Gawker: valleywag, offshoring

Indian man dies in pie-eating contest

Owen Thomas — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:40:00 EST

Desperate to train employees in the way of their customers on the other end of the world, Indian tech outfits teach them American accents, the names of local football and baseball teams, and slang expressions. Nativists wring hands about this crushing local mores in favor of Western culture. But sometimes the importation of Western culture proves outright deadly. In Gurgaon, India, a suburb of New Delhi filled with offshore-tech outfits, police are investigating the death of a 22-year-old employee of Nokia-Siemens at the company's office.

Nokia-Siemens officials held a pie-eating contest for workers in the company cafeteria. Saurab Sabharwal started choking and ran to the bathroom. No one thought to follow him. A coworker found him dead an hour later. His father is now asking why medical personnel weren't on hand; doctors in India question whether such contests should be held at all. The point of such contests is to spur competition between employees, in a culture which fosters cooperation. That one proved deadly is perhaps the best lesson about American culture, if not the one the bosses intended.

(Image via Machias Wild Blueberry Festival)

Worried about outsourcing? Then stop telecommuting

Tim the IT Guy — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 20:00:00 EDT

A recent WSJ article and countless horror stories chart the tricky waters that outsourcers must navigate to move jobs outside throat-choking range. Although nervous-nelly IT workers take comfort in these tales, don't forget the basic math of outsourcing: A job that can be done remotely by you from home for $X can probably be done remotely from Mumbai for $X/10. So how do you make your job outsource-proof?

You need to create a role that requires your presence. The only way to do that is to show up — the more, the better.

Some IT professionals got into IT to avoid having to develop their people skills. If this sounds like you, it is time to shift some paradigms. Woody Allen said "80 percent of success is showing up." He should have added "especially when you don't want to." Too many WFH days and you might as well hang a sign on your chair, "Stop paying for this seat! Call 1-800-OFF-SHOR."

Shipping, wages make China less attractive to electronics manufacturers

Jackson West — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 10:40:00 EDT

Thanks to rising fuel prices and wage inflation in China, it's actually more expensive to manufacture and ship electronics across the Pacific for the American market than it would be to produce them domestically, according to a report from The McKinsey Quarterly. But iPhone assembly plants won't be coming to a depressed rust-belt community near you, because it's cheaper still to produce those electronics in a Mexican maquiladora. Though I hear prison labor is a real bargain, and there's no shortage of that here in the states. [Broadstuff]

McKinsey's Indian "knowledge center" outsources our heartstrings

Owen Thomas — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:20:00 EDT

In India, McKinsey has an office called the McKinsey Knowledge Center. It provides "knowledge management," which I think means having poorly paid Indian college graduates Google information that six-figure McKinsey management consultants are too busy, or lazy, to find themselves. A dispiriting job, from the sounds of it. And yet the offshore oppressed have found a way to celebrate their lot in life with an anthem. Invidiographer Richard Blakeley has mashed it up with a Bollywood clip for a music video. The clip, in my opinion, puts the global transmigration of technology jobs in human terms: The razzle-dazzle sell made to clients and employees, and the crushing existential despair after reality sets in.

Silicon Valley startup Riya, discovering...

Owen Thomas — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 00:24:45 EDT

Silicon Valley startup Riya, discovering that rising wages mean that engineers based in India are no longer a bargain, joins the ranks of companies deciding to stop offshoring. [Computerworld]

Apple's iPod maker says Apple approved its Chinese sweatshop

Nick Douglas — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 14:13:09 EDT

Oh man, when's China gonna stop being such a human-rights hard charger and loosen up its labor laws? Foxconn, Apple's iPod manufacturer, finally fesses up to what it denied earlier: forcing minimum-wage employees to work an extra 80 hours a month. Guess that's too much for China's strict labor watchdogs. Curse that hippie land of worker freedom and prosperity!

Kudos to Apple for fighting the man, though. Foxconn says an Apple team visited and gave the factory the A-OK. Finally, an American company is willing to stand up to the Chinese government!

iPod maker admits breaking Chinese labour laws [Inquirer]

It's a great day to be alive, Waggers

Nick Douglas — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 13:34:59 EDT

Grab some coffee and thank the gods you weren't replaced by a temp in Bangalore. It's a happy happy Monday, because:

It's the new Digg.com! Mommy! Mommy! It reads more than tech news! [Digg]
Cartoon Steve Ballmer sounds only slightly more abrasive than Real Steve Ballmer. And this version of the Microsoft CEO (made for anti-offshoring group TechsUnite) shouts a funnier "developers developers developers" chant. [TechsUnite.org]
The heads of failed game console maker Gizmondo — a crowd already linked to grand theft auto (not the game, the crime), impersonation of police, and business corruption — may have done some wonky fundraising for their L.A. telecoms group, Xero Mobile. That's what the SEC investigators say, anyway. [London Times]