Doing work that is disconnected from your own heart
A friend passed along this patent application for an outsourcing assessment methodology from Bank of America. From the patent text:
B of A's methodology will allow companies to select countries where workers will work for a low salary, without benefits, in a poor work environment, without vacation or training. It is worth noting that all the inventors on this patent are American.
I am finding this quite puzzling, and also sad.
A typical American employee demands a high salary, good benefits, a good work environment, vacation time, and other job-related perks such as reimbursement for higher education. These job-related perks are expensive and may not be cost-effective for the business entity. A business entity is forced to commit significant resources to employ an American work force and may often find that the demands of American employees far exceed the allotted budget.
B of A's methodology will allow companies to select countries where workers will work for a low salary, without benefits, in a poor work environment, without vacation or training. It is worth noting that all the inventors on this patent are American.
I am finding this quite puzzling, and also sad.
posted by Kim at
11:38 AM
1 Comments:
I came through here looking for material for your father's prospective Google page but I hung around to read a few articles. I don't find the patent surprising at all, nor is it sad. The lowest pay and benefits countries are the ones with the greatest surplus labor. By soaking up that surplus by increased labor demand, foreign companies bid away the best and the brightest of the local labor pool. To compete, local employers must raise wages and start offering better benefits or be left with the hopelessly incompetent as their only labor.
Take a look at the PRC's wage inflation for the past few years and you'll see the process moving along to the point where the PRC is no longer economic for some types of labor. They have grown too rich, something that left-wing labor analysts wouldn't have predicted for decades yet.
By
TM Lutas, at 7:01 PM
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