Can Outsourcing Make You Lazy?

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Outsourcing is a great way to save resources, but can it de-motivate you to the point where you don’t want to do much of anything yourself? If so, is that necessarily a bad thing? These are a couple of questions asked on a popular forum, and the answers are rather interesting.

Laziness Defined

Let’s look into this by first, making sure we’re talking about the same thing. After all, laziness to you and me could be different from what it is to others. The question’s author defined laziness as preferring to pay someone else to perform a task, and then tweaking the results afterwards. The dictionary defines laziness as an inactivity resulting from a dislike of work. Are we on the same page?

Could be…

Outsourcing unlikable work isn’t uncommon or bad. It’s what happens after work is outsourced that validates the second definition. To understand, take a look at some key quotes from others defining the same:

Responses

• “Outsourcing to me is like a wrench to a plumber – just a tool of the trade. It’s not your business just one of the ways you get the job done.”
• “One big reason for outsourcing is to use the time for something else. If you decide to not use that time for business activities – that’s a choice.”
• “Don’t think of it as being lazy; think of it as an opportunity to save yourself time and frustration.”
• “You should realize that you are the same as your employees and to be able to lead them, you should know and understand what they are doing. This will make your work more hands-on and your employees will also respect you more.”

Outsourcing is an Efficiency Tool

I agree with all the statements above. Outsourcing is an efficiency tool designed to free up resources for other projects. If you find yourself twiddling your thumbs, staring at the ceiling, or watching your toenails grow while outsourcing, you’re not taking full advantage of what it provides.

Use outsourcing as a means to get from one point to another. During its travel, continue to work on other projects. (You can even outsource those if you want!) Outsourcing should never be approached as an end-point. As it opens one door of opportunity, other doors open simultaneously. Go through them all if you want to reach your full potential.