Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Big Tech Resumed Hiring Foreign Workers Just Weeks After Layoffs

leefang.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 254 posts

Re: Big Tech Resumed Hiring Foreign Workers Just Weeks After Layoffs

#71

Post by bubblethink »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #36
ivalm wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s not really how it works. It’s hard to be fine-grained when firing 12k people. It’s operational much easier to do the layoff and then fix the gaps.

Indeed, the gist of my complaint to my Congressional reps is going to be “Google appears incapable of managing Human Resources at scale and defaults instead to hiring folks on visas at the same time letting a bunch of existing domestic workers go.” “Too hard” to sorting hat a subset of 12k employees into other roles and slash and burn instead? You shouldn’t get H1B quota. We are coming up on an election cycle after a…

The visa status is only incidental in all this. You expect them to prioritize training existing employees or maybe even hire citizens, but there is no logical or legal reason to do so. At Google's level, they have access to the entire global market and they do not care about visa stuff.

Re: Big Tech Resumed Hiring Foreign Workers Just Weeks After Layoffs

#72

Post by wanttocomment »

TexanFeller wrote: post #7

Once you switch to full remote, why not hire from Central and South America at maybe 1/4 the price of a Californian.

Because they also have vastly different cultures and shared understandings which often require skilled management.

Re: Big Tech Resumed Hiring Foreign Workers Just Weeks After Layoffs

#73

Post by paxys »

stefan_ wrote: post #50
paxys wrote: post #25

Whoever wrote this doesn't understand how the H-1B system works. Most of these applications are for existing employees of the company who are on some other kind of work authorization (like EAD or OPT). Because of the lottery they have to reapply every year for 3-4 years until their authorization expires. The layoffs have nothing to do with anything.

That doesn't make a difference to the H-1B requirements. No other domestic worker could do the same job? It's a scam.

> No other domestic worker could do the same job?

That is not an H-1B requirement.

Re: Big Tech Resumed Hiring Foreign Workers Just Weeks After Layoffs

#74

Post by whaleofatw2022 »

Gigachad wrote: post #62
whaleofatw2022 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We still have a monopoly on good language practices for American english and/or AFAIK how to actually build something that solves business needs rather than requirements. We saw similar between 2005ish-2015ish. Lots of offshoring where you could get whatever you 'wanted' built, but it was exactly what you 'wanted' and not what actually made sense. By this I am referring to contract houses that weren't quite 'code gen…

You are probably thinking about dirt cheap outsourcing to places like India. When part of the shift that's happening now is internal hiring of full time developers in places like Australia or the UK where the language skills and culture is pretty much the same but the wages far lower.

The cost of Australian software historically gives me pause to at least part of your comment.

That said, yes a lot of counties can provide very competent software development and houses.. but the communication time gap is often still present.

Another shop I worked at had EU devs that were competent, but that communication gap was still a big hurdle.

Re: Big Tech Resumed Hiring Foreign Workers Just Weeks After Layoffs

#76

Post by AndrewKemendo »

ivalm wrote: post #28
toomuchtodo wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And there was no one capable for these roles in those 12,000 people? I find that hard to believe. If the answer is “no”, prove it (I have been the sponsor of H1Bs, and am familiar with the paperwork and the process). Edit: > Normalizing reneging on job offers is a bad path to go down. Google has already done this previously during economic uncertainty. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/29/google-said-to-rescind-job-o...

That’s not really how it works. It’s hard to be fine-grained when firing 12k people. It’s operational much easier to do the layoff and then fix the gaps.

This is not ok.

This is not an ok way to think about it and certainly not something we should accept, let alone justify as a viable business practice

Doing a lot of the wrong thing doesn’t absolve you from responsibility that you have to each individual.

Re: Big Tech Resumed Hiring Foreign Workers Just Weeks After Layoffs

#77

Post by diebeforei485 »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #26
shihab wrote: post #6

> Google filed dozens of applications for foreign workers to serve as software engineers... For comparison, Google laid off 12,000 employees this cycle.

And there was no one capable for these roles in those 12,000 people? I find that hard to believe. If the answer is “no”, prove it (I have been the sponsor of H1Bs, and am familiar with the paperwork and the process). Edit: > Normalizing reneging on job offers is a bad path to go down. Google has already done this previously during economic uncertainty. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/29/google-said-to-rescind-job-o...

These folks were already hired. You seem to be suggesting that Google should have rescinded their offers.

Normalizing reneging on job offers is a bad path to go down.

Re: Big Tech Resumed Hiring Foreign Workers Just Weeks After Layoffs

#78

Post by sumedh »

ivalm wrote: post #28
toomuchtodo wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And there was no one capable for these roles in those 12,000 people? I find that hard to believe. If the answer is “no”, prove it (I have been the sponsor of H1Bs, and am familiar with the paperwork and the process). Edit: > Normalizing reneging on job offers is a bad path to go down. Google has already done this previously during economic uncertainty. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/29/google-said-to-rescind-job-o...

That’s not really how it works. It’s hard to be fine-grained when firing 12k people. It’s operational much easier to do the layoff and then fix the gaps.

> It’s hard to be fine-grained when firing 12k people.

Its a good thing that Google is a AI first company. It can use AI to do such fine grained search.

Re: Big Tech Resumed Hiring Foreign Workers Just Weeks After Layoffs

#79

Post by Frost1x »

thomasahle wrote: post #68
Frost1x wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The layoffs have nothing to do with anything. They probably should though, at least I think so. With mass layoffs of this scale, it seems like H1B roles should be the on the top of chopping block if we're keeping in the spirit of the actual purpose of the program. That means those H1B roles should have been so unique and world class talented that they were considered irreplaceable by the other thousands laid off. It…

> this should be pretty easy to provide evidence for if your holders are say Google Fellows (picking Google as an example) or the Peter Norvigs of the world. Google Fellows wouldn't be on H-1B but on O-1. The H-1B visa is a good fit for foreign nationals in the early to mid-stages of their careers hoping to expand their experience by working in the U.S. The O-1 visa is generally suited for established professionals a…

Very true, I forgot about the O-1 visa distinction.

From the DOL (https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/immigration/h1b), emphasis mine:

The H-1B program applies to employers seeking to hire nonimmigrant aliens as workers in specialty occupations or as fashion models of distinguished merit and ability. A specialty occupation is one that requires the application of a body of highly specialized knowledge and the attainment of at least a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent. The intent of the H-1B provisions is to help employers who cannot otherwise obtain needed business skills and abilities from the U.S. workforce by authorizing the temporary employment of qualified individuals who are not otherwise authorized to work in the United States.

Post reply on HN