Work, Managment, and Outsourcing Project

In order to get a grasp on the concepts of work, management, and outsourcing, our group decided to gather information from our three fathers, all of which have 3 very different jobs in different markets. We all asked our fathers the same questions, and gathered imformation based on their personal experiences and opinions. Through their ideas and base information from Economics class and the internet, we now have a general idea of the market, work, managment, and outsourcing. Below is the information gathered from our interviews with our fathers.

Matt's Interview with his father Mr. Orange

For our project our team decided on interviewing our fathers who work different types of jobs, and ask them some questions about outsourcing and management. My father is a Retail Residential Mortgage Loan Officer at HSBC Mortgage Corporation. What he does there is provides financing for purchasing a home. His work is mainly concentrated in the Mortgage and Home Equity part of his bank. The first question our group chose to ask was whether or not our fathers fear they're jobs being outsourced in the near future. My Dads response was "partially", because there will always be a need for personal sales contact. Not everyone is comfortable with banking over the internet. They are afraid of identity theft and other Internet related crimes. Next we asked they're feelings on outsourcing, this question took much longer for him to answer. After thinking hard on this question he said "the more outsourcing completed the less control we have over our products and services; there are many problems with communication and lack of personal touch." Although this is a problem, this is the way the industry is going for cost saving and profitability. This move will create repeat business, "shopping around". After this great discussion on outsourcing my mom my dad and me had I asked the next question: whether or not his job outsourced already? He replied with a yes and said they (his corporation) is already doing telesales originating, and customer service in India. Also HSBC stands for Honk Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation, which shows all work in this company is not located in the United States. The next question was about the pay comparison to his manager. What my Dad said is what many others may also think, "Its acceptable, added responsibility warrants increased pay". Managers are expected to do more than the others do, so higher pay is expected. I believe that managers that actually do something deserve more pay, but the managers that do less than the normal worker does not. Lastly we asked if he believed labor, management and outsourcing are the major factors in the diminishing of the middle class. His answer was yes, because outsourcing is cutting into both middle management and labor positions. This will hurt our economy, and in particular for my Dad "this might cut into the number of people looking into purchasing a new home". Personally I believe that outsourcing will hurt our economy. It is taking away American jobs and putting them overseas. The diminishing of the middle class will create a large gap between the poor and wealthy with no one in-between.

Andrea's Interview with her father Mr. Red

My father is the head coordinator of shipping and receiving at MOOG Inc. There coordinates everything Moog ships--hardware built by Moog, and everything Moog receives--raw materials, accurately.
OUTSOURCING: When I asked him if he fears his job being outsourced in the near future, he was quick to reply with a "no" because there must be a person on-site in the country at the companies making sure things are arriving to where they belong at the right times. While his job is not outsourced, Moog does outsource and has many companies internationally. He said, "Moog does outsource...It has to in order to stay competitive in this day and age." I agree with my dad here-- why not send work to people who will do it for a small fraction of the cost Americans will do it for? While I believe this is a great way to save money and make a profit, it also results in the loss of jobs for Americans. The line needs to be drawn somewhere; a medium needs to be reached.
WORK AND MANAGMENT: According to my dad, at Moog managers make a fair amount more than the workers. When I asked him if he agreed with this, he responded: "They make a lot more, but they went to school a lot longer. If managers do their job well-- yes, I agree with the difference in pay, they've earned it." After I said this I asked him the question: "Do you believe labor, management, and outsourcing are the major factors in the diminishing of the middle class?" Immediately following this question, he refined his previous response in saying, “Yes, many big CEO's are overpaid. While I agree with management making more, some of the salaries managers make are ridiculous and unnecessary. With a portion of society making unnecessary amounts of money, it is creating a huge gap between the wealthy and poor, with no in-between." While I realize filthy rich CEO's aren't willing to give up a few mill a year to help out in paying his worker's salaries, I do not understand what a single human being could possibly do with billions of dollars. So what is the solution to these issues? I believe a new technology before any country could develop it would do the trick. For example: finding a substitute for gasoline. If we could eliminate the billions of dollars spend on oil from Middle Eastern countries, our country would not only gain money in not buying it, but everyone in the world will want to either buy the substance from us or adopt the idea. In conclusion, Mr. Red stated, "The whole country needs to get together to try and keep as many jobs as possible here, if not our countries economy will continue to decompose."

Tom's Interview with his father Mr. Blue

My father works for Delphi Harrison as a service man. He works daily with heavy machinery. These machines produce parts for production in the auto industry. My dad fears greatly that one day he could lose his job to others in Mexico and China who can do the same work for a lower wage. Delphi already is outsourcing, and plans to outsource even more in the near future. He stated, “In most cases the company eases into outsourcing and the process is slow, so when a company closes the hit isn’t so sudden.” When I asked him about his feelings toward outsourcing, I immediately sensed he was heavily against it. Words cannot describe the anger he feels deep down towards this topic. He feels that the government is selling out the middle class. He knows he has no control over it but he feels the country should pass laws not allowing it. “It’s hurting the middle class leaving to big of a gap between the rich and the poor.” Another topic that bothers him is the pay of managers compared to the workers. According to my dad, there are many managers who just don’t do their job right and don’t deserve more money. In his job the worker is doing more work then a manager does and is receiving less pay. The interview ended with this enticing quote, “Corporate greed is a serious problem. When is enough, enough? Outsourcing is killing the middle class. I need someone to tell me how outsourcing is helping this country. Large factories leaving for other countries cannot be replaced. 3,000 good paying jobs closing and hiring those people in casinos (etc.) just isn’t the same. The rich just keep getting richer. I honestly think in another 50 years this great country will be in serious trouble”

In Conclusion . . .

In gathering information from our fathers and our common knowledge we have come to the conclusion that outsourcing is definitely hurting our economy. Our fathers had 3 similar and differing opinions. They had varying feelings and tolerance towards this subject. However, they all agreed on the fact that outsourcing is profitable and is the way in which the market is going. They are skeptical of America losing so many jobs to strangers overseas, who can afford to work for 10 cents an hour, while they cannot. Even if many workers don't agree with it, they have no control over it and no say in it. Companies throughout America have no choice but to outsource, in order to compete in a highly competitive market.
Labor and Management on the other hand, produced dissimilar responses. Mr. Orange and Mr. Red agreed that more responsibility and longer schooling deserves more pay. Mr. Red clearly stated, "Managers definitely warrant more pay--as long as they're doing their job the right way." Mr. Orange agreed and stressed that they carry more responsibility on their shoulders-- which we also agree upon. Mr. Blue believes many managers abuse their privileges and just plain out don't do their job the right way. This is why he believes that managers pay may be higher than what they deserve.
The major impact of these issues, which we believe is the depletion of the middle class, aroused feelings in our fathers and ourselves. Outsourcing is cutting into both middle management and labor positions which will hurt our economy. In particular, the future will hold rich and poor, with no one in-between. The whole country needs to work together to try and keep as many jobs here in the United States, otherwise our great country we live in will flush down the toilet.

Dear Mr. Aroune,

We just wanted to thank you for making us take a deeper look at something we never really stopped to think about. It opened our eyes to things that are happening around us that we now know more about. Also, thank you for introducing us to new tools and websites, (blogger,vyew etc.) because without them this project would have been much more difficult. Thanks again.

Sincerely,

Tom, Matt, and Andrea