Discussion: View Thread

There is an interesting piece on compensation trends and a related piece on
off-shoring at the link below.

http://www.workforce.com/section/02/feature/23/85/20/index.html

A couple of points struck me. First, benefits have become the target
because companies have wrung just about all they can out of wages and,
second, companies are being reassured that the exit costs of off-shoring can
be quickly recovered because the differential between wages paid in other
countries and those paid in advanced economies are so large as to absorb
them for decades to come.

Looks like no end in sight for off-shoring or benefit cuts.

Regards,

Fred Nickols, CPT
Distance Consulting
"Assistance at a Distance"
nickols@att.net
www.nickols.us

I would like to stand on a soap box and hold forth that the author(s?)
of this piece are demonstrating very short term thinking. The real
problem is to improve the product quality/cost to the point that foreign
suppliers cannot match the output. this requires everyone, including
managers, engineers, and 'labor' to kick in - remember, it's not a
contribution - it's a commitment. And besides, consider the alternative.

It is a viewpoint I have been working on for some time.

However, I have to be at a meeting in 8.5 hours, and the dog is hungry.

See you all later,
Jay

Fred Nickols wrote:

>There is an interesting piece on compensation trends and a related piece on
>off-shoring at the link below.
>
>http://www.workforce.com/section/02/feature/23/85/20/index.html
>
>A couple of points struck me. First, benefits have become the target
>because companies have wrung just about all they can out of wages and,
>second, companies are being reassured that the exit costs of off-shoring can
>be quickly recovered because the differential between wages paid in other
>countries and those paid in advanced economies are so large as to absorb
>them for decades to come.
>
>Looks like no end in sight for off-shoring or benefit cuts.
>
>Regards,
>
>Fred Nickols, CPT
>Distance Consulting
>"Assistance at a Distance"
>nickols@att.net
>www.nickols.us
>
>
>
>

--
Jay Warner
Principal Scientist
Warner Consulting, Inc.
4444 North Green Bay Road
Racine, WI 53404-1216
USA

Ph: (262) 634-9100
FAX: (262) 681-1133
email: quality@a2q.com
web: http://www.a2q.com

The A2Q Method (tm) -- What do you want to improve today?

Jay Warner, ensconced atop a soap box (;-) writes in response to my earlier
post of a link to an article about off-shoring and cuts in benefits:

> . . .the author(s?) of this piece are demonstrating very short term
thinking.
> The real problem is to improve the product quality/cost to the point that
foreign
> suppliers cannot match the output. this requires everyone, including
> managers, engineers, and 'labor' to kick in - remember, it's not a
> contribution - it's a commitment. And besides, consider the alternative.

I suspect that what you call "the real problem" is indeed a very real
problem to those people whose jobs are moving off shore and whose wages and
benefits have been and are being cut. I suspect it's not seen as a problem
at all, let alone "the real problem," by the folks who are doing the moving
and the cutting nor by their stock owners. For them, I rather imagine it's
just business.

What puzzles me most about this is its obviously self destructive nature.
You don't have to peer very far into the future to see a day when so much
work will have been moved off shore that the domestic economy will be
seriously damaged. Those costs that companies are cutting are also
individual incomes and if individual income is reduced enough, that destroys
the market for the goods made by the companies who off shore their work.
So, I see in all this a vicious, downward and perhaps irreversible spiral.

Oh well, that's enough doom and gloom for one day.

Regards,

Fred Nickols, CPT
Distance Consulting
"Assistance at a Distance"
nickols@att.net
www.nickols.us