what are your thoughts about outsourcing?

I see pros and cons of outsourcing. Here are some of my observations: PROS: Let's say the company who is outsourcing is from the US. I understand the minimum wage there is around 1500 dollars unless I'm mistaken? If they outsouce to another country, the basic salary they would give their employees will drop to a significant amount. In our country, I'd say the common outsourced employee would earn around 400 dollars a month. That's a lot less compared to the minimum wage in the US. That's because that 400 dollars is already a good salary here compared to most workers who would earn around 230 dollarsIt's a win-win situation for the employee and the company who is in the end, still a business. CONS: I'm from Asia and I don't know the perspective of outsourcing companies from other countries. What I can see is that the jobs that are supposed to be for their fellow countrymen are given to foreigners. Also, although it's usual that companies would train their employees but there might be additional training needed for foreign workers. For call centers, they still have to train the employees in using the English language and try to acquire an accent almost similar to Americans, in addition to the training that's related to the company's business. That too would cost a bit of money and time.

I'm okay with this because more people are being able to get a job because of this opportunity. Some they will not have to work and travel anymore because they can just do it at the comfort of their own homes. And the pay is okay.

Most of the software companies are doing outsourcing jobs only.Many US,UK companies are giving their project for some other small offices in the name of outsourcing.Its the main income of our software companies now-a-days.Most companies are based on outsourcing project only and they dont have their own project.

It depends on what kind of jobs will be outsourced. I'm not fond of outsourcing jobs where communication or customer service is the focal point of doing business. No disrespect meant to outsourced call centers, but learning how to speak the language of the company who outsourced the jobs isn't enough to provide an excellent service to the customers of the said company. Factors such as accent, word use, phraseology, use and understanding of local slangs, lack of cultural and geographic knowledge may cause misunderstanding and miscommunication which will lead to lower quality of service. Short term trainings will not solve these problems because these things are suppose to come out naturally, something that a native of the country where the company came from won't have a problem dealing with as he/she acquired these things over time. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against outsourcing in general because my job is also based from outsourcing. I work in an Japanese company who outsourced their IT operations in my country. So if we are talking about outsourcing other back office jobs such as operations support, administrative duties, and IT-related work then I think we will see more pros than cons in outsourcing.

It depends on what kind of outsourcing you are talking about. For example, anything you don't do yourself can be considered outsourcing -- from having someone help you clean house to buying a meal in a restaurant. In general, there is nothing wrong with outsourcing because you would have to live by your wits every single day. I have a one-person company which will never be anything more than that. I outsource all kinds of work locally--from writing blurbs to preparing my taxes. I provide paid job training to local teenagers and since we all know how teens like to spend money, in general my outsourcing improves the local economy. If you are talking about large companies outsourcing labour-intensive operations to other countries where they can pay a lower wage, then the drain is immediately apparent but what is not apparent is that long-term implications of outsourcing will even out over many years, but in the mean time a large company which outsources jobs to a country with a lower wage may in fact disrupt the local economy to a point where the local economy cannot recover.

Well, I think you would have to define what you mean by outsourcing. Are you applying the concept in general, or respect to nations? As a general concept, outsourcing is good for small businesses that are trying to save some money and using outsiders who are readily available. Depending on the setup, they could pay via contract, and not be concerned with providing benefits to the people they have outsourced the work to. With respect to the nations, and world as a whole, it's bad for some countries because you can outsource jobs to a country where pay is cheaper, and more work can be done for less cost. This doesn't work out so well for people that reside in the same country as the company because of the loss of jobs to countries where high quality production can be achieved in a cheaper fashion. I admit that my example is very broad and simplified, but it's the best way I could illustrate the point.

Hi HotBlaze2011 I think outsourcing is helpful for companies and part time employees. To companies because they don´t have to pay as if the employee were fulltime. As employee you don´t get the same money benefits as a fulltime employee. But if you need time in our life, to take care of kids, home, or a sick person, outsourcing can help you. You aren´t a fulltime employee. Blessings!... Dainy

I'm really not the biggest fan of outsourcing to be honest with you. I think that it takes jobs away from the place where the company is located and thus people are suffering. Granted, there are a lot of times where I can really see where a company is coming from when they outsource. Sometimes, companies really do look at the bottom line and it is cheaper to outsource a lot of things in this world. It is one of those things where you can really go back and forth with all of the cons and the pros and just all of the areas where outsourcing causes everything to really break even. Still I think that while there are some benefits of outsourcing, when its all said and done years and years from now, there might be harsh consequences and we could be much worse off. Or I could be wrong, I have been before. Only time will in fact tell.