Offshore Outsourcing | How Dare You

Outsourcing is the way many companies and businesses pass off costs to outside sources because they offer a service that enhance the business. This enhancement may be in terms of performing a service that complements the business or it may be just because the contracted company can do the same task but cheaper.
This activity is a great way for companies to leverage their businesses. It allows them to tap into skills that may not be available through their current business and, let’s face it, we can’t do everything ourselves. Even getting your stationery done through a printer is a form of outsourcing and no smart-thinking business is going to bring that function in-house – unless, of course, they’re a printing business.
Outsourcing has happened for millenia but one of the new trends is taking this activity offshore. To be honest, offshore outsourcing isn’t that new either, it’s just changed its name. It was once called slavery. The form has changed a little too because now rather than deport these workers we leave them in their own country but bind them to a life that we certainly wouldn’t expect our own countrymen, and women, to endure.
Offshore outsourcing happens for three reasons;

1. It saves costs
2. Skills required aren’t available in your own country, or
3. The business feels some form of social compassion and wants to enhance the lives of those living in developing countries.

Let’s assume that #2 is a rational reason and dismiss it as unavoidable. Yet the cynic in me would still argue that #2 is probably more related to #1 than we would like to admit.
Then there are many companies who would like us believe that #3 goes hand-in-hand with #1 and that they’re outsourcing for benevolent reasons as well. However, that cynicism trait is starting to rise quicker than reflux after a gigantuan Christmas dinner.
So, now that the foundation of offshore outsourcing has been set, let’s take a look at the most outrageous form of this activity. Jeremy Schoemaker from the very popular ShoeMoney™ – Skills to Pay the Bills gave his mate Justin Brooke, of the almost-as-popular-but-not-quite blog SiteFling, a cameo role to further discuss how bloggers could outsource some of their menial tasks offshore.
The position was for a virtual assistant performing low-level tasks to aid the blogger. The hours were stated as 8 hours per day but there was no mention of whether this was just once per month or for five days per week – we’ll assume 5 days per week. And while the job doesn’t sound too onerous and could be carried out by almost anyone, or at least someone with a few clerical type skills, it had been pitched at workers in the Philippines.
Then there’s the question of remuneration and fortunately Justin had completed his homework and knew that they would be able to secure a person for the princely sum of…wait for it…20,000php ($400 USD) per month.
Mmmm! There’s something not quite right here. Outsourcing this position offshore meant that the tasks could be completed for US$2.17 per hour – certainly a small coup for a westernized company. But it does bring into question the ethics of someone willing to pay an employee so pitifully for a job that would cost at least $12-15 USD per hour in your own country.
Now, before you revert back to using point #3 on me let me demonstrate what 20,000php would buy a Filipino worker.
According to this travel guide offered to western travellers it outlines the cost of living in the Philippines. It even goes on to warn tourists that employment in the Philippines is probably not a good option;

Work is not easy if not impossible to find for a foreigner, there are plenty of Filipino graduates pumping gas and working in retail. Your chances of finding employment are less than minimal and let’s face it could you work for $3.00 a day and survive, probably not.

Thanks for the advice!
In fact, if we looked at the monthly expenses required to live in the Philippines, $3 per day isn’t going to go a long way.

• Rent – P10,000 per month
• Utilities – P7,000 per month
• Transport – P3,000 per month
• Groceries – P25,000 per month

It’s easy to see that P20,000 for a full-time job isn’t going to cut it. Yet, if these Filipinos are prepared to make some basic budget cutbacks…let’s assume food’s a good one to take out…then they will certainly be able to cope.
So, not only are we prepared to outsource our jobs offshore for the sake of some greedy blogger (don’t feel too bad big business has been doing it for years) we aren’t even prepared to pay them a decent wage to survive their own living conditions. Nice work!
I’m not sure I know the answer to this very moral and ethical dillemma but I do know that offshore outsourcing is not the response the western world should be conducting – let alone tolerating.