Contracting out.

I’m reminded of my time in a drawing office. The job I was designing needed graphics doing. Tom said he could do it in his spare time at home. The manager took against this offer and employed a graphics agency to do it, a shame because Tom knew the project better than any agency artist. So we briefed the agency guy, he went away and he returned some weeks later with their efforts. They were great, we were pleased and the manager proudly pointed out, “See, if you want a good job you need to go to the professionals.” We agreed. We also noted that the style of the graphics was strangely similar to Toms’. Nothing was said but we all knew. Tom got paid a better rate for his time, the agency added a fair percentage so it cost three times as much and took a fair bit longer to deliver. You only have to consider the cost of contracting out you evening’s washing up. You ring Washingup-R-Us Inc. They send a washer upper round and you pay for time, travel, agency staff, phone calls, paperwork, petrol etc and it’ll cost around £40 for 15 minutes work. That’s £280 a week! So you shop around for a cheaper quote. One comes in at £199. This agency takes the same cut but doesn’t pay its cleaners travel time, sick or holiday pay and only pays them for 10 minutes per job. You’re over charged, the workers are over worked and the MD of WrU drives an Audi. And the washing up isn’t great either. But then it’s a lot easier than doing it yourself and it somehow feels sort of classy to have a professional come and do your washing up, and if you were the manager it’s not your money anyway. So there you have contracting out in a nutshell. As a manager it’s easier than organising it yourself, you have the kudos of dealing with all the nice manager types from the agency, you don’t have to care about the hoypoloy workers and you’ve someone to blame if it all goes tits-up. And it’s not you money anyway or your washing up. Cost saving’s got nothing to do with it.