4 ms·

As much as I've enjoyed remote work, I can't help but wonder if it makes offshoring more attractive to companies based in western countries. If hiring locally i

As much as I've enjoyed remote work, I can't help but wonder if it makes offshoring more attractive to companies based in western countries. If hiring locally is more expensive and offers no real benefit over offshoring, why keep doing it?

novok 5y ago
I agree, I think it will very much be a "be careful what you wish for" type of situation in the end. Time zones I think will be the biggest advantage to hire within the western hemisphere, nobody likes the PST <-> IST timezone meeting gap, there aren't many to hire in latin america and they speak English well and communicate well. If latin america had a large base of engineers to hire in the first place, I think many places would choose there just on a timezone and english communication skills basis. But you see big compensation gaps even between NYC / SFO / SEA and the rest of the USA, so you could very well see a drop from that.
bottled_poe 5y ago
Exactly right. If your role can be done remotely, you will soon find yourself competing against the international market. It’s shortsighted to think that your value to the company is just completing development tasks which are easily completed by cheap offshore labour.
- Overton-Window 5y ago
  Wouldn't you think there'd be numerous examples of such arbitrage in the wild if so?
  - bottled_poe 5y ago
    You mean like outsourcing? Or do you mean situations where individuals are violating their employment terms (if not their contracts)?
dcolkitt 5y ago
The cost of office space in Bangalore is not high. Offshore developers are not some secret mystery that corporate managers have never heard from. If the benefits outweighed the cost, companies would have already offshored well before the pandemic. It’s not like WFH changes that calculus. If a BigCo would rather pay a programmer in Bangalore over one in Boise, than they almost certainly would also prefer him to one in Mountain View too.
- HelloNurse 5y ago
  An offshore branch imposes a lot of inconveniently long distance work (set up and recruitment or acqui-hiring, and then management) on the "home" staff, while an offshore contractor is always high risk compared to a close one.
parasight 5y ago
I'm working remote (on and off) since 2012, mostly in the same timezone. I never felt the danger of being replaced by someone in a cheaper country. Perhaps the problem with offshoring is not just the fact that the people are working remote. What about (very) different timezones, different working culture, different culture of communication etc.?
thrower123 5y ago
If offshoring was going to be successful, it would have been at some point in the last thirty years. Inevitably what I see is that some company tries to outsource some function, to save some money, or just because they don't want to deal with it themselves, and then the experience is so bumpy and acrimonious that they bring it back in house after eighteen months or two years.

novok 5y ago

I agree, I think it will very much be a "be careful what you wish for" type of situation in the end. Time zones I think will be the biggest advantage to hire within the western hemisphere, nobody likes the PST <-> IST timezone meeting gap, there aren't many to hire in latin america and they speak English well and communicate well. If latin america had a large base of engineers to hire in the first place, I think many places would choose there just on a timezone and english communication skills basis. But you see big compensation gaps even between NYC / SFO / SEA and the rest of the USA, so you could very well see a drop from that.

bottled_poe 5y ago

Exactly right. If your role can be done remotely, you will soon find yourself competing against the international market. It’s shortsighted to think that your value to the company is just completing development tasks which are easily completed by cheap offshore labour.

Overton-Window 5y ago
Wouldn't you think there'd be numerous examples of such arbitrage in the wild if so?
- bottled_poe 5y ago
  You mean like outsourcing? Or do you mean situations where individuals are violating their employment terms (if not their contracts)?

dcolkitt 5y ago

The cost of office space in Bangalore is not high. Offshore developers are not some secret mystery that corporate managers have never heard from. If the benefits outweighed the cost, companies would have already offshored well before the pandemic. It’s not like WFH changes that calculus. If a BigCo would rather pay a programmer in Bangalore over one in Boise, than they almost certainly would also prefer him to one in Mountain View too.

HelloNurse 5y ago
An offshore branch imposes a lot of inconveniently long distance work (set up and recruitment or acqui-hiring, and then management) on the "home" staff, while an offshore contractor is always high risk compared to a close one.

parasight 5y ago

I'm working remote (on and off) since 2012, mostly in the same timezone. I never felt the danger of being replaced by someone in a cheaper country. Perhaps the problem with offshoring is not just the fact that the people are working remote. What about (very) different timezones, different working culture, different culture of communication etc.?

thrower123 5y ago

If offshoring was going to be successful, it would have been at some point in the last thirty years. Inevitably what I see is that some company tries to outsource some function, to save some money, or just because they don't want to deal with it themselves, and then the experience is so bumpy and acrimonious that they bring it back in house after eighteen months or two years.