[jwdunne]

I didn't envision it working like that. I probably wouldn't keep my personal outsourcing a secret. If my employer was dead set against it, I wouldn't do it.

Since I work for a small company and have a good working relationship with the owner of the company, I will either receive an approval or a refusal, with a good explanation.

The way I see it is that if I can increase my productivity in a big way by doing that, I can't see a problem with it. That's especially since I have the ability/authority to hire a contractor on company funds if I need one.

Some say it's very shady but this could work well if you're completely honest and if you have good delegation skills (after all, anyone can delegate but effective delegation can be much harder to do).

It depends on your employer I guess.

[jiggy2011]

Well, if you are a programmer in a way you could see your entire job as "structuring tasks so that they can be outsourced to a computer".

Ultimately I guess it boils down to what other work there would be for you to do and how your employer would view your suitability for this work. The trick is to not outsource yourself out of a job.