Post: #176

The more I look into it the more I realize there is a legitimate conspiracy to withhold and extract wealth from the middle class.

Post: #177

^ It's not a conspiracy, it's just an inevitable result of the democratic constitution. The poor demand loot, the rich find ways to escape and profit from the looting.

Post: #178

(06-28-2015 11:03 PM)Bacchus Wrote:  Here's an article that deflates the myth about America's need for immigrants to fill tech positions. The truth is that there are more American STEM graduates than there are positions.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives...ch-talent/


At least, this is what the law says. But then there are figures compiled by Zoe Lofgren, who represents much of Silicon Valley in Congress, showing that H-1B workers average 57 percent of the salaries paid to Americans with comparable credentials.

Norman Matloff, a computer scientist at the University of California’s Davis campus, provides some answers. The foreigners granted visas, he found, are typically single or unattached men, usually in their late twenties, who contract for six-year stints, knowing they will work long hours and live in cramped spaces. Being tied to their sponsoring firm, Matloff adds, they “dare not switch to another employer” and are thus “essentially immobile.”6 For their part, Bach and Warner warn, “it may be risky for you to give notice to your current employer.” Indeed, the perils include deportation if you can’t quickly find another guarantor.

Excellent find - this is indeed what it is all about. American STEM workers are unemployed and foreigners live in cramped spaces, work for 6 years and then return to their home country. They never intend to start a family with the lower salary being offered.

That number is 260.000 employees / year at the minimum - likely much higher in aggregate. That is 260.000 US families that could have a father making enough to pay a mortgage, marry and have children and a wife. Instead they have guys all over the world living in cubicles. You cannot even blame those men, since they take what they can in the global carousel. If they live like Gandhi for a couple of years while working for Microsoft, then they can save enough to live decently in India.

I can remember back at the height of the dot-com boom that we had offers for our IT guys as I was working at a bank developing a new trading application. The funny part was when my employer hired an entire coding team from India - some 40 men and a few women who worked for a year there. At least they were all given separate apartments, since the bank owned 20% of the city's rental properties anyway and used it to write off costs. That was some 15 years ago already!

Could the bank have hired Europeans? Of course they could have - at twice or 4x the cost. I talked with a few of those Indian fellows - nice guys. Can't really blame them.

Post: #179

I don't know the details of the new Trade Bill Obama, Boehner and McConnell were so damn set on getting passed, and was destroyed in the first house vote and then passed two weeks ago in the second house vote (coincidentally the day after the South Carolina shooting when the media completely focused on only it), but I do know there was talk of an increase in H-1B visa workers.

So it appears that the establishment Republicans, along with the non-Union Democrats have worked together to increase the trend of foreign workers coming here to slash the American middle class opportunities.

It appears we either get Trump, Paul, or the same pile of shit we have had for the last 25+ years. And I have no idea if even Trump or Paul would be willing to battle the elites to stop this nonsense.

Post: #180

I'm bumping this thread because I have an idea how to change H1B visa rules so that they don't hurt US employees and at the same time don't shut off the labor market completely for talented and qualified foreign workers.

Here is the solution:

-For new H1Bs: give visas only to those who are offered a salary of at least $200K/year (adjusted for inflation in the future).
-For those who are already in the US and have H1B visas: give them a notice period of 2 years so that they get a raise and start making over $200K. If they don't get paid enough by the end of the notice period, the H1B status will not longer be valid and they'll have to leave.

Why $200K/year? Because the kind of people who make over $200K without family connections are generally talented and harder to replace. Examples include star software engineers, good doctors, lawyers, corporate executives. My guess is that most H1B visa holders don't make anywhere near that amount and never will.
-A special point about managers/executives making over $200K. Often, H1B managers are hired to manage H1B professionals. Without the subordinates, there will be little or no need for the managers either except for those who are really talented and culturally adjusted. A talented H1B CEO will stay, but a typical 3rd world boss will probably have to go back without his people to boss around.

Other points:

-I'm using H1B as a general term for temporary work visas, but there are other visas as well such as L1 for international transfers within the company. The same rules can be applied to all these visas.

-If companies have to stop hiring H1Bs who earn less than $200K, they'll try to shift even more jobs to places like India and China. It is much more difficult to prevent them from doing so than to prevent then from bringing H1Bs, but it's not impossible. For example, companies can be given special privileges based on how many people they hire in the US vs overseas. Here is how it can be done:
-Companies (including all subsidiaries) are required to report percentage of sales and employees abroad. Some of them are assigned a special "American" status based on comparison of the two. For example, if a company makes 50% of its revenue overseas and has up to 50% of employees overseas, then it is considered American. If the the percentage of employees exceeds the percentage of sales abroad (for example, 80% vs 50%), then it doesn't get the special status even if it is headquartered in the US.
-Qualified American companies get special privileges, such as a lower corporate income tax rate and preferences for Government contracts. Other companies are treated the same as foreign companies with offices in the US.

