Intel layoffs cause H1-B backlash

[OhioChick]

20 Feb, 2009, 1126 hrs IST,Bloomberg

NEW DELHI: Microsoft Corp’s plan to eliminate US workers after lobbying for more foreigner visas is stirring resentment among lawmakers and employees.

As many as 5,000 employees are being shown the door at Microsoft, which uses more H1-B guest-worker visas than any other US company. Some employees and politicians say Microsoft should get rid of foreigners first.

“If they lay people off, are they going to think of America first or are they going to think of the world first?” Chuck Grassley, a Republican Senator from Iowa, said in an interview. He sent a letter to Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer the day after Microsoft announced the job cuts last month, demanding Ballmer fire visa holders first.

Across the technology industry, some of the biggest users of H1-B visas are cutting jobs, including Intel Corp, International Business Machines (IBM) and Hewlett-Packard Co. The firings at Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker, came less than a year after Chairman Bill Gates lobbied Congress for an expansion of the program.

Even before Microsoft announced the cuts, its first-ever companywide layoffs, comments on a blog run by an anonymous Microsoft worker angrily debated getting rid of guest workers first. The author of the Mini-Microsoft blog eventually had to censor and then completely block all arguments about visas, after the conversation “got downright nasty.”

New hires
Microsoft is hiring 2,000 to 3,000 workers over the next 18 months, offsetting the job cuts. Some of those will certainly be on H1-B visas, said Ginny Terzano, a spokeswoman for the Redmond, Washington-based company. She declined to comment on how many workers laid off are on visas. Laid-off Microsoft employees aren’t always a good fit for new positions, she said.

“If you have a laid off General Motors engineer, that doesn’t qualify them for a job as a software engineer,” Terzano said.


More: http://infotech.indiatimes.com/News/Intel_layoffs_cause_H1-B_backlash_/articleshow/4159037.cms

[ixion]

1. Microsoft pulls a Circuit City

one can only hope their fate is similar.

[DJ13]

2. India seems to feel they are entitled to jobs in the US

[OhioChick]

3. They sure do...

On the flip-side:

India firing foreign workers to give jobs to locals

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News_By_Industry/Jobs/Expatriate_executives_making_way_for_local_hires/articleshow/4039529.cms

[kywildcat]

8. I work for a compay who is laying of

here, and pushing as much work as possible to their offices in India. It's disconcerting to say the least.

[OhioChick]

9. I've heard of a lot of that as of late....

It's treasonous.

[babylonsister]

4. It's about time lawmakers got angry. Get angry enough,

maybe they'll change something. Not holding my breath though...

[Sanity Claws]

5. Microsoft used to use a lot of temp workers

Microsoft used to use several agencies in the Redmond/Seattle area who placed long-time temps with Microsoft temps. These temps, all local residents, no H1-B visa people, were discontinued first before Microsoft employees were laid off. (I would appreciate it if someone could confirm that the long term temps are now pretty much gone) This means that proportionately, local Microsoft workers were more greatly affected than would appear, if one focused on just the regular full-time Microsoft employees.

[formercia]

6. Time to think about Open Source.

How much is Microsoft adding to your bottom line?

I went Open Source years ago and have not regretted it. You can keep those old computers running for years longer because Open Source operating systems don't require the resources that Microsoft Operating Systems require to function at an reasonable level.

[FatDave]

7. Absolutely.

Windows was never a good choice for a server OS, and the latest Ubuntu releases are finally making Linux an acceptable desktop choice for the average PC user.

http://www.ubuntu.com/products/whatisubuntu/810features/

I now have XP installed on a virtual PC that I run in a window for checking websites in IE. Other than that, I'm MS free for almost 4 years.

[Skittles]

10. they need to cut all H1-B shit

this garbage is killing our economy - Ohiochick, like me, knows TONS of qualifed American IT folk who cannot get jobs

[fudge stripe cookays]

11. Listen to that shit...

“If you have a laid off General Motors engineer, that doesn’t qualify them for a job as a software engineer,” Terzano said.


Yes, because God knows, there are NO unemployed American software engineers right now. :eyes:

[Skittles]

12. you know it, fudge

bastards can't even come up with decent excuses anymore

[OhioChick]

18. Not shit. Sad, isn't it?

Bastards.

[MindPilot]

15. And we all know NO ONE at GM does software

What an ignorant comment.

A GM software engineer is probably one of reasons your car starts in the morning.

[anonymous171]

13. Why are republicans the only ones making a fuss about this?

They hate the American worker. We should be the ones raising hell over this, not them.

[OhioChick]

16. Durbin was on board with Grassley on this issue for a few years...

But I don't know what happened. :shrug:

[MindPilot]

14. Vista is what happens when you outsource development

I'm being retired early and there is no doubt I will be replaced with a H1-B person. My company is spending tens of millions on a multi-year contract with Tata Consultancy in Bangalore. The plan is to outsource ALL server, app and desktop support.

Good luck with that.

My experience with the Indian workers has been that although they are well-educated and dependable, they seem to have a work ethic to do the bare minimum and nothing more. They generally (not all, generally) tend to lack creativity, always simply following procedure which unfortunately means their diagnostic skills are really very average.

[OhioChick]

17. Since you mentioned "experience" regarding Indian workers...

The majority that I've worked with (other than a bare few) are just as you explained. They only "do" what they are told to and do lack creativity, but above all really lack problem solving skills.

[fudge stripe cookays]

19. I was a contractor at GE for about 2 weeks.

I begged my company to pull me, and when they didn't, I pissed off the GE manager enough that they had no choice. He he. :D

What a bloated, inefficient MESS. They outsource their OWN IT department! For the two weeks that I was there, I had my own laptop for about 2 days. The rest of that time, I was using a loaner laptop from someone else. I couldn't leave my desk to go to the bathroom (a mile away from the cube farm) because it would lock.

I couldn't contact IT because all the Indians would do was tell me it was a security issue, using someone else's computer. Finally, one of the IT guys in the cube farm nearby started coming over to get me working again.

:eyes:
I have fucking nightmares about that place. I won't buy another GE product as long as I live. If a place only has GE lightbulbs, I pass and then go buy Sylvanias somewhere else.

Edit to add-- oh and to add insult to injury, when I was finally pulled, they essentially accused me of stealing the stupid laptop, because their admin didn't look under her desk, where I had deposited said laptop, even leaving a post-it on her desk telling her it was there. more :eyes:

[MindPilot]

20. Thanks for sharing that experience

Why is it a good twenty years after the introduction of computers to the workplace, management still seems to think that IT is something that magically happens in the background?

When my users ask why it take me so long to get something done, my pat answer is "because your management at some point decided that it is more cost-effective to have you staring at a blank screen than to hire me some help."