Outsourcing

Outsourcing

               

In the New York Times Sunday Magazine’s “The Ethicist” section, the article “Doing the Outsourcing” written by Randy Cohen, a man writes in explaining that he’s been out of work for 9 months but was just offered a job in setting up an offshore help desk. However, he feels it is unethical to help a company outsource after his own father’s job was outsourced. Cohen answers by telling the man that it is not unethical for an ambitious person searching for work to take a job that outsources, as long as the foreign workers are being treated fairly. He says he understands loyalty to co-workers and family, so Cohen doesn’t urge the man to take the job, but rather tells him it would not be unethical, but says do what you want to do. The man doesn’t take the job.

                I both agree and disagree with Cohen on this matter. On the one hand, I can see how a person would take any job these days just to feed his family. On the other hand, I don’t think it’s necessary to take away another man’s job that is in the same position as yourself. Cohen describes this feeling as “tribalism”, warning the man to avoid it because of it’s attendant ills. I would argue that tribalism is already inherent whether the man likes it or not. If the man took the job, he would be scolded by his family and possibly by friends. He can’t explain to them why it’s still ethical, because they are blinded by their feelings of being betrayed. In the end, I feel that it is a good thing that the man didn’t take the job. Something better and more comfortable will come along.