Outsourced Odyssey

A tech veteran explores the human impact of a bout with outsourcing.

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Wall Street Journal: voter unease a danger signal

For two decades now, Corporate America has been engaging in an increasingly virulent practice of layoffs; initially for valid competitive reasons, outsourcing is the latest manifestation of business practices that put little or no value on the company's human capital. Amidst the worst of these practices there has been little in the way of public censure. Business has felt no check from society, no negative impact at all from its short-term, bottom-line-at-all-costs orientation.

But as Wall Street Journal columnist Alan Murray pointed out this Wednesday, something seems amiss. In the midst of a strong economy, historically low unemployment, and inflation under 3 percent majority of voters disapprove of President Bush's handling of the economy.
...the economic backdrop for election 2006 should raise a warning flag about the future. Large numbers of Americans seem to have lost their belief in John F. Kennedy's famous aphorism that a rising tide lifts all boats. "They know the economy is white hot," says political analyst Charlie Cook, "but they also know they aren't in it....There's a feeling that some people are getting theirs, but we aren't getting ours."

Corporate America may be on the verge of discovering that their actions do indeed have consequences.
The danger for business is that the broad social support for pro-business and pro-market policies that has characterized American politics for a quarter century or more could be breaking down.

...A Democratic wise man told me recently that if he were asked what economic platform would offer a Democratic presidential contender the best chances of success in 2008, he would have to say it's an antitrade, antiglobalization, anti-immigration platform. For now, none of the best-known possible Democratic candidates -- Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Al Gore or, the latest fad, Barack Obama -- are taking that tack. But the problem here isn't Democratic leaders. It's Democratic followers. If the reservoir of dissatisfaction grows strong enough, it's only a matter of time before some candidate figures out how to tap in.

The election in 2008 could be the one where economic issues come back, and with an antibusiness vengeance.


Yes, layoffs and outsourcing may have temporarily looked good on the balance sheet. But how do those gains compare to the cost of destroying the pro-business environment that has existed in this country for a generation.

Unbridled layoffs, quite differently from being the bottom-line savior they are cracked up to be, might end up accomplishing something wholly different.

They may kill the golden goose.

Technorati Tags: ,

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Some things ain't what they used to be

I was stopped by a friend outside my office the other day. I hadn't seen him in a few months (not uncommon in our 2000+ person complex). What is going on with the Web applications I used to support? he wanted to know. He was complaining of constant communications saying the applications were down again. "We never used to have these problems when you supported them."

Yes, it certainly saddens me to hear these things...ha. The latest problem occurred Monday, as the applications were down for several hours that morning. The crack India outsourcing team neglected to notice it was time to change the password on the master ID used for all the Web functions. Monday morning, when everyone tried to look up something on the Web, all they received was in error message saying "Password Has Expired". Oops.

I'm not naive enough to think anyone will be taken to task for all this. But there's a simple lesson to be learned here, if anyone would bother to look for it:

You get what you pay for.

Technorati Tags: ,

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Not another one?!

A favorite management-speak saying these days: "Change is a constant. Embrace it." Well, more change is coming my way. Yay.

My manager, it was announced this week, has landed a plum position; he'll be moving on November 15th. Pardon me if I refrain from too hardy a congratulations.

A change of manager is one of the most disruptive things, as many workers can attest. It's especially annoying in larger companies because odds are the new manager has no clue as to who you are or what you can do. Whatever you have accomplished in the past is history; you are back to square one now.

This will be my fifth manager this year. Even for our company (motto: Reorgs 'R Us) this is pretty dismal. And they wonder why associate satisfaction scores are not the best.

To top it off, these days no manager or a weak manager makes you more vulnerable to layoffs. I barely survived that scenario a few months back, and any chance of a repeat decidedly lacks appeal.

No replacement has yet been picked yet, the current manager is a short-timer, and none of us have a clue what's going on.

Change. You gotta love it.

Technorati Tags: , ,

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Preaching to the missing

I'm a modest, unassuming kind of guy. What can I say, I'm from the Midwest. It goes without saying this is not the best recipe for success in today's corporate world.

Today, though, I was to have a chance to shine. The department manager's all hands meeting this week was going to do a "deep dive" into a couple of recent project successes. One of these projects was mine.

So I put together a beautiful PowerPoint presentation (cloned from someone else's beautiful PowerPoint deck, of course - does anyone know how to create a PowerPoint document from scratch?). I practiced and was ready for today.

One problem. The department manager would not be there: she's at a Leadership Retreat all week. Her replacement: another manager, this one a short timer who will be gone in a couple weeks. Oh, and it turns out my manager couldn't be there - important three-hour meeting.

Ultimately, about 12 of the 25 people showed. One of my other teammates didn't come, and the other one had to step out to take a call and missed the last one-third of the presentation.

Perhaps the Laws of the Universe would come undone if I were to succeed at some semblance of self-promotion. Fortunately for us all, that day was not today.

