居住在巴基斯坦的阿米尔是一名才华横溢的开发人员，也是一个很可爱的男人，而且他对我的这家新公司的成功极为重要。受巴基斯坦式的英文教育的熏陶，他喜欢把所有年长的人都尊称为先生或女士——不管对方与这一称号是否相称。更重要的是，他是一名极为优秀的程序员。

说到全球化，许多人脑海中都会浮现出如下画面：要么是一些大企业在墨西哥或印度开设的外包工厂，要么就是无数波兰工人涌入英国的情景。但是全球化也建立了一个生机勃勃的全球自由职业经济。全球各地的自由职业者们可以在Upwork.com和Powertofly.com这样的网站上介绍自己，从事一些特定的工作，有的还可以与国外的企业签订较长期的合同。据麦肯锡公司预测，到2025年，像这样的在线人才平台可能将为全球增加7200万个全职工作机会。

这种变革会带来一些明显的好处，首先是成本。美国对高技术人才有着很高的需求。以我的这家小公司为例，在美国当地，要想以这样低廉的价格聘用如此才华横溢的技术人员，几乎是不可能的事。人才的缺乏几乎威胁到了我的公司的生存。

幸运的是，如果我们将目光投向美国以外，人才成本就会有所下降。我们只需花上三分之一的价格，就能聘用以阿米尔为代表的自由开发者、设计师和其他专业技术人员。如今，我们的员工队伍分布在巴基斯坦、印度、菲律宾、克罗地亚——当然，还有美国的新泽西。

虽然大家相隔万里之遥，但人情味儿依然很浓，这一点在任何时候都能体现。我们有几名开发者住在印度第四大城市金奈。去年，这座城市遭遇了堪比卡特里娜飓风的水灾。我们不仅在情感上感同身受，还在物质上为数千户印度灾民送去了救助。这些身处异地的员工并非仅仅是我们的“承包商”，更是我们的同事。他们对我们来说，与身在纽约的其他同事并无区别。

当然，技术外包也是存在一定挑战的。想在万里之外找到合适并且可靠的人才并不容易。虽然有些外包中介平台也开通了类似优步的评价系统，可以让你看到之前的客户对一名人才是否满意，但这个系统很容易被滥用。有一次我对一名设计师给出了3星的评价，结果那名设计师私信我说，她想保持5星的平均分，所以如果我不把评分改成5星，她就要给我一个1星的雇主评分。我认为这是一种威胁，毕竟如果我的“声誉”受到了影响，我也会不好受。

另外，不管现在的视频会议工具有多么发达，但是和所有开发者坐在一块白板前热火朝天地讨论相比，似乎总是少了那么一点创业的氛围。

我把外包中遇到的这些事儿讲给了我的一个朋友，他表示，他明白外包对其他国家是有好处的，但他觉得外包对美国恐怕并非福音。毕竟今年五月，美国全国的新增工作岗位只有38,000个，是2010年9月以来最低的一个月。

我明白他为何有此担忧，何况他的担忧也不无道理。目前，我聘用的国际员工已经和美国本土员工一样多了，这也是川普最大的噩梦（川普的另一个噩梦，便是被人发现，他根本没有自己声称的那么有钱。）

然而如果没有外包体系，恐怕我的公司压根不会存在，我也压根没法雇佣现在的这三四个美国人为我工作。

也许外包无意间也给美国带来了好处：在长期看来，在几万甚至几十万巴基斯坦和俄罗斯等国的人才为美国工作的同时，他们也将把美国看成他们生活中的一股“正能量”——甚至是世界上的一股“正能量”。当年，肯尼迪总统之所以发起了“和平护卫队”（Peace Corps）计划，就是因为他觉得派遣善意的美国志愿者到第三世界国家工作，将有助于这些国家对抗共产主义势力的扩张。而如今，全球“零工经济”的崛起，将有助于提高发展中国家相关人才的工资水平，因此或许有助于间接地消弥反西方情绪的泛滥。

