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Sen. Durbin calls Abbott Labs' IT layoffs 'harsh and insensitive’
Computer World ^ | February 29, 2016 | Patrick Thibodeau

Posted on 03/07/2016 6:04:07 AM PST by C19fan

Abbott Labs, a global healthcare company, is laying off about 180 IT employees after signing an agreement with Wipro, a major India-based IT services firm, to take over some IT services. The employees were told about the planned cuts on Feb. 22; their last day will be April 22.

(Excerpt) Read more at computerworld.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: abbottlabs; corporatewelfare; h1b; immigration; offshoring; stem; trump
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To: C19fan

I’d call in sick when I was supposed to train my replacement.


21 posted on 03/07/2016 6:49:09 AM PST by AppyPappy (If you really want to irritate someone, point out something obvious they are trying hard to ignore.)
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To: DoodleDawg

So lets tax it and make companies strictly liable .

I have seen first hand the cost pressures.

And I know one the Abbott guys being let go.


22 posted on 03/07/2016 6:49:37 AM PST by fooman (Get real with Kin Jung mentally Ill about proliferation)
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To: fooman

On this, we agree. Provide a disincentive and the math no longer works for these deals.


23 posted on 03/07/2016 6:49:53 AM PST by bigbob ("Victorious warriors win first and then go to war" Sun Tzu.)
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To: C19fan

Even with offshoring, how do you create a tariff for lines of code?


24 posted on 03/07/2016 6:52:35 AM PST by Read Write Repeat
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To: fooman
It's a gut check, to be sure.

I had just finished up the IT side of nearly a billion dollar merger. Darn near killed myself to it, but we finished under budget, and well under the deadline. Mana fell from the heavens, upper management was singing my praises, bonuses and promotions were sure to follow.

Nope. Within a few weeks, I was frantically looking for work, since they had the outsourcing on the schedule. I had 3+ months for "Knowledge Transfer" to my new Indian Overlords.

As a side note, just how much knowledge do you think was transferred? By me, or any of the other 200+ IT guys? :-)

With nearly 15 years of hindsight....the outsourcing was an unmitigated disaster. My old company basically addressed all of the problems by throwing money at them (north of a billion dollars, over 5 years, if the rumor mill was correct). Everyone involved who could even spell "outsourcing" from the COO down was fired - actually the COO "took an early retirement package".

No sympathy here. Only an idiot wouldn't have seen all the problems coming.

25 posted on 03/07/2016 6:53:27 AM PST by wbill
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To: DoodleDawg

It does UNTIL a VP meets the programmers. The first time an Indian programmer calls someone an “idiot”, the project manager will be on the hot seat.
Then the complaints about the language barrier kicks in.
And the rigid unwillingness to change things because the VP changed his mind. “That was not in the spec, we cannot change it”.


26 posted on 03/07/2016 6:53:59 AM PST by AppyPappy (If you really want to irritate someone, point out something obvious they are trying hard to ignore.)
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To: C19fan
Abbott Labs, a global healthcare company, is laying off about 180 IT employees after signing an agreement with Wipro, a major India-based IT services firm,

Out-sourcing and H1Bs - now your drugs will be made by a bunch of Indians.

27 posted on 03/07/2016 6:54:25 AM PST by The Sons of Liberty (My Forefathers Would Be Shooting By Now!)
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To: AppyPappy

Sure, but they dangle a carrot, and to a manufacturing worker with a family, mortgatpge, etc. who knows the chances of finding a new equivalent job anytime soon are slim to none, the $5,000 retention bonus to stick around and train their replacement is hard to walk away from.


28 posted on 03/07/2016 6:55:25 AM PST by bigbob ("Victorious warriors win first and then go to war" Sun Tzu.)
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To: DoodleDawg

It looks good on the bottom line because of the tax structure, global trade and incentives.


29 posted on 03/07/2016 6:56:00 AM PST by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: wbill

I know the drill. The bunout, the intense will to win, then the cuts.

Never finish early. Always have tons of intellectual capital in the can.

I have a patent to write up on active-active processing of securities messages.

Too lazy to do it.


30 posted on 03/07/2016 6:57:22 AM PST by fooman (Get real with Kin Jung mentally Ill about proliferation)
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To: C19fan; All

Translation...

“Illinois company to force tech workers to train foreign replacements...”


31 posted on 03/07/2016 7:02:20 AM PST by Enlightened1
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To: fooman
Yup. Working at a small place now. Smartest thing that I've ever done employment-wise. Doubt that I'd do it for free, but I don't *dislike* coming to work in the morning. That's probably about as good as it gets for an IT job.

I'm home most nights for dinner. Little bit of travel, mostly day trips. Probably 45-50 hours a week, which is pretty typical IT. People I work with are a bunch of good ol' boys - they know and do their jobs, and expect me to know and do mine. And that's it - none of the corporate nonsense, politics and backbiting.

Took me 20-odd years to find this place, I'm hoping that things hold together here long enough so that I can retire from it.

32 posted on 03/07/2016 7:04:58 AM PST by wbill
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To: wbill

I am in NYC. Doing more like 80 hour weeks.

What state are you in?


33 posted on 03/07/2016 7:07:45 AM PST by fooman (Get real with Kin Jung mentally Ill about proliferation)
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To: fooman

I’m sure DICK Durbin voted to increase the number of annual H1B visas. You reap what you sow.


34 posted on 03/07/2016 7:12:26 AM PST by petenmi
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To: petenmi

He sure seems concerned about the broken employees.


35 posted on 03/07/2016 7:42:12 AM PST by fooman (Get real with Kin Jung mentally Ill about proliferation)
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To: DoodleDawg

Right. It looks good on their bottom lines because the tax structure and trade deals make it look good.


36 posted on 03/07/2016 8:05:56 AM PST by Personal Responsibility (We need a separation of press and state!)
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To: Personal Responsibility

I have had personal experience that those they have brought in from India are not “the best and the brightest”. They had to be trained and sometimes messed up and/or took a lot longer to accomplish tasks than the US workers.

They push out STEM workers in Indian Universities like crazy.


37 posted on 03/07/2016 8:06:09 AM PST by Seattle Conservative (God Bless and protect our troops)
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To: Anitius Severinus Boethius
It's blatant age discrimination! Abbott requiring workers over 40 to sign an agreement not to sue for such in return for severance agreements is an admission of guilt.
38 posted on 03/07/2016 8:07:35 AM PST by usconservative (When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box Does. (What's In Your Ammo Box?))
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To: Personal Responsibility
Please understand this is not "offshoring" so learn your glowBULList Cheap Labor Express terminology.

Indians on H-1B visas are coming to the USA to replace those American citizen workers in the USA. This is called "outsourcing".

Your post only confused things and is totally bogus.

39 posted on 03/07/2016 8:15:52 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: magua
Events on the ground favor him.

A major company has been doing this every month for the past 25 years.

40 posted on 03/07/2016 8:17:11 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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