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Indian IT, “You're Fired”

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Re: Indian IT, “You're Fired”

#11

Post by bogomipz »

HenryTheHorse wrote: post #7
aNoob7000 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with your comment. The author seems taken back by the callousness of the cuts, but this is nothing new in the United States or even in other western countries. I think Indian IT firms have gotten a free ride for many years using labor arbitrage. Now that there's a whiff of protectionism in the air from the United States and cloud computing is surging things aren't so easy anymore.

> I think Indian IT firms have gotten a free ride for many years using labor arbitrage. Got it. So Apple building the phone in China or Cisco building routers in China is not labor arbitrage.

No, they are all labor arbitrage. Manufacturing labor arbitrage is just a little more sticky since China has the production facilities.

Re: Indian IT, “You're Fired”

#12

Post by syshum »

eleitl wrote: post #6
jussij wrote: post #2

From the page: At the meeting, Mr. Sikka also described how the company “released 11,000 jobs due to automation.” Many small shareholders appealed to the board to consider the “human cost” of layoffs in the software sector. That quote made me chuckle, since I have witnessed first hand the IT industry in the West face massive job cuts through Out Sourcing and that has been going on for decades now. Now I don't blame O…

It is interesting that he mentions Western protectionism. Those of us in the trenches know that oursourcing rarely works in practice but for that part of the management that is in charge of the outsourcing program, after moving on to greener pa$tures. His successor usually receives the blame for later failures.

>> but for that part of the management that is in charge of the outsourcing program, after moving on to greener pa$tures.

But that is outsourcing "working". that is the intended goal of those managers, to aid themselves not the company not the employees but personal advancement

Re: Indian IT, “You're Fired”

#13

Post by nailer »

As someone who worked for a team at IBM where we were forced to train our replacements in India, it seems odd that anyone in outsourcing would be surprised when those roles are further reduced by automation with little regard for the wellbeing of employees.

Re: Indian IT, “You're Fired”

#14

Post by planetjones »

I don't agree with a lot of what Western companies have done regarding sending IT work to India en masse. However, there is a real human cost now of the lay offs. I believe many Indians have taken out bank loans to buy property and there is no safety net in place for employees who are sacked with no notice. So they are at risk of losing their home and the health benefits (for the whole family I believe) is tied to the employer. Overall a very sad situation where those outsourcing the work by the bucketload only looked at cost 'savings' at a point in time - never the social impact of their decisions.

Re: Indian IT, “You're Fired”

#15

Post by mabbo »

I've never understood the ways that modern companies handle layoffs- call people into a meeting room one by one, tell them they're being let go, then escort them out of the building. It's not just that it's cold, but it builds a huge cloud of oppression for everyone else.

I just watched this happen to a friend, and the guy who was sitting next to him is now saying "I could be next, better start talking to recruiters". Do the companies think we're all going to cut contact with the friend and valued coworker? Of course not, we're going to be buying them a beer in a couple hours.

I don't know what a better way would be, but I'd sure like to see some innovation in that space. Something less cold, something more human.

Re: Indian IT, “You're Fired”

#16

Post by golemotron »

The pathology behind the hypocrisy is the obsession with values we see in corporations today.

Let's be clear: work is something we do to provide for ourselves. It is a contract. That contract should not encompass a prescribed belief system, and that is exactly what 'values' are. In the past 30 years we've turned many work environments into quasi-religions where it is expected that employees adhere to particular sets of values or at least signal that they do. Doing your job well should be enough.

Re: Indian IT, “You're Fired”

#17

Post by TheAdamAndChe »

Many comments here are laughing about the irony of the outsourced labor becoming irrelevant, but it should kind of be worrying. Organizations are lowering the number of jobs to the point that only the most skilled and experienced workers get jobs. If there are no lower level positions for people to take on, how will the masses work their way up and improve? How can our local and global economies improve for everyone when fewer and fewer people can get good jobs?

This goes for every country, not just India or America. If an economy improves on paper yet the majority of people see a decline in quality of life, what kind of destabilizing effects will that have on the area?

Re: Indian IT, “You're Fired”

#18

Post by teyc »

There is a silver lining for Indian IT in all this. Indiscriminate firing to meet quota is a forcing function for indigenous software companies to grow and thrive. Will there be enough work for all of them? Maybe not. Will it raise the quality bar for those who wish to persist in IT? Most certainly yes. This is not the end.

Re: Indian IT, “You're Fired”

#19

Post by PenguinCoder »

planetjones wrote: post #14

I don't agree with a lot of what Western companies have done regarding sending IT work to India en masse. However, there is a real human cost now of the lay offs. I believe many Indians have taken out bank loans to buy property and there is no safety net in place for employees who are sacked with no notice. So they are at risk of losing their home and the health benefits (for the whole family I believe) is tied to th…

That's no difference from the US employees who have faced layoff or their jobs being outsourced.

Re: Indian IT, “You're Fired”

#20

Post by peternicky »

planetjones wrote: post #14

I don't agree with a lot of what Western companies have done regarding sending IT work to India en masse. However, there is a real human cost now of the lay offs. I believe many Indians have taken out bank loans to buy property and there is no safety net in place for employees who are sacked with no notice. So they are at risk of losing their home and the health benefits (for the whole family I believe) is tied to th…

Unfortunately most businesses operate to enhance shareholder value, not the broader social good. It's a sad day when people loose jobs, especially in a a callus manner described by the post, however, it is silly when these workers are surprised by this. It is simply a progression of their local economy.
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