All this, of course, will never be implemented no matter who becomes the next President. The rich don't care about the common people and use H1Bs to keep them down.

Post: #181

Exclusive Breitbart article giving a first-hand description of what's going on with H1-Bs (Disney was mentioned earlier in this thread IIRC):

Breitbart

Quote:DISPLACED DISNEY CAST MEMBER: HOW THEY REPLACED ME, OTHER AMERICANS, WITH CHEAP FOREIGNERS ON H1B VISAS

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.

Days later, as I drove to work, I ran into a bit of slow traffic and so I was able to glance at my company issued iPhone I noticed an early morning meeting invite from a prominent Disney Executive. This really sparked my interest since it is not very often that I have heard from him and even rarer when I would actually see him in person. Despite the heavy traffic I estimated that I would be on time for the important meeting. As I continued down the road I wondered what the executive meeting could be all about.

About ten minutes later in my commute the phone rang and it was a fellow Disney “Cast Member” as employees were called. We worked together the prior week when we solved a major outage situation for the application that we both helped to support. He reminded me about another meeting that we had later that same day. Since I knew that he was just about the highest level on his team, was well respected and also that he was very well connected within the Disney Parks & Resorts Organization, I asked him if he knew anything about this last minute early morning meeting being hosted by the Disney Executive. He told me that he was not sure about the subject of the meeting. However, he told me that since I had such a great reputation as a problem solver, had just cleared up a major outage situation the week prior and since I recently received the very highest possible performance review by management, that the meeting must be one to recognize my recent contributions to the company with perhaps a promotion or at the very least a bonus.

After arriving at the Orlando office, I walked into the conference room where the early morning meeting was to be held. As I entered about two dozen people were crowded into the room. Some were from same team; others were from different teams. As I glanced around the room I noticed that the people were all very highly regarded as extremely knowledgeable, experienced and top performers in the roles that they held. Some of the attendees also had a Blue Disney name badge instead of the typical white one proudly displayed on the shirts they wore. The Blue badge indicated that they were recognized by a new program known as “Partners in Excellence.” This meant that they had been nominated by numerous people as consistently going above and beyond to assist other Cast Members. I could sense that something was not quite right. There was a chill in the air and yet, oddly enough, I was in a room surrounded by employees of excellence.

As I watched the grim faced Disney Executive, it was obvious that bad news was going to be delivered. The dead silence was broken when the Disney Executive made a harsh announcement. All of you in this room will be losing your jobs in the next 90 days. Your last day of employment for this company will be January 30, 2015. Your jobs have been given over to a foreign workforce. In the meantime you will be training your replacements until your jobs are 100 percent transferred over to them and if you don’t cooperate you will not receive any severance pay. Also, if we don’t feel confident that we have captured everything that you do we can, at our discretion, keep you longer than the 90 days until we have captured everything that you do with this job. Don’t discuss this meeting with anybody else in the company. Everybody in the room was appalled at the message. I was completely silent thinking how this was going to affect my coworkers and how I was going to break the news to my wife and children back at home as I was the only person in my home with a steady job. How would I pay for all the expenses that go along with a home, a wife, and children?

As of January 31, 2015, I would be living on unemployment payments. Health care, along with other employee benefits, would be gone. The good life was soon to vanish as soon as the foreign workers took over my job. The sleepless nights were just starting for me as I felt the pressure of providing for my family with food, shelter, utilities, autos, health insurance, and child day care. My coworkers and I felt extremely betrayed by Walt Disney World, a company for which we had worked so hard.

After having worked grueling on call shifts, hundreds of middle of the night and weekends work sessions in addition to a barrage of problem phone calls around the clock for many years, they were going to simply throw us out for their financial benefit. One glimmer of hope from the Disney executive was that many new Disney jobs were going to be created and these jobs would not be as dull and repetitive as our current jobs were and that no net loss of jobs was going to happen. Disney Cast Members who had survived and were not invited to this doomful meeting wondered what happened inside the closed door meeting. Some of those in the meeting had tears streaming down their faces, others had completely broken down and were crying out loud and one was murmuring “no, this can’t be” as they were marched out of the room.

The very next week our office environment started to change dramatically. A huge influx of foreign workers from South Asia started to arrive at numerous buildings on the Disney Orlando campus in very large numbers. A foreign language was suddenly being spoken throughout the building hallways. Everywhere I went, including the company cafeteria, the composition of the company changed so much in the period of only a week.

The first 30 days was focused on capturing all that I did with my job. We started getting mandatory meeting invitations for “KT” or “Knowledge Transfer” sessions showing on our calendars. The daily sessions involved us training our foreign replacements for several hours. We all felt humiliated when the foreign workers sat next to us and watched everything that we did.

