In this project, I am supervising 3 team members in our India office.  This week, I am really disappointed by their lack of productivity.  I have assigned them some tasks for the week and they are very behind in completing the tasks.  It would take me two days to finish those tasks my self and I already take the difference in experience into account and gave them a week of time.  It turns out their deliverable is still late, it looks like that will take them another half a week to get to done.  It seems I have over estimated their productivity.  I am quite unhappy about their work.  How can I finish the project on time with these three not performing grunts?

On a second thought, maybe I should be happy about their lack of productivity.  The company should know the gold rule: what you pay is what you get.  The Indians get a 1/4 of my salary, it is quite obvious that they are as good as me.  If they cost much less and still work almost as good as me, then I should start worrying about my job.  Finish the project on time and drastically cut the cost by outsourcing is a mission impossible to begin with.  The deadline is expected to slip.  As long as it is not my fault and there is nothing I could do, I cannot be blamed for the failure.  Failure is the mother of success, as long as we learn the lesson.  I think the lesson I learn from this outsourcing experience is that I should never over estimate the productivity of the Indian contractors, especially the junior guys.