IT loves them some H1B workers.
There is an Indian H1B guy working with me on an IT implementation project. I am lead but he is close to equal to me on our aspect of the project.
We both are contractors and the manager is also Indian. This is where it gets interesting and to me funny.
I bill every hour I work. If they schedule an after hours conference call — *ding!* minimum of 1 hour. I work a straight 9 (unpaid lunch) and am out the door on the dot. Whenever hey ask for more from me I tell them how many hours it will take and what kind of resources I will need (functional experts, infrastructure and DBA time, etc.).
I started noticing a while back they are asking this guy to do all kinds of stuff. He has been working late evenings, weekends. No skin off my nose. I asked him “man, you must be racking up the billable hours!!”
“No,” he said. They told me there is no budget for extra hours. I bill 40 a week. They promised me to let me take comp time to make up for it.”
We are getting near the end of the project so no way is there time enough for him to take the time (and I think it is illegal as this is a public sector engagement).
My point is I am pretty sure he is H1B subcontractor and is afraid to say “no.” So they keep asking him to do things they KNOW I would bill them for.
Frankly it cracks me up but it also means that he is not only taking a developer spot from a qualified US Citizen but all the unpaid OT probably would require at least 1/2 FTE in additional to that.
He is also typically Indian as he does not innovate but just does the same thing using the same techniques over and over and then adjusts them a little for the situation.
Yes this captures all the corruption and incompetence wrapped up in the h1b, the companies that use it basically get underpaid slaves who they can work to bone for unpaid OT since, if he objects to the treatment, he’s sent on a plane back home the next week. That’s another way the h1b and the other cheap labor visas work, make sure the slave can’t leave the plantation and boom, they’re stuck and the company gets to lay off or not hire actual self respecting Americans to boot. And as you say the Indian workers can’t innovate out of a plastic-bag but then again, if they had any real sense or dignity, they wouldn’t allow themselves to be hired on as slave labor in the first place.