The Washington Post ran a hack journalism piece today titled "Any Sized Business Can Save by Outsourcing Overseas". The article is an insult to every freelancer that I know. The funny thing is that it is basically suggesting, casually, that everyone should offshore vs. hire freelancers in their own markets. But hat isn't what is upsetting about the article, its the fact that he didn't bother to talk to a single person who has used any of the hack job websites promoting offshoring of labor and he didn't talk to anyone who represents one of them.
Please take a moment and give Zach Stern’s article a thumbs down on PC World, where it first apeared. You may also want to send his editor a letter asking them to offshore his role in hopes that they get someone better to replace him.
I agree with "I like to think of them as a test; if you sustain more business with outsourced help, then consider adding permanent employees. And if you've had to reduce your company size, maybe you can restore some of those missed roles through outsourcing."
I think that speaks to outsourcing in general. I think the issue with this article is that the focus is on outsourcing overseas where the reality is that many of the benefits listed within the article about outsourcing can be found right here in the U.S. For some tasks it totally make sense.
The writer of the article is a freelancer, he is not implying that someone overseas could have written the article better and cheaper them himself. He isn't asking that his own article put himself out of business.
if you are worried about outsourcing get a gov't contracting gig either as a contractor or an employee of a firm with a contract. they need user experience and web designers as well.
those jobs will never be outsourced overseas because of the sensitive material and required background checks.
also companies don't contract out just to save money, a large percentage of microsoft engineers in Redmond came here on visas. though that might explain their lack of innovation, Gates is on record for saying the U.S. is not producing enough good engineers, and is for less VISA constraints.
The reason why the article is bad is because the writer didn't bother to interview anyone at all. He just endorsed a handful of websites as if they were known for being high quality. It was just lazy. He's getting a byline under a major brand which makes his lack of research a bit irresponsible too because it might backfire if he's recommending resources that turn out to be shady. The offshore industry has a lot of operators who are not exactly operating under US legal oversight and it would be a bit tough to arbitrate a deal gone bad.
You are right about there being benefits to outsourcing work though. You've done it, I've done it, and we've both been beneficiaries of it. A startup company pretty much has to outsource certain things. Things like web design, web development, legal, accounting, bookeeping, even recruiting when online classifieds and personal networks don't get the job done. This often turns out to be a win win situation because good people build consulting practices through it and startup businesses often get higher caliber help than they could afford on a full time basis. PC World effectively outsourced to the freelance writer who endorsed offshoring work without regard to quality. Maybe PC World would get a better result from outsourcing. Maybe he'll do a follow-on piece about that. Maybe they'll just off load him.