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Tech Industry Warns That More Remote-Work Jobs Are Headed Out of U.S.

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Re: Tech Industry Warns That More Remote-Work Jobs Are Headed Out of U.S.

#2
Pre covid H1B was already huge and somewhat under fire for being a cost of labour diluting trend.

If your company was willing to pay a US immigration cost to get somebody in, and can now shave 10%+ off salary to get the same awesome brains from another country AND get 24/7 effort on the problem... what's not to love?

Re: Tech Industry Warns That More Remote-Work Jobs Are Headed Out of U.S.

#3
post #2

Pre covid H1B was already huge and somewhat under fire for being a cost of labour diluting trend. If your company was willing to pay a US immigration cost to get somebody in, and can now shave 10%+ off salary to get the same awesome brains from another country AND get 24/7 effort on the problem... what's not to love?

because that’s not how capitalism works

capitalism means making profits

making profits means lowering costs

outsourcing is a way to lower costs

Re: Tech Industry Warns That More Remote-Work Jobs Are Headed Out of U.S.

#5
This trend was fully present pre covid, especially in the high cost areas. If your task requires “programmers”, there’s lots of them and companies seek the lowest cost. If, rather, you have a task that requires “top-notch” or speciality programmers, there’s far fewer of them to choose from.

Before, companies needed to find them, then convince them to relocate and deal with the immigration hassles associated with relocation. This was tedious and companies hire companies to do this. If these people are not required to relocate, the size of the hiring pool increases to include multi-professional families or those with strong geographic preferences.

I guess this can be rephrased to: if programmers are a commodity, work will flow to the lowest cost area possible. If it’s anti-commodity/bespoke work, one must gather the craftspeople one needs. And these people know they’re valuable which makes the negotiation more even.

Re: Tech Industry Warns That More Remote-Work Jobs Are Headed Out of U.S.

#6

'Tech industry' has offices in India, China, Canada already to exploit the cheaper labor directly.

During the last year I know multiple people who have doubled there salaries with being hired remotely and local companies being unhappy about the situation.

Re: Tech Industry Warns That More Remote-Work Jobs Are Headed Out of U.S.

#7
A better headline would have been, “Tech industry uses scare tactics to try and force people back into the office”.

Been there, done that. If it could have been outsourced it would have already been outsourced. Do you really think they were sitting around saying,”I know they cost more but I’m too busy playing golf to bother” and they’re only getting around to it now?

Re: Tech Industry Warns That More Remote-Work Jobs Are Headed Out of U.S.

#8
H1B visas are a lottery with Many don't realize how bad its gotten lately on the immigration front. Last year, USCIS wasted 160K green cards, this year they are on track to waste 200K green cards, simply because they are too slow to process paperwork.

Companies are probably tired of all this uncertainty and legal overhead so they now offer relocation to their offices outside US if you have visa problems and to have easier access to talent. Remote work has accelerated this since teams are now learning to be geographically distributed.

Companies are now finding it easier to just let their top talent work from their home country, pay them way more than local rates (helps retention) and setup payroll than deal with US visas and immigration.

It's only a few years ordeal to get a green card if you're not Indian, otherwise it's a multi-decade wait. So many are starting to take the offer and move out once they've earned a decent amount.

Re: Tech Industry Warns That More Remote-Work Jobs Are Headed Out of U.S.

#9
post #3
post #2

Pre covid H1B was already huge and somewhat under fire for being a cost of labour diluting trend. If your company was willing to pay a US immigration cost to get somebody in, and can now shave 10%+ off salary to get the same awesome brains from another country AND get 24/7 effort on the problem... what's not to love?

because that’s not how capitalism works capitalism means making profits making profits means lowering costs outsourcing is a way to lower costs

eh... if the only way for you to increase profits is to cut costs you have a problem that will accelerate after you have nothing more to cut.

Re: Tech Industry Warns That More Remote-Work Jobs Are Headed Out of U.S.

#10
post #7

A better headline would have been, “Tech industry uses scare tactics to try and force people back into the office”. Been there, done that. If it could have been outsourced it would have already been outsourced. Do you really think they were sitting around saying,”I know they cost more but I’m too busy playing golf to bother” and they’re only getting around to it now?

Actually yes I do.

Feel very strongly that the tech work from home movement is shining a light on something they don’t want a light shined on. They should be vehemently making cases that teams need to be in offices together and that “face to face is best” to keep their jobs in their citadel.

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