Outsourcing Your Own Job

There is a lot of anger in the tech community about the outsourcing of jobs to India.  Developers and help-desk reps find themselves increasingly marginalized by profit-hungry corporations whose biggest cost is, roll drums please, labor costs.

But not everyone is taking it sitting down. This could be an urban legend, but Wired reports on a a tech who decided to reap the benefits of outsourcing by cutting out the middle man.

Did you hear the one about the programmer who outsourced his own job? I read about it on Slashdot.org, the "news for nerds" Web site. A pseudonymous poster wrote, "About a year ago I hired a developer in India to do my job. I pay him $12,000 to do the job I get paid $67,000 for. He's happy to have the work. I'm happy that I only have to work 90 minutes a day, talking code. My employer thinks I'm telecommuting. Now I'm considering getting a second job and doing the same thing."

Of course this isn't a mass movement.  If it's even happening, it will quickly be squelched, as advertising it will lead to the loss of the job by the clever consultant.

But still - God Bless American Ingenuity, eh?