The word outsourcing has become a dirty word in the Canadian and American vernacular. In fact my own software employer has begun dipping its toes into that swollen river ever so slightly. Just to see how it feels, they say. Just to test the waters, as it were. Luckily I’m such a star that I couldn’t possibly be outsourced, but I feel for everyone else – I really do.
And now I hear that outsourcing has come to McDonald’s drive-throughs!
It all makes sense, of course. You talk to a little speaker phone – who cares where the person on the end side actually exists? Florida? Washington? Bangalore?
It’s interesting seeing how they describe the call center that is contracted out to deal with the incoming food requests. I thought my Support days were bad, but monitoring to that extent makes me angry just reading about it. And then to hear that they have to try to up-sell you? Blood. Boiling!
And why are these things important? Why, to save money of course. This is a capitalist society and all that bunk.
When the customer pulls away from the menu to pay for the food and pick it up, it takes around 10 seconds for another car to pull forward. During that time, Mr. King said, his order-takers can be answering a call from a different McDonald’s where someone has already pulled up.
The remote order-takers at Bronco earn the minimum wage ($6.75 an hour in California), do not get health benefits and do not wear uniforms. Ms. Vargas, who recently finished high school, wore jeans and a baggy white sweatshirt as she took orders last week.
The call-center system allows employees to be monitored and tracked much more closely than would be possible if they were in restaurants. Mr. King’s computer screen gives him constant updates as to which workers are not meeting standards. “You’ve got to measure everything,” he said. “When fractions of seconds count, the environment needs to be controlled.”
The whole article requires registration (or simply visit BugMeNot and find a free login) but it ends with this simple statement:
Ms. Aleman said that, over all, the system had improved accuracy and helped her cut costs. She said that now she did not need an employee dedicated to taking orders or, during the lunch rush, an assistant for the order-taker to handle cash when things backed up. “We’ve cut labor,” she said.
Ah yes, once again we see technology really helping those that need it most – the minimum wage workers slaving away under the grease gods. All praise the silicon tutelary!
I feel a Darcy moment coming on, i.e., I feel like playing Devil’s advocate, just for the sake of playing Devil’s advocate. Of course, my brothers would say that it’s not a Darcy moment, but a Dale moment. But anyway.
The outsourcing thing is a tough one. On the one hand, when a company decides to outsource some part of its operation, people lose jobs. But on the other hand, every company outsources to some extent. For example, hospitals outsource imaging software development and maintenance to Kirk’s company, and outsource drug production to Darcy’s company. And so on. Think about the alternatives: if each hospital had to produce its own drugs, its own imaging software, and so on. Take this to the extreme and we’re all hunting and gathering again.
Ah, there’s nothing like an extreme slippery-slope argument, is there?
Hospitals do outsource – for example there is a Radiologist-4-hire service called Nighthawk wherein the hospital doesn’t have a radiologist onsite (during the night, or even at all if they can’t afford one). If a radiologist is needed they send the image over to Australia for reading – teleradiology. This is an example of outsourcing that typically could be said to be helping people. The hospital/clinic can offer radiology services to patients without the massive overhead of hiring a radiologist full time. Win-win I say.
The cost savings here come from not having to sustain the overhead of a radiologist that may not be needed full time. This is definitely outsourcing and I think it works well.
But when it comes to software, why would a hospital that knows next to nothing about software engineering want to try to produce its own software? Putting out a request to software vendors who do know how to make good software in an attempt to forge a relationship that works for both sides makes a lot of sense. Some hospitals (like the Mayo Clinic for example) do like to do internal software development because they like to customize it so much it is fiscally smart to do so. These vendors can be anywhere in this ‘Global Village’ and they all compete on the same level. This may end up in a situation where an Indian company sells the American hospital its software. I don’t consider this outsourcing though.
The term outsourcing comes along when a company decides to take part of its internal process and fill the related positions with staff/resources from a second company that specializes in that service. Often these specialized companies are offshore and can come in with low offers due to reduced labour costs. I’m not sold on how useful this is for all kinds of services in a company, but some obvously work “OK-ish”.
I think McDonalds is taking an intergral part of its services and is trying to save a dollar or two by staffing it with cheaper workers. There is no additional expertise offered by this outside company – it is purely a cost-cutting thing. It is a business move without concern for the local workers.
So I don’t think this is a good idea. McDonalds employs a lot of young people, taking advantage of the minimum wage and lax labour regulations for this workforce. I personally think they should step up to the plate and embrace their role as a ‘first time job’ for many, and work with these people to get them skills and experience that they can then use to find other jobs they enjoy more. I think they have a responsibility that they are not living up to. And now they are trying to outsource to save costs? When was the last time you heard of McDonalds having a year they didn’t make money in? And now they want to make MORE money. At what (who’s) expense though?
Bah, there’s no comparison here.
So slide on down your slope, it’s a fairly nifty one – all rainbow-y and shimmering. Oops, don’t fall through!