[Alberta's Child]

Time zones are less of an issue than ever before. The world pretty much operates on a 24-hour day. If you call for back office support for some insurance companies in the morning hours here in the U.S., you’re likely to end up dealing with a Filipino who works the overnight shift in Manila to deal with customers from the Western Hemisphere.

I agree that the quality of the work is a problem, but the employer has to answer for that. In my STEM field, the quality often works the other way around. It’s shocking how many STEM graduates from U.S. schools I’ve come across who are borderline illiterate. If you’re a U.S. college graduate and you can’t even write coherent English, then you don’t even have the ONE SKILL that should set you apart from your foreign peers.

[McGavin999]

We really do need to take back our education institutions. That’s our weak link.

[Campion]

You're talking about a tech support helpdesk. Software development teams in India don't work the night shift; they work the same hours we do. That means that asking a question usually requires a 24 hour turnaround. Doing a conference call usually requires Americans to call in very early and Indians to stay very late.

And then there are the cultural and linguistic issues ...

[Manuel OKelley]

Most of our company’s development is done in India, they work their asses off and do quality work—they need constant guidance but there are no issues with their skills

[NobleFree]

So when you said "you can work with someone in India as easy as you can work with someone in the next zip code" you meant "if that Indian is back office support working the overnight shift." I suppose so - but that's a small and the least interesting part of the tech labor force.

If it were ONLY the employer that paid the price for poor-quality H-1B/offshore work, I'd stand back and laugh while the market exacted the penalty for shortsighted beancounting. The problem is that the American middle class will have been mauled before the lesson has been learned - and Latin America shows us what it means to not have a middle class. Ending work visas and discouraging offshoring will preserve America, with the icing of saving shortsighted beancounters from themselves.

[grey_whiskers]

In other words you're a lying troll.

So are you a dot or do you just import them?

I've regularly seen, from H1-Bs, grammar and spelling mistakes on emails -- to managers or to entire teams -- which would get a US employee fired on the spot.

But with H1-Bs, you're not even allowed to notice.