IT staff terminated as outsourcing grows. They reach "end of job"

the inquirer ^ | Tuesday 21 January 2003, 11:54 | By €uromole:

[ex-snook]

Election time is coming. Do you know where America's jobs are going?

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[gnarledmaw]

"...as the business benefits have become more apparent..."

Which benefit is that, the bad code that causes the programs to regularly fail or programs that function flawlessly but dont do what they were supposed to?

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

Outsourcing is one of those words like diversity, empowerment, sensitivty, multi-culturalism that hide brutal truths, completely opposite of their sound.

[per loin]

At least now the new employees at Burger King should be able to count out the change correctly.

[Willie Green]

Maybe Congress should change the calendar to the decimal system
Something like 100 seconds/minute...
100 minutes/hour
10 hours/day
10 days/week
10 months/year...

It oughta produce a bigger IT "boom" than the Y2K fiasco.

[duckman]

OUTSOURCING=DATA PROCESSING=NAFTA.
Sorry to see the data processing profession go the way of NAFTA. As a former IT contractor, now retired, I have seen my hourly rate go from $50.00 an hour to $10.00 to the East Indians. Better off working at Home Depot for $18.00 an hour.

[Gorzaloon]

Maybe Congress should change the calendar to the decimal system Something like 100 seconds/minute... 100 minutes/hour 10 hours/day 10 days/week 10 months/year... It oughta produce a bigger IT "boom" than the Y2K fiasco.

Good point. We discovered that our town still had people on the payroll for the Y2K issue LAST YEAR!

Somebody's unemployable nephews, no doubt.

[AZLiberty]

People used to complain about the trade deficit (more goods coming in than goods going out). What was really happening was that people in other countries were trading their valuable goods -- cars, electronics, etc. -- for green pieces of paper (or the electronic version thereof). Sounded like a good deal for me.

Now people complain about the work deficit (more jobs going out than coming in). What is really happening is that people in other companies are doing our work for us, at much lower cost, giving us the opportunity to take it easy. Having someone else do your work for you is a good thing.

Spreading wealth around the world is also a good thing. Wealth is not a finite resource that has to be divided among the people of the world. The more educated, productive, producing people there are, the more wealth gets generated and the better off we all are.

People with new-found leisure time need to use some of it to figure out how they can create value for others. Education is now, roughly speaking, free. In an hour, with a cable modem, you can download enough material from the Internet to qualify for a masters degree. Of course it takes a little longer than that to digest it and put it to use, but the opportunity is there.

Take it!

[GaConfed]

If all these companies are sending these jobs overseas and putting Americans out of work, and at the same time, paying their new overseas employees wages that renders them unable to buy the products and services that these companies offer, how are they going to make enough sales to make a profit?..................Just asking.

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

Having someone else do your work for you is a good thing.

Not if you're left without a job. And don't talk about more education. The guys I know out of work hear one thing if they hear anything at all.

Overqualified.

[GaConfed]

Yea, and "overqualified" is just a code word for "I don't see you as an asset for our company, but as someone who migh take my job, or make me work harder to keep my job."

[txhurl]

or have nifty foreign-supplied back-doors such as FAA-outsourced code?

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

Yes, quite often.

These guys are all penguins on an Ice cake, pushing to stay in the center as the ice melts away, dropping more and more of them into the drink to be eaten by sharks.

I feel bad for them.

[AZLiberty]

"Having someone else do your work for you is a good thing. "

Not if you're left without a job. And don't talk about more education. The guys I know out of work hear one thing if they hear anything at all.

Overqualified.

Then it's time to find another line of work. Sometimes "more" education isn't the answer. Think "different", not more.

Change happens. It's not always good for every individual, but it doesn't do any good to deny it. This is the way progress happens through capitalism. Get used to it, or get used to being poor. Or elect Democrats to see if they can make "us" all wealthy by stealing from "them" and giving it to "us". At which point we'll all have to get used to being poor, except for the few in power.

[dljordan]

Our company has computer operations all over the world and I can tell you this. People from other cultures think differently than we do. They frequently take a rather relaxed attitude about problems than Americans. In other words they don't get the job done without the direct intervention of American workers. Management will frequently wax warm and fuzzy about Global this and Global that but don't have to really work with the end result. They believe that people are interchangable everywhere but it just ain't so.

[dtel]

BTTT for later.

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

Whether or not one has sympathy for the fifty year old professional or techie who is now out of a career,(I didn't say job) the
fact is that their dramatic loss of income is not going to help an economy based on nothing more than shopping at the mall.

Almost half of the unemployed, and a larger share of the long term to permanent unemployed are older guys who used to make over 70,000. Most of them will not see anything like that again.

Think of it what you will.