Presumably at the direction of the Disney Executives, the foreign workers insisted that they record all the audio as well as everything that we did on our computer screens with recorded video during the training meetings. We were then astonished as everything that we did on our job was documented and read right back to us for further critiquing. By then, it was a slow and methodical process that went on day in and day out. In hopes of landing a new Disney job we watched the Disney internal job postings and noticed a number of the vague job descriptions. Our frustration started to grow as we applied for the jobs yet none of us were contacted in any fashion. Those of us losing our jobs started to wonder if these new job postings really even existed.

The next 30 days had us working side by side with our replacement workers doing part of our job while the “KT” sessions continued. The daily disgrace continued when the foreign workers started assuming our responsibilities. They referred constantly back to all the audio, video and documentation that they had previously captured from us and asked that we explain the same questions repeatedly. They were obviously much younger, less skilled and less experienced.

The last 30 days were the most disgraceful and demoralizing of this entire period as I had to watch a foreign worker completely take over my job. I had no work to do during the last 30 days other than watch a foreign worker completely take over everything that I did in my job. One ironic twist was that I actually received a significant pay raise during my last 30 days with the company because I had received the highest possible job rating in performance reviews. The new Disney job postings only resulted in three coworkers getting new positions from the over three hundred IT workers. I was not one of them. The last day we turned in our mobile phones, laptops, ID badges along with our dignity and we were ushered out the door as temporary foreign workers took over our jobs.

Since leaving Disney we have also been informed by several large IT recruiting firms that Disney has a policy in place that states all displaced Disney IT Cast Members will not even be considered as contractor workers for 12 months. Thus we have been essentially shut out and black listed by the largest employer in this very small Orlando job market.

I largely perceive a job loss as a loss of my own identity. The humiliation of accepting unemployment payments after working for the same company for over ten years in different capacities has been extremely demoralizing. I felt guilty and frequently wondered if I was being a faithful and good American by training these foreign workers to take over our American jobs just so that I could receive a small severance package and unemployment benefits for four months.

How do I explain to my young children to follow their dreams and find a job that they love? I followed my dream of having a career in technology which I loved at the time, studied technology in college earning a bachelors degree, received numerous continuing education technical certifications, built a large base of real world experience, had a tremendous work ethic and was recognized with the very highest possible performance review by my company to have my very same desk, chair and computer all taken over by a foreign worker who was just flown in to America weeks before.

I frequently question if the IT field holds much future for United States’ citizens or U.S. permanent residents. Should I continue to dodge bullets or move into an entirely new field after having been outsourced on multiple occasions by the same company and then finally physical replaced by a foreign worker? I would never recommend the IT field to my own children or anybody else that I know for that matter, due to the lack of job opportunities even for someone passionate about the IT field. We now have American IT workers being displaced by both H1-B visa holders, who are physically being flown in from foreign countries, as well as the continued use of foreign remote offshore workers. We are seeing a massive drain on job opportunities here on our own soil. What does the future hold for United States’ workers? This outsourcing must be stopped or America will certainly decline.

How can our lawmakers allow this to happen to our country? This abuse of the H1-B Visa is not about a lack of talent here in the U.S. If our own pool of IT professionals were so incompetent- then why would companies like Disney have us train our replacements and spend months teaching them? Albeit, the loss of my position and hundreds of other positions here in Orlando, Florida is personal and debilitating, the nationwide loss of opportunity for high wage technology professionals will have a far reaching impact on our country.

Is the answer really to displace American workers, thus lessening the taxable income and opportunity for these citizens to be productive assets to our society? It is very clear that the H1-B visa is about cutting wages and exploiting immigration guest workers programs at less pay.

I challenge policy makers to ask themselves- what is the ripple effect of this program to our country? The proposed new bill, “I-Squared”, introduced by Senators Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), will triple the number of foreign H1-B guest workers increasing this problem threefold. I challenge them to read this story and think about the thousands or more workers just like us at Disney who will lose their jobs.

Finally, all employees who have been displaced by a foreign worker, whether the foreign worker is located in, or outside of, the United States territory, need to stand up for their rights and for the rights of all American citizen workers. Similarly, any American citizen or permanent resident who applied for a job but was denied the position because it was filled by an immigration visa employee should determine if that denial of the position was a violation of his/her rights. I implore displaced employees and employees denied positions to visit the following website for options in taking a stand and possibly recovering for the potential violation of his/her constitutional rights. If you feel that you are powerless in the face of this tsunami think again.

Post: #182

Here's why this is stupid, from above:

Quote:The next 30 days had us working side by side with our replacement workers doing part of our job while the “KT” sessions continued. The daily disgrace continued when the foreign workers started assuming our responsibilities. They referred constantly back to all the audio, video and documentation that they had previously captured from us and asked that we explain the same questions repeatedly. They were obviously much younger, less skilled and less experienced.

Do they really think that's going to work out in the long run?

A lot of smaller companies, interestingly enough, are moving some call centers back here. Despite enormous efforts to change basic realities foreign workers have performed dismally in roles where knowing the culture and the language is important. What do you think is going to happen to the productivity at Disney as a result?

