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Usenet Posted 22 years ago
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Meaning of outsourcing evolves.
Until what I think is fairly recently, the word "outsourcing" meant that Company A hires Company B to do some jobs that used to be done in-house, which usually meant some jobs were cut at Company A. However, in recent weeks, as political pressure in the U.S. has mounted regarding companies hiring people in other countries to do desk jobs that had previously been done by U.S. employees, the meaning of "outsourcing" seems to have been shifting in some contexts to refer to this practice instead, even when the offshore jobs were regular employment at our Company A rather than being jobs at Company B instead. I've seen this in political commentary in major newspapers, and even AUE's John Dean used "outsourcing" in this sense on March 24 of this year.
My perception of how this has happened is that it went something like this: some of the offshore hiring was in fact outsourcing in the traditional sense, and business columns in newspapers referred to this as "offshore outsourcing" while referring to the general practice of hiring abroad as "offshoring" or "offshore hiring"; but then the politics reporters and columnists, always happy to pick up on a new buzzword (and having possibly forgotten about the other meaning of "outsourcing"?), started dropping the word "offshore" and using "outsourcing" instead; then readers who hadn't much been exposed to the word "outsourcing" started using it solely in the new sense. I could be mistaken about this progression, but this was how it seemed to me to be happening in the past few months.
I've been trying in my own tiny way to encourage the use of "offshoring" (which I've seen in the Washington Post and NY Times, among other places) in cases where people absolutely insist on having a single word to refer to moving jobs offshore, because I don't much like the idea of "outsourcing" having two meanings that don't necessarily overlap, but I have a feeling this'll be another of those squirtgun-vs.-raging-inferno things.
William Safire's column Sunday dealt with the word "outsourcing", but he didn't make any explicit reference to the seeming evolution in meaning:
http://www.iht.com/cgi-bin/generic.cgi?template=articleprint.tmplh&ArticleId=511298
JM
My perception of how this has happened is that it went something like this: some of the offshore hiring was in fact outsourcing in the traditional sense, and business columns in newspapers referred to this as "offshore outsourcing" while referring to the general practice of hiring abroad as "offshoring" or "offshore hiring"; but then the politics reporters and columnists, always happy to pick up on a new buzzword (and having possibly forgotten about the other meaning of "outsourcing"?), started dropping the word "offshore" and using "outsourcing" instead; then readers who hadn't much been exposed to the word "outsourcing" started using it solely in the new sense. I could be mistaken about this progression, but this was how it seemed to me to be happening in the past few months.
I've been trying in my own tiny way to encourage the use of "offshoring" (which I've seen in the Washington Post and NY Times, among other places) in cases where people absolutely insist on having a single word to refer to moving jobs offshore, because I don't much like the idea of "outsourcing" having two meanings that don't necessarily overlap, but I have a feeling this'll be another of those squirtgun-vs.-raging-inferno things.
William Safire's column Sunday dealt with the word "outsourcing", but he didn't make any explicit reference to the seeming evolution in meaning:
http://www.iht.com/cgi-bin/generic.cgi?template=articleprint.tmplh&ArticleId=511298
JM
Top answer
[/nq] Yeah, I was supposed to be hired, along with a dozen other people, to to install Win2K on about 1000 workstations in Hayward, CA, once. After the interview and assurances that I would be hired and begin in a week or so, I was notifed that the company had outsourced the installs. Nobody at company A lost their jobs, but a bunch of people at company B made some money.
- [/nq] Yeah, I was supposed to be hired, along with a dozen other people, to to install Win2K on about 1000 workstations in Hayward, CA, once.
- After the interview and assurances that I would be hired and begin in a week or so, I was notifed that the company had outsourced the installs.
- Nobody at company A lost their jobs, but a bunch of people at company B made some money.
- It never occurred to me that outsourcing had to be strictly domestic, unless, of course, there is something called far- outsourcing to indicate that the outside source of labor is across the border.
- Franke: EFL teacher & medical editor.
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21 Answers
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Joe Manfre (Email Removed) wrote on 02 Apr 2004:
[nq:1]Until what I think is fairly recently, the word "outsourcing" meant that Company A hires Company B to do some jobs that used to be done in-house, which usually meant some jobs were cut at Company A.[/nq]
Yeah, I was supposed to be hired, along with a dozen other people, to to install Win2K on about 1000 workstations in Hayward, CA, onc
[nq:1]Until what I think is fairly recently, the word "outsourcing" meant that Company A hires Company B to do some jobs that used to be done in-house, which usually meant some jobs were cut at Company A.[/nq]
Yeah, I was supposed to be hired, along with a dozen other people, to to install Win2K on about 1000 workstations in Hayward, CA, onc
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[nq:1]Yeah, I was supposed to be hired, along with a dozen other people, to to install Win2K on about 1000 ... of course, there is something called far- outsourcing to indicate that the outside source of labor is across the border.[/nq]
Earlier this week, on CNN, I heard the verb "offshoring".
Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward"
Earlier this week, on CNN, I heard the verb "offshoring".
Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward"
00
[nq:1]Until what I think is fairly recently, the word "outsourcing" meant that Company A hires Company B to do some ... "outsourcing" having two meanings that don't necessarily overlap, but I have a feeling this'll be another of those squirtgun-vs.-raging-inferno things.[/nq]
There must be a lot of Company A folks over at the offices in Bangalore (The Tysons Corner of India) who are disenfranc
There must be a lot of Company A folks over at the offices in Bangalore (The Tysons Corner of India) who are disenfranc
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[nq:1]Freck, even I engaged in this looser use of "outsourcing" in a recent conversation, where I wanted a single and ... it; see how he feels about a bunch of guys in Mumbai getting involved in the Orlando-market medical equipment business.[/nq]
I once outsourced some work to foreigners. I hired a firm to do telephone accounts receivable maintenance. I had to fire them, though.
The firm's
I once outsourced some work to foreigners. I hired a firm to do telephone accounts receivable maintenance. I had to fire them, though.
The firm's
00
(Snip)
[nq:1]Earlier this week, on CNN, I heard the verb "offshoring". Best regards, Spehro Pefhany[/nq]
It started to appear in print in Canada a couple of months ago (please don't ask for citations). It's splattered over the front page of today's Report on Business. (For non-Canadians, that's Section B of The Globe and Mail, which claims to be Canada's "national" newspaper.)
Cheers,
[nq:1]Earlier this week, on CNN, I heard the verb "offshoring". Best regards, Spehro Pefhany[/nq]
It started to appear in print in Canada a couple of months ago (please don't ask for citations). It's splattered over the front page of today's Report on Business. (For non-Canadians, that's Section B of The Globe and Mail, which claims to be Canada's "national" newspaper.)
Cheers,
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Tony Cooper typed thus:
[nq:2]Freck, even I engaged in this looser use of "outsourcing" ... in Mumbai getting involved in the Orlando-market medical equipment business.[/nq]
[nq:1]I once outsourced some work to foreigners. I hired a firm to do telephone accounts receivable maintenance. I had to fire them, though.[/nq]
I had to read that four times before not understanding it, and movin
[nq:2]Freck, even I engaged in this looser use of "outsourcing" ... in Mumbai getting involved in the Orlando-market medical equipment business.[/nq]
[nq:1]I once outsourced some work to foreigners. I hired a firm to do telephone accounts receivable maintenance. I had to fire them, though.[/nq]
I had to read that four times before not understanding it, and movin
00
[nq:1]Tony Cooper typed thus:[/nq]
[nq:2]I once outsourced some work to foreigners. I hired a firm to do telephone accounts receivable maintenance. I had to fire them, though.[/nq]
[nq:1]I had to read that four times before not understanding it, and moving on to the next paragraph where I ... phoned people whose accounts were in arrears to ask them to pay. It's "maintenance" I can't parse
[nq:2]I once outsourced some work to foreigners. I hired a firm to do telephone accounts receivable maintenance. I had to fire them, though.[/nq]
[nq:1]I had to read that four times before not understanding it, and moving on to the next paragraph where I ... phoned people whose accounts were in arrears to ask them to pay. It's "maintenance" I can't parse
00
(Snip)>
[nq:1]I don't know if I've ever tried to come up with a word to describe the normal process of bugging ... continuing customers and not customers that have been cut-off for non-payment. If I would have to, "maintenance" might be considered.[/nq]
Dun, apart from being a dull, greyish colour, means a debt-collector, an importunate creditor, a demand for payment. Dunned or dunning
[nq:1]I don't know if I've ever tried to come up with a word to describe the normal process of bugging ... continuing customers and not customers that have been cut-off for non-payment. If I would have to, "maintenance" might be considered.[/nq]
Dun, apart from being a dull, greyish colour, means a debt-collector, an importunate creditor, a demand for payment. Dunned or dunning
00
[nq:1](Snip)>[/nq]
[nq:2]I don't know if I've ever tried to come up ... non-payment. If I would have to, "maintenance" might be considered.[/nq]
[nq:1]Dun, apart from being a dull, greyish colour, means a debt-collector, an importunate creditor, a demand for payment. Dunned or ... recognized in North America at least, I've had to explain myself to Canadian listeners ... usually at the b
[nq:2]I don't know if I've ever tried to come up ... non-payment. If I would have to, "maintenance" might be considered.[/nq]
[nq:1]Dun, apart from being a dull, greyish colour, means a debt-collector, an importunate creditor, a demand for payment. Dunned or ... recognized in North America at least, I've had to explain myself to Canadian listeners ... usually at the b
00
[nq:1]Dun, apart from being a dull, greyish colour, means a debt-collector, an importunate creditor, a demand for payment. Dunned or ... recognized in North America at least, I've had to explain myself to Canadian listeners ... usually at the bank.[/nq]
You may be right about nowadays, but "dun" is the word I thought of the minute the question arose. I would think of "dun" as a fairly common a
You may be right about nowadays, but "dun" is the word I thought of the minute the question arose. I would think of "dun" as a fairly common a
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