Posted on 04/26/2020 7:11:07 PM PDT by jroehl
Goodbye American Information Technology Worker
After serving four years in the Army I took advantage of my VA benefits enrolling at DeVry University of Chicago to obtain a degree in Computer Science. I started my career in Information Technology (IT) in 1986. I saw this as a field that would pay the salary needed to support my young family. I was correct in that I was able to find employment immediately after graduation with a company in Chicago and I have been fortunate to work in this field for the past 31 years providing for my family.
Today I find myself in the position of praying that I can last 7 more years until I reach retirement age. After 31 years in a highly skilled field a person should not feel threatened by the loss of their career. Yet this is where I find myself, clinging to my current position, accepting cuts in benefits and no salary increases by my current employer, thankful that I still have a job.
Why would I be thankful for a job that pays less in salary than I earned in 2002 and for an employer that, on a monthly basis, lays off American employees to bring in foreign workers at a fraction of the cost?
Because I am one of the few left. Luck has placed me in a position that, through contractual requirement and regulation, does not allow an H1B worker to do my job. American IT workers are being replaced by H1B visa foreigners. These American jobs are not being sent to another country. They are being lost as a result of American corporations bringing foreign workers into the United States to replace American IT workers. This is being done so that corporations, American corporations, can squeeze out a few more drops of profit with the American IT worker as collateral damage.
There is no shortage of skilled American IT workers. I know more out of work computer programmers and systems analysts than employed ones. American corporations have found loopholes in the H1B visa program that allows them to put Americans out of work and bring in cheap foreign workers even though there is no skill shortage. You do not work in the same field for 20 to 30 years and suddenly become unskilled and unproductive. If the American IT worker no longer has the skills required to do his or her job, why is it necessary for them to train the foreign worker taking their place? Shouldn’t the foreign worker already have the skills needed if not more? Isn’t that why you find it necessary to bring them into OUR country and replace us?
American families are experiencing financial and emotional stress, tearing some apart, so that American corporations can make a few more bucks. How do you, as an American citizen, sit in a conference room and decide that those few dollars in profit justify putting your fellow Americans out of work? How can you place so little value on the people that have given their very best effort to you? The people that, through their efforts, made your corporation better and more profitable? Unlike Mitt Romney, I do not believe that corporations are people, but there are American people working at high levels within these corporations that are making these decisions. How do you justify it? How the hell do you sleep at night? How do you look at your spouse and children with any pride at all after what you have done? Knowing that you have unnecessarily caused hardship to your fellow Americans. Is increasing your bonus, through hurting others, worth it?
Every corporation in our great country has the right to make a profit. Capitalism has fueled our growth as a nation. But to bring foreign workers into our country to replace Americans who are only guilty of making a good enough salary to support their families is morally reprehensible.
I hope that the loopholes in the H1B program will be closed and that this practice is stopped. Our President has mentioned taking action to do this in some of his speeches and there are at least two bills being proposed in Washington addressing this issue.
Perhaps I am naïve to think that it will happen but for all of my fellow Americans suffering as a result of this Un-American program I pray that it will. And I personally pray that I will make it 7 more years.
Signed, An American IT worker still hanging in there…
If every H1B visa was canceled tomorrow and all of these foreign workers were sent home, I honestly wonder if most companies that employ them would simply hire them back in their home countries. In an age of modern information technology and communications, you can work with someone in India as easy as you can work with someone in the next zip code.
The Democrat party seems to think so.
“After 31 years in a highly skilled field a person should not feel threatened by the loss of their career.”
It has happened to plenty of people in other industries. It was happening to me but I did make it out in time just as you hope.
This time it’s happening due to technology so it’s kind of a two-edged sword, no?
We have NO reason to import foreign IT workers, now that we can all work from home, right?
The importation of cheap labor is a completely bipartisan undertaking.
I bet if you raised concerned about these foreign workers, you would be fired with a lable of racist stuck on you record. We have allowed Cultural Marxism to be used as justification for anything that give advantage to unethical policymakers.
Defense contractors can only hire US citizens.
That part of IT is still US-only.
Eve if that were the result for some, better than them here.
My youngest son graduated with dual majors in both Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. An easy decision for him as there is some overlap in the curriculum.
Graduated from a well-known school with a very good GPA.
He has applied for many jobs all across the country and has had exactly ZERO interviews nevermind job offers.
Link isn’t working for me.
My husband lasted 28 years in IT before he had too much grey hair, the wrong nationality and a salary that made him a target. He and I both taught at pitiful salaries in a parochial school for a few more years to get our sons through college. Job security, pensions . . . quaint notions . . . unless you’re a government employee.
That’s the problem right there.
That thought came to my mind also.
I don’t want to be dismissive, but technology jobs aren’t as
secure as the jobs our parents and grandparents had.
In their generation there was far less upheaval due to
things changing. In today’s society, things always seem
fluid, changing, being born and dying in a short period of
time.
Corporations answer to their shareholders too. Not
everything they do is sinister. They have to be on the
top of their game. If not, the leadership is booted.
The one true thing here above all else, is that this guy
admits he’s lucky to still have a job in the field.
It’s a sad reality. The times they are a changing.
I don’t know how you get around that.
bttt
This is true. My son-in-law, an IT genius, works remotely with his counterparts in Israel, England, and Germany.
Home office is in Berlin.
Our son has a science degree from an excellent state university. He applied online for many many jobs, and never heard back. When he tried to contact people, they directed him to the online application process. He did this for months before finally allowing a family member to put in a good word for him at her place of employment. Result - full time job with benefits. He didn't want to use connections because he thought it was unfair. It's tough getting started, especially if you're not in a 'disadvantaged group'.
Not so - time zone differences, and the inability to ever drop in on an employee, matter.
What matters even more is the inferior quality of offshore work - which has moved a number of companies to 're=shore' in recent years.
I worked for a power company before I retired. I sounded the alarm about allowing foreigners holding no allegiance to our nation having unfettered access to the grid and I was ridiculed for my efforts.
There is no legitimate reason for h1b’s. They exist out of greed, not necessity. If they were prohibited American business would adapt - just like they did before they came along.
Let’s look at the bright side. Now all these foreign workers can come here and pay taxes to support the rest of us while we shelter in place for the next 25 years until COVID-19, COVID-20, COVID-21, etc. are defeated. :-P
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