Is America ready for NBC's Outsourced?

Computerworld - NBC's fall season television lineup includes a new show called Outsourced, with a plot line aimed at the heart of workplace angst, the offshoring of jobs.

Outsourced sets its stage quickly. The main character, Todd, who is played by actor Ben Rappaport, has taken a job as a call center manager at Mid American Novelties but arrives, on his first day, to an empty office.

The only other person in the room, his boss, spells it out: The call center jobs have been offshored to India. Todd is told that working overseas is his only choice. "If you don't, I mean, we are already the right size, there are no more positions here," the boss tells Todd.

"Wait, you are saying go to India or I'm out of a job?" Todd asks.

In a flash, Todd is in India to manage his team and is plunged into a world of cultural and communication miscues, and it expands from there.

NBC's Outsourced premiers Sept. 23.

Tech offshore workers, whom he meets briefly in a cafeteria, dress in suits and ties, and come across as the elite in this universe. An expat who seems to refuse to embrace all things Indian warns Todd about the food. The first hints of a potential love interest emerge.

This isn't a Dateline special about outsourcing -- it's a comedy. Its workplace plot line may be familiar, particularly if you've seen the 2006 movie Outsourced, but it is nonetheless a show about outsourcing, and questions will abound.

Will it help humanize Indian workers for U.S. audiences, or reinforce stereotypes? Does the arrival of the show mean that Americans have accepted offshore outsourcing as routine? And how realistic will it be?

The answers will begin to arrive with the season premier on Sept. 23.

But among those who will be able to watch the show with a critical eye as a manager in India is Jeanne Heydecker, a marketing executive who moved to India 2007 and today lives near Delhi.

"One of the first things I noticed, coming in as a manager, was how intimidated everyone was -- no one would talk to me," Heydecker said via e-mail.

"No one understood individual accountability or the importance of sharing ideas with the boss. When I first had meetings, it was just me talking for an hour," Heydecker said. "I ended up bringing in a ball and throwing it to individual staff and forcing them to give me ideas, feedback. Brainstorming was a nightmare."