Posted on 05/26/2003 3:51:30 PM PDT by Lessismore
WASHINGTON: On a recent April afternoon in Silicon Valley, moments after he was told he had been laid off from his computer programming job at a Bank of America training centre, Kevin Flanagan stepped into the parking lot and shot himself dead.
Some of America's technology workers, who like Flanagan have also had to collect pink slips over the last several months, think they know why Flanagan took his life: Bank of America not only outsourced his job to India, but forced him to train Indian workers to do the job he had to give up.
In the weeks since his death, the techies have used the incident as fuel to fire a campaign against outsourcing to India, an issue that now seems poised to become a major sticking point between the two countries. Several US states are already considering legislation to ban or limit outsourcing.
Bank of America is one of several major US corporations – General Electric, Microsoft, Intel are among others - under scrutiny for outsourcing jobs to India. The Bank created what is called a "Global Delivery centre" in 2000 to identify projects that could be sent offshore.
Since then it has signed agreements with Infosys and Tata Consulting Services (TCS) to provide solutions and services.
In an e-mail exchange with this correspondent, Kevin's father Tom Flanagan said "a significant reason for which my son took his life was indeed as a result of his job being outsourced."
"Did he blame India for his job loss? No. He blamed the "system." He couldn't understand why Americans are losing jobs. Rather I should say he understood it economically, but not emotionally," Flanagan said.
Bank officials, who did not return calls relating to Flanagan's death, have said in the past that the deal with Indian companies would effect no more than 5 per cent of the bank's 21,000 employees, or about 1,100 jobs, in its technology and operations division.
According to some surveys, the US has lost at least 800,000 jobs in the past year and some 3.3 million jobs will move overseas over the next few years because of outsourcing, mostly to India.
The Bank has also acknowledged that it had asked local workers to train foreigners because such knowledge transfer was essential. According to Tom Flanagan, his son was "totally disgusted" with the fact that he and his fellow-workers had to train foreigners to do his job so they could take over. "That sir is a travesty," he said in one e-mail.
US tech workers are challenging the corporate world's claim that it is outsourcing work to improve bottomlines and efficiency. Some analysts have also pointed out that US corporations were being forced to tighten up by the same people who are moaning about outsourcing, and who, heavily invested in the stock market, demand better performance.
But on one website that discussed the Flanagan case, a tech worker pointed out that data processing consumed only a small per cent of revenues and was hardly a drain on the Bank's profit.
"(It is) a prosperous bank which has let greed trump any sense of patriotism or social responsibility," he fumed.
That's pretty much the crux of it.
What a bunch of idiots to come up with this rationalization for an act of a sick person. It is horrible that this guy had to put his family through this over a stupid job. Oh no..he had to train the Indians...would he rather have had a month less income with someone else training them? Most people hate their jobs, hate when they get laid off, but relish happier moments with their loved ones, and manage not to kill themselves. Brian Williams had a report about a tech guy who was fired and started a business literally scooping up dogshit. He ended up making $100,000 per year with him and his wife doing it. He DEALT WITH IT. I personally know of someone who went from being worth $50 million on paper in 1999 to ZERO, waiting tables, and his wife leaving him. He didn't kill himself.
Clearly this guy had deep psychological problems which overtook his ability to reason his way through a bad experience. For the workers to blame the use of outsourcing for his mental illness is despicable and self-serving.
This is unlikely to be true. In a case that I'm familiar with, the displaced staff were asked to train the Indian replacements in the details of how specific software worked. This is going over specific libraries, runbooks, file structures, source code structure, algorithms, etc. The subject matter is peculiar to the firm's internal cost allocation methodology, not of a general interest, and the technology being used is no longer marketable. Only one of the group has succeeded in getting a new job after about 8 months.
You could tell them about the other side of outsourcing. It can be quite lucrative if you don't mind the 125 degree summers. An electrical engineer with a BS can make about $180k by expatriating to an Arab state for a while.
Both front feet in the public trough for 21 years. You're part of the problem, not the solution.
What a shame to see so many intelligent people getting sucked into the tunnel world that our computer programming needs have created. Before 1975, there was no option to study computer programming as a career. It was a by-product of computer engineering or information management. It certainly wasn't considered a "profession".
We need to encourage our young people to study science, math, philosophy, history and language(s). Our economy thrives on innovation, but if our children do not become physicists and engineers, there will be no more industry bursts to drive our next "golden period".
Even people who have done nothing but program all their lives are missing a great opportunity. Good creative programmers are in serious demand in the gaming industry. Try some of the games that are out there: Some are great, but most of them are limited or flawed. Can't get that creative urge?
Go back to college. Get a degree in engineering or teaching or law. If you want to move on, you will find a way.
Yes suicide is a terrible waste of a life. When it gets that bad you should take everyone with you.
"Generic" programmers often are not college grads, at least not 4 year grads. One each of my wife's sisters and brothers only have associates degrees, and are doing OK to pretty well. The other brother has a BS in enginering and is doing fabulously well at software, but it's hardly "generic programing". The other sister is a med tech, but with sufficient computer skills to be the "in house expert" for lots of the other med techs, and enough to do outside work in the IT field unrelated to her medical training. (My wife is a PhD and lords that over the others. :) )
I was "Clintonsized" myself, almost 5 years ago. It took me over 6 months to find something, and the result of that is living 350 miles from my wife and younger daughter. (Older daughter has meanwhile graduated Law school, and actually works only about 90 miles away, unfortunately her husband works in a different city about 180 miles from her work in the other direction. He got laid off when his job was moved, but to Pennsylvania rather than India. :) Even with 3 months advance notice of the layoff, it took him over a year to find another job, and he too is a law school grad, with an accounting background.
However I think you've hit on one "solution", don't be generic, because if you are, there are lots of other folks, from all over, who would like and could take your job. Of course you don't want to be narrowly specialized either. The ideal thing is to be "indespensible", meaning that keeping you around is easier than finding someone to replace you.
There is a fundamental misunderstanding about global free trade. It is not about the Chinese or Indians being better workers. Free trade is about every country having access to markets in other countries. In theory, America wins. The trouble is, America is the only country allowing mostly complete access to our markets.
Also, we have serious labor and work safety regulations for very good reasons. We have child labor laws, for very good reasons.
Americans are simply not competing on a level playing field with the workers of other countries. Companies outsourcing all of their work to foreign workers are de facto foreign companies. Corporations demanding the business, legal and security protections of the United States of America should be defined as those having a majority of their workers working within the United States.
Corporations want all the benefits of protection from the American system of justice and government but the ability to screw the America worker out of work opportunities.
Corporations calling themselves American DO owe an allegiance to the United States and its working citizens.
The continued sovereignty of the United States depends on our ability to manufacture within our own borders.
A country that makes nothing it needs within its own borders will end up being nothing.
I've not been to India, but I've worked with a large number in the US. The ones that get into universities are not from the lower castes. Plus they are pretty well trained to conform to western ways and attitudes. But a few have slipped and betrayed attitudes toward their fellow citizens that I personally find abhorent.
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