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Microsoft Says H-1B Workers Among Those Losing Jobs
CWmike notes that after a US Senator urged Microsoft to lay off H-1B workers first, Microsoft says it is cutting a 'significant number' of foreign workers as part of the layoff it announced last week. But experts say there is nothing in the law requiring a company to cut the jobs of H-1B workers before US workers. David Kussin, an immigration attorney, said, 'In fact, the law is very well designed to say that you have to treat H-1Bs the same as US citizens in all regards.' Another H-1B critic, UC Davis professor Norman Matloff, said the Senator's letter would help their fight. 'If Microsoft doesn't state that they will lay off the H-1Bs first — and they won't state this — then it would be awfully tough for Bill Gates to come back to the Hill and urge an H-1B increase, wouldn't it?'"
I'm not trolling, but what real work gets doen at Microsoft these days? Does is take tens of thousands of engineers to make essentially cosmetic changes to an Operating System or a word-processing application?
Out here in India the only employees one gets to see from Microsoft is the legal team; not the sales-people or MVPs. Except for CD-packaging and license printing; I cannot think of any sphere of activity that requires lots of manpower at Microsoft.
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
H1-B ? What a nice name... During the Viet Nam war the vietnamese also has been nicknamed a similar way: OHB oriental human being... Isn't a form of depersonnalisation of poeple? Stick a such "code name" on poeple allow to deny their individuality IMHO. What your "code name"? Like it? :-S
Claude LaFreniere aka climenole
Jeez. You're either 18 years old, or you never developed any kind of maturity.
Being an Asian with H1B is taking jobs, but being from Europe, it is heritage.
Perhaps that perception exists because the level of quality for a lot of Asians doesn't quite match that of their European counterparts.
Foreign workers have up until their arrival in no way contributed to America, it's economy or culture. There is nothing wrong with tribalism (to use your words). We as a culture and a people form a unique entity that is certainly correct in seeking to prosper.
As my children have rights by being my children that exceed the rights of other children, so Americans also have rights that exceed those of Non-Americans when in this country.
load "$",8,1
Giving someone money is nice but it does not give them rights. H1B workers still have to leave the US one week after being fired. M$ has tried to play that fact up to their advantage, "Oh noes, we can't send our poor friends home to starve," but the ability to do just that is half the reason M$ has them here in the first place. Their loss of freedom is a direct assault on your own. M$ has used H1B workers to lower the expectations and pay of all their employees.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Second, if the H-1b workers are here legitimately then I can't find anything in the law requiring Microsoft to lay them off first. Correct me if I'm wrong. I may have missed something.
THIRD, there is plenty of evidence that there has been a systemic and deliberate abuse of the provisions of the law in hiring H-1b workers. Specifically, the requirement that the employer make a good faith effort to hire US citizens prior to application for an H-1b visa.
FOURTH, Microsoft is the largest user, and therefore likely the largest abuser of the H-1b provision.
FIFTH, the penalty for filing a fraudulent H-1b application is: To knowingly furnish any false information in the preparation of this form and any supporting documentation thereto, or to aid, abet or counsel another to do so is a felony, punishable by $10,000 fine or five years in the penitentiary, or both (18 U.S.C. 1001). Other penalties apply as well to fraud or misuse of this immigration document (U.S.C. 1546) and to perjury with respect to this form (18 U.S.C. 1546 and 1621).
SIXTH: Since this practice is likely pervasive at Microsoft, it must be prosecuted as a criminal Racket under the provisions of RICO.
SEVENTH: Since Bill Gates and Steve Balmer are clearly the leaders of this apparently criminal organization, they should be indicted and tried for fraud and perjury.
Seastead this.
So, M$ imports and employs H1B candidates as cheap labor to build it's products? That is the same as outsourcing your labor to over seas sweat shops, except they drive them like slaves in Redmond.
I knew Bill Gates and Ballmer were douche bags, but this shit even gives douche bags a bad name.
"Suppose you were an idiot...and suppose you were a member of Congress...but I repeat myself." Mark Twain
We were certainly paid the same as any other employee with a similar job and similar experience.
Really? Folks openly talked about how much they were being paid? Hmmm. Interesting.
The major bottleneck was waiting to get any resumes for candidates that seemed worth interviewing.
I was once being prepped for interviews after grad school and the placement office told us about an interviewing technique by a local company that was lifted from MS:
The candidate was asked, "How many diapers are sold in the US?" (Saying I'll Google it is the 'wrong' answer, BTW.)
The successful candidate said something like, "Well, there are 300 million people in the US and 1% are having kids. Therefore, there are 3 million babies. Now, babies need to be changed 3 times a day. So that's 9 million diapers a day. Which is 63 million diapers per week."
She got the job. BTW, all of those numbers were pulled out of her ass, but she got the job because of her "logical" thinking.
I can create hiring standards that no one can satisfy. Are those standards pertinent to the job? Nope. But it sure makes my standards look exclusive.
If you consider how un-innovative MS is, I think their standards are completely bogus.
Another thing, how may people coached you about the interviewing process? I had Indian friends in Grad school and I know about and participated in the network of test and interview 'cheats'.
You forgot the "take a shower once a month" toiletry savings
lick the cancle button (at least thats what our Chinese QA says)