4 ms·

Outsourcing just means using another entity to do the work. Did you mean offshoring?

by joshu 9y ago

Sebguer 9y ago
If you're going to be pedantic, at least be correct. The commonly understood meaning of 'outsourcing' is to use foreign labor. So commonly understood that even Webster includes it as part of their definitions: : to procure (something, such as some goods or services needed by a business or organization) from outside sources and especially from foreign or nonunion suppliers : to contract for work, jobs, etc., to be done by outside or foreign workers (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/outsource https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/outsource)
- joshu 9y ago
  That does not jibe with common usage I hear in the field, despite what Webster says. For example, young startups frequently outsource CFO functions to someone up the street. To be truly pedantic, your definition doesn't say remote workers, just foreign, without specifying their region. OP talked about local workers in contrast. Not only does the definition not say I am wrong (it includes the thing I said) but I was speaking in context of OP's comment (about location) So you complained about my lack of precision and to do so you lost even more and didn't actually understand the context.
- greenyoda 9y ago
  From my understanding (and Wikipedia agrees with me[1]), "outsourcing" simply means paying someone to perform work outside your company that the company would otherwise perform. For example, my employer outsources payroll to ADP, and outsources office cleaning to a service company rather than hiring its own cleaning staff. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsourcing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsourcing - "In business, outsourcing involves the contracting out of a business process (e.g. payroll processing, claims processing) and operational, and/or non-core functions (e.g. manufacturing, facility management, call center support) to another party."
FrozenVoid 9y ago
Outsourcing is the overarching concept to which offshoring and nearshoring belong. Obviously its much cheaper to outsource work to countries where wages are fraction of work rates in developed world. Startups use it agressively to reduce costs. https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2016/01/12/startups-use-gig-economy-to-outsource-jobs/ https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2016/01/12/startups-use-gig-econom... Now we have some economy sectors where offshore locations don't make sense(work is service-oriented & local) and bringing foreign workers is more expensive/legally complicated than a job is worth for the company. Thats where "gig economy" model comes in: it allows exploiting local workers for much cheaper wages, without bringing foreign labor. The outsourcing part is what work there was(regular food delivery jobs) made into granular contracts and "gigs"/"tasks", which divide the labor into independent segments(e.g. deliveries) where task distributed into local labor pool(as some kind of cloud computing with the humans being servers).
- yunoe 9y ago
  Much of the "gig economy" seem to basically be "urban day labor".

Outsourcing just means using another entity to do the work. Did you mean offshoring?

by joshu 9y ago

Outsourcing just means using another entity to do the work. Did you mean offshoring?

If you're going to be pedantic, at least be correct. The commonly understood meaning of 'outsourcing' is to use foreign labor. So commonly understood that even Webster includes it as part of their definitions: : to procure (something, such as some goods or services needed by a business or organization) from outside sources and especially from foreign or nonunion suppliers : to contract for work, jobs, etc., to be done by outside or foreign workers (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/outsource https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/outsource)

joshu 9y ago
That does not jibe with common usage I hear in the field, despite what Webster says. For example, young startups frequently outsource CFO functions to someone up the street. To be truly pedantic, your definition doesn't say remote workers, just foreign, without specifying their region. OP talked about local workers in contrast. Not only does the definition not say I am wrong (it includes the thing I said) but I was speaking in context of OP's comment (about location) So you complained about my lack of precision and to do so you lost even more and didn't actually understand the context.
greenyoda 9y ago
From my understanding (and Wikipedia agrees with me[1]), "outsourcing" simply means paying someone to perform work outside your company that the company would otherwise perform. For example, my employer outsources payroll to ADP, and outsources office cleaning to a service company rather than hiring its own cleaning staff. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsourcing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsourcing - "In business, outsourcing involves the contracting out of a business process (e.g. payroll processing, claims processing) and operational, and/or non-core functions (e.g. manufacturing, facility management, call center support) to another party."

FrozenVoid 9y ago

Outsourcing is the overarching concept to which offshoring and nearshoring belong. Obviously its much cheaper to outsource work to countries where wages are fraction of work rates in developed world. Startups use it agressively to reduce costs. https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2016/01/12/startups-use-gig-economy-to-outsource-jobs/ https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2016/01/12/startups-use-gig-econom... Now we have some economy sectors where offshore locations don't make sense(work is service-oriented & local) and bringing foreign workers is more expensive/legally complicated than a job is worth for the company. Thats where "gig economy" model comes in: it allows exploiting local workers for much cheaper wages, without bringing foreign labor. The outsourcing part is what work there was(regular food delivery jobs) made into granular contracts and "gigs"/"tasks", which divide the labor into independent segments(e.g. deliveries) where task distributed into local labor pool(as some kind of cloud computing with the humans being servers).

yunoe 9y ago
Much of the "gig economy" seem to basically be "urban day labor".