A Real Story but not Real

There was a family in Delhi, looking for a house to rent. They saw a 4 BHK house. For Rent for Rs.750 per month. But the family can afford only Rs.450. The owner lived in Hissar. Hissar is 175 km by bus and it takes 4 hours to reach there. One of the sons wanted to go to Hissar and talked to owner and agree him to a Rs.450 a month rent. 

He takes a bus, travels for 4 hours, arrives in Hissar. He enquired with lot of people and arrives at the owner’ s residence. He was the General Manager of a large local company, He was lying on a bed and 2 guys were giving him body massage. 

This guy told him the reason for his travel. The owner said NO. By that time, it was getting dark. The owner said since it is getting dark there is no bus to Delhi. You stay with me for the night and go to Delhi the next morning. 

They had dinner together. 

After dinner, a most beautiful girl, who can be a movie actress, brought two plates of mango and served the owner and this guy. They ate the mango. She was the owner’s daughter. The owner wanted to go to the local social club and play cards. He took this guy to the club. He just watched while the owner played card. On the way home at 12 midnight, the owner told him he will rent the home for Rs.450 even though his asking price is Rs,750. 

Next morning, the owner told his driver to take his car and drop him in Delhi. 

Here is something not real. Usually in this type of story, the guy and the beautiful girl will fall in love and get married. But he never saw her again,

Remote Labor Outsourcing

Restaurants in USA pay the front end cashier who collects money from customers are paid $16 an hour. Now, these restaurants have come out with a novel idea. Outsource the cashier job. Now most of them employ Filipinos from Philippines for $3.15 per hour. Here is how it works: 

The restaurant (say, in New York) has a normal front counter with a camera, microphone, speaker, and a payment terminal (card reader, cash drawer, etc.). A customer walks up to order as usual. 

In Philippines, the “cashier” is actually sitting in a call center or at home overseas, connected via high-speed internet. Through a live video feed, the remote cashier greets the customer, takes their order, and enters it into the restaurant’s Point of Sale (POS) system remotely. The local restaurant staff just prepare the food and hand it over to the customer.

This works out in sit-down restaurants also. I am not explaining how it works here since this post will become too long. 

For card payments, the remote cashier can process transactions through the POS system. For cash payments, a local employee may handle the physical cash, but the remote cashier records the sale. 

Why it happens? 

Labor costs: U.S. restaurants face high labor costs (minimum wage in NYC is ~$16/hour). Hiring a remote cashier for $3–$4/hour through a staffing firm in the Philippines drastically reduces expenses. 

Labor shortages: Some restaurants struggle to find reliable local workers for cashier or front desk roles. 

Technology: Modern POS and video systems make this feasible with low latency and decent customer experience. 

In the U.S., this is technically legal, because the overseas worker is not employed under U.S. labor law. The restaurant contracts with a third-party outsourcing company abroad. 

Ethical concerns: Critics argue it’s exploitative — the pay ($3.15/hour) is very low by U.S. standards, though it can be a decent wage in the Philippines. 

Customer transparency: Most customers have no idea they’re speaking to someone thousands of miles away 

$3.15 per hour comes to a monthly salary of (in Indian rupees) Rs.48,000. Indians are world famous for under quoting in a competitive market. If they agree for $2.50 per hour, then their monthly salary comes to Rs38,133.