Business and enterprise software, and other applications that help a business run

There are concerns coming to the fore about the treatment of the employees of outsourcing firms. One such article can be found in Computerworld today. Some U.S. IT executives are concerned that their corporate human resources objectives are not being fully respected when work is outsourced. This is a problem that we have not heard a lot about in our field, but I have a feeling we will.

There is really very little difference between the outsourcing of the labor side of  tennis shoes, tee-shirts, and IT. The current corporate obsession is “cheaper!” It is as simple as that. It has become very apparent that U.S. retailers, with Wal-Mart and Mattel as  perfect examples, have little concern for the people that are ultimately making their products. Certainly not all foreign companies care even that much, as witness a large number of scandals in this area over the last several years.

It is only natural to assume that IT outsourcing sweatshops exist around the world, and that U.S. companies are using them, knowingly or not. When Job Number One is “Cheaper!” (as it certainly is with a lot of major companies these days), we have no reason to believe that IT outsourcers are looking very hard at socially responsible outsourcing.

To many companies worldwide, people are not much more important a resource than corn, iron ore, or any other commodity of which there is a glut on the marketplace. I would hope that our IT brothers are more concerned than that, but it is not a hope upon which I would bet the house.