Post: #183

I had an indian friend who used to laugh about all this. "You americans actually believe that indians have all those skills" he laughed. "You guys really need to get a clue. Most of us indians have fewer skills than the people we're replacing, but we just lie on our resumes and you fall for it."

-- For myself, I like Indians and they fit into US society great. They are one of the best immigrant groups we've ever had. But don't kid yourself. They are frequently scamming.

Post: #184

(06-29-2015 01:33 AM)Tytalus Wrote:  The more I look into it the more I realize there is a legitimate conspiracy to withhold and extract wealth from the middle class.

I heard this once, can't remember where though:

Democrats take money from the middle class and give it to the poor.

Republicans take money from the middle class and give it to the rich.

Post: #185

^Democrats collect union dues from the duped workers and send it up the chain to their peers and George Soros initiatives, not down to the poor. Not sure how it's any different than the GOP.

Post: #186

Globalization simply opened up the full-flex of economies of scale concepts of business. Acquisitions are what every medium-to-large business focuses on now, and have for the last 15 years+.

I've often said, in hindsight, when the GATT gave way to the WTO, just after the NAFTA opened up, we should have "slowly" opened the flood gates to world trade, not 0-100mph in 6 seconds, like we did under the Clinton era.

It would have made sense to run models on the effect it would have on America's labor force, and provide pro-active schooling to "prepare" Americans with better education before such a massive shift, instead of removing all the manufacturing, and changing from a manufacturing-to-service based economy in the blink of an eye.

That stole the "American Dream," now the American Lie, away from many. Companies simply use people. I do however respect the ones that state:"Our #1 goal, is to make a profit, not employ people." << I actually worked at a glass factory during the recession, which eventually downsized and I lost my job at due to the recession, that continually reinforced this at company meetings. Just like I respect a prostitute more so than the average scheming American girl.

Just how easily they removed excellent, experienced, valuable employees at the drop of a dime was shocking. No shame at ALL. They even separated people from employment in a very public manner. Walking them one-by-one right off the line during shift.. the "walk of shame" we called it. I also learned why unions exist at that factory.

Post: #187

(09-08-2015 04:14 PM)MrLemon Wrote:  I had an indian friend who used to laugh about all this. "You americans actually believe that indians have all those skills" he laughed. "You guys really need to get a clue. Most of us indians have fewer skills than the people we're replacing, but we just lie on our resumes and you fall for it."

-- For myself, I like Indians and they fit into US society great. They are one of the best immigrant groups we've ever had. But don't kid yourself. They are frequently scamming.

The employability game Indians run best is hyper-interest, hyper-active in the process of their jobs. Most I've known show a cultish interest in the company and the position, and occasionally you get a clever one, but often I've found they fail to "connect the dots" of the broader scope of the company's value stream. They fit the diversity token well, and I don't blame them for exploiting America to their disposal, as if I was in their position, I'd probably strongly consider doing the same. However, agreed on the scheming. A particular Quality Control engineer comes to mind.

Post: #188

(09-08-2015 04:55 PM)WalterBlack Wrote:  

(06-29-2015 01:33 AM)Tytalus Wrote:  The more I look into it the more I realize there is a legitimate conspiracy to withhold and extract wealth from the middle class.

I heard this once, can't remember where though:

Democrats take money from the middle class and give it to the poor.

Republicans take money from the middle class and give it to the rich.

I would say that today the more accurate statement would be...

The Republicans take money from the middle class and throw it away on national defense contracts so the rich can get richer, and then filter out a little left over to the poor.

The Democrats take money from the middle class and pass business regulations that make the rich even richer, and then filter out a little left over to the poor.

Post: #189

(09-07-2015 03:26 PM)HighSpeed_LowDrag Wrote:  Exclusive Breitbart article giving a first-hand description of what's going on with H1-Bs (Disney was mentioned earlier in this thread IIRC):

Breitbart

Quote:DISPLACED DISNEY CAST MEMBER: HOW THEY REPLACED ME, OTHER AMERICANS, WITH CHEAP FOREIGNERS ON H1B VISAS

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.

Days later, as I drove to work, I ran into a bit of slow traffic and so I was able to glance at my company issued iPhone I noticed an early morning meeting invite from a prominent Disney Executive. This really sparked my interest since it is not very often that I have heard from him and even rarer when I would actually see him in person. Despite the heavy traffic I estimated that I would be on time for the important meeting. As I continued down the road I wondered what the executive meeting could be all about.

About ten minutes later in my commute the phone rang and it was a fellow Disney “Cast Member” as employees were called. We worked together the prior week when we solved a major outage situation for the application that we both helped to support. He reminded me about another meeting that we had later that same day. Since I knew that he was just about the highest level on his team, was well respected and also that he was very well connected within the Disney Parks & Resorts Organization, I asked him if he knew anything about this last minute early morning meeting being hosted by the Disney Executive. He told me that he was not sure about the subject of the meeting. However, he told me that since I had such a great reputation as a problem solver, had just cleared up a major outage situation the week prior and since I recently received the very highest possible performance review by management, that the meeting must be one to recognize my recent contributions to the company with perhaps a promotion or at the very least a bonus.

