John was a
colleague in the US. He was a good graphic designer. We worked together a lot
and shared a lot of laughter over Zoom and beer when he came down to India to meet
the Indian marketing team.
Then one day John got laid off and they moved his
job to India. John cursed outsourcing and voted for Trump. Things went downhill
after that. John wallowed in self-pity. He was too bitter to attend interviews
paranoid that the next job would be outsourced too. There were plenty of jobs but
John was not interested.
John: I
hate this Silverine, I just effing hate outsourcing!!
Me: I
understand your angst John. It must be terrible being laid off like that!
John: There
has to be a law against this!
Me: Well,
companies gotta do what companies gotta do to make profits. They are still employing
a lot of people in the US, in fact 50%.
John:
&%^%#$@$ US companies must hire from US only, period!
Me: But
John, that is like telling me to hire from Bangalore only. I would be depriving
myself of good talent when there are good people in other parts of India.
John: I don’t
care for this bullshit!
Me: Sigh
He decided
he will work in such a way that his job won’t be outsourced. Which meant he had
to be his own boss. So he started his own gig. From one gig to a few more and he was finally able to pay rent
and hire more people as his clientele grew. He worked from home and his staff
of freelancers also worked from their homes. Business grew and his freelancers
became his employees and one day John decided to pitch his services to me and his
old company. I was more than happy to consider his services since he was a
brilliant designer and had assisted me in many marketing campaigns.
John sent
me a meeting invite for the pitch. The meeting started at 9 pm IST since John is in the west coast.
John: Hello
Silverine, how are you!!
Me: Hello
John. How are you!!!
John: I am
fine. Since we talked last, we are now grown to a team of 10 designers!
Me:
Wowwwww! Good for you John.
John: And our capabilities have grown too.
Me: Wonderful!
John: Let
me introduce you to my team. On the call are: Sivaraman Sarvapalli from
Hyderabad, Karthick Krishna from Salem, George Thottumkal from Kochi, Harvinder
Singh from Chandigarh, Basavaraju from Bangalore, Swapan from Bhubaneshwar,
Abdul from Calicut, Robin from Goa,
Joydeep from Kolkata and Sangma from Guwahati. They work from home but are part
of my team.
Me: !!!!!