But everyone, even those that didn't attend, could agree on one thing.

It was a beautiful PowerPoint.

Technorati Tags: , ,

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Yoo-hoo!


I'm hitting the bottle again. Don't tell my wife.

Actually, she knows, and isn't too worried - although I've been drinking regularly for the last couple months. Fortunately for her (not to mention me) my drink of choice is a chocolate drink. It's called Yoo-hoo.

It started a couple months ago as we were returning from vacation. Our lunchtime restaurant was decorated with plaques from old advertising campaigns: Coca-Cola, Grape-Nuts, Squirt - and many long since faded away. But one sign caught my eye: Kayo chocolate drinks.

I used to love these when I was a kid. I'd come back from a summer hike in the Michigan sand dunes with my father, drenched with sweat, and be rescued by an ice cold bottle of Kayo. I hadn't seen any in years though.

I got on the Internet and searched. Turns out Kayo is still around and owned by Sara Lee, but they only make powdered hot chocolate now; no cold chocolate drinks. But in one of the forums, another person looking for Kayo was told to try Yoo-hoo. I had never heard of it.

But after several fruitless searches through local grocery stores, I discovered it at a Safeway near my parents. I love it - it's especially great ice cold. And my kids have been bringing the boxed drink version for lunches.

Hopefully Yoo-hoo will continue to thrive. If early indications are any sign, a local Safeway can testify to a clear spike in demand.

Read more about Yoo-hoo's history.

Technorati Tags: , ,

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Family weekend

I had a special treat this weekend: my brother was in town.

He's an author, and he and his wife were here for a local book signing, so I took the day off Friday and spent the day with them and my folks. We went down the coast along Highway 1, stopped at the beaches and had lunch at the small town of Pescadero. Afterwards, we stopped by Butano State Park for a sampling of the quiet Redwood forest. It's an old favorite spot, and where my grandmother's ashes were scattered.

It's a special treat to see them because they live in the Minneapolis area, protected by the unfriendly skies of Northwest Airlines - which has a monopoly grip on the Twin Cities. Example: his schedule changed, and he had to fly from San Francisco to Detroit before heading back to Minneapolis. The Northwest charge for that flight: $1400! He then had a novel idea. How much would it cost for a round-trip flight between San Francisco and Detroit, stopping at Minneapolis on the return trip? Answer: $250. Minneapolis price gouging, pure and simple. So he booked that "round-trip", but will get off at Minneapolis and go home on the return leg.

Essentially, Northwest has erected a moat around Minneapolis. This not only makes it expensive for local citizens to take trips, it likewise makes it costly for visiting friends and relatives. As a result, we don't see each other as much as we'd like. In the long-term, I don't believe this monopoly is sustainable; but for now, it's a pain.

But we all had a great time this weekend, and that's the main thing. Everyone together around one table - my family, whole - that's priceless!

Technorati Tags: ,

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Electrical envy



I work in a large office complex and there's always some kind of infrastructure work going on. Maintenance workers are a common sight - so common it's easy to overlook them. The current project du jour is some kind of electrical upgrade on our floor, and the electricians have been bustling around making noise.

Yesterday, as I was passing one doing some work in the hall, I took notice of him. We share a lot in common: a technical-related career, veteran of many projects and well versed in the tools of the trade. But there was something he had that I lacked: job security.

Electrical wiring jobs are not going to be outsourced to India anytime soon. He does not need to fear an abrupt involuntary termination of his career prospects from someone halfway around the world working for 10 cents on the dollar. And he has the added protection of union membership.

Makes me wonder why I'm paying thousands and thousands of dollars in tuition so that my sons can be more than electricians. If our outsourcing continues unabated, at some point there'll either be a lot more clamoring to enter the electrical field or a lot of disgruntled college graduates and parents of college graduates.

Or maybe both.

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Sunday, October 01, 2006

It ain't sexy, but it'll do

My new position is more satisfying lately, which is a good feeling.

Initially, I was getting concerned, because there was little technical challenge to the job. I was getting assignments like creating a "bubble chart" in Excel, each bubble representing a project, showing visually when it would deploy and if it was green, yellow or red condition. These type of assignments make you get down on your knees and thank God for the iPod.

This last month has been better. A request for a new compliance report came in, a weekly report, and I needed to automate creation of the report as much as possible. I got to do a fair amount of database work (40 queries), and the chance to work with macros to handle the automation. It wasn't Web development, but it was challenging and satisfying work. I finished early, and got kudos from my boss for the job.

It's not sexy technical work: no Web development, nor large-scale database involvement. Mostly it's been Microsoft Access and Excel, which I've gained new respect for as I've seen what's beneath the surface. Still, it doesn't exactly produce a great resume.

However, at this point I'm working more for my family than myself. As long as I can "get some satisfaction" I think I'll be fine.

Technorati Tags: ,

Subscribe to this site

free web counters
Fashion Bug Promo Code