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Google, Meta, Amazon hiring low-paid H1B workers after US layoffs

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Re: Google, Meta, Amazon hiring low-paid H1B workers after US layoffs

#221
post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

H-1B have no leverage and can get in emergency hire situations. This encourages exploitation. Like a slave they might be lucky and have a good master.

While I agree that getting fired as a H-1B could end up terribly, I have yet to encounter a single visa holder that's grossly underpaid or mistreated. > Like a slave they might be lucky and have a good master. Can't take this kind of hyperbole seriously.

You aren't supposed to take hyperbole literally.

I didn't hire H1B workers because I couldn't find Java programmers in the US...

Re: Google, Meta, Amazon hiring low-paid H1B workers after US layoffs

#223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a manager of a team that's mostly H1Bs at Google. It's mostly fine but a few of them just refuse improve their English, and it's frustrating spending hours every day just being an English teacher to an engineer who writes at a 5th grade level. The problem with hiring too many H1Bs is they speak to each other in Chinese and thus take forever to become proficient at communicating with the rest of the company. Also,…

Here's something I don't understand. If google pays the same regardless, why bother to hire H1B at all?

If there are n tech jobs to be done, y people in group A who can do them, and z people in group B who can do them, opening hiring to all (y + z) people makes hiring easier than confining yourself to only y.

Easier could mean easier to hire, cheaper to hire (even if you pay them all the same as each other, the clearing wage is likely lower due to increased supply), easier to retain, etc.

Re: Google, Meta, Amazon hiring low-paid H1B workers after US layoffs

#224
post #41

Me and many other people commented here when the whole thing started that layoffs in a time of record profits and cashflows were basically a strategy to keep salaries low. At this point I honestly don't know how innocent one has to be to think that everything is an organic coincidence and not an orchestrated move. Companies colluding to make the life of workers worse and boost their profits, that has never happened b…

Some people refuse to consider any evidence because they believe that “free market” capitalism is inherently good and correct.

[deleted]

Re: Google, Meta, Amazon hiring low-paid H1B workers after US layoffs

#225
post #192
post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because this is in America.

I know you're joking but some people actually think that way and it's so disgusting. No borders no nations no walls

Where's the joke? The purpose of any government ought to be to benefit its citizens. Certainly there's a moral obligation to not unduly wrong others in the course of that pursuit, but it is contrary to the mission of a government to benefit foreigners at the expense of its own population.

Re: Google, Meta, Amazon hiring low-paid H1B workers after US layoffs

#226

Generally not supposed to say this out loud, but being the only American on an all H1B team at these companies can be absolutely brutal. Very alienating, always missing out on back channel communications, no sympathy for missteps

Social posturing in certain cultures is very different from Euro rooted cultures in a way that you don’t notice until you are immersed in it for awhile. I personally found this aspect extremely hard to work with, and it seems to guide communication to a surprising degree.

Re: Google, Meta, Amazon hiring low-paid H1B workers after US layoffs

#227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve been the only US citizen on a team and now I am on a team with exclusively white, remote employees. I’ve watched my current team build the worst systems I’ve ever seen while constantly congregating themselves.

"while constantly congregating themselves" you meant a different word here but I can't for the life of me figure out which one

perhaps "congratulating" ?

Re: Google, Meta, Amazon hiring low-paid H1B workers after US layoffs

#228
post #151

I mean, no kidding. Half the people I work with are H-1B. The program takes jobs away from Americans and should be illegal. I want to work with people from my town, not people from halfway across the world.

Why are Americans more deserving of jobs then other people?

Because a nation should put its citizens interests first. This isn’t a hard concept.

There’s plenty of companies though that don’t do h1b. Major telcos, defense contractors (those are us citizen only), a lot of small hedge funds, etc.

Re: Google, Meta, Amazon hiring low-paid H1B workers after US layoffs

#229

Generally not supposed to say this out loud, but being the only American on an all H1B team at these companies can be absolutely brutal. Very alienating, always missing out on back channel communications, no sympathy for missteps

I'm a manager of a team that's mostly H1Bs at Google. It's mostly fine but a few of them just refuse improve their English, and it's frustrating spending hours every day just being an English teacher to an engineer who writes at a 5th grade level. The problem with hiring too many H1Bs is they speak to each other in Chinese and thus take forever to become proficient at communicating with the rest of the company. Also,…

Interesting, isn't it considered impolite to speak in a language that someone in the group doesn't understand?

When I was in Germany, Germans even texted their SO in English in case I glance over their phones. Maybe the group I was in was exceptionally welcoming but everywhere in Europe where I lived(EU, non-EU, UK etc.) it was always considered rude to speak a language that others don't understand and everyone always tried their best to speak in English as a lingua franca.

If I happen to be in a working group that speaks multiple languages, I would definitely raise the question of speaking a common language in a work environment because you can't all be on the same page when your communications are patchy.

Re: Google, Meta, Amazon hiring low-paid H1B workers after US layoffs

#230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's how it works in practice: You create a job posting that's buried on your careers page and has so many very specific requirements for an underleveled role (because it's custom-made for the H1B person you want to hire) that no local worker can possibly meet them all. Then you half-heartedly phone screen a few people to check the box before throwing up your hands and saying, "We tried and weren't able to find any…

There are actually even more arcane requirements like placing a job ad in a Sunday newspaper with a certain distribution. The ads have bizarre keywords that make it borderline impossible to determine the real job. Those regulations are controlled by the DOL.

> arcane requirements

One of which is some sort of a posted positions/wages or something at work place. ( it doesn't have to be prominent but it has to be there, usually it's in the same forgotten corner where they post labor right rules etc., usually around the water cooler I guess )

During Covid, our company told H1Bs to print those out and put them up in their kitchen fridges since it was their temporary "worksite" XD

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