After arriving at the Orlando office, I walked into the conference room where the early morning meeting was to be held. As I entered about two dozen people were crowded into the room. Some were from same team; others were from different teams. As I glanced around the room I noticed that the people were all very highly regarded as extremely knowledgeable, experienced and top performers in the roles that they held. Some of the attendees also had a Blue Disney name badge instead of the typical white one proudly displayed on the shirts they wore. The Blue badge indicated that they were recognized by a new program known as “Partners in Excellence.” This meant that they had been nominated by numerous people as consistently going above and beyond to assist other Cast Members. I could sense that something was not quite right. There was a chill in the air and yet, oddly enough, I was in a room surrounded by employees of excellence.

As I watched the grim faced Disney Executive, it was obvious that bad news was going to be delivered. The dead silence was broken when the Disney Executive made a harsh announcement. All of you in this room will be losing your jobs in the next 90 days. Your last day of employment for this company will be January 30, 2015. Your jobs have been given over to a foreign workforce. In the meantime you will be training your replacements until your jobs are 100 percent transferred over to them and if you don’t cooperate you will not receive any severance pay. Also, if we don’t feel confident that we have captured everything that you do we can, at our discretion, keep you longer than the 90 days until we have captured everything that you do with this job. Don’t discuss this meeting with anybody else in the company. Everybody in the room was appalled at the message. I was completely silent thinking how this was going to affect my coworkers and how I was going to break the news to my wife and children back at home as I was the only person in my home with a steady job. How would I pay for all the expenses that go along with a home, a wife, and children?

As of January 31, 2015, I would be living on unemployment payments. Health care, along with other employee benefits, would be gone. The good life was soon to vanish as soon as the foreign workers took over my job. The sleepless nights were just starting for me as I felt the pressure of providing for my family with food, shelter, utilities, autos, health insurance, and child day care. My coworkers and I felt extremely betrayed by Walt Disney World, a company for which we had worked so hard.

After having worked grueling on call shifts, hundreds of middle of the night and weekends work sessions in addition to a barrage of problem phone calls around the clock for many years, they were going to simply throw us out for their financial benefit. One glimmer of hope from the Disney executive was that many new Disney jobs were going to be created and these jobs would not be as dull and repetitive as our current jobs were and that no net loss of jobs was going to happen. Disney Cast Members who had survived and were not invited to this doomful meeting wondered what happened inside the closed door meeting. Some of those in the meeting had tears streaming down their faces, others had completely broken down and were crying out loud and one was murmuring “no, this can’t be” as they were marched out of the room.

The very next week our office environment started to change dramatically. A huge influx of foreign workers from South Asia started to arrive at numerous buildings on the Disney Orlando campus in very large numbers. A foreign language was suddenly being spoken throughout the building hallways. Everywhere I went, including the company cafeteria, the composition of the company changed so much in the period of only a week.

The first 30 days was focused on capturing all that I did with my job. We started getting mandatory meeting invitations for “KT” or “Knowledge Transfer” sessions showing on our calendars. The daily sessions involved us training our foreign replacements for several hours. We all felt humiliated when the foreign workers sat next to us and watched everything that we did.

Presumably at the direction of the Disney Executives, the foreign workers insisted that they record all the audio as well as everything that we did on our computer screens with recorded video during the training meetings. We were then astonished as everything that we did on our job was documented and read right back to us for further critiquing. By then, it was a slow and methodical process that went on day in and day out. In hopes of landing a new Disney job we watched the Disney internal job postings and noticed a number of the vague job descriptions. Our frustration started to grow as we applied for the jobs yet none of us were contacted in any fashion. Those of us losing our jobs started to wonder if these new job postings really even existed.

The next 30 days had us working side by side with our replacement workers doing part of our job while the “KT” sessions continued. The daily disgrace continued when the foreign workers started assuming our responsibilities. They referred constantly back to all the audio, video and documentation that they had previously captured from us and asked that we explain the same questions repeatedly. They were obviously much younger, less skilled and less experienced.

The last 30 days were the most disgraceful and demoralizing of this entire period as I had to watch a foreign worker completely take over my job. I had no work to do during the last 30 days other than watch a foreign worker completely take over everything that I did in my job. One ironic twist was that I actually received a significant pay raise during my last 30 days with the company because I had received the highest possible job rating in performance reviews. The new Disney job postings only resulted in three coworkers getting new positions from the over three hundred IT workers. I was not one of them. The last day we turned in our mobile phones, laptops, ID badges along with our dignity and we were ushered out the door as temporary foreign workers took over our jobs.

