2st of November 2009

Most of the ICT companies rely on workers hired by agencies that, according to the professional gossip, are causing too many redundancies and quite an unsustainable raise of industrial costs per unit. The practice was born in the UK, were the salaries and the skills are quite high, later imported, in the late 1970s, to Italy, where the chaotic way of life contributed to generate a web of fake consulting company who sell and resell the so called consultants. I've heard of someone employed by A, resold to B, who resold him to C, to work with D. Who subcontracted a project from a main company. Hardly imagine how much could have been the final cost of such an employee, perhaps much more than a manager. He nevertheless couldn't afford to sustain a family, since he already had to support the useless life of a score of intermediaries.

The high cost of such a system and the comparatively high skills available in former Commonwealth countries, where London did really fulfill the fate of Rome, spreading the Civilization into the most remote lands, spurred the adoption of off-shore consulting. A term usually adopted to describe the really high paid technicians on oil rigs in the North Sea, now paradoxically applied to 300 US$ Indian and Nigerian software engineers. Nevertheless it's rare that skilled professional moves in a restricted area and it's not so awkward that a New Delhi DBA could earn as much, if not more, than his French brother. Yet, the idea to obtain even a small gain is luring most of the ICT company to look for new perspectives in such remote lands redeemed by the influence of colonialism.

Certainly knowledge and effective skills are the minerals such entrepreneurs are looking for. The very same resources that the red regime of the Italian Democratic Republic denies and contribute, day by day, to annihilate. How could a software engineer become a respectable professional if he's

supervised by someone who can hardly read and write, appoint him to duties that even a illiterate could fulfill, and, if attempts to maintain his competence studying during the free time, has got to do it undercover? That's the effect of holocracies and the world I was escaping from. Indeed, thanks to the bad reputation acquired by many fellows.

On the contrary, much more advanced countries, with some aristocratic heritage, could provide both high certified employees, well motivated since adequately paid, for an industrial cost that could guarantee a cut of costs up to 40%. Without mentioning an appreciable increment of the quality. Most of the times virtual companies, set in a skyscraper of Chennai or New Delhi. Just a small office for the CEO or, better to say, the owner of the idea. Contributors are statistically distributed all around the country. Some of them actually working for home. The employers have never seen their face, and their work is judged by achievements. No personal relationship is involved, just the skills. I should be reachable by a valid e-mail address. No real proofs of my own identity are required, if I want to start from basics tasks.