Posted on 08/03/2003 7:42:08 AM PDT by RockyMtnMan
Michael Emmons thought he knew how to keep a job as a software programmer.
"You have to continue to keep yourself up to speed," he said. "If you don't, you'll get washed out."
Up to speed or not, Emmons wound up being "washed out" anyway. Last summer, he moved his family from California to Florida for the Siemens Co., makers of electronics and equipment for industries. Not long after, Emmons and 19 other programmers were replaced by cheaper foreign workers.
Adding insult to injury, Emmons and the others had to train their replacements.
"It was the most demoralizing thing I've ever been through," he told ABCNEWS. "After spending all this time in this industry and working to keep my skills up-to-date, I had to now teach foreign workers how to do my job so they could lay me off."
Just as millions of American manufacturing jobs were lost in the 1980s and 1990s, today white-collar American jobs are disappearing. Foreign nationals on special work visas are filling some positions but most jobs are simply contracted out overseas.
"The train has left the station, the cows have left the barn, the toothpaste is out of the tube," said John McCarthy, director of research at Forrester Research, who has studied the exodus of white-collar jobs overseas. "However you want to talk about it, you're not going to turn the tide on this in the same way we couldn't turn the tide on the manufacturing shift."
India Calling
Almost 500,000 white-collar American jobs have already found their way offshore, to the Philippines, Malaysia and China. Russia and Eastern Europe are expected to be next. But no country has captured more American jobs than India.
In Bangalore, India, reservation agents are booking flights for Delta; Indian accountants are preparing tax returns for Ernst & Young; and Indian software engineers are developing new products for Oracle.
They are all working at a fraction of the cost these companies would pay American workers.
For example, American computer programmers earn about $60,000, while their Indian counterparts only make $6,000.
"It's about cost savings," said Atul Vashistha, CEO of NeoIT, a California-based consulting company that advises American firms interested in "offshoring" jobs previously held by Americans. "They need to significantly reduce their cost of doing business and that's why they're coming to us right now."
Vivek Pal, an Indian contractor for technology consulting group Wipro, whose clients include Microsoft, GE, JP Morgan Chase, and Best Buy, is hiring 2,000 Indian workers quarterly to keep up with demand. Pal knows American workers resent the "offshoring" trend but says all Americans will benefit in the long run.
"Globalization — whether it's for products or services — may feel like it hurts, but at the end of the day, it creates economic value all around," said Pal.
At the end of the day, Emmons has a different view: "If you sit at a desk, beware," he said. "Your job is going overseas."
"Disintermediation" - what a great word - is one of the defining concepts of the information age. I can tell you from daily professional experience that there are 10 Asians and 30 Indians out there stalking each and every client you have as it is. wehn your business becomes nothing but marking up someone else's services you will last about one internet ping-time.
Is this priceless or what? People who are not just like him can only be failures.
Okay, I see your point. We see eye to eye.
But it does work both ways. I have seen some of my father's employee's using his time and equipment to find employment elsewhere and even do outside work on his dime. He has bent over backwards and then some for many of his workers. I wouldn't have taken 1/10th of what he has from some people he hired.
It is something to behold.
You should seek a concurring opinion from Mrs. Jackson before you proceed in this direction.
Hey, anyone who's featured so prominently on American currency is alright by me.
Sheesh! What a depressing story! What industry is your company in, and if you can reveal it, what is the company called? How big is the company? What is the outsourced project entailing?
I've been told that I still should train and get certifications in IT, that certified IT workers will still get jobs. I would prefer to learn a new trade that will keep me employed. Any suggestions?
That's the thing I'm trying to figure out as well. I've gotten suggestions from Dane and from Agamemnon: Become a CEO.
I don't think you'd appreciate that sort of 'helpful' advice. I don't have the true answer, though. Construction and heavy equipment operation is not viable since construction will be lessening as the need for office space and houses declines.
There is a realistic chance that an improving economy will offset the job losses of offshoring, so don't give up on IT entirely quite yet. What is it exactly that you do?
So that's what that smell is. I thought it was time to clean out the 'fridge again.
Oh, never mind, I offshored all my cleaning tasks.
True story. When I was working at the supermarket - this was back around 1978 - the manager used to sometimes come into the breakroom and check receipts for whoever was eating something from the supermarket. One time, a kid was munching on a bag of M&Ms and the manager asked him for his receipt. When he couldn't produce one, the manager grabbed him by the earlobe in front of the whole bunch of us and led him out of the breakroom and out of the store, never to return again. Meanwhile, all the rest of us are white as ghosts, frantically checking our pockets to make sure we had our receipts. Those were different days. These days, the kid would have sued the manager and won a large settlement.
Welcome to Capitalism 101. The market is whatever is available to a consumer at a given time. If Indian programmers are available then the wages demanded by Indian programmers are part of the market. In any event, the market is global with global producers and global consumers. You can call me an internationalist all you want but the fact remains that people almost everywhere are capable of producing most goods and services and are consuming global goods and services.
Even if we didn't hire a single Indian programmer, the Europeans or Japanese would and they could underbid our software companies. Even if we put up tariffs, the South Americans wouldn't and American firms would be outsold in South America.
I have never adhered to the idea of a lifetime job or pretended that my field is somehow safe from competition or wage erosion. So bring it on.
No matter. I can still keep up with it. When there isn't a bagger around, I bag myself and keep up just fine. It's just that nobody "hustles" anymore. The baggers just stand there with a blank expression on their faces and s-l-o-w-l-y put the items in the bags.
If you've been brought up with the idea of lifetime employment in the field you want with the pay rate you want then it's a bad thing. But if you have the idea that the primary person responsible for your career and life-path is you then a whole world of possibilities open up.
Well, if there are no jobs left, then it will be durned hard to have a career, won't it?
Agamemnon already tried this. Maybe you to should get together and found a new religion. Get a lawyer though. L. Ron Hubbard may sue you for intellectual property violations.
You've noted the stock market rise this year?
Yes it most certainly does. The "exploiters" from the guys who rip your dad off all the way up to Adolf Hitler have been what's wrong with this world from the beginning.
There are to types of people in this world; Those who will do what's right and those who will do whatever they feel that they can get away with.
I should also add that should a company refuse to ship what work they can abroad to take advantage of lower wages, their competitors will. Let's say for instance that Hewlett Packard was to decree that henceforth no more programming and support jobs will be shipped overseas. Do you think the consumers will rally around HP and buy their more expensive products and services? Hell no. HP's competitors will have them for lunch.
I should hasten to add that the American consumer also makes no distinction anymore as to whether or not a product is manufactured in the USA. If there are Chinese made jeans at Wal-Mart selling for $10 a pair less than the American-made jeans, guess what? The Chinese-made jeans will fly off the shelves and virtually nobody will touch the more expensive ones.
I must say that it makes me feel uncomfortable that many of our well-paying jobs are being shipped overseas. But I see no way out of it other than the government telling companies they can't do that. But then that will go against most of what conservatives are supposed to stand for (free market capitalism, less government regulation of industry, etc.).
It certainly is a dilemma.
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