Since leaving Disney we have also been informed by several large IT recruiting firms that Disney has a policy in place that states all displaced Disney IT Cast Members will not even be considered as contractor workers for 12 months. Thus we have been essentially shut out and black listed by the largest employer in this very small Orlando job market.

I largely perceive a job loss as a loss of my own identity. The humiliation of accepting unemployment payments after working for the same company for over ten years in different capacities has been extremely demoralizing. I felt guilty and frequently wondered if I was being a faithful and good American by training these foreign workers to take over our American jobs just so that I could receive a small severance package and unemployment benefits for four months.

How do I explain to my young children to follow their dreams and find a job that they love? I followed my dream of having a career in technology which I loved at the time, studied technology in college earning a bachelors degree, received numerous continuing education technical certifications, built a large base of real world experience, had a tremendous work ethic and was recognized with the very highest possible performance review by my company to have my very same desk, chair and computer all taken over by a foreign worker who was just flown in to America weeks before.

I frequently question if the IT field holds much future for United States’ citizens or U.S. permanent residents. Should I continue to dodge bullets or move into an entirely new field after having been outsourced on multiple occasions by the same company and then finally physical replaced by a foreign worker? I would never recommend the IT field to my own children or anybody else that I know for that matter, due to the lack of job opportunities even for someone passionate about the IT field. We now have American IT workers being displaced by both H1-B visa holders, who are physically being flown in from foreign countries, as well as the continued use of foreign remote offshore workers. We are seeing a massive drain on job opportunities here on our own soil. What does the future hold for United States’ workers? This outsourcing must be stopped or America will certainly decline.

How can our lawmakers allow this to happen to our country? This abuse of the H1-B Visa is not about a lack of talent here in the U.S. If our own pool of IT professionals were so incompetent- then why would companies like Disney have us train our replacements and spend months teaching them? Albeit, the loss of my position and hundreds of other positions here in Orlando, Florida is personal and debilitating, the nationwide loss of opportunity for high wage technology professionals will have a far reaching impact on our country.

Is the answer really to displace American workers, thus lessening the taxable income and opportunity for these citizens to be productive assets to our society? It is very clear that the H1-B visa is about cutting wages and exploiting immigration guest workers programs at less pay.

I challenge policy makers to ask themselves- what is the ripple effect of this program to our country? The proposed new bill, “I-Squared”, introduced by Senators Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), will triple the number of foreign H1-B guest workers increasing this problem threefold. I challenge them to read this story and think about the thousands or more workers just like us at Disney who will lose their jobs.

Finally, all employees who have been displaced by a foreign worker, whether the foreign worker is located in, or outside of, the United States territory, need to stand up for their rights and for the rights of all American citizen workers. Similarly, any American citizen or permanent resident who applied for a job but was denied the position because it was filled by an immigration visa employee should determine if that denial of the position was a violation of his/her rights. I implore displaced employees and employees denied positions to visit the following website for options in taking a stand and possibly recovering for the potential violation of his/her constitutional rights. If you feel that you are powerless in the face of this tsunami think again.

That executive must've had some iron balls to tell that news to those employees or he's a massive sociopath who just doesn't give a damn.

Those employees are punks! Why didn't they all rush him and tear him apart like a pack of wolves? My first instinct would've been to rip his head off then stomp his guts out!

Post: #190

No more Disney for this guy. Between this and the SJW / gay garbage they now put on the TV I think I've seen enough. Ever since Eisner & Co. took over it's gone downhill - not a suprise given he's part of the bigger Hollywood lobby.

Walt Disney must seriously be spinning in his grave right now.

Post: #191

(09-09-2015 12:30 PM)lemko Wrote:  That executive must've had some iron balls to tell that news to those employees or he's a massive sociopath who just doesn't give a damn.

A lot of executives don’t give a fuck about anybody except themselves. I’ve worked in corporate America for a while now and a lot of the “higher ups” are two faced bastards. There’s some decent guys up there too, but I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for them to come to the rescue should the shit hit the fan.

Sometimes a person has to be a bit of sociopath and play the game to get ahead in the corporate world.

(09-09-2015 12:30 PM)lemko Wrote:  Those employees are punks! Why didn't they all rush him and tear him apart like a pack of wolves? My first instinct would've been to rip his head off then stomp his guts out!

First of all, attacking anybody physically at work will start a whole heap of shit for attacker, especially so at somewhere like Disney.

Secondly, the executive may not even have made the decision to cut people. I’ve been in meetings where the CEO made the decision – the information would have been then been relayed by the VP or directors.

Post: #192

^they all hoped they'd get one of the non-existent other jobs. I suspect when more stories like this come out future such meetings won't be so civil.

Post: #193

(09-09-2015 12:40 PM)SlickyBoy Wrote:  ^they all hoped they'd get one of the non-existent other jobs. I suspect when more stories like this come out future such meetings won't be so civil.

