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

91–100 of 254 posts

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

#91

Post by belltaco »

kazamaloo wrote: post #64
whaleofatw2022 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Many of the Google visas are for new employees, with some starting as soon as August 17th. Refutes at least two points you made if not three..

Not sure how the article knows "new" employees, but something doesn't click for me. H1B visas kick in on October 1st of each year. August 17th can only be for H1B transfers. Might still be a new employee, but definitely not someone coming from overseas.

Also from where is the article getting that they're low paid? Its paywalled. If you see their filings the salaries are on par.

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

#92

Post by joshuamorton »

kasey_junk wrote: post #82
darth_avocado wrote: post #17

There are multiple missing things for this: 1. Layoffs happened regardless of visa status, so visa workers were part of the layoffs. 2. The visa applications for H1B could be for workers already working in the company under a different visa like TN or F1 3. The positions affected by layoffs and positions filing for H1B could be different. For example, a front end position may be affected by layoffs, but the visa appl…

I don’t necessarily believe this position but not a single one of your points argues against the theory that H1b visas are bad for green card/citizen holders during times of layoffs. It’s a perfectly logical (if not humane given current immigration law) position to hold that companies should be required to lay off visa holders first and for there to be a “cooling off” period between layoffs and hiring of visa holders…

> It’s a perfectly logical (if not humane given current immigration law) position to hold that companies should be required to lay off visa holders first and for there to be a “cooling off”

Only from a particular nationalist sentiment that isn't aligned with capitalism and free-markets.

It is fairly reasonable to believe that tech layoffs were used to blunt worker power. It's much harder to make that argument around h1bs, given the relatively small number of h1b employees, relative ease of employing foreign nationals, and (within the set of companies we're focused on) relative equality of visa holders (in terms of salary and growth opportunities).

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

#93

Post by arcticbull »

kasey_junk wrote: post #82
darth_avocado wrote: post #17

There are multiple missing things for this: 1. Layoffs happened regardless of visa status, so visa workers were part of the layoffs. 2. The visa applications for H1B could be for workers already working in the company under a different visa like TN or F1 3. The positions affected by layoffs and positions filing for H1B could be different. For example, a front end position may be affected by layoffs, but the visa appl…

I don’t necessarily believe this position but not a single one of your points argues against the theory that H1b visas are bad for green card/citizen holders during times of layoffs. It’s a perfectly logical (if not humane given current immigration law) position to hold that companies should be required to lay off visa holders first and for there to be a “cooling off” period between layoffs and hiring of visa holders…

> It’s a perfectly logical (if not humane given current immigration law) position to hold that companies should be required to lay off visa holders first and for there to be a “cooling off” period between layoffs and hiring of visa holders.

Given these folks could be 10+ year long-term Indian residents of the US with approved I-140s waiting for their priority dates to come up, I'd say this would be incredibly inhumane. Generally sending people back where they came from because the company they work at made poor decisions feels like a bad idea, actually. Especially for a country as dependent on immigration as the US is to even come close to maintaining its population.

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

#94

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#95

Post by thatfrenchguy »

kasey_junk wrote: post #82
darth_avocado wrote: post #17

There are multiple missing things for this: 1. Layoffs happened regardless of visa status, so visa workers were part of the layoffs. 2. The visa applications for H1B could be for workers already working in the company under a different visa like TN or F1 3. The positions affected by layoffs and positions filing for H1B could be different. For example, a front end position may be affected by layoffs, but the visa appl…

I don’t necessarily believe this position but not a single one of your points argues against the theory that H1b visas are bad for green card/citizen holders during times of layoffs. It’s a perfectly logical (if not humane given current immigration law) position to hold that companies should be required to lay off visa holders first and for there to be a “cooling off” period between layoffs and hiring of visa holders…

> It’s a perfectly logical (if not humane given current immigration law) position to hold that companies should be required to lay off visa holders first and for there to be a “cooling off” period between layoffs and hiring of visa holders.

This is really suboptimal though, what if you have a H1B worker that's a high performer in a key position that would make your company collapse if they left but say, they were born in India, and you're laying off folks in projects that failed / folks that are low-performing.

It's pretty easy to fix the perverse incentives of H1B hiring: give folks a green card after being here for 3 years, that's basically how long it takes for ROW folks to get green-cards in good years.

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

#97

Post by bhawks »

Hiring H1Bs post layoffs adds distraction to the real problem at hand.

Google's 10k layoff was simply not justified by management's soulless explanation. The company is a technical and financial juggernaut. It is still hiring. The only problem they faced is they wanted to pivot their headcount investment on a grand scale and did not want to deal with the typical horse trading reorgs take.

Tldr Google's layoffs was just an example of leadership taking the easy way out and it also is a time in the macro economy where wall street will award a layoff.

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

#98

Post by bitL »

SoftTalker wrote: post #89
thaumasiotes wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, there is nothing an employer hates more than the idea of letting employees become contractors.

They love having contractors, what they hate is having contractors and the IRS later telling them "no, they are employees, and you owe payroll taxes and penalties for the last 5 years"

That risk is eliminated with foreign contractors. It's import/export of services.

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

#99

Post by jimbob45 »

Gigachad wrote: post #13
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.

Americans like to think they have a monopoly on skilled programmers. But the reality is that most countries have them and they will do the same work for a fraction of the price. Everything is done over the internet these days so it doesn't matter that much where you are located.

99% of what makes a developer valuable is their skill in communication, not their skill in coding.

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

#100

Post by thatfrenchguy »

phpisthebest wrote: post #27
howinteresting wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google isn't TCS or Wipro. It pays H1B workers very high wages.

I am sure they pay their H1B workers less than their non-H1B workers. So it still may be "high wages" but that does not negate the GrandParent comment that they laid off higher paid workers in favor in importing lower paid workers

They don't. Not to mention the H1B application only mention base salary, which is fairly irrelevant for those companies.
Post reply on HN