I’m standing in the middle of the desertSheryl Crow, Leaving Las Vegas
Waiting for my ship to come in.
But now no joker, no jack, no king
Can take this loser hand
And make it win.
Dear Vorticians,
I must be brief this week, for a variety of reasons. I want to wrap up our discussion on outsourcing with a couple final letters I’ve received. But before we get into that, I’d like to offer a useful new word and ask a question.
First, that word. A colleague passed along this entry from his word-a-day calendar: “Resistentialism (ri-zis-TEN-shul-iz-um) noun. The theory that inanimate objects demonstrate hostile behavior against us. Coined by humorist Paul Jennings as a blend of the Latin res (thing) + French resister (to resist) + existentialism (a kind of philosophy). If you ever get a feeling that the photocopy machine can sense when you’re tense, short of time, need a document copied before an important meeting, and right then it decides to take a break, you’re not alone. Now you know the word for it.”
Your goal is to try to work “resistentialism” into a sentence at a cocktail party this weekend.
Now, the big question: Is the service provider market “back”? All of you who work in the service provider market, or sell to service providers — what’s your take?
Of course, you’ll answer my question with a question: John, what do you mean by back? Do you mean we’ve hit bottom and are limping back? Do you mean that we’re on a solid growth trajectory? Do you mean it’s the dotcom mania all over again?
Well, not to avoid the point, but I’ll let you define that. Is the service provider market coming “back” in your terms? And what are those terms?
Also, you’d be wise to ask: John, why do you ask? Simple, because a growing number of the companies I’ve met with recently that sell to service providers are enthusiastic, some without reservation. One company in the VoIP market told me yesterday that they’d sold more in the first calendar quarter than they sold all of last year. In short, I’m hearing a lot of good news these days. But are we looking at a few early flowers that will die in a new freeze or is springtime really here?
Drop a note with your insights to jgallant@vortex.net. We’ll discuss.
Now, to wrap up on outsourcing. You’ll recall a few issues back when I ran letters from an unnamed developer from India handling the programming chores of a U.S. company, as well as from a U.S. worker who was about to lose her job to outsourcing. The latter lamented the loss of job opportunities for Americans, particularly older workers. That prompted this reply from our Vortician on the sub-continent.
“John, age discrimination is everywhere. My background was civil engineering and I moved into software development. I had to get a fresh degree — India tends to be very conservative. When I joined my first company, I was already older than my manager. It took me seven years to recover from my ‘changeover blues.’
“(Your reader is right if she’s thinking about) the same job scenario — go to work in a traditional office environment, work until you are 60, get a watch and retire. All of that will change in another five years or so, when the default mode of work (mail, voice, video, virtual reality, virtual presence) is over the ‘Net. At that point, your physical presence and age is immaterial — even manipulating machinery can be done over the ‘Net. What matters is the knowledge you bring to the job. Yes, each one of us can have our job outsourced (including mine), but wisdom cannot be outsourced. Those who have developed wisdom in a specific area will always be valuable.
“There will be new jobs in nanotechnology, biotechnology — unfortunately, not in computing. Computing is mainstream so there are very few new areas left.”
Finally, Vortician Chris Heidelberg wrote: “John, I understand that outsourcing may be a necessary thing, but it is disturbing that outsourcing is going on at its current pace when the job market is so tight.
“Here’s something that all companies must be careful not to do: Kill the golden goose of the United States economy. You cannot continue to shrink the middle class, place the tax burden on it and then take jobs away. You cannot systematically kill off your market without some form of backlash, and the current technology could create a backlash against companies that continue outsourcing.
“At the end of the day, the question becomes this: If there is a disappearance of good high-tech jobs, how will people be able to afford the products that are produced? The truth is, John, that no one, including this writer, has all the answers. It would be wise for this nation to come to a consensus on this issue and develop a plan because technology is not going away and neither is outsourcing.”
Chris, your note and the many, many others I received on outsourcing have elevated the dialogue on outsourcing. Thanks to you and everyone else who shared their thoughts.
I always welcome new thoughts. Be in touch at jgallant@vortex.net. Bye for now.