Everyone will remain civil. The only way to behave like a crazed monkey and take a dump on your boss's desk is if you have fuck-you-money at home. That's why I have seen CEOs when fired sometimes behaving like complete assholes - they have contracts so juicy that they simply don't care much at that level.

And even then most people prefer to be civil, since certainly the manager above likely did not make the decision. It's possible that it was the CEO, but even he sometimes gets "recommendations" by the real owners of the companies. CEOs often get selected because they adhere to orders. A maverick as a CEO is frankly not overly welcome - those guys usually end up in the VP level.

Post: #194

I worked in tech on full time positions and many contracts - as soon as I saw consultants and SE Asians or Perot Systems (Bring Texan Program managers up and back them up with huge offshore back office centers for remote admin work required to sustain most Microsoft, Unix, Linux and Cisco etc gear) come in I saw the writing on the wall and buffed up my resume and circulated it to the headhunter boiler rooms around Boston and would have offers within a week or so - normally kept an accumulated backlog of vacation for four weeks and would take 2 weeks vacation come back give 2 week notice and then immediately go to work at the next company banking my vacation pay. Tech companies reorg annually or at least semi annually.

You have to learn to be Machiavelli Ruthless in the management of your career and learn to be able to read the writing on the wall you can normally get 3 to 5 years out of a US Employer before bouncing for a 20 to 30 percent raise which far outweighs "being loyal" staying for an annual 2% raise or lame 40% taxed bonus.

The smartest guys I know work for their prime employer weekdays and consult nights and weekends to keep their options open.

Just about everyone keeps their resume active in stealth mode on CareerBuilder or Monster and Business Profiles up to date on LinkedIn.

Of course you always profess undying loyalty to your current paycheck until you see writing on the wall and it is time to jump. I was at a major medical R&D center and saw the Perot Systems consultants come in and rumors of offshoring 600 IT workers... I bounced ASAP and stuck with Cyber Security roles contracts and now interviewing for a couple remote and full time positions now that the summer is over and time to focus on $$$ again. Funny how Corps only want real proven loyal American citizens in certain sensitive positions. Train for those positions!

Post: #195

(09-09-2015 12:40 PM)WalterBlack Wrote:  

(09-09-2015 12:30 PM)lemko Wrote:  That executive must've had some iron balls to tell that news to those employees or he's a massive sociopath who just doesn't give a damn.

A lot of executives don’t give a fuck about anybody except themselves. I’ve worked in corporate America for a while now and a lot of the “higher ups” are two faced bastards. There’s some decent guys up there too, but I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for them to come to the rescue should the shit hit the fan.

Sometimes a person has to be a bit of sociopath and play the game to get ahead in the corporate world.

(09-09-2015 12:30 PM)lemko Wrote:  Those employees are punks! Why didn't they all rush him and tear him apart like a pack of wolves? My first instinct would've been to rip his head off then stomp his guts out!

First of all, attacking anybody physically at work will start a whole heap of shit for attacker, especially so at somewhere like Disney.

Secondly, the executive may not even have made the decision to cut people. I’ve been in meetings where the CEO made the decision – the information would have been then been relayed by the VP or directors.

I have spent more than a little bit of time in C Suites doing tech work and the conversations rarely hushed due to the enormous egos nearly all revolved around M&A and Stock Options Vesting, Bonuses and various aspects of Golden Parachutes - Why? The Average CEO's tenure at a Fortune 500 is 2 to 4 years - less at smaller companies which is why they focus hard on M&A and Making Quarterly Numbers and pumping up their comp packages and pulling the rip cord on their Golden Parachutes. All while networking at industry events for a soft landing at their next pump and pillage port of call.

This is the Multinational Corporate Game, play and get paid or ignore and get played.

Their are basically two types of CEOs - Founders or Pounders.

Founders with controlling stock have the vision to grow their companies long term think Silicon Valley and Seattle.

Pounders get placed and paid by boards to pound out every last possible efficiency buy up innovators, pound them too to make their numbers knowing they will only be around for two to five years until the boards recycle them to other companies to be roundly pounded. Think NYC/Chicago/SoCal.

Lots of overlap in Red Pill Alpha Neoman Game in the Bedrooms and Boardrooms.

Post: #196

(09-09-2015 03:25 PM)Deepdiver Wrote:  You have to learn to be Machiavelli Ruthless in the management of your career and learn to be able to read the writing on the wall you can normally get 3 to 5 years out of a US Employer before bouncing for a 20 to 30 percent raise which far outweighs "being loyal" staying for an annual 2% raise or lame 40% taxed bonus.

I was told at grad school that after 2-3 years at a company, you should either expect to “move up” (get promoted) or you should “move out” (leave for another company). I work alongside people who’ve been at my company for 10 years and have only been promoted once – some people are very loyal…

Post: #197

(09-09-2015 05:45 PM)WalterBlack Wrote:  

(09-09-2015 03:25 PM)Deepdiver Wrote:  You have to learn to be Machiavelli Ruthless in the management of your career and learn to be able to read the writing on the wall you can normally get 3 to 5 years out of a US Employer before bouncing for a 20 to 30 percent raise which far outweighs "being loyal" staying for an annual 2% raise or lame 40% taxed bonus.

