There have been many strange stories relating to off-shore outsourcing, often spreading fear into the minds of those looking at this cost saving measure. In spite of numerous surveys that suggest outsourcing overseas actually creates jobs in the US, it is still a dirty word for many developers.

But now, one programmer is claiming to have turned the concept to his advantage. “About a year ago I hired a developer in India to do my job,” says an anonymous poster on Slashdot.org, an Internet discussion board. “I pay him $12,000 out of the $67,000 I get. He’s happy to have the work. I’m happy that I have to work only 90 minutes a day just supervising the code. My employer thinks I’m telecommuting. Now I’m considering getting a second job and doing the same thing.”

It’s difficult to assess the veracity of the claim – it may well be just an urban myth, but this hasn’t stopped The Times of India, the country’s “premier English-language daily”, from interpreting the posting as an indication of a mass trend of American software developers outsourcing their own jobs.

In an article, the newspaper declared the practice to be “the new mantra doing the rounds in the US IT sector” and treats it as nothing more than an extension of the usual outsourcing model of concentrating on core abilities while sending the rest to dedicated specialists.

If the paper is right, and there are a multitude of like-minded wags sitting back and letting others do their work, then perhaps, it is for the best. The programmers can continue to send the work to more committed workers elsewhere, while they retrain as IT managers.