U.S. IT Workers Training H-1B Replacements

June 15th, 2014

This has been going on since before I left the IT world behind back in 2005. I’m surprised that there are still IT jobs to outsource in any number. Maybe they go and comeback and go again…

The feeble U.S. flag display in the cubicles was cringe inducing. Oh dear.

Via: ComputerWorld:

Training the replacement workers involved holding morning-long WebEx meetings several times a week with offshore outsourcing staff based in India. The sessions were recorded as details about the environment, including diagrams and scripts, were shared.

As they moved closer to the termination date for the U.S. workers, the overseas employees would follow or shadow, via WebEx sessions, everything an IT worker did during the day. The outsourcing firm’s onshore staff helped to coordinate these efforts, but also worked to untangle the meaning of some of the questions.

The overseas workers did not appear to have much practical experience, and the same questions were asked repeatedly, A.B. said.

Before they lost their jobs, A.B.’s co-workers decided to made a subtle and symbolic protest over what was happening: As the H-1B visa workers gradually took over the offices once occupied by U.S. workers, one employee brought in a bunch of small American flags on sticks.

The flags were retrofitted so they could fit into the walls of the cubicles.

(Computerworld viewed a photograph of the cubicle flags, but decided not to publish it to protect A.B’s identity.)

The flags were displayed, cubicle after cubicle, much like way flags are hung on homes in a residential neighborhoods on the 4th of July. They were visible to anyone walking down the hall. “That was the only thing that we could do,” A.B. said. “We felt that we were making a statement. But to be honest, I don’t think the Indian workers fully understood what was going on.”

One Response to “U.S. IT Workers Training H-1B Replacements”

  1. erth2karin says:

    Offshoring and Outsourcing?
    Either of those would be bad enough, but what the company is really doing is importing cheap labor with the express intent of undercutting American workers and screwing them out of their jobs.
    I wonder how bad it will have to get before any governmental body bothers to look past the H-1B fig leaf and call bullshit.
    Why didn’t the A.B. & company just flat out refuse to train their replacements? That’s right up there with mobsters making the guy they’re about to whack dig his own shallow grave.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.