而一旦我们的公司做大做强，做出了名堂——而且最重要的是盈利了，那么我们必然会扩大在美国本土的雇佣规模。因为当一家公司进入高速增长阶段，如果能够拥有一支具有较强凝聚力的团队，每天在饮水机旁边分享创意，效果还是要好得多的。

但与此同时，我还是要衷心感谢自己能有机会与我们的这位杰出的技术负责人共事。在这里我应该由衷地叫他一声：阿米尔先生。 （财富中文网）

译者：朴成奎

Aamir, who lives in Pakistan, is a talented developer and a lovely man integral to the success of my new company. It was his English-influenced Pakistani education that taught him to refer to his seniors — no matter how unworthy — as Sir and Madam, and, more importantly, to be a damn good coder.

Most discussions of globalization evoke images of large corporations setting up factories in Mexico or India, or Polish workers flooding into England, but globalization has also created a vibrant global freelance economy. Websites like Upwork.com and Powertofly.com enable freelancers to pitch themselves and get hired for particular tasks or longer assignments. McKinsey estimatesthat online talent platforms could increase global employment by 72 million full-time equivalent positions by 2025.

This shift comes with some obvious advantages, starting with cost. Employees with solid technology skills are in such high demand in the U.S. that for my latest venture, it was difficult nearly impossible to find someone who was talented and affordable. The scarcity literally threatened the existence of my firm.

Fortunately, once we looked outside the U.S., the prices dropped. We were able to hire Aamir and other freelancer developers and designers at a third to half the cost, along with remote specialists whom we could deploy for short bursts at lower prices. Our extended staff now includes people living in Pakistan, India, the Philippines, Croatia and — yes — New Jersey.

The human connection is present despite the distance, and it reveals itself in both good times and bad. Our Indian developers work in Chennai, India. When the city experienced amassive Katrina-level flood, we were emotionally and concretely invested in the plight of thousands of Indians and their families. Remote employees are not just “contractors” — they are our co-workers, just as much as if they’d been living in New York.

Of course, there are challenges. Finding talented and reliable people from 5,000 miles away can be tricky. While the intermediary freelancer marketplace has developed an Uber-like rating systems that ostensibly lets you see whether previous clients were satisfied, the system is subject to abuse. After one designer bailed on an assignment, I gave her a 3. She wrote back, saying that she was trying to maintain her 5 average and that if I didn’t give her a 5, she’d give me a 1 star employer rating. Wink wink. I took that as a threat: it would be a pity if anything were to happen to my ‘reputation.’

And no matter how good the video conferencing tools, you still lose quite a bit by not having your developers — and the rest of your staff — sitting around the same whiteboard.

When I described all this to a friend he said that while he could see how this was good for other countries’ economies, he thought this sounded pretty bad for was confused about how it benefited America. After all, the U.S.created just 38,000 jobs in May, the lowest figure since September 2010.

I understand where he’s coming from. It’s true — I’m currently paying as many people overseas as I am in the U.S., one of Donald Trump’s worst nightmare (along with people discovering he’s not nearly as wealthy as he claims).

On the other hand, without this system, I doubt my new company would even exist – nor would the three or four jobs I’ve filled by hiring Americans.

Perhaps there’s an unintended benefit for this country: In the long run, it’s good for this country when tens or hundreds of thousands of men and women living in places like Pakistan and Russia work for American firms, and therefore see the U.S. as a positive force in their lives — and maybe the world. President Kennedy launched the Peace Corps because he thought well-meaning Americans would help fight communism in Third World countries. Perhaps the global gig economy – which tends to raise the wages of those in developing countries – could indirectly undercut the spread of anti-Western feeling.

Once we’re profitable, big and famous, we do intend to build out our staff here in the U.S. When a company enters a high-growth phase, it’s still much better to have a cohesive team in the same physical space so they can exchange ideas around the water cooler.

In the meantime, I’m grateful I get to work with people like our tech lead, who I really should be calling by his proper name: Sir Aamir.