outsourcing

Definition

The business practice of hiring someone else to do your work, usually overseas and for less money, then acting surprised when quality and communication suffer. It's how companies cut costs while executives explain that layoffs are necessary for competitiveness, right before their bonuses arrive. Originally sold as focusing on "core competencies," it often results in nobody being competent at anything.

Example Usage

After outsourcing customer service to save money, the company spent triple that amount fixing the PR disaster from customers who couldn't understand their support team.

Source: Common business terminology

Related Terms

Intermediate

blackball

The act of voting against someone's admission to a group or organization, historically done by dropping a black ball into a ballot box. It's the original cancel culture, giving members the power to veto new applicants with total anonymity. Today it's evolved to mean excluding or boycotting someone, usually for reasons ranging from legitimate to pettily vindictive.

💼 Corporate / Business

Beginner

evaluate

To assess the value, quality, or worth of something while pretending to be completely objective. In corporate settings, this usually means nitpicking other people's work in meetings. In tech, it means running an expression through a computer to get an actual answer instead of just arguing about it.

💼 Corporate / Business

Intermediate

linkage

A fancy corporate term for 'connection' that makes simple relationships sound more impressive in strategy presentations and consultant reports. It refers to how different things—processes, systems, incentives, or metrics—are mechanically or conceptually connected to produce outcomes, usually in ways that require extensive PowerPoint diagrams to explain. In executive meetings, establishing linkage between your project and revenue somehow makes budget requests more persuasive.

💼 Corporate / Business

Beginner

circling back

The act of returning to a previous topic or decision, usually after everyone hoped it was dead and buried. Corporate speak for 'remember that thing we already discussed to death?'

💼 Corporate / Business

Beginner

offshoring

Relocating business operations or manufacturing to another country to reduce costs, typically labor expenses. A euphemism for 'we found people who'll do your job for less money in a different time zone.'

💼 Corporate / Business

Beginner

top-down

Decisions imposed from executives downward without input from people who actually do the work, ensuring maximum misunderstanding and resentment.

💼 Corporate / Business

Translate This Term

See “outsourcing” in Corporate Speak, Gen-Z Slang, Pirate Speak, and more.

Try the Translator

Share This Term

Post on X Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn

Discover a Term

Beginner

jklol

Just Kidding Laughing Out Loud...