An Off-shoring Backlash Leads to Home-shoring Jobs
01/16/2006
“Lots of cheap Labor,” is the bait that leads American Corporations to rush outsourced work to India. Last year some 112,000 such jobs went off-shore and it will reach 315,000 by 2010 according to IDC Research.
So there you are at dinner time juggling a hot item from the oven when the phone rings. You are comfortable that it must be a friend or relative because after all, you are on the “Do Not Call List” for telemarketers. You answer only to hear a sing-song West Indian voice reading you a barely intelligible message to buy something or other. What the &*@%# gives…?
Off-shoring has invaded your home.
It is indeed a telemarketer working from India and he has no requirement to meet any U.S. Laws like respecting “Do Not Call Lists.” (Congress, please take note.)
You feel accent fatique, cultural disconnect, anger over your space being invaded and it inspires much customer rage. “Who do these blankety-blank people represent anyhow? I won’t deal with them again.”
“They’re calling for the State of MN? Really?” (Is Mike Hatch listening?)
Yes, for States, for corporations like Sears & Roebuck, and IBM, and for thousands of others. You have been targeted by the off-shore group.
Over dinner you meditate a bit. “If they have my Social Security number or drivers license number, private medical records, or credit card number are they then protected?” “They are not? That’s an outrage. There outta be a law.” (Congress, please take note).
Then you read a Business Week Article: “Call Centers In The Rec. Room” (Jan 23, 2006) and you realize that one such fix for the Indian invasion is to have these companies outsource to people working from American homes. There are lots of such people from Mom’s on maternity leave to a growing crop of Baby Boomer retirees, to handicapped people wanting to work, to rural residents in dire need of income and the list of potential workers goes on and on. There is a big talent pool of human capital right here in America. Why do these companies need to go offshore unless it’s purely to break the law? (Congress, please take note).
We wondered how these people work and we found that Jet Blue hires them as telecommuter workers who are their reservation agents. Some are in Florida half a year sitting in a comfortable chair looking at the sea as they work on a lap-top. (Jaws, take note). When you book a flight then you are getting someone working from home (or wherever) and entering your reservation over the Internet. Many others are treated as outsource contractors on a 1099 MISC Contracted Worker Basis. They do such things as handle customer inquiries of shipped goods and tracking various products ordered over the Internet, or processing such things as tax preparation inquiries. (Congress, please take note.)
This is nice because a portion of the rec. room can now be depreciated and all expenses can be itemized on the Schedule C for a home based business as part of the cost of doing business. But don’t look for pensions and health benefits because they are just not there. You can get up to $15 per hour this way though and you can wear your slippers while working. The cost to commute to work is zero.
If you are reading this and thinking about working from home or starting up a small business, then home-shoring might be for you. Why not look into it further?
By the way, this is a political election year and people need staffers to work for them. Some of these are volunteer jobs and some are paid jobs. You might want to see if your Congressperson needs workers and what the nature of the work is. There is work to be outsourced ranging from phone banks, to letter writing, to envelope stuffing, to door-knocking, and the list goes on an on. Why not let them know you are available to do piece work?
This is a new kind of business format and might need a new kind of business entity defined for it (Mary Kiffmeyer, take note).
Maybe it should be taxed differently too (Tim Pawlenty take note).