Big corporations have seen the financial benefits of outsourcing, but according to this article in Esquire, individuals can enjoy the less stressful life that shipping tasks overseas provides. The writer of the article hired a firm from India to handle administrative tasks at first, but the relationship took on a new meaning when the tasks shifted to the "personal assistant" type.

Before long, the writer was having the company representive handle all personal interaction. It's fascinating.

I find myself testing them, asking them to perform increasingly bizarre tasks, inching toward abuse of power. Read "The New York Times" for me. email me a bunch of questions from "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." Send me a collection of Michael Jackson jokes (e.g., "Why was Michael Jackson spotted at Kmart? He heard boys' pants were half off"). I keep pushing, but I haven't yet found their limits. The closest I got to a no was when I made the admittedly odd request that Asha play the card game hearts for me, since I was wasting too much time playing it myself on my PalmPilot. Asha replied that she thought this was a "good idea" but that maybe she would do it after finishing the other projects.

From there the author, A.J. Jacbos, attempts to outsource therapy sessions. Later growing tired of finishing the article, the author outsourced the piece's closing sentiments to the firm.

This post was brought to you by Consumerism Commentary. More comments (1) may be found here.mortgage calculator