Offshore Business Practices

[Joe Faux]

I work in wireless telecommunications. For the past year I've been training a small team of offshore workers from India to take over my role and responsibilities. Layoffs have been announced at my firm and I'm expecting walking papers sometime Q1 of 2005. My entire organization, roughly 150 positions from one facility, will be moving overseas. Additional local layoffs, not to exceed 2,000, will continue for the remaining 18 months. My employer is making considerable money, but will save more utilizing offshore workers. The stockholders responded positively on Wall Street. These jobs will not be returning to the United States soon.

This topic is not to request pity. I'm confident in my skills and am capable of finding another employer. As a matter of fact, I've not yet formulated a concrete opinion regarding this subject and am wondering what others think of offshore practices. The parties in my microcosm are too close to the topic for a decent discussion.

Should we be concerned about the loss of jobs? Does this free up people to pursue even more education and technically challenging fields? Is this the natural course of events as “globalization” takes effect? Will these fields eventually become too saturated with lower-paid workers to make it a worthwhile career track? Should the government force companies to stop or limit offshoring? Should I do what I can to help a third world country out?

These are some of the questions I've heard from co-workers and family. I just don't seem to have any good responses.

Thoughts?