> There is however that there are operational advantages in outsourcing non-core areas of their business. If they hire a specialized contractor to do maintenanc

> There is however that there are operational advantages in outsourcing non-core areas of their business. If they hire a specialized contractor to do maintenance tasks then you no longer have to bother with gaining expertise in that area, and you can even scale up and down your service to meet demands. From what I've seen in practice, it's always about the outside "specialized contractor" breaking various labor laws and generally screwing workers over in order to drive costs down. This way, even with the contractor markup, the company saves money and, at the same time, is not liable and does not take a reputation hit. It's a win-win for everybody but the workers. I guess they don't put that in the MBA textbooks though.