that equate having tools/infra to accommodate offshoring as being the key driver to whether to offshore a role or delivery are being entirely too simplistic.

Still don't buy this - if companies could have outsourced/offshored positions successfully, they'd have done it 10+ years ago when this subject became popular.

Did you miss the wave of people complaining about Indian call centers?

I dont think those jobs are the target tbh. They already left, and if or when they are re-onshored they will go to minimum wage people in low COL states. The target is the mid tier white collar job like developer and marketer and analyst. Offshoring always had a perception that while it was cheaper, you were not getting A grade players but B grade ones. A lot of employers are going to experiment to see if B types plus AI tools can become as effective as A grade people for a fraction of the price.

It is easier to outsource now vs. 10+ years ago. Almost everyone in tech now has experience working remote from their co-workers. Whether that is 10 miles or 8000 does not change the communication needed to make it work.

That isn't the only challenge, of course -- there are time zone differences and language barriers to overcome, but those also seem to be diminished vs. 10+ years ago. We're getting more used to being flexible with our time, and people are adjusting to working with people around the world, accepting both language and cultural differences.

I've had team members across the globe since 2018 and while it isn't always easy, it works just fine if people are willing to respect each other and respect everyone's needs.

Every time I call my mobile phone company to get service I get someone in the Philippines. They are knowledgeable and courteous. I have no problem with them. They try very hard to help me when I need it. My phone company does it to cut costs. They could hire people in the US but I'm sure they find it too expensive. They also do it because it's a job that can be done anywhere in the world with a computer and an internet connection. Every so often I hear roosters making sound in the background.

Now imagine all the work at home jobs that people are fighting to keep. It will take close to 0 effort to ship them to any english speaking locality. I bet that as I write this there are companies springing up in India, China and many other places ready to offer the same service at much lower cost. 10+ years from now most if not all the work from home will be outsourced. Anyway you look at it whether it's no longer sanctioned by the employer or it's out sourced. Working from home 100% of the time is coming to an end in the US.

BTW, some of the biggest companies in India are companies that specialize in outsourcing jobs into India.

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