I was told at grad school that after 2-3 years at a company, you should either expect to “move up” (get promoted) or you should “move out” (leave for another company). I work alongside people who’ve been at my company for 10 years and have only been promoted once – some people are very loyal…

In some industries people get comfortable and if their old lady is a nurse or teacher they are happy making bank and taking an occasional trip. In most tech industries they get merged or dumped or if Amazon worked like dogs...

Post: #198

(09-08-2015 04:14 PM)MrLemon Wrote:  I had an indian friend who used to laugh about all this. "You americans actually believe that indians have all those skills" he laughed. "You guys really need to get a clue. Most of us indians have fewer skills than the people we're replacing, but we just lie on our resumes and you fall for it."

-- For myself, I like Indians and they fit into US society great. They are one of the best immigrant groups we've ever had. But don't kid yourself. They are frequently scamming.

Yeah, you should definitely try reporting to one of them. See how it works out for you.

Post: #199

Bumping this old thread up due to recent news regarding H1B Visa abuse.

As a former software engineer who was "laid off" - translation, "replaced" by H1B Indian workers - at IBM in 2000, I'm not surprised by IBM's tactics of employing more and more H1B visa workers over American workers.

IBM Laid Off 20K Older Americans, Sought to Import 37K Foreign Workers

Quote:Outsourcing corporation IBM laid off about 20,000 older Americans in the last five years, a new investigation reveals, while the tech multinational sought to import at least 37,000 foreign workers to take U.S. jobs.

A joint investigation by ProPublica and Mother Jones reveals that about 60 percent of the Americans that were laid off by IBM in the last five years were workers over the age of forty. This amounts to about 20,000 40-years-old and older Americans being laid off by IBM since 2014.

At the same time, IBM has attempted to import at least 37,000 foreign workers on H-1B visas since 2016.

Every year, more than 100,000 foreign workers are brought to the U.S. on the H-1B visa and are allowed to stay for up to six years. That number has ballooned to potentially hundreds of thousands each year, as universities and non-profits are exempt from the cap. With more entering the U.S. through the visa, Americans are often replaced and forced to train their foreign replacements.

Publicly available data reviewed by Breitbart News reveals that in 2018, alone, IBM was one of the top three multinational corporations trying to import more than 10,000 H-1B foreign workers to take American jobs.

In 2017 and 2016, combined, IBM sought to import nearly 26,000 H-1B foreign workers to take coveted, high-paying jobs in the tech industry.

As Breitbart News has chronicled, American workers have been readily laid off from outsourcing firms like IBM, Infosys, Tata Consulting, and Capgemini, all of which are responsible for allegedly forcing their laid-off Americans employees to train their H-1B foreign replacements.

In cases highlighted by 60 Minutes, American workers laid off and replaced by H-1B foreign workers revealed that many of their offices, once entirely made up of Americans, had shifted to primarily male, Indian nationals.





Despite laying off thousands of American workers, and now having more employees on the payroll in India rather than the U.S., IBM CEO Ginni Rometty’s salary has continued to climb.

For example, Rometty’s salary has climbed to now upwards of $33 million a year. In 2014, Rometty’s salary was roughly $18 million, though that was before she gave herself a raise in 2015 when she raked in close to $20 million.

As Breitbart News most recently reported, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has tightened rules to try to prevent multinational corporations from outsourcing American jobs to H-1B foreign workers.

Since President Trump’s administration set up a hotline for Americans to report H-1B visa abuse, there have been more than 5,000 cases of alleged abuse within the visa program reported.

Tech conglomerates like Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple hide their H-1B foreign worker hires through outsourcing firms like Cognizant, Tata, and Infosys, as Breitbart News has reported. The practice allows the corporations to claim they are not undercutting or replacing American workers at extraordinary rates, as they simply contract the foreign workers through the outsourcing firms.

Post: #200

(09-08-2015 04:14 PM)MrLemon Wrote:  I had an indian friend who used to laugh about all this. "You americans actually believe that indians have all those skills" he laughed. "You guys really need to get a clue. Most of us indians have fewer skills than the people we're replacing, but we just lie on our resumes and you fall for it."

-- For myself, I like Indians and they fit into US society great. They are one of the best immigrant groups we've ever had. But don't kid yourself. They are frequently scamming.

Among the smaller cohort of Indians that do successfully assimilate into American culture (more likely the ones born in America), there are some that get annoyed by the country being flooded by too many Indians. I would compare it almost to the conservative Hispanics that have fully assimilated into the American way of life & culture (probably not 1st generation) & actually support Trump's wall.

But the interesting turn is as India develops into a rising superpower, the allure of living in America becomes less of a draw.