Posted on 09/07/2015 11:07:16 AM PDT by Enlightened1
Edited on 09/07/2015 11:23:24 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
As a patriotic and proud citizen of the United States, I have a story to share that has not only impacted my family, hundreds of colleagues, but also current and future United States workers.
I used to have a dream career at one of Americas most iconic and admired companies. Twenty years of hard work, technical skill building, the fostering of relationships and a bachelor’s degree in Information Technology guided me to a coveted position as an Information Technology Engineer for Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
On a sunny Monday morning in late October of 2014 I drove down the interstate toward the huge 40 square mile Disney Orlando, Florida property to my office. Ten days earlier Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, had just announced that the company’s earnings were up well over 20 percent for the quarter and this was just one among a long series of record breaking financial results for the company. About six months earlier, a new CIO, Tilak Mandadi, was appointed for the Parks and Resorts Division of Disney, which would result in huge changes to our lives. Little did I know what was about to happen that very same day to me and hundreds of other fellow Disney Information Technology Cast Members.
snip
I went looking for frozen fish this week. You can’t even find frozen fish made in America. Not at Walmart, Publix, or Kroger.
There was one package in Walmart that said Caught in the USA, packaged in China.
The company that was brought in originally came into the picture during technology upgrades for merchandising (all the registers you see in the parks.) The in house technology group handled all other technology services on property.
After hurricane Floyd, they were brought in to handle the communication problems that had park operations resorting to personal cell phones for nearly 30 days. They replaced the two broken cables which the technology group said was impossible to replace, and who needed to anyway? Less than 48 hours after the contract was awarded, park operations was fully back online.
Security was the next to be switched over after a week of security relying on the park operation channels. Next was the resorts, who each had been giving away dozens of rooms a day to disgruntled guests who couldn't even log onto the wifi for checking e-mail. Within a week, after replacing dime store routers throughout the resorts, internet complaints from guests plummeted.
Finally, after one of the most basic systems, the time management system (which clocks in employees and dispatches those to cover breaks) broke down and went to a manual system in November 2014. After contracting for repairs with the outside company, and having the system back up within 8 hours vs the week of downtime, the decision was made to simply get rid of the department which couldn't even handle back stage data management, and the contract was awarded to the outside company in December.
Yes, this outside company did hire H1B visa holders to come in, they are also the largest technology company in th region now, with many local employees, with more being hired daily as H1B visas expire.
Disney has gone gay. I don’t care if they go bankrupt.
This is insourcing.
>>Has happened for years in the engineering world. Ask the People at Fluor, Bechtel and other engineering companies. and in the I.T. world it is even worse.
>>Sheesh, cry me a river.
If it happened to you then it should happen to everyone. Its only faaaaaair.
Bush’s Fault™?
Why not just train them wrong?
It is far, far worse than that for Cruz.
Senator Ted Cruz wants to more than quadruple the HB1 Visa's coming into this country.
Ted Cruz wants to increase H-1B visas from 65,000 to 325,000 annually
As an IT worker, he lost me then and there. Too bad, as I agree about most of his other positions, but not having a job is a make or break issue for me.
No it is Go Donald!
This is a complete outrage, and has been going on throughout our economy for far, far too many years.
Bring back American jobs.
You can call it what you like, but we are selling out the greatest country in world history.
And building up a country which doesn’t even allow us to own there.
Bring back American jobs.
To America. Have them done, by Americans.
I agree.
I am also in IT, and it is getting truly bad.
America needs to bring back, American jobs.
Walt wouldn’t have done this. He loved America.
How can a discrimination suit not be brought? “Indian only”?
Cruz is for legal only immigration and those immigrants should have the skills to improve the economy. You might feel threatened by competition, but that is how markets grow in efficiency and innovation.
Thanks for providing that info. That does put a totally different spin on the story.
IT is today a disrespected profession in corporate circles, as a direct result of the excesses of previous decades. I suspect the day of the in-house IT professional is nearly over in most firms, and outsourcing of the function in its entirety to dedicated IT companies using talent from multiple, local and remote locations (as in your example) is the future.
Rest of story
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Thanks for posting this. I can’t blame Disney for fighting internal incompetance. However, this is management incompetance. They sound like public sector managers.
The first line workers deserve better direction from the chain above them, that does not include firing persons.
That said, IT helpdesk work, first level, is easily transferred to an outsider. The fired persons needed to get into code writing or configuration at some level.
The goal is to REPLACE the American. In the job, and more importantly, at the voting booth, to ENSURE a final, one party democrat rule. This rule will last until we completely collapse from within or are destroyed by an outside force.
Our Republic since its inception had tariffs in it all the way up until 1996.
Every president from George Washington up to Bill Clinton had tariffs. We were the leaders of the free world and became a Super Power.
So according to you all the previous Presidents were all “Protectionist” and this was bad for the United States. In other words the United States was on the wrong path from 1787 to 1996?
What is the opposite of the word protection? Here are some words for you.
Unprotected, exposed, threat, danger, insecurity, uncertainty, harm, injury, destruction, doubt and attack.
So wanting to protect the Untied States, from being unprotected, exposed, threat, danger, insecurity, uncertainty, harm, injury, destruction, doubt, attack, etc...., to be the leaders of the free world and the loan super power is a bad thing????
Oh I know according to the Clinton’s, the Bush’s and Obama that is the case. According to these guys every U.S. President from George Washington down.... up to Bill Clinton were all wrong on Tariffs.
Let’s talk Ronald Reagan....
You do know that Reagan told Japan and European car companies they can avoid tariffs if you build your car plants here in the United States. Reagan used tariffs as advantage to bring jobs to the United States. Guess what Toyotta, BMW, etc... all came here.
Free trade is only good IF everyone is playing by the same rules. Right now here are the facts.
1) The United States STILL PAYS TARIFFS while at the very same time China and Mexico do not. How is that not rigged?
2) China can manipulate currency with no type of punishment. How is that not rigged?
3) China, Mexico and the rest of the world are exempt from federal regulations while U.S. companies have to comply ONLY in the United States. How is that not rigged?
4) United States companies pay a higher capital gains in order to encourage them to leave the United States. That way we can import lower prices. How is that not rigged?
5) We import Engineers from China and India to replace American workers at lower cost. Google what Disney did recently to their I.T. department. The American workers had to train their foreign replacements , here in the United States for 1/3 the cost. While at the same time we export Engineer students from M.I.T., Georgia Tech, etc... to places like China and India. How is that not rigged?
6) In addition we now have open borders(never done before until this year, and allow illegal immigrants to welfare, free housing, free health care and free education. No other country in the world does this except us. This is being done in order to drive wages down. How is that not rigged?
This is what guys like Obama, the Bush’s and the Clinton’s think is great for America.
If you are still not certain, then ask yourself this question?
Was the United States a stronger country with tariffs from 1945 to 1996 than without tariffs from 1997 to 2015?
I know this story but it is better to hear a first-hand account.
I gotta say, reading the comments after the story have me questioning Cruz, as far as his syance in HB1 visas and other immigration issues.
Hmmm.... gotta go get more education on this....
Avoid the prose. Just tell me how much more you want me to pay in taxes.
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